ONE LOVE: REGGAE: Michael Brown MBE: Wassifa Sound System

“The album that I've chosen is “Rockin' Time” by Burning Spear. It was released in 1974 and was one of the first albums we bought as a collective for Jah Wassifa. We would all put our biscuit money, funds and pop bottles money together to buy these albums from off the wall in Black Wax Record shop in Lozells Road in Birmingham.We didn't have all the funds at once so we paid a deposit and returned when we could afford to pay the balance off. Albums like these could be sold out easily in minutes but Fred - who ran the shop, used to look out for us as 13 or 14 year old youths and made sure that we got a chance to this iconic album. As a popular store the older sound system members from all over the UK came to Black Wax Record Shop to buy their records.We used to visit the record shop to get a lot of cultural music because we preferred to focus on our identity back then and we achieved that through reggae music as we weren't taught that at school. Luckily, the record shop was opposite our school. We played this album because it gave us a lot of inspiration with several tracks like “Call on You”, “Foggy Road”, “Getting From Bad to Worse” and on the B side we had tracks like “What a Happy Day, “Walla Walla{quote}, and the title track “Rockin’ Time”.The album told us about our identity culture and looking about Africa. It speaks of Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie, to study the Bible and be righteous young people. Living in Handsworth Birmingham at the time, things weren't going good for us there was a lot of racism and discrimination, so we focused on this album, playing it in the evenings and trying to understand it as young teenagers. Around the time purchasing this album, we only had 2 little speakers but this is how we started playing these songs and dreamt that one day we would be one of Birmingham’s biggest sound systems. Fast forward over forty years, we are actually one of the UK’s prominent sound systems.This album was produced by Coxsone Dodd and recorded at Studio One with real instruments and not computerized as with most recordings today. I would love to see the new reggae artists start looking back and be inspired by some of the old-time rhythms and see what made people work as a unit, culturally, fairly and righteously.While working as a tutor at South and City College Birmingham I focus on my revival records and this album amongst others gives me inspiration to positively guide the youths and through all of what's going on in society today”.Michael Brown: Outside HQ, Handsworth, Birmingham, 4th February 2019Burning Spear: “Rocking Time{quote} released 1974
Michael Brown MBE: Wassifa Sound System, Burning Spear: Rocking Time

 

“The album that I've chosen is “Rockin' Time” by Burning Spear. It was released in 1974 and was one of the first albums we bought as a collective for Jah Wassifa. We would all put our biscuit money, funds and pop bottles money together to buy these albums from off the wall in Black Wax Record shop in Lozells Road in Birmingham. 

We didn't have all the funds at once so we paid a deposit and returned when we could afford to pay the balance off. Albums like these could be sold out easily in minutes but Fred - who ran the shop, used to look out for us as 13 or 14 year old youths and made sure that we got a chance to this iconic album. As a popular store the older sound system members from all over the UK came to Black Wax Record Shop to buy their records. 

We used to visit the record shop to get a lot of cultural music because we preferred to focus on our identity back then and we achieved that through reggae music as we weren't taught that at school. Luckily, the record shop was opposite our school. We played this album because it gave us a lot of inspiration with several tracks like “Call on You”, “Foggy Road”, “Getting From Bad to Worse” and on the B side we had tracks like “What a Happy Day, “Walla Walla", and the title track “Rockin’ Time”. 

The album told us about our identity culture and looking about Africa. It speaks of Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie, to study the Bible and be righteous young people. Living in Handsworth Birmingham at the time, things weren't going good for us there was a lot of racism and discrimination, so we focused on this album, playing it in the evenings and trying to understand it as young teenagers. Around the time purchasing this album, we only had 2 little speakers but this is how we started playing these songs and dreamt that one day we would be one of Birmingham’s biggest sound systems. Fast forward over forty years, we are actually one of the UK’s prominent sound systems. 

This album was produced by Coxsone Dodd and recorded at Studio One with real instruments and not computerized as with most recordings today. I would love to see the new reggae artists start looking back and be inspired by some of the old-time rhythms and see what made people work as a unit, culturally, fairly and righteously. 

While working as a tutor at South and City College Birmingham I focus on my revival records and this album amongst others gives me inspiration to positively guide the youths and through all of what's going on in society today”. 

Michael Brown: Outside HQ, Handsworth, Birmingham, 4th February 2019 

Burning Spear: “Rocking Time" released 1974