Duke Vin and Count Suckle arrived in the UK in the 1950s, after stowing away on a boat from Kingston, Jamaica. They brought with them a sound that was sweeping across the small Caribbean island and would later change the face of music in the UK – ska.
Against a background of racial tensions and discrimination, Duke Vin built the UK's first soundsystem (a collective of DJs, MCs and engineers) in 1956 and, in 1962, Count Suckle launched the now-famous Roaring Twenties club on Carnaby Street, with Daddy Vego (who later founded the People's Sound Record Store in All Saints Road ) as the original DJ.
The first club that welcomed black people in London, its electric mix of rhythm and blues, soul and ska made it one of the busiest clubs in London for years and attracted the period’s leading musicians.
The last surviving members of a small group who played a key role in bringing the sound and musical culture of Jamaica, a new documentary being screened at Jam tonight charts their story and with it, the story of ska. The screening is followed by Thursday Night Fish Fry, a new club night of 1950s rhythm 'n' blues, original Jamaican ska and jump-up blues.
*£3 (includes entry to Thursday Night Fish Fry club night afterwards), 01273 749465
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