Observation Time

I recently bought an excellent new 2 CD compilation called "Dreadlocks Coming To Dinner". Released on the Doctor Bird label, a subsidiary of Cherry Red, it brings together 49 Niney The Observer productions from 1973 to 1975.

Niney was one of many great producers operating in Jamaica back in the golden age of the 1970s, when he emerged from an apprenticeship as an engineer for the likes of Joe Gibbs and Bunny 'Striker' Lee with the all time classic "Blood & Fire". He recorded and produced regularly well into the 1990s but for sustained superb sounds you can't beat his early period.

This compilation features his productions for the likes of Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson, Big Youth, Horace Andy, Ken Boothe and many more as well as Niney's own recordings. Here are a couple of tracks from Disc 1. If you behave nicely you might get some from Disc 2 next week.

"No Portion A Gal" - Sang Hugh

"Hail I" - Niney The Observer

Niney's birth name is Winston Holness. He is not related in any way to the former Countdown presenter and radio James Bond Bob Holness, but there is an unsubstantiated rumour that he played the sax on this 2023 MRV take on "Baker Street".