Kingston: Trading Beach Chairs for Bar Stools It was a steamy Saturday night in Kingston, Jamaica, and the Sky Bar was jammed with its usual weekend crowd: professionals in their 20s and 30s, by all appearances fit for the next flight to South Beach. Ladies in strappy stilettos and sundresses mixed with men in jeans [...]

Remakes, rests and a ‘Stern’ performance After he recorded Every Nigger is a Star, Boris Gardiner used to perform the song regularly with his band, The Boris Gardiner Happening. He tells The Sunday Gleaner that people loved it and would dance to it. These days, though, Gardiner no longer performs the song, the last occasion [...]

Studio One court case a heavy load – Bob Andy The law suit between singer/songwriter Keith ‘Bob Andy’ Anderson and the Clement Coxsone Dodd estate continues this month with the singer stating that it is “weighing him down”. The court will determine whether royalties are due from Bob Andy’s Songbook, the classic Jamaican album which [...]

1980 reggae movie ‘Rockers’ still has cult following Reggae and a 30-year-old movie about its Jamaican culture has become popular with a new generation. Inner Circle includes founding members Ian and Roger Lewis, who both appeared in the 1978 film “Rockers.” “We didn’t know the reggae sounds was so popular there now, but the movie [...]

Kartel says…’GAZA BUTTONS NOT OURS’ Popular entertainer Vybz Kartel yesterday distanced himself and members of the Portmore Empire, from vendors who police clamped down on recently for selling Gaza buttons at school gates. The deejay, in a release, blasted the barefaced vendors involve in the act. “Vybz Kartel does not sanction or condone the selling [...]

Marley heirs wage global war on trademark pirates Coming to a store near you: Bob Marley video games, shoes … snowboards? Heirs of the Jamaican reggae legend are plunging into the global trademark wars, seeking to enforce their exclusive rights to an image that has grown steadily in scope and appeal since the Jamaican superstar [...]

The pull of dancehall and reggae music The London Film Festival, one of the most important film festivals in the world, was held last week. One of the highlights was a film called Made in Jamaica, which showcases the best of reggae and dancehall music. It also attempts to explain how reggae became a worldwide [...]