Reggae’s journey after the Windrush

As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush’s journey from the Caribbean to Britain, it can be difficult to imagine that the predominantly Jamaican passengers did not bring reggae with them!

In 1948, ska or reggae, two of Jamaica’s major gifts to the West’s pop canon, had not been invented.

If any of the Jamaican passengers happened to have any vinyl records in their grips, it was most likely to be calypso, which was the Caribbean music holding sway in Britain and the US at that time. Or it may have been a jazz or blues record, which some enterprising Jamaican would have bought cheaply in the US and sold at a high markup to his compatriots privileged enough to have a record player or sound system.

So let’s see what music the passengers actually brought with them to Britain.

Ladies first. The passenger list incorrectly listed Mona Baptiste’s occupation as a clerk and her year of birth correctly as 1927, which means she entered Britain on her 21st birthday, and not her 20th as is widely reported. Anyway, she did not fool the Mirror newspaper, which had her pose for a photograph with a saxophone and described her as a blues singer. Indeed, she hit the ground running performing blues and her native calypso on BBC radio and London clubs, before going on to achieve success, particularly in Germany.

There were three Trinidadian calypso Lords – Beginner, Kitchener and Woodbine, who boarded the ship from Kingston, on account of various engagements in Jamaican clubs.

Lord Kitchener is now known for the newsreel footage of his performance of ‘ London Is The Place For Me’ filmed while the passengers waited to disembark. He went on to popularise calypso with records and live performances in Britain and the US.

Lord Beginner is best known for Cricket, Lovely Cricket (Victory Test Match Calypso), the recording inspired by the West Indies’ first victory over the English cricket team in 1950.

Lord Woodbine popularised calypso with acts such as Lord Woodbine and his Trinidadians, and steelpan music, with which he toured England with the All Caribbean Steel Band. Although the only one of the three Lords not to record, he made his mark on pop music, by introducing calypso to a Liverpool skiffle whom he also advised to get a drummer, and took to Hamburg, where they honed the artistry. The group became known as The Beatles, though some in Liverpool used to call them Woodbine’s Boys!

Another act that headed for Liverpool upon disembarkation was Delroy Stephens and his Commandos, an established Jamaican big band, who came to fulfil an engagement in Liverpool. Although the Liverpool clubs would have been fertile ground for the big band jazz music which was popular in the immediate post-War period, sadly history does not record what became of Delroy and his band.

Upon arrival, the teenage jazz trumpeter Dizzy Reece immediately got involved in the already established London jazz scene. His talent was such that he released records on the famous Blue Note label, before relocating to New York City, where his talents were recognised by the likes of Miles Davis. The nonagenarian seems to be alive.

Now comes the reggae connection. Indo-Jamaican Sikaram Gopthal, who was listed as a mechanic on the passenger list, worked hard and purchased a house – 108 Cambridge Road in Kilburn, in the north-west London borough of Brent, dubbed the capital of reggae in Britain.

Sikaram left the building on his return to Jamaica to his son Lee Gopthal, who rented part to an African-Jamaican Sonny Roberts, who started his Planetone studio and label in the house. Roberts introduced Chris Blackwell, a European music entrepreneur formerly based in Jamaica, to Lee. Blackwell then moved his Island Records operations to the house.

Gopthal and Blackwell set up a Trojan Records partnership, which saw Trojan become the world’s biggest reggae company in the 1970s, before going belly-up. Today, BMG Music Publishing continues to market the Trojan music heritage.

Kwaku is a historical musicologist and the convenor of International Reggae Day UK and British Black Music Month.