Winston Rodney OD, better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist, and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots artists to emerge from the 1970s.
"Punky Reggae Party" is a song by Bob Marley, recorded and released in 1977. Not appearing on any studio album, it was released in 1977 as a 12-inch single in Jamaica only on the Tuff Gong and Lee Perry's Black Art labels, as a B-side to the "Jamming" single on Chris Blackwell's Island Records label in some countries and was later released as a live single on Babylon by Bus. Subsequently, it appeared on a number of compilations and "Best of" albums as well as the Deluxe Edition of Exodus and the 2002 CD reissue of Legend.
Max Alfred Elliott, known by his stage name Maxi Priest, is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion. He was one of the first international artists to have success in this genre, and one of the most successful reggae fusion acts of all time.
Brinsley Forde MBE is a British singer and actor of Guyanese parentage who is best known as the founder member of the reggae band Aswad and as a child actor in the children's television series Here Come the Double Deckers! (1970–71).
Dean Bent, better known as Sweetie Irie, is an English reggae singer and deejay.
The Gladiators are a Jamaican roots reggae band, most popular during the 1970s. The core was Albert Griffiths, Clinton Fearon and Gallimore Sutherland. Their two most famous albums are Trenchtown Mix Up (1976) and Proverbial Reggae (1978) with songs such as "Hearsay", "Jah Works", "Dreadlocks the Time is Now". "Mix Up", "Music Makers from Jamaica", and "Soul Rebel" – a song written by The Wailers. Gladiators also cooperated with the toaster U-Roy.
Live is the first live album of the reggae artist Burning Spear, which was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre with the band Aswad as backup. It was released in 1977.
Marcus' Children is a studio album by the Jamaican musician Burning Spear, originally released in 1978 as Social Living. It was produced by Karl Pitterson and Burning Spear.
Angus Gaye, better known as Drummie Zeb, was an English musician. He was the drummer and vocalist for the reggae band Aswad, as well as a record producer for other artists.
Clark Wynford Datchler is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He first rose to fame in 1987 as the lead singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the pop band Johnny Hates Jazz.
Singers & Players were a reggae collective made up of vocalists and musicians associated with Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound Records. They recorded five albums between 1981 and 1988.
Babylon is a 1980 British drama film directed by Franco Rosso. Written by Franco Rosso and Martin Stellman (Quadrophenia), and shot by two-time Academy Award winner Chris Menges, Babylon is an incendiary portrait of racial tension and police brutality set in Brixton, London. The film, anchored by Dennis Bovell’s propulsive score, is partly based on Bovell’s false imprisonment for running a Jamaican sound system, Sufferer’s Hi Fi, in the mid-70s.
Vibronics are a reggae collective, based in Leicester, England, starting in 1995. Centered on Steve Vibronics and Richi Rootz, they initially gained exposure via the Egg Experience '97 shows, leading to a deal with Zion Train's Universal Egg label. Mainly working in digital dub, Vibronics' early releases such as "Universal Love" and "Jah Light, Jah Love" found favour with sound systems such as Jah Shaka's, Iration Steppas, and Aba Shanti-I. With Jah Free, Vibronics performed on a series of dub conferences in several European countries, leading to the release of the album Outernational Dub Conference Volume One in 1998.
Andru Branch is a Canadian reggae musician. He is the lead singer-songwriter of the reggae band Andru Branch & Halfway Tree. He was nominated for a Juno Award for his debut 1998 album What If I Told You.
Soothsayers are a London-based band who performs and records original Afrobeat and reggae-influenced music. Formed in 1998 by saxophonist Idris Rahman and trumpeter Robin Hopcraft, they have released five studio albums and a number of vinyl singles on their own label Red Earth Records.
Distant Thunder is a studio album by British reggae band Aswad, released in March 1988 through Mango Records. Recording sessions took place at the Fallout Shelter, The Point, Eastcote, Strongroom, Sarm West & East, Rooster, and RAK Studios in London. Production was handled entirely by Aswad, except two tracks produced with Chris Porter and Ron Fair.
Rise and Shine is a studio album by British reggae band Aswad, released in 1994 through Bubblin' Records. It peaked at number 38 on the UK Albums Chart and at number 69 on the Dutch Album Top 100.
A New Chapter of Dub is an album by English reggae band Aswad, released by Island Records in April 1982. The record is a dub version of Aswad's previous album New Chapter (1981), and was produced by the group with Michael "Reuben" Campbell. Having felt New Chapter under-performed commercially because it was too intricate for mainstream reggae audiences, the group conceived the dub remix album as a way of appealing to core reggae audiences. The record emphasises dub techniques like delay, echo and drop-out and was among the first British dub albums to use tape and digitally-manipulated echo on a horn section. Although not a commercial success, A New Chapter of Dub received critical acclaim and has since been cited by some writers as one of the greatest dub albums of all time.
Brain Damage is the third studio album by Barbadian-British reggae musician Dennis Bovell, released in 1981 by Fontana Records. His first solo album under his own name, following two dub albums released as Blackbeard, it was Bovell's first recording at his South London-based Studio 80. Having begun to feel that reggae had not progressed as much as he would have liked, he conceived Brain Damage as an attempt to fuse the genre with numerous rhythmic styles from Europe, America, Africa and the Caribbean to highlight the genre's flexibility. The musician intended not to explore the international rhythms in a standard way but to take them to what he perceived as musical extremes. The direction was also inspired by the wide array of people in his audience.
