Of all the many figures in Jamaican popular music, the late, great Prince Buster remains the most iconic, and in many ways the most important. As a truly independent record producer and label owner he maintained a standard that has rarely been matched by any other, and as hundreds of his productions were consistently released in the UK throughout the sixties (mostly on Melodisc’s Blue Beat and Fab labels) he became known internationally as one of Jamaica’s leading artists and record producers.

 Visits to England, a Top 20 hit with ‘Al Capone’ in 1967, and youth club floor fillers like ‘Judge Dread’, ‘Rough Rider’ and ‘Big Five’ ensured Buster’s legendary status with British mods and skinheads, and the 1969 ‘Fabulous Greatest Hits’ compilation was a huge seller in that market, and introduced the next generation of fans to tunes like ‘Earthquake’, ‘Too Hot’ and ‘Ghost Dance’. A decade or so later, it was only natural that their successors looked to the Prince for inspiration when the Two Tone label helped to kick start the ska and reggae revival with covers of ‘One Step Beyond’ by Madness and ‘Gangsters’ by the Specials, which borrowed heavily from ‘Al Capone’. 

 As a teenager, Buster was no stranger to trouble on the tough streets of downtown Kingston, and actually started his career in the music business by working for one of Kingston’s leading sound system men, Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd, as a minder, helping to protect the sound system from attacks from rivals. The top of his head soon bore the scars of an attack by some of Duke Reid’s henchmen, and although Buster was known as a fierce fighter, possibly a prototype of the ‘rude boys’ he would later mention in his records, his business ambitions prevailed and he eventually decided to leave Coxsone’s employ and set up his own ‘Voice Of The People’ sound system, with associated record labels (‘Voice Of The People’ and ‘Wild Bells’) to go along with it.