Review - Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records

So there was a film about the Clash called Rude Boy back in 1980, but this is not that movie. This is a kind of biopic on a record label. This is a biopic on the scene that the label represented. This is a partial biopic on the artists that were part of that stable. The label is Trojan Records, a label that captured the pioneering new sound coming out of Jamaica after independence. That sound has many names, ska, rock steady, and reggae being the primary ones. And the movie gets into the back story with the American soul scene falling out. There were a few champions for this new sound which starts with Duke Reid being the person that Trojan gets their name from. Other champions include the early sound systems, the gangsters (rude boys), the first producers, and the artists. Getting to hear their take on this scene as it developed was the reason for this film. The inter generational and inter cultural conversations are part of the point. Don Letts makes this point when he said integration came about because of music. Politics didn't do that. Economics didn't do that. Music did that. And this film is about music. Ska music. 

The film organizes itself with chapter story titles and in chronological order. So getting back to Duke Reid - the Trojan. Duke Reid was a retired cop turned bar owner. He carried a shotgun with him. He had a good sound system to attract customers. And he started recording local singers. Derrick Morgan talks about how he came to audition for Duke Reid. Bunny Lee, the producer, explains his part in all of this. Marcia Griffiths (I-Three's fame) talks about "Young Gifted and Black". And the film employs re-enactments to good effect. As Ansel Collins tells a story about Desmond Dekker, a performance set to "Israelites" is re-enacted and the point is made that these were the pop stars of their time. Some skinheads talk about how awful the radio was, and ska started showing up on pirate radio. The music became a salvation to the dreary English times. Symarip talks about creating a them song for the skinheads with "Skinhead Moonstomp" that just grew out of the studio. The talking heads and the re-enactments tell so many great stories. 

But the other story is the story of Lee Gopthal, an East Indian entrepreneur who starts selling West Indian records out of the back of his car under the name Musicland. Lee teams up with Chris Blackwell of Island Records to form Trojan Records. Trojan go on to introduce reggae to the world through artists like Lee "Scratch Perry, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, compilations like "Tighten Up". And the biggest supporters are the Trojan sons, the original anti-racist skins that become early boosters for this new sound. Pauline Black talks about the kids in her school who were listening to these singles in a student lounge which filled her with pride. Trojan would go on to polish up singles with string sections getting them multiple simultaneous hits in the charts in England. Artists were being flown up to perform on Top of the Pops. Everything was going so well until but the arrangements were expensive and Island pulled out and the label had to liquidate. It has been kept alive over the years by various investors and they have re-released the back catalogue through compilations. But the sounds of Jamaica had changed and the music industry had changed and some artists changed with it. The next generation of English kids started the two-tone scene, a ska revival, that continues to this day. Anti-racist skins were another offshoot. The roots rock rebel army within punk was another. And these are just some of the flowers that came up through the punk side of the scene. 

Thanks to Donna G for interviewing Don Letts when the film came out. You can check out her show called "The More the Merrier" on CIUT. She tipped us off to a one off screening at the Grande Gerard Theatre last week.