Lee Gopthal

Jamaican-born British entrepreneur who ran the Musicland record-shop chain, founded the Beat & Commercial distribution company, and in 1968 pooled his Jamaican-music interests with Chris Blackwell's Island to co-found Trojan Records — turning shop-counter demand among Britain's Caribbean community into a national reggae label.

Before any of that, he was the landlord who rented Chris Blackwell the first-floor premises Island Records used once it outgrew operating from Blackwell's home, a connection made through Sonny Roberts of Planetone, whom Blackwell was helping with distribution as a reciprocal favour. Gopthal was initially sceptical both about renting to Roberts and about the commercial prospects of Jamaican music generally; Beat & Commercial grew directly out of that scepticism turning to conviction, with Planetone and Island as its first two customers.