Page 100 - Reggae Festival Guide Magazine 2019

These new sounds began to break out of West essay or an encyclopaedic trawl through music

Indian communities and into the hearts and minds history. There is only so much you can analyze

of the white working class. the music and pick it apart before you lose sight

of the point completely. The aim was to make the
For the first time, a new sound was uniting white and

Black youth and ‘Trojan Skinhead’ culture began to audience feel as immersed in the music as much

take root and flourish from this new shared musical as possible, understand the emotional human
identity. We wanted to track the Trojan story from narratives underpinning the recordings and to

its roots in the sound-systems of post-colonial live and breathe the tracks from their moment

Jamaica, through to the foundation of the label in of creation, right through to their projection into

London, leading to its eventual take-over of British popular culture.”

youth culture soon after – a journey that would But with the approach and script established,

lead us to better understand and appreciate how Davies now faced another significant challenge.
we arrived at the multicultural society many take Reflecting the general lack of any mainstream

for granted today.” interest in Jamaican music outside the Caribbean

prior to the dawn of the ‘70s, precious little in
Having decided upon the themes that required

further exploration, Davies and the Pulse team the way of footage exists of its key protagonists.

then faced the not insubstantial problem of how While such an impediment would have led many

best to relate the story: to change their whole approach, the Pulse team
remained undaunted:

“Very early on, we decided to locate the story in

the moment as much as possible. Rather than a “One of the key challenges with our immersive

cast of experts and journalists talking hazily about and experiential approach was a lack of archival
how great the past was and who played what material relating to the key figures in the narrative.

instrument, we wanted to situate the audience Scant footage or imagery exists of early legendary

right in the middle of the shebeen, the studio, the figures such as Duke Reid, or even Trojan founder

dancefloor, the stage. We were determined to tell himself, Lee Gopthal.

a tale and enjoy the often-mythological stories of In order to bring these figures and stories to life,
these incredible artists, rather than just deliver an our idea was to cast young British and Jamaican

100 Reggae Festival guide 2019