UK late 70's & early 80's reggae

[hans]

Discussed this issue with Seb about a year ago:
What makes UK late 70's & early 80's reggae so recognizable, what makes the specific sound etc.
For example: listen to Steel Pulse's Hansworth Revolution & Caught You, LKJ's Bass Culture & Forces Of Victory, Matumbi's Seven Seals & Point Of View, Capital Letters' Headline News etc. All "typical UK recordings".

Maybe the quality of the recording studio's in the UK at that time was better than the ones in JA? Anyone?

[James]

I'd have guessed recording studio quality--especially differences in available hardware, but different producers come into play as well. UK producers could have all sorts of experience with other music styles that they would then bring to the studio--a situation that doesn't seem as likely in JA. Not good or bad, merely different.

I'm just guessing, though.

Peace,

James

[robItheselector]

I'm not the most knowledgeable collector on here by far but I feel I have an ear for the heavy UK sound. When I feel its a UK vibe or production of some kind it usually because It sounds like it hasn't been re-done the same way or sightly changed up like some JA productions or like the dubs have a different style of sounds and effects. Other times I can tell by the lyrics but mostly the engineering...

I love the JA and UK sound but there is a difference for sure! HANS great thread idea I look forward to reading every post...



ROOTS

rob-i

[seanmd]

I always thought that the UK Sound at that time was different from the JA sound primarily because the UK bands were trying to or had to appeal to a white audience. So their sound was a bit more mainstream. That way the punks etc that were getting into reggae through the Clash etc would buy their music.

[Inyaki]

Different musical influences, different studio equipment, different instruments in some cases (Rhodes electric piano more often than Hammond organ for example...not always)....and most of all: different ...this country is bloody cold and dark ...( Jamaica is hot and bright)

[Litelet]

UK bands were trying to or had to appeal to a white audience.

Im really not sure, and would rather think the audience for reggae at this time was mostly the caribbean community living in UK...

My impression is that the difference has a link with the studios. Saying they were of better quality in UK would be very wrong, according to me. The UK studios were not "reggae specific" as in UK and I guess it makes the sound usually *too clean* and the sound sometimes *cold*. The mix and mastering is usually very simple or naive compared to the good stuff from Yard.

guidance

[Inyaki]

Studios weren't "better"....maybe more professionally kept in terms of servicing and repairing but certainly not "better" for Reggae anyway (maybe for Pop music). Upgrading equipment doesn't necessarily improves the sound (everybody tries to get King Tubbys basic desk type of mixes...even now with digital technology)
Is just a different sound to JA or Toronto or New York.

Another very important difference I forgot to mention is that UK Reggae was mostly a live band based scene (bands of settled members who composed and arranged the songs as a band) not studio musicians whith inter-changeable line ups. Music tends to become more arranged, more complex in certain ways....but it looses that raw organic spontaneous feel of Channel One or Dynamics or Studio one recordings.
You win some...you lose some!

[seanmd]

Im really not sure, and would rather think the audience for reggae at this time was mostly the caribbean community living in UK...

I think we might have to agree to disagree on that one. Although I would have agreed with you if we were talking about the early to mid 70s. After the first reggae boom

From what I can remember, and have to admit its all a blur now. In the late 70s to early 80s most of the UK bands listed were playing on tours with punk bands or even headlining their own tours. It was at this time that I got into Reggae, I would say that at all of the gigs I went to the audience was 80% white.

At that time I would have said that the Caribbean community were more interested in bands from JA. A good example of this would be Black Uhuru, I went to see them at the Rainbow in 81, and the audience was 90% black, I went to see Misty in Roots a couple of months later in Reading?? and it was completely the opposite.

[Litelet]

Thanks for your post, Sean...

I wasnt in reggae concerts in the early 80's... So your personnal view and experience is infinitely richer than mine. Mine is based on readings, and on the kind of music produced at that time and couldnt pretend to be as precise.

I just have the impression that it took a while for a wide white audience to really get into *roots* music. This impression is partially based on the fact that the first white bands that attempted to play reggae did an ugly soup that just prove their total misundertanding of this music. Thus, when I look at the kind of reggae recorded at that time in UK, that can be really deep roots (including Misty In Roots, Black Roots, Black Symbol, Shaka, Bovell...), I wonder if that was really be aimed to reach this new white audience, that apparently had a totally different approach of the sound... It was just my guess.

guidance

[seanmd]

Hi Litelet

I think you're right in that the original intention of the bands in question was to play roots reggae and almost create a little bit of JA in England, not to play for a white audience. However, I think a melting pot of punk, Rock Against Racism, John Peel etc helped changed all of that, and all of a sudden these bands started poping up at university gigs etc.

They still played deep roots, and people liked it. Probably because they were fed up of the poor attempts of the some white bands at playing reggae. Whenever I hear some of that stuff i alway remind myself of what John Lee Hooker said when he first came to England in the early 60s.

He said 'those English boys want to play the blues real bad.....and thats exactly what they do, play the blues real bad'.

The same could be said about punk bands and their attempts at playing reggae.

Coming back to the orignal issue, I think black people in the UK were more into the JA bands, and the sound system scene at the time than they were into the UK bands. The UK bands had to make a living and the punk scene etc was perfect for them.