Jack Price - The Reggae Midwife
The Reggae Boom
Although Jamaican music has successfully crossed over the commercial divide and crept into the consciousness of the general British record buying public many times during the last forty years, from artists like Millie onwards, perhaps its biggest impact upon the collective musical ear of this country was felt during the Reggae boom that hit big in 1968. This energetic and raw musical form had evolved in Jamaica over the previous decade with its most notable roots apparent in the rhythms of Ska, a sound first heard in the late 50s. Subsequent stages of evolution saw the growth of Blue Beat and of soul-influenced Rock Steady, with each new take on the Jamaican sound being more successful than the last. The main protagonists in the UK were small independent record labels such as Island, Trojan, Melodisc and Pama who had specialised in importing Jamaican sounds and had also begun manufacturing their own releases, often using British based artists and session players in combination with visiting Jamaican stars. Given the widespread popularity of Reggae today, it is difficult to imagine that this scene was strictly underground - available only to those few in the know, and impossible to discover if you were not in walking distance of a specialist retailer. How Reggae made the break into wider view was down to the efforts of those who championed its qualities. One of the key figures in this was Jack Price - a relative unknown outside of the industry, but a man who has worked with more top names than it is polite to drop. His influence on the Reggae Boom can scarcely be measured…
The Jack Price connection
Early in 1968 Jack Price's involvement in the music scene led him to meet Emille Shallet of Melodisc Records, where he was offered a position of Personal Assistant, as well as the company's A&R man and representative, calling on the many specialist record shops which sold Jamaican records.
During his spell with Melodisc records, Jack Price developed a deep affinity with Jamaican music and he began to see its enormous commercial potential. After six months with the company he decided it was time to branch out on his own to become a freelance producer, specialising in Rock Steady, Blue Beat and Reggae recordings.
A musical introduction
Although he was born in Surrey and studied music in Kingston-upon-Thames, Jack's musical adventures really began across the globe in New Zealand, where he was part of the Rhymonics - a very popular harmonica act on the itinerant cabaret circuit who made numerous radio broadcasts and released the 'The Harmony Cats are Here' LP on Viking Records in Australasia. It was during this time that Jack began composing songs, which lead him to make the move back to Britain to try and make an impact on the London music scene.
Jack's interest in embryonic recording hardware and technology lead him to a position selling microphones and recording equipment throughout the South East of England. In those days a Mini Cooper could be bought for the price of an Ampex tape machine, and Jack was in demand to demonstrate state-of-the-art kit to producers and engineers. He recounts an occasion where he was summoned backstage at the West End stage occupied by the then-incomparable Frankie Vaughan, who much to Jack's dismay, insisted on regaling the assembled throng of Cliff Richard, Cilla Black and other stellar personalities of the day with repeated playbacks of a cringe-worthy home recording he soon wished he'd never bothered making, by way of demonstration of the latest multi-track tape machine.
However, Jack clearly was in possession of talent as a songwriter and after many trips to the Tin Pan Alley district surrounding Denmark Street in London, hawking his compositions to the various publishing houses, his songs were soon picked up by the chart superstars of the time; Dickie Valentine, Tom Jones and Ruby Murray and also by underground acts like The Troggs and The Loot.
Jack's expertise in recording technology soon saw him in demand as a studio engineer, at first on a free-lance basis, then as chief engineer at Moreno Sound Studios. During the height of the Psychedelic London period, Jack could be found manning the desk as the top pop and underground acts of the day laid down tracks - and ever the chronicler of the times, has proved to be a valuable resource for archivists and compilers in subsequent years.
Reggae goes overground
Jack Price was one of the key people who turned Reggae into a major-label global sound. Although incredibly popular in the large urban centres of Britain, in 1968 Reggae was an unknown quantity to the majors. Because the shops where it sold in huge quantities did not usually submit chart returns its impact on the wider UK record market was limited by the fact that it was imported and manufactured only by small independent record labels who could not hope to get their records into the very places where most people would go to buy music - the high street in your average town or city up and down the nation. Only those who actively perused the racks of specialist shops in large cities could even hope to come across a Reggae record. Jack Price did more than anyone to change this situation by slowly but surely convincing the major labels that Reggae music was worth taking a chance on.
Jack persuaded Paddy Fleming, Head of Mercury Records to allow him to produce 'Rock Steady Hits of '69' which was issued on the Fontana label. The album went into the Top Ten of the mid-price range album charts almost straightaway. Now for the first time, one of the major record companies had taken a serious interest in this form of music. Above all it meant that all the Rock Steady and Reggae records would now be available through all the normal distribution channels.
Over the next year or so Jack Price worked for a number of major British record companies including Fontana, Mercury, Philips, Pye, Decca, President, Rediffusion, and Saga - mainstream labels who stocked mainstream outlets like Woolworth's and all of the regional electrical and department stores where the majority of people bought their music from. At the turn of the 1970's Jack put together a string of highly regarded and highly collectable albums that showcased cover versions of Jamaican Reggae tracks, but were recorded by British Reggae musicians - later aided by some subsequently very well known session players. In hindsight, these records did more to bring Reggae sounds to the British public than could be discerned at the time - their sheer popularity opened up the sales avenues required for the rest of the Reggae world to escape the specialist market and into full view of the public.
Sioux Records
Before long Jack decided to start his own imprint; firstly Crystal Records and then Sioux Records, which quickly established itself with a strong release schedule of singles and albums, often featuring in-house producer Jack Price under his many aliases. By the end of 1977, despite the healthy sales of some of its singles, Sioux could no longer compete with Island, Trojan, Pama and Melodisc in the increasingly important album market, and left behind a legacy of fine groovin reggae when it ceased trading.
However, in 1996 Sioux Records was revived through President Records, making many Sioux recordings available on CD for the first time. Only now is Jack Price's overlooked contribution to the development of Reggae music in Britain beginning to be properly appreciated. Jack played a pivotal role in popularising Reggae in the UK and his recordings are to be found peppering many modern day compilations, and as a compulsive archivist, Jack also provides much biographical, printed and photographic material used in the presentation of modern releases on labels such as Trojan.
Turning the clock back to the late 1960s, we pick up the story of the Reggae boom waiting to happen…
ChrisVulture: how many years of slogging around Denmark Street did it take before you got a break?
Jack Price: I did it for about a year before I started getting noticed. Every week I was there and the most important thing was to be able to take the rejection. Some people couldn't handle that sort of thing, time after time, but I kept at it and didn't give in. I had the good fortune to meet George Bellamy at Keith Prowse Music publishers, who is perhaps best remembered as rhythm guitarist for the Tornadoes. He gave me tremendous help and encouragement, and we used to go to the Giaconda, one of the famous cafes of the time, where almost everyone on the current pop scene would meet and, if you were lucky, you could share a table with Tom Jones or The Pretty Things. I wasn't really a big part of that world - but I was beginning to be involved with it.
Also around that time I met Tony Chapman, a musician and producer, who incidentally was the original Rolling Stones drummer before Charlie Watts joined the group. Over the years I did a lot of work with Tony - he was one of those guys that seemed to know everybody!
When I left New Zealand some people said I wouldn't be able to break into the industry, but within thirteen or fourteen months I had a song being recorded by Dickie Valentine - a major artist, and a few months later Tom Jones was doing one too. I think it was purely because I was sincere about trying to present stuff. I'd be turned down all the time, but I'd take it and come back with another one.
Eddie Kassner of President Records once took me on as a salaried writer. By that time it was very unusual to be on the payroll as a professional songwriter. I would go in and pick up my cheque every Friday and play them the songs that I had written during the week. They only ever recorded a couple of songs, but it was a really useful way for me to make a start in the industry.
My main writing partner through the 60's was a guy called Terry Dwyer, who was a great friend, a superb musician and also really good with the equipment - if you went on stage with Terry, you knew that all of the gear was going to work. He was a very good roadie and he was with The Equals for a long time, with all of their big hits. I first met them when I went to see Top of the Pops. I took my daughter along and they all signed this picture for her. I can remember once, a few years later Eddie Grant, then of The Equals was leaning against a car outside of Emille Shallet's office - they were on their way off on one of their European tours, and he said I really envy you Jack…because I was doing what he wanted to do, which was to make Reggae records as an independent - something which of course he subsequently did with his own Torpedo label.
CV: 'Pharaoh's Walk', one of your most famous songs, was recorded with Terry Dwyer…
JP: Terry used to come round my house to write every Sunday and one time I put down this beat and he tuned a guitar down so he had a part guitar, part sitar sound, then we recorded some drums - we didn't have a proper kit, so both of us were playing different bits of it at the same time, just managing to get through it. By now it was the fourth recording onto multi-track tape, so it's starting to sound a bit noisy. We liked what we had so much we called our friend Colin on the phone - he said he was coming past the house anyway and would drop by. He never even took his overcoat off - it was freezing cold - and in typical session player style, he put down this Egyptian flute part first take, and off he went.
The tape stood around for a couple of months until I was doing a single for Saga records and it was a disaster in the studio. We were supposed to do two or three tracks but came out with just one called 'Let There Be Peace' - and that was pretty weak. On the Monday morning, we were all scratching our heads and I said that instead of having another session, we could have a listen to this track that I had kicking around at home. So we played them the tape; they said it was great and wanted to use it. Before we knew what was happening, John Peel had played it twice and Emperor Rosko picked it up and used it for several months as his talk-over music at the launch of the BBC Radio 1 Club. There have been five cover versions of it and more money from it than anything and its still going strong. It was even out on the Duke label, a subsidiary of Trojan at one stage. The final recording was fifth generation, sound on sound. With all of these recordings made using millions of pounds worth of equipment, sometimes the quality of recording isn't so important - it's the content. 'Pharaoh's Walk' was put out by a group called Exodus. President Records called me up asking for some more material by the same people and nearly had a heart attack when I told them it was just me, my friend and this other guy. They couldn't believe it was a multi-track recording made at my mother's house.
CV: Did you get the feeling that something big was about to happen with Reggae music?
JP: Before the Exodus record came out, my daughter - who incidentally, drew the design for the Sioux label - was at school in Peckham in London and she used to come back saying; 'dad, all my mates want you to get Reggae records for them' - ordinary kids in ordinary schools - that's when I knew something was really going on and it would touch the big record companies. They were going home and listening to all of this wonderful Reggae and Ska stuff from Jamaica, which their dads were bringing home and playing - these kids used to say it was marvellous - not like British music at all! Make no mistake about it - when Reggae broke onto the charts in Britain, it was the kids and skinheads who were buying it.
CV: Where were Reggae records being sourced from during your time at Melodisc?
JP: A lot of tapes would just arrive from Jamaica. One of the boys would come over to London and drop some tapes off - often depositing the same tape with two or three different companies! One of the big singles, it might have been 'Ride Your Donkey', came out on Island in the same week - but things like that were settled amicably. Emille was quite happy to press up a couple of thousand singles every week and sell them. He was a great man and he never had the recognition that he should have received.
CV: When you first started presenting the Reggae concept to the big labels, was there a great deal of rejection?
JP: I played all of the majors some tapes that I had done that came out on my own Crystal label; 'With These Hands' by Denzil Dennis - with some harmonica up front and some mega musicians on it, and also some Blue Beat and FAB recordings which Emile had let me take around. He knew that I was going to have a go on my own and he wished me the best of luck. I got rejected by everybody! No, no, no they said.
Even at Philips Records they were fighting me after agreeing to the first album. The head of sales at Philips once said; 'no disrespect Jack, but we are not in the business of selling West Indian music - we've not got the outlets for it'. These people knew absolutely zilch about records, but they could see my enthusiasm, and more importantly I had the figures in front of me: the Sales Books for the Blue Beat label, containing the large numbers of the stock Melodisc was selling, which they couldn't ignore.
CV: The first of your major label Reggae productions is the 'Rock Steady Hits of 69' LP…
JP: That's the very first Reggae album to get a major label release - a Breakthrough Record in a very real sense. It was top of the Mid Price charts for ages - it knocked off Syd Lawrence & his Orchestra! The most significant aspect about it was that it was distributed through the normal channels used by the major labels - a first for a Reggae record - which meant that people could actually buy into Reggae for the first time on a serious basis, without it being a specialist market. That factor cannot be understated - it opened the door for everything that came afterwards and meant that Reggae would inevitably move into the mainstream.
CV: How many copies of 'Rock Steady Hits' did they press?
JP: I think they started off pressing a few thousand - which probably accounted for the WH Smiths on every railway platform in the country - they just got swallowed up very quickly. It ended up selling many, many thousands. They just kept on repressing it. The album cost Philips £400 and it was selling very well.
CV: How long did you usually spend on an LP?
JP: Well, the 'Bangarang' album was done at Regent B studios in Tin Pan Alley. Starting from ten o'clock in the morning, all of the backing tracks were done by one and it was all sung by six o'clock and we mixed it later on that night - so it didn't take 24 hours! I could never understand how it took people two months just to do a single!
I produced and usually played on all of those records - mainly keyboards, although not always and when I wasn't playing keyboards, it was harmonica, and if I wasn't playing harmonica, then it was the bass. I used to make up all these dreadful names; Jumbo Sterling, King Reggie; Laurel Sparkes - there was actually a guy called Sammy Jones, but if you read the sleeve notes by D. Moss - well, I wrote those! I was about nine different people, which was quite in keeping with the way that the Jamaicans worked! The name Jack Price is mentioned on quite a few of them, but I wanted to put all these names on it to make it more interesting. I was trying so hard to present these records in an interesting way and at the beginning, non-one wanted to know, but within the space of three months I had many recording companies and publishing houses asking me to make a record for them.
CV: Did you record your albums to order, or were they made first and licensed afterwards?
JP: A mixture of the two approaches really. The only time that a label asked for specific songs was for a track on the Jumbo Sterling LP. I was getting a lot of help from Flamingo Music, which was Philips records publishing house. They were taken over by Intersong and then sold on to Warner Chappell. In New York I met the guy who did the deal for Intersong. They gave me a five grand advance because of my large production output - which was an absolute fortune at the time.
On that record 'Mr Jacksons Donkey' is one that I wrote with Joanne Spencer - originally it was an idea for a Roy Hudd song, who I was making records for at the time.
Paul Rodriquez was musical director on the album - a very talented guy. He's struck gold now, as he happened to be in the right place when the BBC was looking for some music for the Weakest Link, the quiz show with Ann Robinson.
CV: All of those recordings were crammed into such as short period…
JP: Altogether, there were around twenty albums and a great many singles. I made at least four albums over a period of seven weeks - straight from one to another. I was giving more work to the British-based Jamaican session boys than anybody else. Trojan didn't use them as much - they would just use the stars coming in from Jamaica - there was no room for these boys from London, who were breaking their necks to have a go. The only ones who were really paying them to have a go were Graham Goodhall - of Dr. Bird and famously responsible for Desmond Decker's 'Israelites' - and myself. My little bit of luxury was that I would get a producers fee of twenty five pounds for making the album, and if I'd played on the session I'd take my nine quid session fee for playing piano or harmonica.
CV: Did you go out to the Reggae clubs?
JP: Oh yes - I was always at the live shows down Edgware Road and in the Brixton area, where there were a number of what would be coffee shops in the daytime, and in the evening you'd pay your dues and go down into a club - you couldn't see your hand in front of your face most of the time down there! I met some very good Reggae musicians - they used to think I was Father Christmas really, as I would give them all this session work. Not only did people like Denzil Dennis get their royalties from the record companies, I even used to pay them session money on top, so they were well pleased, believe me!
I was also fitting in the odd rock LP at this time, such as a popular Mungo Gerry tribute album on Boulevard Records, part of the Saga label, and after a while I got together with some of the players on those sessions - like Peter Frampton, then of Humble Pie, Andy Bown, once of Status Quo, and Kenny Jones out of the Faces, who all wanted session work as they hadn't become major themselves at that time, and they were quite happy to make some session money quickly.
I still used Jamaican musicians all the way through, but they were increasingly interlaced with the other guys. At the time I was recording other types of pop stuff with Peter Frampton and a number of other musicians. I very much kept a foot in both the Reggae and Pop camps.
CV: The Jumbo Sterling LP is the biggest illustration of that stance…
JP: Absolutely. The principal for that came from Cyril Stapleton, the head of A&R for Pye. I was having a discussion with Cyril and I said that instead of the usual format, what we were doing was using some Reggae musicians interweaved with more conventional players. He suggested we leave them as instrumentals and use different musicians who are really good to lead the tracks. I said to Cyril; can you visualise each track being delivered my a great musician of our times? We had David Snell playing the harp. David was with the London Philharmonic, and a very well known player at the time; 'it'll cost you', he said, and it did, but he did some lovely bits on there. Bob Downes was recommended to me and ended up playing all sorts of things, like saxophone. One of his flute solos on that record is wonderful - he's playing with such speed that he's talking to it! That album cost about three hundred quid, including all of the session fees!
CV: After such success, did it appear an obvious move to start Sioux Records?
JP: Sioux happened because I thought that I had to push the Reggae thing harder. I had my own label at the very, very beginning of the Reggae boom in England - Crystal Records - but it wasn't just Reggae music, it also pop stuff. I'd built up such a good understanding of Reggae and I'd been out to Jamaica a few times to try and pick up some masters. While I was there I played harmonica on a Barry Biggs album that was produced by Byron Lee in the famous Dynamo Studios. The Sioux label was definitely a different phase. It was a big opportunity, and there was a possibility of it becoming a very, very big company, but we didn't have sufficient funds - it was as simple as that. We were always scraping and scratching for money to give advances. In its first year Sioux issued twenty five singles and four albums. We had some good connections, I had a vision and I made a point of getting along with people in the business - but it was just the money that prevented it from working.
CV: You focused more on publishing during the 1970's…
JP: I got involved in it because of Paul Rodriquez - he always advised me on what to do and what not to do. I've yards of paperwork that he gave me on how to do a production deal, how to do a recording deal and all of that stuff. When I wanted to do the contracts for the Reggae records, he wrote it all out for me. So I had a good schooling on that - I was very lucky. I've had some very successful songs on the catalogue. There was a Jamaican writer called Don Drummond who wrote this thing called 'Confucius' - it was picked up by a rock group called East of Eden and it went high in the charts in the early 1970's as the B-side of their 'Jig-a-Jig' single. The deal went through Graham Goodhall, who made sure that Don got paid for it. That's another example of my unique position, split between both the Pop and Reggae worlds.
CV: What about your association with Dick James?
JP:I was initially signed to Dick James on a six year song writing deal, and because of that association I approached him to see if he would be interested in doing an administration deal for my publishing companies, and he suggested that we do a 50:50 deal making him half-owner of Crystal Publishing. He was interested as I was putting out lots of records and picking up lots of copyrights at the time - it was a very prestigious thing for me. Dick James was huge- he was the Principle Director of Northern Songs, who published the Beatles catalogue and it was a wonderful association that I'm very proud of to this day. Dick James could see that I was a toiler - I always worked very hard at the job. I'm principle director of four publishing houses; Crystal Publishing Company, Landester Music, Dominant Music and Lilian Music. Lilian music is named after my mother, who taught me a lot about how to run a business - she was a great businesswoman and set up the companies for me as well as being company secretary.
Years of hard work in the music industry has undoubtedly paid of for Jack Price, as his vision at crucial moments has proved has proven to be a huge influence on popular trends and taste by enabling the Reggae boom of the turn of the 1970's to come to the attention of a wider audience.
You can discover much more about Jack Price and his long history in the music industry by visiting his own website: http://www.jackprice.ukgo.com. For the full story with pictures from Jack's extensive archive, please go to http://www.vinylvulture.co.uk.
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