Local Authority: The legacy of John Collins
He produced ‘Ghost Town’, sired the UK’s first ventures into electro dub and ran the peerless Local Records; John Collins’s career is notable not only for its diversity but also the quality of his output. Here Spice Route profiles the man behind the mixer…
“At each phase of its evolution, reggae music inescapably matches the biographies of those who make it and those who respond to it.”
From Reggae, A Force for Dialogue, Linda Aïnouche - September 2012, No. 3 Vol. XLIX 2012, Dialogue among Civilizations
Dub
I once met a bloke in a pub
He liked a bit of dub
His clothes were grubby
He loved King Tubby
He tended a flowering shrub
Jah Wobble - From Odds, Sods and Epilogues
As a cultural force reggae swept into the UK in the 60s and opened up an enduring channel of cultural feedback between Jamaica and the UK. The results of this exchange are drolly encapsulated by Jah Wobble’s limerick included above; the quintessential figure of an English eccentric hugging a pint and a plant juxtaposing against the penchant for Jamaican dub reggae raises a smile. But beyond the wit of the caricature there are some serious observations to make; in order for that horticulturally inclined man in the pub to like a bit of dub an impressive feat of cultural transmission took place wherein the indigenous music of a country with less than 3 million people crossed the Atlantic and took on its own vibrant and long standing existence, and whatsmore this feat was repeated globally not just in the UK.
Linda Aïnouche, a freelance anthropologist, in thinking about this far reach of reggae music in her 2012 article for the United Nations Chronicle describes reggae music as a vigorous force for dialogue amongst the people of the world. A quote from the article above explains that within this dialogue the biographies of the creators and the responders to reggae music are almost always inscribed into the music being created.
John Collins, a British reggae producer now in semi-retirement, provides a great example of how reggae’s influence came to manifest itself within those responding to it in the UK. As a resident of London in the 60s Collins became a first hand recipient and beneficiary of the diversifying cultural vibrations that were percolating through the city thanks to new expat Jamaican inhabitants. Whilst many of the UK’s first and second wave of reggae producers and sound system operators were of Caribbean descent, including the likes of Dennis Bovell (Barbadian), Jah Shaka (Jamaica), and Lloyd Coxsone (Jamaican), many who took reggae to their bosom in the UK had no lineage to the place of its origin at all. Instead Collins became a receiver for the transmissions from Jamaica received via global and local sources: he soaked up influences via osmosis from the ambient noise of his local neighbourhood in the streets of Tottenham, had has ears opened by listening to the reggae and ska filtering into the pop charts in the late 60s and then broadened and deepened his understanding and appreciation of reggae through encounters with Tottenham and surrounding areas growing West Indian population including a Jamaican who married into the Collins family.
Alongside the likes of Adrain Sherwood and Chris Lane, John Collins stood in a vanguard of urbane, white UK producers who enthusiastically imbibed reggae music and studied the work of the pioneers of reggae soundcraft such as Lee Scratch Perry and King Tubby to become respectful adopters of the unique sonic strategies enshrined by these high priests of the mixing desk. In particular Collins became a devotee of Tubby’s studied and minimalist approach to recording, recreating a similar recording setup to that of Tubby in his front room.
LIFT OFF
The vapour trails from the recently launched craft carve lines of thin and increasingly diaphanous white smoke into the bright blue sky as it ascends in to the stratosphere. The hull of the vessel seems to radiate dense and reverberant tones that squall in to infinity; tones governed by an invisible force that issues a complex series of overlapping pulses, some rich with sub bass others which effervesce nebulously as puffs of white noise. As a disembodied voice slowly counts down the craft breaks through the thermoshere, the body of sonics builds to a critical mass. The ship finally pierces in to the exosphere and the sole crew member assumes control via his panel of sonic disruptors. Captain Collins slowly draws up his riddim lever deploying a parred down yet exuberant mechanised steppers rhythm, with his other free hand he lets loose a volley of echo treated percussion followed by a plaintive minor key organ melody figure that bubbles in and out courtesy of supplementary dub treatments issued from Collin’s control desk. The craft speeds towards it’s destination and the Captain eases in a simple but effective bass-line that will fade in and out of the remaining sonic journey. The steady pulse of the synthesised kick drum provides a background for washes of guitar chop, stuttering white noise snares, extraneous effects and treated organ all to be variously foregrounded as Captain Collins expertly manoeuvres the ship through deep space. Ladies and gentleman we have Lift Off…….
Despite sounding like something issued from the MCI console at Tubby’s Drommily Avenue home studio at the heart of Kingston’s Waterhouse district “Lift Off” was in fact produced in a front room studio 4500 miles away in North London. The track is the experimental dub b-side to “At The Club”, a popular lovers rock tune from the early 80s produced by John Collins on Special Request - a sub-label of Collins’ independently run Local Records. For a man who jokingly refers to himself in interviews as Tottenham’s answer to King Tubby the track exists as a paean to the masterful ability of Tubby to elicit intricate psychedelic dub soundscapes from just a few fragments of an original reggae multitrack recording. “Lift Off” sees Collins use his own 4-track console and supplementary processing to create a mesmerising widescreen piece of experimental dub music which prefigured dub techno by 20 years. Using a spartan pallet of sounds Collins creates a rich and textured ascent into the heavens; an impressive feat of sound sculpture that demonstrates the shared sensibility that Collins had with Tubby - namely a keen ear to harness the power of electricity in pursuit of timbral freedom.
Whatsmore the track “Lift Off” stands out as one of the first instances of an electronic dub track being produced by a UK producer, specifically the first instance of a solo producer using a drum machine to create a dub instrumental. Both Bovell and Sherwood were producing dub music in the mid-late 70s and therefore pre-dated Collins entry into the world of reggae production altogether. However both of these producers focused on the enterprise of recording musicians and then applying dub treatments to the multi-tracks, often done live at the desk whilst the recording session was in process. In contrast Collins chose to simulate the same conditions that King Tubby created for himself; using his front room studio as a laboratory for his own experiments with tape and electronics, and would often have no musicians or session running at all, instead building the tracks himself.
In the absence of a band Collins chose to rely on his ingenuity with electronics and built himself a drum machine that would provide him with the ability to lay down rudimentary rhythm tracks upon which to lay chords, bassline and melody for his experimental reggae studies. Built for the utility of having a steady pulse more than anything else the primitive drum machine sounds in tracks like ‘Lift Off’ and peppered throughout Collins’ back catalogue are undoubtedly the first reggae tracks in the UK to feature mechanised rhythms and can lay an equal claim to that of Mad Professor to be one of the first instances of electro-dub being created in Britain. One can draw an uninterrupted line from the early beat box inflected dub mischief of Lee Perry’s “Chim Cherie'' through to “Lift Off” and then onwards in to the majestic dub techno experiments produced in the mid 90s by Rhythm and Sound.
The flipside to Lift Off was a seductive and spritely slice of lovers rock called At The Club voiced by St Lucian born Victor Romero Evans and was produced by Collins utilising his drum machine and some electronic effects to spice up the backing track. The track rose to become number one in the Black Echoes reggae chart in Febuary 1981 which subsequently led to the track being picked up by the BBC Radio 1 Roundtable programme whose hosts commented favourably on the release. Such exposure then resulted in Collins receiving a mysterious late night call from the Specials’ Jerry Dammers who enlisted him to produce the group's era-defining single Ghost Town. The notoriety of the track became an important calling card for Collins who after producing and releasing music until the mid 80s started to delve into the world of television music writing and producing music for the Desmonds, Harry Hill and Alistair MacGowan, amongst others.
February 14, 1981
Release 45
1. Victor Romero - At The Club - Special Request
2. Chosen Few - Love Between A Boy And A Girl - Love And Unity
3. Sugar Minott - Sandy - Germain
4. Simplicity - Loving Kind - Inner City
5. Barbara Jones - Just When I Needed You Most - GG (pre)
6. Ernest Wilson - Truths And Rights - Selection Exclusive
7. Johnny Osbourne - Nightfall - Cha Cha
8. Mikey Dread - Warrior Stylee - Dread At The Control
9. Jimmy Riley - My Woman's Love - Taxi
10. Sugar Minott - Show Me That You Love Me - Channel One
Black Echoes Chart
In recent years Collins has embarked upon a novel combination of choral music and dub reggae rhythms in a project he has christened Choral Dub. The uniquely compatible fusion of renaissance choral music and dub is a perfect end point to a career that has shown how the vigorous force for dialogue that is reggae music can come to be imbued with someone's personal biography to such an extent that the epithet Tottenham’s answer to King Tubby doesn’t sound like a very outlandish way to explain Collins. Perhaps more than any other producer Collins comes closest to Tubby’s both in terms of substantive similarities between their approaches to sound and, perhaps by extension, some of the biographical details of their lives.
King Tubby: The Pioneer of Dub Music
Osbourne Ruddock, became better known as King Tubby throughout his brilliant career as a recording engineer and producer. Born on January 28, 1941, Tubby revolutionised the world of reggae music with his groundbreaking innovations in the genre. Growing up in the vibrant music scene of Kingston, Jamaica, Tubby found himself drawn into the world of sound systems that played such a formative role in the dissemination and evolution of reggae music in the city. Primarily Tubby was useful in this arena because of his aptitude with electronics that had developed from an early age and would go on to be the backbone of his working life. It was in the early dancehall environment that Tubby honed his skills as an engineer, using his experiences as a sound man to inform his decisions in the studio when manipulating the sounds and rhythms of his peers to create unique dubplate versions for others as well as for his his own Hometown Hi-Fi Sound System.
In the late 1960s, Tubby established his own mixing and voicing studio, aptly named "King Tubby's Studio." This was not some high end studio facility, infact it was the front room of a house that formerly housed Tubby’s mother until he made the decision to buy her another house across the street and took over the old building to create studio and workshop facilities. A strange mix of the chintzy soft furnishings one would expect from an elderly Jamaican lady’s front room and an avalanche of sound processing gear, including the legendary customised MCI console. It was here that he developed experimental techniques of sonic manipulation that would coalesce with the work of other producers and engineers to become known as dub. Dub involved remixing existing tracks, stripping away vocals and emphasising and adulterating instrumental elements, while also adding layers of reverb, delay, and other sound effects. Tubby's mastery over sound equipment allowed him to create depths and spaces previously unheard of in music.
Tubby's studio became a hub for creativity, attracting the most talented musicians and producers of the time. Artists like Lee "Scratch" Perry, Augustus Pablo, and Bunny Lee sought Tubby's expertise to elevate their tracks to new heights. The "Tubby sound" became synonymous with innovation and experimentation, characterized by heavy basslines, echoing percussion, and dubbed-out effects.
Not content with his first triumphs, Tubby continued to push the boundaries of music production. He experimented with the use of audio panning, where different elements of the mix are placed in different channels to create a three-dimensional sound experience. This technique, known as "quadraphonic sound," added yet another dimension to the dub aesthetic, immersing listeners in a swirling sea of sound.
Sadly, Tubby's life was cut short on February 6, 1989, when he was tragically murdered. However, his legacy lives on, and his impact on music cannot be overstated. His innovative mixing techniques and pioneering spirit continue to influence countless musicians in the realms of reggae, dub, hip-hop, and electronic music.
Indeed many accredit Tubby with providing the groundwork for Jungle and Drum and Bass music. His razor sharp focus on the rhythmic detail of a song was unparalleled; his dubs teased out strange and mesmeric patterns from sparse elements of the drum track of a riddim which would later become a strategy adopted by junglists as their fundamental pre-occupation. “Hungering Dub” is a perfect example of the dynamic rhythmic processing Tubby could initiate; instrumental tracks from the original Yabby You & The Prophets recording are reduced down to a spartan palette of organ, flute and, of course, drum and bass. Primacy is given to the splashy hi-hat pattern that has a sinuous and serpentine presence within the track, prodigious filtering and layering gives the effect of the pattern undergoing the kind of ruffneck choppage the junglists would administer on drum breaks in the early 90a via the s-series of akai samplers. The deep reverberations from his cavernous dubs contaminated the rich bloodline of sorcerer's apprentices, such as Prince Jammy and Scientist (whose hallucinatory encounters With Space Invaders, vampires and pac-men bore out the mark of his master), training in his studio, under his shadow that form the pegs in the guideline from dub to jungle.
Tubby was one of the first engineers that worked in a way that privileged soundscape over structure and due to this focus Tubby has been heralded as a key innovator that paved the way for electronic musicians working in sound-scaping. Making use of the customised faders on his mixing console King Tubby set songs adrift from the familiar moorings of verse-chorus-verse and instead posited an alternative way to produce music that favoured mastery of the technical and imagination over obedience to theory and musical chops. In his excellent book Dub Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae Michael Veal deconstructs Tubby’s 1975 dub mix of Tommy McCooks Death Trap within which Tubby follows “an atmospheric remix strategy softening most of the rhythmic syncopation via application of reverb and crafting an atmospheric soundscape above the drum and bass foundation”. The original McCook instrumental is a supple instrumental groove with spacious pockets filled with mellifluous flute solos. Tubby’s version strips out the instrumentation and reintroduces it sparingly throughout the dub with each fleeting injection of music leaving long bursts of reverberated tail that dissolve into thick clouds of white noise.
It’s clear that this figure of the ingenious sonic architect working in the isolation of his front room studio to transform pre-recorded material left an indelible marks on Collins and became a methodology that defined Collins approach to music. When you delve a little deeper into Collins’ personal history one realises the ways in which this connectivity developed.
Similar to Tubby’s formative years Tottenham native Collins found an early interest in music developed alongside an interest in tinkering with electronics. A love of the pop and rock music of the 60s was given a creative dimension when a sister kindly gifted him an acoustic guitar in his teens. In a recent podcast hosted by his nephew Collins recounts seeing his own Uncle Carl perform some rudimentary DIY electronic repurposing of some home hi-fi speaker cabinets as being a moment of early inspiration. Uncle Carl was a Jamaican expat who had married into the Collins family in the 60s marrying John’s older sister. The act of seeing someone interfere with consumer electronics beyond their stated purpose opened up the possibilities of electrical engineering to the impressionable mind of Collins and he started to experiment with some of his own DIY experiments namely adding an electronic pickup and tone control to his acoustic guitar as well as adulterating the playback heads on his first tape recorder to enable sound on sound recording.
Collins credits a Saturday job in a local record shop with a special section for Jamaican music as giving him the bug for the music of the island. This love of Jamaican music was further bolstered by exposure to ska, bluebeat and early reggae music via osmosis when walking around his local neighbourhood of Tottenham where fragments of the music could be heard drifting out of the windows and cars of the migrant Jamaican population. Therefore, alongside his early love of the Beatles, Pink Floyd et al Collins developed a taste for the likes of Prince Buster, Lee Perry and other Jamaican recording artists.
As well as being a dedicated musical consumer Collins had started to dip his toe in the world of music creation and in his late teens acquired an Elizabethan LZ29 three-speed, four-track recorder and began taping and overdubbing himself playing his adapted acoustic guitar. Initially these were done as experiments that allowed Collins to gauge his skill on the instrument but very quickly his mind became alive to the creative possibilities that multi-track recording and overdubbing afford.
Later, while he was studying for an electronics degree at London's University College, Collins upgraded to a Sony TC377 open-reel recorder, closely followed by a further upgrade to a TEAC four-track in about 1978 which proved a damascene moment for Collins. The experiments continued but despite his love for music Collins initially chose to embark on a career in electronics and following his graduation he gained a job with British Steel working in one of their research laboratories. However his career with British Steel was to be short-lived — by 1979 the laboratory he was working at closed down and his job made redundant.
LOCAL RECORDS
Prior to his redundancy Collins had actually got Local Records operational and had released . In the aforementioned Reel Feedback podcast Collins recalls a chance encounter with local Jamaican ex-pats Victor Romero Evans and Nat Augustin who were part of a local dance group that Collins' wife supervised. Collins was enlisted by his wife to help out with lighting and music for the groups performances and he struck up conversation with Evans and Augustin who started to clue Collins up on some of the underground reggae records percolating within their community. This broadened the ears of Collins and brought him in to contact with the formidable rhythm section of Sly and Robbie whose simple but deadly drum and bass constructions fulsomely resonated with Collins.
Ongoing discussions with Evans and Augustin lead in 1978 to Collins making the decision to create his own independent label. Local Records, a Collins chose to christen his label, was started in the DIY spirit of the times - one that had been ushered through the UK in the mid 70s thanks to punk and the network of independent distribution that came up around it. Local Records’ first release was a 4-track EP by the Detonators. Evans and Augustin formed the backbone of the group with drums coming from future Light of the World member Everton McCalla and shuffle organ from experienced UK reggae session player Noel ‘Fish’ Salmon. The four track EP showcased the instrumental proficiency of the players and was a solid example of the kind of rich roots based sound that was popular at the time.
Recorded in what was baptised the Front Room studio of Collins the truth of the name is very plain and unambiguous, it was recorded in the front room of Collins’ family home in Tottenham with McCalla’s drums recorded in the adjacent back room with the mic cables drilled through the wall and fed in to Collins’ four track A-3340S 4 track tape recorder via a Teac 6 channel model 2a mixer with some rudimentary EQ and panning capabilities. Similar to the Holloway Recording Studio of Joe Meek or Dromilly Avenue for King Tubby “White John’s” studio, as it became named by local reggae players in Tottenham, was a recording space that was idiosyncratic yet produced memorable results, due in large part to the industriousness and visionary abilities of its owner. The first EP by the Detonators was testament to the ability of Collins to record and mix to a quality equal to that of far larger and better appointed studio facilities.
The EP was given patronage by John Peel via his BBC radio programme after Collins visited BBC HQ brandishing a copy of the record and handed it directly to a very ingratiating Peel who politely promised to Collins that he would find time to listen to the record and would play it on his show if he liked it. True to his word two of the tracks from the EP, Give Me A Helping Hand and Great Big Ghetto. Received airplay from Peel. Having already established contacts in the record shops of London Collins sought to tap into the network of independent distributors and record shops, including Rough Trade and Jetstar, to sell his records. In a podcast interview with Ray Barrie Collins cheerily remembers having his LR1 flatly rejected by Count Shelly but had greater fortune and constructive feedback from other distributors including Maurice ‘Mo’ Claridge from Mojo Distribution who encouraged Collins to consider sticking to the tried and tested reggae format of a 12” with a version on the flip rather than a 4-track EP for the next Local release.
Given that Collins was operating in league with the post-punk distribution giant that was Rough Trade it’s unsurprising that Local Records took a slight detour into new wave for its second release which was a two track single for local group Scandal entitled ‘Comic Book Hero’. The band were again recorded in the front room with the drums in the back room, with the bass directly injected into the Teac model 2a mixer and the guitars fed in from Vox AC30 speaker feeds.
Around the time of Local Records second release a fortuitous and generous redundancy package from his former employer British Steel entailed that Collin’s decision to become a full time music producer was financially guaranteed as it was to be fully subsidised for two years by British Steel via a monthly stipend paid at 90% of his former salary. For Collins the exit from his workplace laboratory did not entail that his desire to experiment with electronics had vanished, it found home instead in the reggae music that he was now making. Collins and his capacity to invent was perhaps the biggest driver for the next stage of the development of the Local Records.
After his dalliance with rock music Collins found that retirement from British Steel allowed for increased studio activity and a fertile period of music production ensued; 1979 saw the completion of the first and sadly only Detonators album entitled Gangster released on initially on UK reggae label Burning Rockers, a glorious 8 track album with two of the four tracks from the bands first EP mixed in with some new cuts and dub versions for Collins. unique sonic characteristics of his music, a kit built drum machine and synthesiser as well as a few basic effects units were deftly deployed by Collins to imbue an otherworldly electronic texture to counterpoint the earthy roots playing of his early releases. On Gangster a personal standout is the track Robber Dub which sees the crisp electronic textures of the rhythm box matched against the dubbed out toasts of local deejay Horace, a perfect encapsulation of Collins ability to make his experimental instincts groove with a reggae swagger.
The Detonators album was followed by a solo outing for Evans (as Victor Romero) on Burning Rockers Records with Collins manning the desk and providing a rhythm for Romero’s sweet lovers vocal performance on the a-side and the aforementioned sparse rhythm box dub by the Detonators on the flip. A similar release followed on Local Records on 1980 with Romero Evans, fresh from an acting role in the seminal UK reggae film Babylon, turning in a melodious lovers tune called Slacks and Sovereigns and the Detonators occupying the b-side with Working Dub.
The Detonators album was followed by a solo outing for Evans (as Victor Romero) on Burning Rockers Records with Collins manning the desk and providing a rhythm for Romero’s sweet lovers vocal performance on the a-side and the aforementioned sparse rhythm box dub by the Detonators on the flip. A similar release followed on Local Records on 1980 with Romero Evans, fresh from an acting role in the seminal UK reggae film Babylon, turning in a melodious lovers tune called Slacks and Sovereigns and the Detonators occupying the b-side with Working Dub.
The next release on Local Records was another track from Victor Romero entitled ‘At The Club’. Produced by Collins the track was a lively lovers rock tune with flourishes of dub production, distinctive synthesised drums and synth washes sitting amidst the more de rigueur reggae instrumentation. True to form the b-side was a Detonators instrumental dub track and this time the music on offer shimmered with an iridescent and alien quality that showed the work of a unique musical mind. ‘Lift Off’ could easily sit alongside a modern dub techno record. Inspired by Joe Meeks intro for Telstar Collins begings the track with a minute of eery synth wash, courtesy of Collins kit built Transcendent 2000 synth, treated with cavernous reverb which is then adulterated by a minimalist 4/4 steppers beat that is enhanced with skeletal guitar chops dubbed to infinity and plaintive minor key organ melodies that you’d expect to hear bubbling away in a Rhythm & Sound record. ‘Lift Off’ is a timeless piece of instrumental dub and it comes not from the heartland of Jamaica but from a front room in Tottenham.
However despite the remarkable sonics of Lift Off it was the club ready production values of “At the Club” track that pricked the ears of Jerry Dammers from the Specials, who upon hearing the song tracked down Collins and enlisted him to produce ‘Ghost Town’. There are two already richly detailed accounts of Collin’s role in the making of ‘Ghost Town’ that can be found both on Collin’s own Local Records website and here. So whilst it’s not necessary to repeat these accounts it serves us well to reflect on a few key details that highlight the pivotal part that Collins had in forging the unique sonic aesthetic of the track.
Initially recorded at an eight track studio facility in Leamington, the Ghost Town sessions saw Collins work methodically to capture all the raw elements of the track to his specifications. Dammers was encouraged to play a complex two-handed shuffle on the studio’s Hammond organ, whilst the drummer John Bradbury was coaxed into a less busy style of playing after Collins played him the Gregory Isaacs tune “What A Feeling” and bassist Horace Painter followed suit to make up the basis of the loping rhythm section. Further adornments were provided by chanted backing vocals, choral refrains and the haunting verses. For a band more used to live one take recordings this layered multi track approach was not what they were used to but despite this Collins was left at the end of three week recording sessions with enough material to work to produce a three track EP with.
Keen to use his front room studios in the same mode as King Tubby would use his studio i.e. as a self-contained unit to repurpose material, Collins took the raw multi track material back to his home studio in Tottenham and spent three weeks crafting a brilliantly pared down slice of eerie ska pop. Wind like sound effect embellishments came courtesy of the trusty kit built synth and Collins revisited the fade in rhythm trick as previously heard on the intro to ‘Lift Off’. A further two tracks were mixed down by Collins and were subsequently released as b-sides to “Ghost Town” which came out in June 1981 with the producer collecting the princely sum of £1500 for his work.
The proceeds from the work for the Specials seem to have galvanised the continued productivity of Collins and Local Records. More work with Romero Evans, initially a sweet syn-drum infused lovers tune entitled ‘I Need A Girl’ released on Epic that was released in the September of 1981. More work with Romero Evans followed, culminating in the “Première” LP of 1982 released on Local Records subsidiary label Special Request. A solid selection of straight ahead roots and lovers cuts with no dubs that perfectly showcase the rich and silky tones of Romero Evan’s voice.
The same year saw another release from Romero Evans on Epic with the mellifluous horns of ‘Miss Attractive’ giving perfect accompaniment to the romance focused singer. Also in the year was a single release from Jackie Denis on Special Request which was again straight lovers albeit with a distinct metallic thud to the drums courtesy of Collins rhythm box.
As 1982 became 1983 Collins did yet more work with Romero Evans. One for My Baby is yet more lovers, although this time the foot is lighter almost that of a 2-step soul record. The year also saw a brief sojourn on to Island Records where Collins produced a single for the Powell Family alongside legendary engineers Godwin Logie and Stephen Street. A vibrant piece of synthesised reggae with awesome rubbery bass ‘No Problem’ would foreshadow the work that Collins would put out the following year on Local Records.
Having sung the pitch perfect vocal to the genre defining lovers tune ‘Silly Games’ Janet Kay had a rich pedigree, and it’s to her credit that rather than sitting on her lovers laurels she choose to branch out. In 1984 she worked with Collins to break new ground for both parties on the truly sublime soulful boogie track ‘Eternally Grateful’. Providing the label with an effective move into the burgeoning dance market the track became a club hit and Local Records' biggest seller. Collins by now had been able to make new studio acquisitions and the synthbass, keyboards and Linn drum machine were sequenced with John's new BBC model B computer system. The material was recorded at Island Records' Fallout Shelter studio in Hammersmith and Mark Angelo's in Farringdon. Kay’s vocal performance is unmissable but Collins’ dub mix is a masterpiece and transforms the track in to a streamlined proto-house nugget, with lots of airtime for the neat sequenced bass and conga laced drum beats. One could picture this sitting next to a Colonel Abrahams or Steve Arrington record in Larry Levans’s record box at Paradise Garage; the track was reissued in 2018 and did something to correct it’s under appreciation.
More electro soul came in the same year this time courtesy of Jaye Williams ‘Let Me Be The One’, a rock solid synth bassline forms the basis for a rich electronic soul groove over which Williams intones passionately to her imaginary lover. A sax heavy instrumental version on the slip credited to Semi-Automatic is bit rich for my blood but is nonetheless a sterling alternative. Sold well in reggae shops like Hawkeye in Harlesden reflecting the growing market for dance/R&B records. Electro Street Soul featuring local actress and singer Jaye Williams. Sold well in reggae shops like Hawkeye in Harlesden reflecting the growing market for dance/R&B records.
Rick Clarke was the next singer to receive the Collins treatment with Clarke’s sensual soul vocals adorning the 11th release on Local Records as it entered it’s 6th year in operation. Despite being a UK production “Love With A Stranger” bares all the hallmarks of the great US boogie productions of the era but produced on a fraction of the budget available to the likes Pettibone, Kevorkian and Baker. Speaking in a bandcamp feature on Street Soul in 2019 Toyin Agbetu credits this feat of low budget-high quality that was a hallmark of mid 80s UK electronic soul productions as paving the way for the street soul movement that came after it.
“Many of the UK’s first underground soul records came from groups produced on small dance labels, like Elite Records who started with Atmosfear,” he says. “The UK street soul that followed was distinctly British — its sound emerged from bedroom studios in the mid-to-late ’80s, not from expensive productions on major record labels, but tracks recorded with minuscule budgets by independent, often artist-owned labels.”
The dub on the flip to my ears is the pick of the bunch with Collins sending the synths swirling around the mix with his characteristic panache. It’s also heartening to know that one of the UK’s best engineers Mark Lusardi is creditted as mix engineer.
In the same year as “Love with a stranger” Collins also produced a dynamite slice of dancehall for Chris Tummings. Sounding a lot like the Sly and Robbie style of riddims that were being released on Taxi Oh Girl is a vibrant rhythmic vehicle for Tummings to ride. As usual the dub is spectacular with the lead lines pushed to the fore and echoed in the exciting fashion to which Local listeners had become accustomed.
This release would sadly be the penultimate release for the label and 1987 saw the final curtain for the label, just one year shy of a decade old. Ending on a high was to be expected and a return from previous vocalist Janet Kay ensured it. Produced for a three part channel 4 documentary on the struggle for independence in Africa countries ‘No Easy Walk to Freedom’ was a magnificent blast of positivity soaked afro electro synth pop.
After Janet Kay’s swansong for the label I came up against a bit of an information gap in terms of the next steps that Collins took. I was aware, via his website, that following the last release on the label Collins had taken on work producing music for television and had also embarked on a Choral Dub project but I lacked a clear chronology. Thankfully John was very kind and answered my email asking for more information and part of his response is included below as it perfectly explains his journey in to TV music production.
"No Easy Walk To Freedom” (1987) was the theme tune to a C4 tv series that I was commissioned to write the music for. I had started doing tv music earlier in 1983 for “No Problem!” (C4). Victor Romero Evans was in this so I got an introduction into the tv world through him. C4 TV had just started and there were opportunities opening up for for independent music producers (with their own studio) like me. Highlights of my tv cv are:
No Problem! 11 episodes 1983 - !984
The Management 6 episodes 1988
Desmond’s 26 episodes 1989 - 1991
The Real McCoy 30 episodes 1991 - 1996
The Harry Hill Show 26 episodes 1997 - 2000
The Big Impression 31 episodes 2000 - 2004
Shane 7 episodes 2004
Extras 1 episode 2005
Parents Of The Band 6 episodes 2008 - 2009
Following a healthy 25 years producing music for film and television Collins decided to redirect his attention on a more experimentally inclined personal project called Choral Dub that was a fusion of renaissance choral music with his beloved dub reggae. Building a childhood fondness for choral music via attendance at mass and singing hymns at school it was perhaps inevaitable that Collins would seek to fuse the two seemingly incompatible bedfellows of delicate choral vocals and robust dub reggae riddims. An extract from Collin’s website explains the concept as “Blending choral works by Thomas Tallis, Antonio Lotti, William Byrd et al, performed by classically trained singers, with Collins' dub reggae arrangements and mixes. These seemingly disparate genres have surprisingly much in common. Together, each is shown in a new light” The Choral Dub project was exposed to the general public via performances in 2019 at St John's Buckhurst Hill, Waltham Abbey Church (where a young Thomas Tallis was organist) and St Mary's Walthamstow.
Butter proved to an unlikely source of yet another new chapter in Local Records history. In late 2019 Anchor Butter chose one of Collin’s tracks to soundtrack it's advert. Taken from his work on the Desmond’s Don’t Scratch My Soca with vocals by the show’s star Norman Beaton is a lively piece of soca replete with some short bursts of Collin’s characteristic electronic additions. It served as the theme tune for the popular and ground-breaking black sitcom in the 80s and was picked up by Anchor Butter for an advert that ran for 6 months seeking to showcase the vibrancy of fridge spreadable butter with a flamboyant advert matched to the vivid musical backing of Don’t Scratch My Soca.
Pleasingly Collins has made the decision to re-release some the Local Records back catalogue within recent years with Rick Clarke’s ‘Love with a Stranger” (2018), Janet Kaye “Eternally Grateful” (2018), Jaye Williams “Let Me Be The One” (2019) and Victor Romero Evans / The Detonators - “At The Club / Lift Off” (2022) all being reissued via Prime Direct Distribution and each release being well received amongst left-field club and radio DJs (one only has to check the NTS archives to see the heavy rotation that the above crop of Collin’s productions have received).
Whilst one can hear the experimental dub sensibilities of Collins reanimated within the works of modern day producers such as Tapes and Don Papa who work at the interstice between electronics, dub and club music it’s not particularly provable that Collins has been cited as an influence for modern producers. The slowly developing appreciation of Collins and his work within dub is perhaps never going to reach the levels that he so richly deserves. Following the success of Ghost Town Collins, the producer of a number one hit record, was for a brief period on the cusp of moving on to work with more chart acts. Malcolm McLaren contacted him and wanted Collins to work with his new wave band Bow Wow Wow. But upon meeting the record execs and telling them of his intentions to mix the bands material on his 8 channel front room setup he was met with an apathetic response. The Belle Stars came calling as well but Collins failed to see how his working methods could gel with the shiny pop sensibilities of the new band.
Ultimately this disjuncture with the world of pop and all of its trappings is indicative of Collins sticking to his own plan to be Tottenham’s answer to King Tubby. As with Tubby he has taken an inspiration in the creative freedom afforded by electronics and multitrack recording and taken it with him on a career defined by its diversity. From front room dub experiments to chart topping baroque ska through to buttery soca joy Collins has created a back catalogue worthy of deep appreciation.
Resources/Links
http://marcoonthebass.blogspot.com/2011/06/specials-ghost-town-is-30-years-old.html (An excellent in-depth look at Ghost Town that focuses on Collins’ role as producer. The author has Marc Wasserman has written a fascinating book on the history of ska and reggae in the US)
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-specials-ghost-town (Music production magazine Sound on Sound interviewed John in 2011 and received a very detailed insight into the production work that went in to the making of Ghost Town.)
https://www.localrecords.com/ (John’s own website is a goldmine of information produced by the man himself with pages breaking down the back catalgoue and a richly detailed account of the creation of Gangster by the Detonators which gives a fascinating explanation of how Collin’s kit built drum machine came in to use)
https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/nitetrax-9th-february-2021/ NTS DJ Nitetrax put together an amazing hour long show that pulled together a huge range of Collin’s work. Sadly the algorithms of Mixcloud have pulled the mix for licensing violations. I’ve put the link here just for posterity really. It’s worth noting that a sizeable chunk of the Local Record back catalogue is available on itunes and Spotify)
https://shows.acast.com/reel-feedback/episodes/60818e5132e09d77b6a02bda - Kevin Dawson, Collin’s nephew, interviews his Uncle and in this 80 minute interview covers a huge amount of ground and reveals
https://soundcloud.com/soundsdoable/john-collins-choral-dub-culture-file — Luke Clancy’s Culture File podcast interviews Collins on his choral dub project.
https://www.audiowavecafe.com/1974494/11504134 - A podcast from Ray Barrie within which Collins is interviewed and discusses his career including the dealings with Count Shelly referenced in the article