TheOrator.Press Film Review. One Love: Bob Marley. February 2024

Jamaican Record Producer Clement Seymour  ‘Coxsone’ Dodd Was The Pionnering Owner of Studio One, The Seeds To Which Were Sown In 1954 When Aged Just 22 He Spent A Short But Pivotal Time In Nearby America Listening To The Rhythm And Blues of The South. Returning To JA He Began Importing The Tunes And Playing Them Via His Own Sound System (Downbeat) Made Up of An Amplifier, Turntable, And Speakers.
He Literally Made It His Business To Try And Satisfy The High Demand For The Popular Ska Sound, As Well As Rocksteady And Reggae. And Eventually Dub And Dancehall.

Just Under A Decade Later He Officially Became The First Black Owner of A JA Recording Studio When He Opened Studio One On Brentford Road Kingston In 1963. Prior To That He Launched His Own Record Label In 1959. WorldDiscs.

Coxsone Began Holding Auditions For New Talent And That’s How He Met The Wailers. He Also Worked With Big Names Like Producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Renowned Romantic Reggae Artist John Holt, Ken Booth, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, Freddie McGregor, Alton Ellis & Burning Spear. The I Threes Were Also On The Studio One Label And There Was Also A Studio One Band Who Would Play With The Various Different Studio One Artists.

Comparisons Have Been Made Between Coxsone Dodds In Jamaica And Berry Gordy At Motown, In Detroit, America.

Ultimately Coxone Closed Studio One In Jamaica In The 80s And Returned To America To Relocate His Operations There. That Was Afterall Where His Love Affair With The Business Was Born.

In Honour of The Pioneering Coxsone History Brentford Road Would Later Be Renamed Studio One Boulevard On May 1st 2004 (50 Years After His Pivotal Trip To America).

Dodd Earnt The Nickname ‘Coxsone’ As He Was Also Good At Cricket And Was Compared To Alec Coxon (No ‘e’), A Member of The1940s Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Notwithstanding The Latter Was Caucasian.
The West Indies Have Been A Member of The International Cricket Council (ICC) Since 1926 Under Their Cricket Association ‘Cricket West Indies’. It’s A Composite Team Made Up of 15 Caribbean Countries Including Jamaica.

In 1990 Controversial Tory MP Norman Tebbit Infamously Declared Immigrants To Britain Who Did Not Support The England Cricket Team, But Instead Supported The Team of Their Country of Origin, Were Not Truly Integrated British Citizens.
It Became Known As ‘The Cricket Test’.
A Notorious Moment In Test Cricket.
Whilst The Subject of Twin Loyalties Remains An Interesting Discussion In Various Sports And Areas of Life It Was Tebbit’s Cold Delivery And Known Hostility To Immigration That Made What He Said Particularly Egregious, Unsporting And Disrespectful At The Time. Especially As It Was The British Government That Appealed To West Indians To Come To Britain From The Caribbean Colonies And Help Rebuild The Country, Which They Did.