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ENTITY · RECORD LABEL

Blue Beat Records

Well supported

London label founded in 1960 as an imprint of Emil Shalit's Melodisc, set up with Siggy Jackson to release Jamaican R&B and ska in Britain. It issued more than two dozen singles by the end of 1960 alone and over 300 across the following five years, spinning off sister labels including Dice, Limbo, Duke, Chek, Rainbow and Fab, built on Shalit's direct dealing trips to Kingston producers.

Its biggest star was Prince Buster ("Al Capone"), and for several years the "Blue Beat" name became a byword for Jamaican music in the UK, embraced by mod and skinhead subcultures before new releases ceased around 1967.

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At a glance

Confidence
Well supported
Sources
Wikipedia (Blue Beat Records / Melodisc Records); Lloyd Bradley, Bass Culture (2000/2013), chapter 6.

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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.

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