The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond

by Chris Blackwell, Paul Morley (Editor)

Overview

In the vein of Sound Man and The Soundtrack of My Life, a lyrical memoir from the founder of one of the greatest music labels of all time, Island Records, about his astonishing life and career helping to bring reggae music to the world stage and working with Bob Marley, U2, Grace Jones, Cat Stevens, and many other icons.

Since its founding in 1959, Island Records has been home to legendary artists representing wildly divergent musical styles, yet who share the same maverick, outsider spirit of its founder, Chris Blackwell. Time and again, Blackwell and his Island cohorts identified and nurtured musicians overlooked by other labels, including Bob Marley, U2, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, Roxy Music, Traffic, Nick Drake, Tom Waits, Robert Palmer, Free, the B-52’s, John Martyn, and Jimmy Cliff.

Like these artists, Blackwell never took the conventional route. After a privileged early childhood in Jamaica—crossing paths with Ian Fleming, Noël Coward, and Errol Flynn—he was expelled from the elite British school Harrow for rebellious behavior at age seventeen. Within five years, he had moved back to Jamaica, and founded Island.

Intertwined with the story of Island is that of Bob Marley and the Wailers. After an impromptu meeting with the band in 1972, Blackwell produced the groundbreaking album Catch a Fire, formed a deep bond of mutual trust and friendship with Marley, and became known for helping to bring reggae music to the world stage. He also opened the first Jamaican boutique hotel, on the property of Ian Fleming’s former home, GoldenEye, where all the James Bond books were written.

This engaging memoir from one of the great raconteurs of the late 20th century makes for a giddy ride through some of that era’s most cutting-edge, enduring music. As Bono says, Blackwell “is an adventurer, an entrepreneur, a buccaneer, a visionary, and a gentleman.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982172701
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	02/07/2023
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	200,355
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Chris Blackwell is the founder of Island Records, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and is credited with being responsible for turning the world on to reggae music. Blackwell spent his childhood in Jamaica and founded Island Records at the age of twenty-two. He went on to forge the careers of Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, and U2, among many other high-profile acts, and produced records including Marley’s Catch a Fire and Uprising. Blackwell currently runs Island Outpost, a group of elite resorts in Jamaica, which includes Goldeneye—the former home of author Ian Fleming.

Paul Morley is a writer, broadcaster, and cultural critic who has covered music, art, and entertainment since the 1970s. A founding member of the electronic collective Art of Noise and a member of staff at the Royal Academy of Music, he is the author of a number of books about music including the bestselling The Age of Bowie and A Sound Mind: How I Fell in Love with Classical Music and Decided to Rewrite its Entire History. He collaborated with music icon Grace Jones on her memoir, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs, and his two most recent books are biographies of Bob Dylan, You Lose Yourself, You Reappear, and Tony Wilson of Factory Records, From Manchester With Love.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Nearly the End … ix

Chapter 1 School versus Errol Flynn 1

Chapter 2 The Fifties, Jamaica: Finding a Purpose 15

Chapter 3 The Sixties, London: Making Contact 50

Chapter 4 Hits, Misses, and the Human Host 79

Chapter 5 Folk: New Allies and New Sounds 116

Chapter 6 Meeting Cat Stevens 145

Chapter 7 Meeting Bob Marley 156

Chapter 8 Voices, Visionaries, and Videos 182

Chapter 9 The Seventies: St. Peters Square, Hammersmith 200

Chapter 10 The Eighties: Compass Point, the Bahamas 216

Chapter 11 Timing: Grace Jones and the All Stars 234

Chapter 12 Meeting U2 267

Chapter 13 The Nineties: Shirting Ground 279

Chapter 14 Moving On: For the Love of Jamaica 299

Epilogue: Whatever Next … 313

Acknowledgments 321

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

04/25/2022

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Blackwell, founder of Island Records, delivers a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of his consequential career as a record producer. Following his family’s move from England to Jamaica in 1938, less than a year after he was born, Blackwell lived a comfortable, cloistered life. That changed when, at age 18, he and two friends took a boating trip that left them stranded on an unfamiliar stretch of shore; eventually they were rescued by a community of Rastafarians. As the impresario observes, his encounter with people he’d been taught by “white Jamaican society” to regard as a threatening “gang” was life-changing; most significantly, it planted a seed within Blackwell that ultimately led him to partner with “Rastafarianism’s most celebrated... ambassador, Bob Marley.” His career began humbly in the late 1950s, as a selector, responsible for picking out songs for jukeboxes around Kingston to play, and eventually led him to start his own label, Island Records, in 1959. Throughout, Blackwell provides engrossing details of his road to success—including discovering such famed musicians as Bono and Cat Stevens—but most impressive is his refreshing self-awareness; as he writes, “There’s no two ways about it: I am a member of the Lucky Sperm Club. I was born into wealth and position.” Music lovers shouldn’t miss this. (June)

Publishers Weekly

I read Chris Blackwell’s autobiography in one sitting, unable to tear myself away. From ‘My Boy Lollipop’ and Bob Marley, via Swinging London and punk, and all the way to Talking Heads and U2, I felt like I was reading the inside story of the music of my life.”
—Salman Rushdie, author of New York Times bestseller Quichotte

“C.B. had this way of throwing me in the deep end knowing that I would thrive on being challenged. As you’ll read in The Islander he knows how to get the very best out of people – he’s a mover and a shaker and a mischief maker.”
—Grace Jones, author of New York Times bestseller I’ll Never Write My Memoirs

“As you’re about to find out through the pages in this book, Chris Blackwell – who looms large in U2's life, and was our lifeline into the music world – is an adventurer, an entrepreneur, a buccaneer, a visionary, and a gentleman. I’m proud to know him.”
—Bono

“[Blackwell] is indisputably one of the greatest record executives in history. If you’re even a minor fan of music books, stop reading this article and buy his autobiography, The Islander, which was written (beautifully) with Paul Morley — seriously, it’s on the level of Elton John’s Me and Patti Smith’s Just Kids for all-time great music memoirs.”
—Variety

"A highly entertaining, rapid-fire, hard-to-put-down memoir. The record producer/label founder/hotelier/film producer takes us on a rip-roaring ride through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the most exciting years in popular music... The Islander is 320 pages long. I could have read 320 more."
—Air Mail

“The Islander, among its many pleasure, doubles as a firsthand history of the development of Jamaican music . . . [and] offers a vivid series of John Aubrey-esque ‘Brief Lives’ of Mr. Blackwell’s most notable artists . . . Mr. Blackwell’s sympathy for his subjects reveals unspoken truths we feel we might easily have intuited if only we’d listened to the music hard enough . . . I have never read anything better on Tom Waits, let alone in so few words . . . Best of all, one is always sent scurrying back to the music.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“A superior story from start to finish, The Islander permits access to a remarkable world, but without any self-aggrandizing razzmatazz . . . to the credit of Blackwell’s collaborator, the veteran journalist Paul Morley, [this] story is told with a disciplined coherence that plunges deep beneath the surface.”
—The Telegraph

“A thoroughly quotable autobiography . . . a book that’s hard to put down.”
—Mojo

“This compelling autobiography charts the rise of the Island Records founder who became as much of a legend as the acts he championed . . . Blackwell helped revolutionize popular music, his label becoming a byword for uncompromised artistry and era-shaping acts . . . His story, warmly told with an unobtrusive ghost writer, is unique in popular music, its hero being not Blackwell but Jamaica itself.”
—The Guardian Book Review

“Fascinating.”
—8/10, Uncut

“A rip-roaring yarn, the ultimate behind the scenes insider look at the coolest label ever on the planet.”
—The Quietus

“[Blackwell] candidly details both his hits and his misses in a highly readable new memoir. The dizzying list of stars it covers spans oceans, genres and eras, including Bob Marley, U2, Cat Stevens, Robert Palmer and Steve Winwood, who was, for years, the label’s MVP. A deeper look at his catalogue shows an uncanny knack for promoting some of Britain’s boldest acts, like King Crimson, Free, Mott the Hoople, Fairport Convention and Roxy Music, as well some of its most sensitive, like Sandy Denny, Nick Drake and John Martyn. Then there are those Island artists who cannot be classified in any way, like Grace Jones, John Cale, Marianne Faithfull and Eno.”
—The Guardian

“Fascinating autobiography of the Island Records founder. The Islander is a treasure.”
—Prog

“A memoir of a singular music mogul, his record label, and an era before rock became so corporate ... Before music even enters the story, he recalls being punched by Errol Flynn and hanging out with Ian Fleming ... Blackwell chronicles how he straddled the cultures of London and Jamaica and how an indifferent student with few career prospects learned the music business from the ground up ... Highly recommended.”
—Kirkus, starred review

“Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Blackwell, founder of Island Records, delivers a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of his consequential career as a record producer . . . Throughout, Blackwell provides engrossing details of his road to success—including discovering such famed musicians as Bono and Cat Stevens—but most impressive is his refreshing self-awareness; as he writes, ‘There’s no two ways about it: I am a member of the Lucky Sperm Club. I was born into wealth and position.’ Music lovers shouldn’t miss this.”
—Publisher’s Weekly

"This is an indispensable read that transcends any music, rock, or entertainment world memoir."
—Something Else Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2022

Readers will know they're in for a rollicking, fun, and vertigo-inducing wild ride of a memoir when by page seven, the author at age eighteen is getting punched out by Errol Flynn for attempting to steal one of his girlfriends. So begins octogenarian Blackwell's long awaited life story. Founder of seminal record label Island Records, he signed Bob Marley, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, Traffic, Roxy Music, Sparks, the B-52s, U2, and numerous other celebrated recording artists. Blackwell is also widely regarded as the primary catalyst for introducing reggae music to a world audience. "Rhythm to me was always king, and in reggae it is at the front of everything," he writes. Blackwell wends his way chronologically through his colorful story devoting separate decade chapters from the fifties through the nineties. Impresario and raconteur that he is, the cornucopia of stories and anecdotes of rock stars in the popular music firmament is an embarrassment of riches that alone is worth the price of admission. Of special note is the extended story of his transformational relationship with Bob Marley and the Wailers. VERDICT An obligatory purchase for all self-respecting rock and pop culture collections.—Barry X. Miller

Library Journal

★ 2022-03-29
A memoir of a singular music mogul, his record label, and an era before rock became so corporate.

Early on, Blackwell identifies himself as “a member of the Lucky Sperm Club,” hailing from a mixed aristocratic bloodline reflective of his native Jamaica. Before music even enters the story, he recalls being punched by Errol Flynn and hanging out with Ian Fleming. Both had eyes for the author’s mother (Fleming modeled Pussy Galore on her), and both were partly responsible for popularizing the romantic notion of Jamaica as a unique tourist destination—as would Blackwell and his Island Records via their promotion of reggae music, especially Bob Marley and the Wailers. Writing with Morley, Blackwell chronicles how he straddled the cultures of London and Jamaica and how an indifferent student with few career prospects learned the music business from the ground up—stocking jukeboxes, paying close attention to what was drawing the crowds on Jamaican sound systems, and then delving into the process of recording, producing, and releasing music on his own label. He took his passion for Jamaican music back to England, where the breakthrough R&B/ska hit by teenager Millie Small, “My Boy Lollipop,” helped establish Blackwell as someone who could help emerging talent. The author went on to champion a young Steve Winwood and, later, U2. Though not a musician or studio technician, Blackwell showed a knack for putting people together in settings where magic might happen—and then recognizing it when it did. A wide variety of artists flourished at Island—from Tom Waits to Marianne Faithfull, Robert Palmer to Grace Jones—and Blackwell continued to demonstrate his originality in an increasingly stale industry. Yet Island was caught in the middle—too big to be a true indie, not big enough to compete with the majors—and Blackwell became a casualty of corporate consolidation.

Living well is the best revenge, and the author has lived very well indeed. Highly recommended.

Kirkus Reviews