Record Producer / Label Founder
Professional
Channels and Networks
Chris Blackwell is a businessman, record producer and founder of one of the UK’s greatest Independent Record labels of all time, Island Records.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, he has been reported as “the single person most responsible for turning the world on to reggae music."
In April 2009, the UK magazine Music Week named Blackwell the most influential figure in the last 50 years of the British music industry. Forming Island Records in Jamaica in 1959, at just 21 years of age Blackwell was among the first to record the Jamaican popular music that eventually became known as ska.
Returning to Britain in 1962, he sold records from the back of his car to the Jamaican community. As Island Records grew he went on to forge the careers of Bob Marley, Grace Jones and U2 amongst many other diverse high-profile acts, however it is Steve Winwood who he refers to as the cornerstone of Island records, giving it gravitas and making other artists wanting to be part of the Island story.
He has also produced many albums, including Marley's Catch A Fire and Uprising, and The B-52's' self-titled debut album in 1979. Blackwell sold his stake in Island in 1989, eventually resigning from the company in 1997 and went on to found Palm Pictures, a media entertainment company with music, film and DVD releases.
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