Jamaican trailblazer Sonny Roberts ‘started it all’, says Chris Blackwell
Blue plaque for producer described as ‘the root of British reggae’
Published:Wednesday | August 2, 2023 | 12:15 PMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Sonny Roberts, a Jamaican who migrated to the United Kingdom in 1958, was last week Wednesday honoured by the Nubian Jak Community Trust, with a Blue Plaque in recognition as one of the most important pioneers of UK black music in Britain. The plaque was sponsored by Trojan Records.
Roberts’ widow, Monica, flew from Jamaica for the illustrious ceremony at 108 Cambridge Road in Kilburn, London, the site of Robert’s former studio, and right there with her were their daughters, Cleon, Jackie and Andrett, as well as a host of other relatives and well-wishers.
“The best moment for me was when the plaque was unveiled and to have my mother right here. She and my father met at the recording studio when she accompanied her niece there,” Cleon Roberts shared. “We are absolutely thrilled to bits by this honour for my father ... overjoyed. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Observer a few years ago ... and it would be wonderful if he were to be honoured by the Jamaican government.”
Roberts, popularly known as Sonny Orbitone, passed away two years ago. He was honoured on July 26, on what would have been his 91st birthday.
In paying tribute to him, Cleon stated, in part, “Your trailblazing work in music has woven themselves into the very fabric of mine and most people’s lives, inspiring generations to come, and carved a path for artistes and musicians. Your symphony of dedication, passion, strength and honesty continues to resonate, leaving an enduring legacy for all who listen.”
Roberts, originally a carpenter, established the first black-owned studio in the UK in 1961; and opened the first black-owned record company as well as the first black-owned record store, Orbitone, in the UK. Equally important in the pioneering journey of Sonny Roberts is the way in which he embraced his assignment as the catalyst in setting the music from Jamaica on a path to greatness. Island Records owner, Chris Blackwell, who met Roberts in 1958, has said that, “Sonny, quite simply, started it all.”
“His trailblazing work in music was down to the vision and his passion for various types of music was outstanding. Sonny was there from the beginning – the evolution of black music in the UK,” Blackwell, who introduced Bob Marley globally, stated.
Dr Jak Beula, CEO of the Nubian Jak Community Trust, said, “If you look at the roots of British reggae, all roads lead to Sonny Roberts. He was the acorn from which a giant oak tree would grow.”
Sonny Roberts’ amazing accomplishments is the stuff of which great books and movies are made. Three years after to sailing to London from Jamaica, he started putting down his musical roots by establishing his recording studio in Kilburn. His early recordings featured trombonist Rico Rodriquez, Mike Elliott, The Marvels, Robert ‘Dandy Livingstone’ Thompson, and Tito ‘Sugar’ Simone.
He introduced the Nkengas, a nine-piece band which he brought from Nigeria, and recorded Afrobeat. Cleon emphasised the importance of her father, an immigrant from Jamaica, producing the first Afrobeat band in the UK in 1971 and producing an album which enjoyed success in the UK and Nigeria, opening doors for him to produce for other African artistes. In 1987, he produced the Judy Boucher hit Can’t Be with You Tonight which reached number two in the UK British Charts. He also distributed and produced iconic soca hits such as Sweet Sugar Bum Bum and Hot Hot Hot, as well as Too Young To Soca, by Machel Montano.
Cleon, who used to assist her father in the record store on weekends, said that she always knew that her father was a pioneer, “but not to that magnitude”. She shared that it was her father who introduced Chris Blackwell to Lee Gopthal, and the two eventually formed Trojan Records.
“My father met Chris Blackwell when he did some carpentry work for him. Blackwell was up against racism because he had a lot of black musicians coming to his place and so the landlord asked him to leave. He asked my father, who had rented the basement in the building owned by Lee Gopthal’s father, if he knew of anywhere. He brought Chris to the building and he got a space to rent,” Cleon shared.
Bob Bell of Island Records, in writing about the Blackwell/Gopthal musical union, made it crystal clear that it was Sonny Roberts who was the matchmaker.
“Sonny’s role in putting Chris Blackwell, David Betteridge and Lee Gopthal together was beyond propitious … the reverberations continue today, nearly 60 years hence. All conjecture and speculation aside, it is an incontrovertible fact that had Sonny not affected these introductions, Trojan Records would not have come into existence,” Bell wrote.
In the late ‘90s, Roberts and his wife returned to Jamaica and remained there until his passing in 2021.