Young, Gifted, and Black: The Story of Trojan Records with CD

I’ve contributed large numbers of entries to the UK’s 1400-page “Record Collector Price Guide 2008″ – and to many of it’s previous issues – and have worked in the rare record mail-order business for ‘too’ many years. Why do I say all this – because I can tell you that it’s REGGAE MUSIC – and especially information about it 7” singles – that is so scarce, hard-to-find and problematic. Details are always sketchy. Sure, most of the Island Records and later Virgin Label Reggae stuff is now listed and documented, but you go off-the-beaten track a little bit and it’s a whole different ballgame. Usually produced on a shoestring, pressed up as one-off pressings, then sold off vans to shops in the city that specialized in that music…98% of it never charted in the regular pop charts and is therefore something of a mystery. I’ve found that ‘hard’ info about reggae (LPs or 7″s) is in the mitts of a handful of dedicated collectors and dedicated shop sources (like the now sadly defunct and brilliant “Daddy Kool” in Berwick Street in London) and the general public never gets a shoe in on what’s what. Which is why this book is such an absolute sensation.