hello people,

just stumbled upon a very good BBC audio documentary called Punky
Reggae Party which detailed the often forgotten but really close link
forged between the early punks of 1976/77 and the mid to late 70s
Jamaican / Black-British Reggae fraternity. As a kid back when, I
jumped headlong into reggae/dub/ska obsession via The Clash's music.
and a bit later on, felt kinda validated by Bob Marley's own tribute to
the punks in his song Punky Reggae Party:

"Wailers still be there
The Jam, The Dammed, The Clash
Wailers still be there
Dr. Feelgood too, ooh
No boring all farts No boring all farts No boring all farts will be
there"

immortal words indeed! anyway, there are three parts to the docu, each
one at about 29 minutes and they feature interviews with Don Letts (the
one really responsible for this mixture with his deejaying stint at the
early London punk club the Roxy; playing reggae and dub between The
Clash, Generation X live sets), John Lydon (Mr. Rotten, who's a huge
roots reggae fan; apart from his taste for German early post-rockers
that is), The Clash (Joe, Mick & Paul - who took upon the job of
reggae-ing punk rock with their mid-period tunes), Viv Albertine (of
one of the first few all-women punk bands, The Slits who went on to do
dubby post-punk), Dennis Bovell and Mikey Dread (both amazing roots
reggae producers), Tom Robinson (who nobody knows apart from those who
have his great Power in the Darkness LP, one of the first few really
right on political rock to rise up from the early punk scene), Linton
Kwesi Johnson (British amazing dub poet which everybody should check
out! > http://www.lkjrecords.com/lkj.html), and many, many more.

There are stories of the early days of punk, the spread of reggae via
the interest garnered by the punks, the anti-racism tours with black
reggae bands playing double bills with white punk bands; and big Rock
Against Racism festivals and even how The Police and UB40 copped some
licks and started out their now "too-successful" careers etc. Pretty
awesome really.

You must have a very good connection, preferably Streamyx (broadband),
and also a copy of RealAudio player for the streaming audio.

go here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/artists/punkyreggae/

If you like what you hear and wanna know more, do contact me. I can
show you to tonnes of related recordings which you should check out
from that era.


enjoy,

joe


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