/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-JAMAICA: Reggae Maverick Releases Own Album

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Dec 3 2002 (IPS) - Michael Campbell has always been something of a maverick.

Back in the 1970s, when Jamaicans were undecided over whether Rastafari and reggae had a place on mainstream radio, he exposed the underground music scene on his groundbreaking “Dread At The Controls” radio show.

When that gig ended, Campbell, widely known as Mikey Dread, went on to make his own hit singles and to produce albums for others, including the groundbreaking British punk band The Clash.

Now, 11 years after he recorded his last album, Campbell is back with ‘Rasta In Control’, an 18-track set that is not only a resurrection of his career as a recording artist, but also marks the return of his influential ‘Dread At The Control’ label. ‘Rasta In Control’ was officially released in October and is being distributed in the United States by Atlanta-based Rock Bottom Records and throughout Europe by London’s Fire House Music.

The songs on “Rasta In Control” were co-written by Campbell and his wife Monika and are a contemporary version of the roots-reggae sound the artist championed in the 1970s. There are none of the blaring horns, thumping bass lines or hard-driving beats that were a trademark of early Dread At The Controls productions; Campbell says he has not sold out, he is just trying to reach a new audience.

“I was toying with a different idea,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that the first album I did on the label would satisfy everybody. So I programmed the drums, not to sound like dancehall, which is ‘samey’, and put in some live drums,” he explained. ”Basically it cut ‘cross the board.”

Campbell’s last album of original songs was ‘Profile’, released in 1991 by Washington DC-based RAS Records. After a falling-out, he sued RAS as well as Heartbeat Records, another independent American company that previously distributed his music. Eventually, he regained distribution rights to his Dread At The Controls catalogue, which has over 50 titles.

With that matter settled, Campbell started recording ‘Rasta In Control’ two years ago. In addition to his deal with the Rock Bottom and Fire House companies, he is shopping the album via the Internet from his home in Coral Gables, Florida.

“Independent distribution gives me more flexibility in terms of sales and knowing what’s going on,” said the 48-year-old Campbell. “I have tried the other guys (RAS and Heartbeat) before and it didn’t work.”

Campbell has never been afraid of experimenting. Though he has been living in the United States for the past 13 years, a generation of Jamaicans still remember him for his role on “Dread At The Controls”, a four-hour show he hosted on the government-owned Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (J.B.C.) from 1977 to 1979.

Campbell went to the station as an engineer but was among the thousands of Jamaican youth who had turned on to Rasta and reggae. There was no room for either at the J.B.C. and the youth from Portland parish in east Jamaica, was keen on changing that.

He approached administrators at the station to put him on air at midnight when the station normally went off air. They agreed and “Dread At The Controls” was launched and quickly had an impact, featuring music that would not normally be heard on the J.B.C. or the rival Radio Jamaica.

Gladstone Wilson was programmes manager at the J.B.C. for the show’s duration. He remembers it drawing a “sensational” reaction from hardcore reggae fans.

“What he did was to play music that came from the streets, much like what is being done now,” said Wilson. “He had the same impact as IRIE (an all-reggae station) in the early 1990s, but unlike IRIE, his show did not give us an increase in listenership.”

But the show increased Campbell’s profile, and he soon ventured into the music business as a performer and producer. He had great success as both, recording hit songs such as “Barber Saloon” and “African Map”, as well as producing chart hits by roots singers Edi Fitzroy and Rod Taylor.

When “Dread At The Controls” went off the air, Campbell was contacted by The Clash, who had heard his music through Caribbean radio stations in London. He produced their big hit, “Bankrobber”, and appeared on their ‘Sandinista!’ album.

Throughout the 1990s he kept busy, working with high-profile acts including UB40 and Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and helped produce ‘Deep Roots’, a documentary commissioned by the British Channel Four television station.

He believes the most exciting period of his career will be the next six months, when he begins fresh promotion of his Dread At The Controls catalogue.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-JAMAICA: Reggae Maverick Releases Own Album

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Dec 3 2002 (IPS) - Michael Campbell has always been something of a maverick.
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