Island Records

Black Lives Matter. Click here to read about what we’re doing to actively support anti-racism. For sixty years, Island Records has been at the forefront of all the musical moments that mattered. One of the world's great labels, it has become a byword for artistic integrity and innovation, staying true to its long-established independent ethos by signing mavericks and game-changers who have altered the course of music in Britain, Jamaica, America and beyond. And, while times have changed, the attitude, street-cool and striking visuals at the label's creative core have remained the same. The history of Island began with a jazz album made in Jamaica. In 1959 – the same year as Berry Gordy was putting together his fledgling Tamla label in Detroit – a young, Jamaican-based Englishman, Chris Blackwell, released an album of jazz standards by blind Bermudan singer and pianist Lance Hayward called At The Half Moon Hotel, Montego Bay. Blackwell, 21, had started a record label, named Island after Alec Waugh's novel Island In The Sun, with a loan from his parents. He went on to release a string of records which tapped into Jamaica's vibrant music spirit, securing his first hit with Laurel Aitken's Boogie In My Bones, before relocating to London with his three business partners in 1962. In the UK, Blackwell distributed the records himself, driving up the newly-opened M1 motorway in his Mini Cooper to serve the West Indian immigrant communities in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Not every artist he signed saw their records released on Island. His first UK hit, in 1964, was a ska cover of Barbie Gaye's Fifties hit My Boy Lollypop, sung by Jamaican teenager Millie Small and licensed to Fontana, part of the Philips group. Realising you could compete with yourself in the record racks, Blackwell also set up subsidiaries. There was Black Swan for ska and Jump Up for Trinidadian calypsos. Another subsidiary, Sue, was run by the legendary Guy Stevens, DJ at fabled Soho mod club The Scene and the man with the most extensive collection of American R&B in the UK. Among the hits on Sue were Inez & Charlie Foxx's Mockingbird and Bob & Earl's Harlem Shuffle. Imported sounds weren't his sole focus. In 1963, Blackwell discovered a Birmingham band making moves in the local rhythm and blues clubs. Featuring teenage prodigy Steve Winwood, whose high-pitched voice drew comparisons with Ray Charles, the Spencer Davis Group were signed up and also licensed to Fontana, where they enjoyed hits with Gimme Some Lovin’ and Keep On Running. When the band split in 1967, Winwood formed Traffic, whose exploratory fusion of rock, pop, soul and R&B became a touchstone for Island as it grew into its next phase. Reflecting the general move away from singles-driven pop towards albums, Traffic became a cornerstone of Island's 'pink' label, an imprint that represented a fresh way of looking at the world. Launched in 1967 with Owen Grey's Help Me, the pink label came to define a distinctive strain of alternative, cutting-edge British rock and folk. Alongside Traffic, it released the two celebrated, budget-priced 1969 samplers You Can All Join In and Nice Enough To Eat and signed Quintessence and heavy rock act Spooky Tooth. Jethro Tull gave Island an unlikely hit single with Living In The Past and its first number one LP in Stand Up, while teenage quartet Free, built around the talents of blues belter Paul Rodgers and guitarist Paul Kossoff and rightly described as 'an unbelievable band' by Blackwell, also secured a huge hit with All Right Now. Elsewhere, there was the progressive rock of King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King – all strange time signatures, classical borrowings and technical sophistication – and the spectacular fusion of art-rock and classical that was the calling card of ELP, a supergroup assembled by keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist and vocalist Greg Lake and drummer Carl Palmer. Having began their career with an astonishing performance in f