Pete Holdsworth knows about reggae. He's been in and around the scene in Jamaica and England for many years, and it's fair to say that he's something of a veteran connoisseur of Jamaican music. He has played on stage with Lee Perry, cavorted in Kingston's tenement yards, and recorded albums with Jah Wobble. On top of that, he founded two independent record labels who have released more original and classic Jamaican music than most people's entire vinyl collections.

Out of a mutual appreciation and desire to revive old rocksteady, ska and dub, Pete first founded Pressure Sounds in 1994 with Adrian Sherwood. The label began as a subsidiary of the famous On-U sound, and has since blossomed into one of the seminal reggae re-issue labels around, alongside other independents Blood and Fire and Soul Jazz. Pete talks about the music industry, Asia's reggae scene, and why old time reggae is still so unique.




Pete Holdsworth: On-U Sound was first set-up by myself, Adrian (Sherwood), and 4 others, but I left it in about 1984 then I got back involved in the mid 90's. Prior to that I'd been doing other things, I'd actually just finished doing a film degree, which I was going to get back into but Adrian persuaded me to start another label. I thought, yeah let's do some records! I always wanted to go back to film but Pressure Sounds just started to take up more more of my time.


Pete Holdsworth: I've been in and around the reggae scene since the late 70's. You build up relationships with producers and artists, some of which I know very well personally, and more often than not these people approach me to put things out. It's quite rare now that I actually go out and look for material.



There are issues about ownership but it's mainly those people who paid for the original recording session to be made who own the rights. However, a lot of those guys are dead, so you deal with the family. Recently I put out a record of King Tubby material and I dealt with his daughter and the producer Bunny Lee. She gave me some great photos of Tubby when he was younger and he had hair! You do a deal; you pay them an advance. What can happen is that people will take your money and put the record out in Jamaica themselves and that can be frustrating.

I mean we've put out four Prince Far-I albums, even though he was dead when we started the label. I dealt with his wife who I've known since I was 20 or something. She has now done really well out of our re-relasing his music. For someone like me who came into reggae as just a big fan, I feel good about putting money back into the community that I feel I've taken a lot out of myself.


Pete Holdsworth: To me that's like saying "Why is Italian renaissance painting fantastic?"

It was made by people who were supremely talented and had something important to say. It's as simple as that.

There was a combination of factors that came together in Jamaica in the late 60's and 70's, surrounded by an incredible hub of activity and talent. The people who had the studios knew what they were doing, the sound engineers knew what they were doing. People like Tubby never produced a record until 1979. People would just bring him tapes and he would re-mix the tape for them. He was just supremely talented.

I've been around other situations like punk or something to know that at a certain time in a certain place there can be just something in the air.




Pete Holdsworth: I really like a singer called Jah Cure. Before and while he was in prison he made some brilliant records. Alba Rosie I like. I do like Capleton, Preston Brown -- but the trouble with contemporary reggae is that a lot of the music tends to be over-recorded and the quality drops off.

I like Sizzla in spite of his ridiculous and stupid attacks on gay people. I think that everyone is realizing now that that was really the last thing that reggae needed. From a commercial point of view, for Jamaica that was a disaster. The whole thing got taken out of context. How many gay people have been burnt in Jamaica in the last few years? Not very many! I've been into KFC in Kingston and seen guys with mascara on. There is a gay scene in Kingston and anyone who thinks there isn't is very sheltered.


Pete Holdsworth: The biggest soundsytem in the world now, and this includes Jamaica, is the The Mighty Crown from Japan. I would say that a lot of Jamaican music has been taken up by people in Asia. Jamaica is full of Japanese people, I mean there are so many people going there, recording there, it's all part of what people would call globalization.



In my job people are always giving me things to listen to and somebody gave me a CD-R of a Korean Soundsystem called I and I led by a guy named Kim Bang-Jang. I was amazed at how good it was. But the reggae scene in Asia is a bit like the hip hop scene in France. It's got it's own style, it's got some fantastic artists -- the problem is that these guys aren't heard of out of their own country. To make the Asian scene bigger somebody is going to have to come along with an international presence.

The Mighty Crown have done really really well and DJ in New York and Kingston but I don't know how popular a sound-system can really get. It's going to take an artist who makes their own music to kick the door in and the other acts can follow.

The main reason I came to Japan was because my wife is Japanese and we wanted our kids to learn Japanese.


Pete Holdsworth: For me China is one of the most exciting places. I keep teasing my Japanese friends telling them that in another 5 years, you're just going to be another island off the coast of China.

Pete Holdsworth deejays Friday, July 31 at The Shelter. Details here.

Read more on Louder.cn (in Chinese) here.

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