Laurence Cane-Honeysett Pressure Drop is curated by Reggae & Ska expert Laurence Cane-Honeysett.  Here, he explains a bit about the new label:

Give us your background, personally and musically...

I’m a West London boy, raised in Fulham, where I was fed on a strict diet of Rock & Roll, Reggae, Doo Wop, Pop, R&B, Ska, New Wave, Soul and Heavy Metal – with a pinch of Barbershop and Jazz thrown in to balance things up!. At 15 I sang with my first band, the Stingrays, playing hard-core ’50’s style Rock & Roll, although it wasn’t until my brother and I formed a Mod/Power Pop group called the Cartoons a couple of years later that I first had my hopes of super-stardom cruelly dashed. After a number of other spectacular failures, I decided to wait until I was in my fifties before resurrecting any ambitions to become a teen idol. In the meantime, I did some travelling and a number of odd jobs before starting up as a record dealer and freelance illustrator in the late eighties. Then almost by accident, I began writing about Reggae for Record Collector before starting work for Trojan, and have been heavily involved with vintage Jamaican music ever since.

How did you hook up with Cherry Red, perhaps not the most reggae-aligned label!?

Adam and the equally nice Mark Brennan approached me a year or so back to discuss the possibilities of starting up a Ska and early Reggae imprint, as it wasn’t a genre previously highlighted by any of the Cherry Red labels. It also tied in nicely with what Mark was already doing with some of his releases, so it was just a question of finding suitable repertoire at a reasonable price. I was genuinely flattered to be asked to get involved with the company, having been a fan for so many years. What do you think your label brings to the CR stable?

I think the Pressure Drop label adds another dimension to Cherry Red’s already amazingly diverse catalogue. There’s been a strong market for Ska and early Reggae since the late seventies, but many of the companies releasing the material over the years have failed to do the music justice, in terms of both presentation and sound quality. Being part of the Cherry Red family ensures the releases have to maintain the high standard set by the company’s other releases, which can only be a good thing. Was the Laurel Aitken deal done when you got here or brought with you? 

I advised on the Laurel Aitken deal that got the ball rolling for Pressure Drop, but all the hard work was done by Cherry Red. I suggested a few things and put together a release schedule and that has, more or less, provided the blueprint for what we’ve done so far. Will the label be purely based around him? And why is he so important in the history of the music?

Laurel Aitken’s importance in regard the development of the modern Jamaican industry really can’t be overstated. The man was the island’s first major recording star - a true pioneer who in the fifties and early sixties helped promote indigenous styles, from Mento to early Ska. Later, he played a significant role in promoting Reggae in the UK and Europe, and from the eighties up until his death a few years ago, helped maintain Ska’s popularity internationally following the demise of 2Tone. But while his catalogue has provided the focus for the initial batch of Pressure Drop releases, the aim is for the label to feature a wide variety of artists, from Jamaican originators to British-based acts who were at the forefront of the Ska Revival in the late seventies and early eighties. What are your plans for future releases? Is ska/rocksteady/reggae any less 'mined out' than CR's usual fields?

There’s still an incredible amount of high quality early Jamaican music that’s never seen issue on CD, which isn’t surprising given the number of recordings created during the sixties and early seventies. A lot of this repertoire was licensed to the likes of Blue Beat and Trojan in the UK, but such was the volume of material being produced, only around a third saw issue here. Of that, only a fraction has ever been reissued, so the long-term plan is for some of the better material cut during this golden age to be released on the label – of course this really depends on getting the material at a reasonable price! What lies in the future for you and the label?

If all goes to plan, Pressure Drop will in time become the number one Ska and early Reggae label. There really isn’t anyone else regularly highlighting these styles nowadays, so without trying to run before we can walk, there’s a real opportunity to become the leaders in the field within a relatively short time. The Laurel Aitken releases have certainly got the ball rolling, but now the momentum has to be maintained and that of course where the hard worl comes in.

Are there any problems specific to issuing early Jamaican music?

The biggest problem with releasing vintage Jamaican music compilations is finding good source material from which to master, as well as decent images for the artwork. Many of the old ¼” master tapes were either recorded over or destroyed, so often there’s no option but to use the original records. The trouble with that is firstly, the quality of old Jamaican vinyl was often pretty sub-standard, and secondly, early Jamaican music was first and foremost, dance music, so the records were played for all they were worth. And then of course, in the seventies, many of the old singles were considered worthless and treated as such - it wasn’t until 2Tone came along that people took interest in them once more and a collector’s market developed. The situation regarding images is equally problematic. Even major Jamaican stars rarely had their pictures taken until Bob Marley became an international star in the seventies. Due in no small part to this, fans of old Jamaican music have become reliant on original labels for their non-audio stimulation and consequently there’s a number of popular sites on the internet dedicated to them. Unsurprisingly, this has been reflected in the Pressure Drop releases to date, with our designer, Daryl Smith doing a great job creating artwork that appeals most Ska fans using what most would consider very limited source material.

Laurel Aitken
Born in Cuba in 1927 and moving to his fathers homeland of Jamaica eleven years later, Laurel Aitken first began performing calypso songs at the dockside for the arriving tourists. Later he became a popular nightclub performer around Kingston until commencing his recording career in 1957 with the release of the R&B/Calypso spiritual 'Roll Jordan Roll', produced by Stanley Motta's Carribean Recording Company.

A year later, Aitken joined Chris Blackwell's fledgling Island Records and gained the accolade of having the first release on this Ska/Reggae pioneering label. The double A-sided 'Little Sheila'/'Boogie In My Bones' was one of the earliest Ska records and became a massive hit in Jamaica before going on to become the country's first record to be released in the U.K. Further hits then followed with 'Judgement Day' (1959) and 'Boogie Rock' (1960).

As the rhythms of Ska became increasingly popular around the U.K., a move to the heavily West Indian populated London suberb of Brixton found Aitken recording for the specialist Blue Beat label who catered specifically for the tastes of migrating Jamaican's. Here he recorded 15 singles and enjoyed ever increasing popularity that far exceeded that which he enjoyed in Jamaica. However, Aitken would return to Jamaica in '63 to record further material which was often backed by the Skatelites. Songs such as, 'Weary Wanderer' (1962) and 'Zion' (1963) were produced by Duke Reid, a principal figure in the rise of Jamaican music.

Aitken's most enduring works would be recorded for the Pama labels during the late 60's. Songs such as 'Skinhead Train' (1969), 'Woppi King' (1969), 'Pussy Price' (1969), 'Jesse James' (1969), 'Landlords And Tenants' (1970), 'Rise & Fall' (1970) and 'It's Too Late' (1971) became popular U.K. records and broadened his appeal still further.

The rise of Bob Marley during the 70's tended to eclipse the material of Jamaica's musical founders and Aitken semi-retired from recording although remained in England, moving to Leicester. The Two Tone ska revival of the late 70's/early 80's would make the Aitken's style popular again and upon returning to the studio to record 'Rudy Got Married' (1980), he enjoyed his first-ever U.K. chart single.

Aitken continued to tour the U.K. at regular intervals during the 80's and UB40's cover of 'Guilty' in 1983 on their hit album Labour Of Love and his appearance with David Bowie in the film Absolute Beginners further enhanced Aitken's image and popularity. Still active as a performer into the new millenium, Aitken's reign as the 'Godfather of Ska' came to an end following his death in 2005.

Laurel Aitken still enjoys immense popularity amongst followers of the Ska and Reggae fraternity and musicians and fans remain inspired by one of Jamaica's greatest musical founding fathers.

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