Description
RE-PRESS: CD ORIGINALLY RELEASED IN 2013
- 20 track collection of seminal ska and rock steady skinhead anthems from prolific performer and producer Laurel Aitken
- Adirect influence on the Two Tone scene and the mighty Madness
- Includes a host of anthems, from ‘Rudi Got Married’, Rude Boy Dream’ through to the essential ‘Skinhead Train’ with a nod to ska’s more racy side on ‘Fire (In Your Wire)’ and ‘Pussy Price (Gone Up)’
Widely hailed as the Godfather of Ska, Laurel Aitken dominated Jamaica’s recording industry throughout its infancy, enjoying a series of hugely popular mento and Jamaican R&B hits during the latter half of the 1950s. Early the following decade he relocated to London, where, over the years that immediately followed, he recorded for every Afro-Caribbean record company of note.
While his ska and rock steady recordings ensured Laurel remained a firm favourite among Jamaican ex-patriots, the reggae explosion of 1969 exposed his work to a wider audience, with productions for Doctor Bird, Pama and Trojan Records establishing him as a musical hero for many of Britain’s young, white working-classes, notably those that had adopted a fashion style dubbed by the national press as ‘skinhead’.