My mother, Blanche Lindo, as a young woman in Jamaica in the 1930s. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
My father, Joseph Blackwell, at Kingston Racecourse, Jamaica, 1930s. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
My mother with Ian Fleming, by the sea in Jamaica, which they both loved. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
Errol Flynn showing me how to live the life. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
Noël Coward at his hideaway home in Jamaica on the Firefly Estate above Port Maria, which he bought from my mother. NOëL COWARD ARCHIVE
1950s Kingston. LENNOX SMILLIE/CAMERA PRESS LONDON
Ernest Ranglin, the guitar godfather, mid-1950s. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
It all started here. From 1959, the first Island Records release, the first record I produced, recorded at Ken Khouri’s Federal Studios in Kingston. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
One of my earliest productions, by ska pioneer Laurel Aitken, released on R&B, an early version of Island. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
A Jamaican jukebox needing new music to keep people moving in the 1950s. WAYNE TIPPETTS
Chinese-Jamaican businessman Leslie Kong of Beverly’s—part of a strong Chinese influence on Jamaican music, an early investor in Island, and the first to record Bob Marley, in 1962. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
On the set of Dr. No with Ursula Andress and Sean Connery in Jamaica 1962. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
My mother with the original and best James Bond, Sean Connery, and Noël Coward, who certainly didn’t want to be Dr. No. NOEL COWARD ARCHIVE
My first hit with the wonderful Millie, released in May 1964, the record that changed her life and mine. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
The parental permission I needed at the time to make great pop music. So important to me I ended up keeping the letter and even pinning it on my bedroom wall. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
The great Guy Stevens (mod-era) of The Scene, Sue, and Island, surrounded by the most important things in his life. GERED MANKOWITZ
At work in the studio, central London, May 1966. EXPRESS/HULTON ARCHIVE VIA GETTY IMAGES
The first pink Island label design with eyeball, launched in 1967 for John Martyn’s London Conversation album. ISLAND RECORDS
Island Studios, Basing Street, Notting Hill, London, mid 1970s, with the Island mobile recording studio parked outside. ADRIAN BOOT/WWW.URBANIMAGE.TV
Dressed up for a press photo, mid-1970s. ISLAND RECORDS
One of Island’s greatest debut albums, released, quietly, on July 3, 1969. ISLAND RECORDS
The second Cat Stevens album for Island, released November 23, 1970, making him a pop star all over again. ISLAND RECORDS
Free’s third album, released June 26, 1970, featuring “All Right Now” with one of rock’s greatest riffs. ISLAND RECORDS
When albums were albums: Tony Wright’s original six-sided 2D artwork for Traffic’s fifth album released in November 1971, turning an album sleeve into a three-dimensional room. ISLAND RECORDS
The first Roxy Music album, released on June 16, 1972—once I’d seen and loved the cover. ISLAND RECORDS
I was a producer of Jamaica’s first ever feature-length film. It put reggae on the international map in 1972, as something more than music. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
Lee “Scratch” Perry at the center of the universe, Ark Studios in Kingston, mid-1970s. He passed the Wailers sound onto me. ADRIAN BOOT/WWW.URBANIMAGE.TV
In 1990 with The Harder They Come director Perry Henzell, Toots Hibbert, and the film’s star, Jimmy Cliff. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
John Martyn’s fourth Island album, released in February 1973, with the beautiful title track circling the beautiful spirit of Nick Drake. ISLAND RECORDS
The original sleeve for the Wailers first Island album, released April 13, 1973, worked like a Zippo lighter, opening at the side to reveal the record. ISLAND RECORDS
Reggae was the funkiest, so we made sure “Funky” went before Kingston for the title of this collection of early Maytals singles, released in March 1975. ISLAND RECORDS
It was almost bought by Bob Marley, but I ended up owning and loving, to this day, Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
Being inspired in the 1970s by Ahmet Ertegun, the Record Man, cofounder of Atlantic Records, and one of my heroes. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
A favorite of many: Compass Point Studios, founded in 1977, ten miles west of Nassau capital of the Bahamas. ADRIAN BOOT/WWW.URBANIMAGE.TV
Compass Point—part state-of-the-art recording facility, part artist retreat, part island paradise. COOKIE KINKEAD/ISLAND OUTPOST IMAGES
At the Compass Point Studio 1 desk in 1981 with engineer Steven Stanley (right). ADRIAN BOOT/WWW.URBANIMAGE.TV
The mighty Black Uhuru, ready for action. Featuring Sly and Robbie on, naturally, drums and bass—the timeless rhythm of Compass Point. ADRIAN BOOT/WWW.URBANIMAGE.TV
A rare picture of me with Bob Marley, along with Junior Marvin of the Wailers and Jacob Miller of Inner Circle. NATHALIE DELON
At Bob Marley’s last London show at the Crystal Palace Bowl, June 7, 1980, the day I first met U2. MURPHY/HERSHMAN/FIFTY-SIX HOPE ROAD MUSIC LTD.
The mysteriously graceful essence of the Compass Point Studios sound was captured on the second Grace Jones album we made there, released April 29, 1981. ISLAND RECORDS
Tom Tom Club’s debut album, released October 1981—the rhythm section as artists, coming to play at Compass Point. ISLAND RECORDS
The first worldwide release for King Sunny Ade in 1982, when he seemed destined to win western hearts as the next Third World superstar after Bob Marley. ISLAND RECORDS
Tom Waits’s magical first Island album, released in August 1983. It had become our job to release albums like this when it seemed no one else was going to. ISLAND RECORDS
Promoting go-go, the “lost hip-hop,” in 1985. Sometimes we were right even when it all went wrong. ISLAND RECORDS
The first U2 album to reach number one in America, three weeks after it was released on March 9, 1987. ISLAND RECORDS
Me in the moment with Bono at the London launch party for U2’s Achtung Baby in 1991. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
Baaba Maal’s third solo album, where the third world meets the first world, released on Island’s Mango subsidiary in 1992. ISLAND RECORDS
In Miami in the early 1990s, planning a new hotel. COOKIE KINKEAD/ISLAND OUTPOST IMAGES
Before: South Beach Miami in a state of decline in the late 1980s. ISLAND TRADING ARCHIVE
After: South Beach Miami, once I had helped return the great art deco hotels like the Marlin and Tides to their former glory. COOKIE KINKEAD/ISLAND OUTPOST IMAGES
My wife, Mary Vinson (middle), gathering material and ideas in West Africa in the early 1990s. ADRIAN BOOT/WWW.URBANIMAGE.TV
At home in March 2021 with two of my favorite things; my own rum and a backgammon set. DAVID YELLEN
The island rhythm of GoldenEye. ADRIAN BOOT/WWW.URBANIMAGE.TV