Cecil Bustamente Campbell, known professionally as Prince Buster, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of Jamaican contemporary music and created a legacy of work that would be drawn upon later by reggae and ska artists.
The Slackers are an American ska band, formed in Manhattan, New York in 1991. The band's sound is a mix of ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub, soul, garage rock, and jazz. The Slackers' notability is credited to their prolific career, tours of North America, Europe, and elsewhere, and signing to notable punk label Hellcat Records.
Wasted Days is an album by the ska/reggae band The Slackers, released on February 21, 2001 on Hellcat Records. Unlike other releases by the Slackers, the songs on the vinyl LP version of the album differ significantly from their counterparts on the CD release; additionally, there are several tracks unique to the vinyl release. The CD edition of the album features a cover of the Bon Jovi song, "Wanted Dead or Alive".
Stubborn All-Stars are an American, New York City-based ska band led by King Django, front man of Skinnerbox and owner of Stubborn Records.
Better Late Than Never is the debut full-length album by the ska/reggae band The Slackers, originally released in 1996 on Moon Ska Records. It was later remastered and re-released with three additional tracks from the original recording sessions on March 19, 2002 through Special Potato Records.
Murphy's Law is an American hardcore punk band from New York City, formed in 1982. While vocalist Jimmy Gestapo remains the only founding member of the band, the line-up has consisted of numerous musicians who have performed with a selection of musical acts across multiple genres, such as Skinnerbox, Danzig, The Bouncing Souls, Mucky Pup, Dog Eat Dog, Hanoi Rocks, Agnostic Front, Warzone, Cro-Mags, D Generation, New York Dolls, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, The Slackers, Thursday, Skavoovie and the Epitones, and Glen Campbell.
Victor "Vic" Ruggiero, is a musician, songwriter and producer from New York City who has played in reggae, blues, ska and rocksteady bands since the early 1990s, including The Slackers, Stubborn All-Stars, SKAndalous All Stars, Crazy Baldhead and The Silencers. He has also performed with punk rock band Rancid, both live and in the studio. He has released four solo acoustic albums and continues to tour and record worldwide. Ruggiero is known primarily as a singer and organist, although he also plays piano, bass, banjo, cigar box guitar, guitar, harmonica and percussion.
Slackness is a collaborative album between acoustic ska vocalist Chris Murray and the New York City ska band The Slackers. Two songs also appear on The Slackers and Friends, as different versions. "Rastaman Rock" is renamed to "I Am a Rasta Man" on The Slackers and Friends. The track "Janie Jones" is a cover of a Clash song.
"Disco" Dave Hillyard is a tenor saxophonist originating from San Diego, California. He has performed in groups such as The Slackers, The Rocksteady Seven, The Donkey Show, Hepcat, Stubborn All-Stars, and has guested with the likes of Rancid, Victor Rice, Skinnerbox NYC and Alexandra Lawerentz. He is a skilled improviser and composer/arranger with more than thirty album credits to his name.
Chris Murray is a Canadian-singer-songwriter and guitarist working primarily in the genre of ska. In Canada, he was a member of the now-defunct ska band King Apparatus during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He now lives in the Los Angeles, California area, where he performs regularly, both solo as well as with the Chris Murray Combo. From 2003 until the venue's closure in 2009, Murray organized a weekly ska/reggae show called "The Bluebeat Lounge" which featured both local and out of town artists every Wednesday at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.
Glen Adams was a Jamaican musician, composer, arranger, engineer, producer, based since the mid-1970s in Brooklyn, New York City.
The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including "Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many other Jamaican artists who recorded during that period, including Bob Marley & The Wailers, on their first single Simmer Down. They reformed in 1983 and have played together ever since.
Jayson Nugent is a guitarist and DJ from New York who plays in the style of several Jamaican music genres.
Jammyland Records was an independent music retailer in New York City. It opened in 1993 at its location on 60 E 3rd Street in Manhattan, by owner Ira Heaps. The store specialized in Jamaican music, specifically the ska, rocksteady and reggae genres of the 60s and 70s recorded on vinyl, though it also sold CDs. Jammyland also reissued more obscure reggae. The store used to have a recording studio in its basement, where artists including Victor Rice, The Slackers and the Dynamos recorded, but later an avant-garde/noise music retailer opened in the basement.
Crazy Baldhead is a side project of The Slackers headed by Jayson "Agent Jay" Nugent. Crazy Baldhead plays an innovative style of music that mixed reggae, ska, dub, rock and dancehall. Members of the band include Eddie Ocampo, Victor Rice, Vic Ruggiero, Dave Hillyard and Glen Pine.
Susan Cadogan is a reggae singer best known for her hit records in the 1970s.
Glen William Pine is an American musician and songwriter from Boston, Massachusetts. He is most known for his role in The Slackers where he plays the trombone and sings. Pine joined the Slackers before the release of The Question on which he contributed with the song Mountainside. Glen was an original member of Boston-based reggae outfit The Pressure Cooker. Along with Vic Ruggiero, he has performed under the name the Redlights.
Ruddy Thomas was a Jamaican reggae singer, musician, and recording engineer, who had his greatest successes as a singer in the late 1970s and early 1980s with lovers rock songs.
Roydel Anthony Johnson, better known as Congo Ashanti Roy is a Jamaican reggae singer best known as a member of The Congos but who also recorded solo and as a member of Ras Michael's Sons of Negus.
Cornel Campbell aka Don Cornel or Don Gorgon is a reggae singer, best known for his trademark falsetto voice, and his recordings at Studio One in the late 1960s and his later work with Bunny Lee in the 1970s.
