Chris Blackwell
Chris Blackwell (* 22. June 1937 in London , England) is a British rock music - producer who primarily as the founder of Iceland Records became famous.
Blackwell grew up mostly in Jamaica , where he founded Island Records in 1959. The first published recording was a jazz album by the pianist Lance Haywood from Bermuda . From 1960 onwards, Blackwell began primarily to produce Jamaican pop music , with Laurel Aitken's Little Sheila making a number 1 hit on the island.
In 1962 an office was added in Great Britain. The Spencer Davis Group and Millie Small were among the first artists Iceland signed, and the label also had a good range of artists in reggae with Toots & the Maytals , the Skatalites and Jackie Edwards . After Traffic signed with Iceland in 1967 , the label began to move more and more towards rock . By the early 1970s, Blackwell produced albums by Emerson, Lake & Palmer , Blind Faith , Fairport Convention , Jethro Tull , King Crimson , Free , Cat Stevens and Roxy Music, among others .
In 1973 Blackwell was the producer of Bob Marley's Catch a Fire , with which Island began releasing reggae recordings again , including those by Burning Spear , Black Uhuru , Sly & Robbie and Third World . Marley would remain one of the label's most important singers until his death in 1981.
At the end of the 1970s, Blackwell then traveled to the USA in order to win artists for his label there too. The bands and musicians Iceland signed in the 1980s include U2 , The Pogues , Robert Palmer , Melissa Etheridge , Tom Waits , Anthrax , The Cranberries and Julian Cope . With the sublabel Mango and King Sunny Ade , Blackwell also brought world music to Island Records. In 1977 he founded the Bahamas , the Compass Point Studios .
In 1982 he produced the music film Countryman in Jamaica .
In 1989, Blackwell sold the label to A&M Records and separated from him completely in 1997. In 2001 Blackwell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the "Non-Performers" category.
In 2004 he was honored with the Order of Jamaica , the fourth highest order in Jamaica.
Together with the trip hop musician Tricky , Chris Blackwell founded a new record company in 2007 called "Brown Punk Records".
Web links
- Chris Blackwell at Allmusic (English)
- Video interview
Individual evidence
- ↑ 146 receive Nat'l Honors ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jamaica Gleaner October 19, 2004. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Blackwell, Chris |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British-Jamaican music producer, head of Island Records |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1937 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London , England |