Results for Tag #oral history

Champion Sound by Matthew Smith (UK, 2010, 48’)

An historical overview of Jamaican Sound System culture in Coventry, UK, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Includes interviews with local sound system pioneers and celebrities such as Count Spinner, El Paso, Principal, King Baggy HI FI, Jah Baddis, Mackabee Studio, and more, and the voice-over of Pauline Black from the Selectors. LINK TO THE […]

  • Posted on 28 July 2021
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Deep Roots Music by Howard Johnson (UK, 1983, 6 X 50’)

Originally shown in 1984 as a six-part series on Channel 4, Deep Roots Music is an extraordinary documentary on Jamaican music in what many refer to as “the golden era” of reggae. Beautifully filmed and including countless interviews and vintage footages of some of Jamaica’s most iconic musicians, producers and cultural icons, as well as […]

  • Posted on 28 July 2021
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Musically Mad by Karl Folke and Andreas Weslien (Sweden, 2008, 60’)

An historical overview of Jamaican Sound System culture in Coventry, UK, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Includes interviews with local sound system pioneers and celebrities such as Count Spinner, El Paso, Principal, King Baggy HI FI, Jah Baddis, Mackabee Studio, and more, and the voice-over of Pauline Black from the Selectors. LINK TO THE […]

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04. Bradley, Lloyd. 2000. Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King. London: Viking.

Music journalist Lloyd Bradley describes reggae’s origins and development in Jamaica, from ska to rock-steady to dub and then to reggae itself, a local music which conquered the world. There are many extraordinary stories about characters like Prince Buster, King Tubby and Bob Marley. But this is more than a book of music history: it […]

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13. Jones, Simon, and Paul Pinnock. 2018. Scientists of Sound: Portraits of a UK Reggae Sound System. Birmingham: Bassline Books.

This book provides a snapshot of UK reggae sound system culture during its 1980s heyday. Scientists of Sound is a documentary portrait of one particular sound system from Birmingham. It features a unique collection of photographs and scanned artefacts from the time, including flyers, magazine covers, speaker box designs, circuit diagrams and handwritten lyrics. It […]

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14. Katz, David. 2003. Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae. London: Bloomsbury.

For Solid Foundation David Katz has interviewed over 100 reggae artists, from Jamaica, the UK and the US, going back to the earliest pioneers of reggae in the mid-1950s. He has taken over ten years to collect the interviews and it is an extraordinary feat. This is an exhaustive history charting the progression and development […]

  • Posted on 28 July 2021
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16. Huxtable, Paul. 2014. Sound System Culture: Celebrating Huddersfield’s Sound Systems, London: One Love Books

The market town of Huddersfield, nestled within the Pennine Hills of West Yorkshire, has made a remarkable contribution to UK sound system culture. From Armagideon to Zion InnaVision, the Arawak club to Venn Street, Matamp to Valv-a-tron, this unlikely location has been a stronghold of the British scene, yet has remained largely overlooked. For the […]

  • Posted on 28 July 2021
  • by SST Team
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