User reviews

My dad was a DJ in the 70's and had stacks of Trojan 45s. This music soaked into the walls of our house as i was growing up. I really enjoyed this creation story of the label and there are some great narrators guiding us through who were there at the time. Loved it.

Wow......am I the first to review this awesome documentary?

I am a 47 year old white guy from the Netherlands, and I don't really feel knowledgeable enough to review this, but let's try anyway..... In my musical odyssey through pop, rock, punk, new wave etc.....I obviously also stumbled upon SKA & Reggae, and Trojan Records, and liked it........mostly SKA, but ultimately I would say I am (still) more of a punk than anything else.

What this documentary did for me was give a real clear picture of how the music evolved from the early start in Jamaica, through immigration came to Europe, and off course how the label Trojan came about, and what an important role it played in the musical landscape of the world.

This is all told by some musical icons, and some of the label executives themselves.

The documentary also has some dramatisation where actors play out parts of Jamaican and British history, and this looked pretty authentic to me, and was a welcome addition.

There is off course some great great old music from before and during Trojan's history, and I was shocked to learn that for instance most of the songs of the first album of THE SPECIALS were all cover songs of Jamaican artists.

I learned a lot from this documentary, and I was getting more and more excited as it went along, and would recommend it to everyone who is interested in this kind of music, or music and culture in general.

As a white guy I already knew that the roots of white SKA came from black culture, but this documentary gave me a lot more insight in this, and gave me more respect for the original instigators.

Hope you will have as much fun watching it as I had.

There are interviews with lots of old reggae gods, several of whom are no longer with us five years later (Toots, Lee Perry, Bunny Lee). Dandy Livingstone, aged 74, features throughout because he's so good to listen to. He has a beautiful speaking voice, is very composed and happy to share memories. At one point, he sits down at his keyboard and sings a bit of 'A Message to You, Rudy', and it's just wonderful.

There are dramatizations of Jamaicans in London in the 60s and 70s that are low key and not jarring or cringey like you might expect.

'If that shuffle not in the music, it's not reggae' - Bunny Lee.