One of Great-Britain’s best-known music photographers, Adrian Boot moved to Jamaica in the seventies to teach physics, working at the same time for the NME (New Musical Express), The Times, The Guardian or The Face. By the mid-70s Adrian had become an in-house photographer for the Melody Maker finding himself on the front line at the height of the Punk movement . During the next decade, he became chief photographer for major events like Live Aid, Freedom at 70 or Roger Water’s The Wall in Berlin… Adrian Boot has also worked with the Grateful Dead in Egypt.

Before looking at this selection of Adrian Boot’s photographs, it is important to read what  Michael Thomas, his partner during this road-movie in Jamaica through the musical environment, had to say about how the Jamaican society worked, its gangs and its politicians, the way they were all connected in the immediate aftermath of independence. “The politicization of crime and the criminalization of politics goes back a long way, to the Manley (prime minister and leader of the left wing political party, the People’s National Party) years. This book is the story of those years, when the guns came to town and Johnny Too Bad took over the house.”, wrote Michael Thomas in august 2010.

He remembered the ‘electric’ atmosphere in the small island, like the massive sound waves of the dance-hall movement.  “You had to have a 4×4 to get there. These days it’s forty minutes on the motorway, it’s a teeming favela full of rum bars and old Rastas like my mate Electric-Power selling tonic to stretch your ejaculation to BREAK-ING POINT etc. But the waves roll in, the way they always have and always will… Babylon is on a thin wire, they were singing back then. The wire just gets thinner and thinner.”

The full story : http://babylononathinwire.com/
The link for the book : http://www.patate-records.com/detail/19103/

"Manley is a big man !"Uptown kingstown

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Bob Marley & Peter Tosh

Concrete jungle

“I just first today saw the film/documentary about Bob Marley, the one that came out a year or so ago. It just reminded me again about how amazing that band was. Those backup up vocals by Peter tosh and Bunny, seriously amazing, inspiring and beautiful.”

Keith Richards & Bobby Keys

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

“I love bootlegs ! I just got this track on a vinyl bootleg by Keith Richards. I knew this recording but to listen to it on vinyl. Such a cool take, and Bobby Keys, he is one of the reasons I started playing sax.”

Miles Davis

Intégrale

“It’s simply impossible to choose one song from the man. It’s just everything he did is historic. So daring so creative. Crazy beautiful music.”

Serge Gainsbourg

Ballade de Melody Nelson

“I just love this album. I can listen to it forever. Jane Birkin is my guest on one song, and that record is totally inspired by this. I love Serge’s music in general but this album just kills me. And I love that box set they released 3 years or so ago. Amazing collector stuff.”

Rolling Stones

100 Years Ago

“I dont know why but I just love this song. It makes me feel New York city somehow. I guess it has to do with my teenage years… I love how they in that time period mixed really good songwriting with great jams. I love that kind of song forms.”