Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937)[1] is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records,[2] which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". If you match agriculture with tourism, youre going with Jamaicas biggest assets, he says. . He trails off. Sean Connery remains his favorite Bond, though he loved the recent Casino Royale. Blackwell waves, and the man peppers him with questions in patois thats incomprehensible to me. In 1959 he started recording Jamaican music and soon enough landed his first hit, Boogie in my Bones/Little Sheila, performed by Laurel Aitken. See FameChain's massive Trump family tree. A group of the fishermen, all black Jamaican men, stare at us warily. Blackwells uncle sold the land to Coward. Island Outpost also owned The Tides and The Marlin in Miami Beach, Florida. Blackwell also pioneered reggae to wider audiences the UK and the US beginning in the mid 70's with releases from Burning Spear, Augustus Pablo, Inner Circle, Dillinger, Black Uhuru, Third World, Aswad, Max Romeo, Justin Hines, Sly and Robbie and Lee Perry. At one point, he fondly recalls trekking through Africa with her, seeking out interesting fabrics for her Manhattan home-furnishing store, Royal Hut. 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He spends his days jetting between New York and London and Jamaica, and he still has a toe in the music business a new Jamaican artist hes working with called Chronixx, a friend of Saulters brothers and his own brand of rum, a business his eldest son, 20-year-old Chris Jr., helps to run. As a visionary label exec, he signed and brilliantly marketed acts like Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru, Third World, Gregory Isaacs, Junior Murvin, Sly & Robbie, Lee Scratch Perry, and, most fatefully, a young singer-songwriter named Robert Nesta Marley. He turned against his Catholic school after he asked a teacher if his dog could accompany him to heaven and was informed that dogs did not possess immortal souls. Chris wasnt around, but hed asked his mother to look after the newlyweds. Despite the difference in their ages, Blackwell and Saulter seem very much like equal partners. She was descended from Sephardic Jews who fled Portugal during the Inquisition, arriving in Jamaica around i680 to grow wealthy as merchants. And she responded by telling this story: One night when Christopher was a child, she heard a horrible scream coming from his bedroom. Chris Blackwell's siblings: There were times when somebody came out with a cover which was actually better than the record itself, so I'd have to send them back to remake the record. Blackwell had long believed that the right reggae act, marketed like a black rock band to young audiences in England and the U.S., could be massive. They had some years, but not enough. He understood the music better than most people in the business, and he knew how to market it. Bob (Bob Marley) came to me, figure it was me, Gladdy, Winston Wright, Jackie and Hux to be the band. Without that early model of Come to Jamaica; youll be perfectly safe because we look after you, there wouldnt have been any tourism, so I dont put that down. She was 49. Chris Blackwell's wife was Mary Vinson Blackwell. It was an incredible thing to see. In the wake of his friends passing, Blackwell admits, it was hard to get excited about the record business, because for me, it was such a high to have worked with him, to have seen him become so big internationally., What did it take, I ask, for you to recover your passion about the music business? It took five seconds. By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and that you have read our Privacy Policy. Take it out!, Around this time, Blackwell dabbled in the movie business, thanks to his mothers old friend Fleming, who got him a job as a location scout on the first Bond film, Dr. No, which was being shot in Jamaica. Ideally, a lasting impact, not just a quick flash. Frustratingly true.. After Foot was transferred to Cyprus, Blackwell left King's House to pursue a career in real estate and other businesses, including managing jukeboxes across the country, which brought him into contact with the Jamaican music community. By 1962, Island had already released 26 singles as well as two albums. "I like to think of Island as a very classy delicatessen. I just like building things, making things, causing things to happen and chasing ideas Im excited about. Considered in that context, Blackwells obsessive-seeming daily routine makes more sense. Some of the criticisms about him may be justified, some may be unjustified, but I think hes done Jamaica a great service, and he should be respected for that., When Marley became seriously ill with cancer, Blackwell visited him a few times in Germany, where he was receiving treatment. Mango introduced Salif Keita, Baaba Maal, Gibson Brothers, Anglique Kidjo, King Sunny Ad and many others. It had nothing to do with charts or sales figures, he once said. TV Series documentary executive producer - 1 episode, Henchman jumping off dock into water (uncredited), Video Game musician: bass / musician: drums, music: "Midnight Lady", "Big Jig" - uncredited, TV Series documentary special thanks - 1 episode, The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry, Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Nightclub, Africa Unite: A Celebration of Bob Marley's 60th Birthday, An Evening with Harry Belafonte & Friends, TV Movie thanks: for their enthusiasm, friendship and support, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, Keep on Running: 50 Years of Island Records, Roots of Reggae: The Ernest Ranglin Story, Classic Albums: Bob Marley & the Wailers - Catch a Fire, Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media. [3], In 1958, Blackwell was sailing off Hellshire Beach when his boat ran aground on a coral reef. He loves living near the ocean and still swims and jet-skis regularly. US based Meghan and Harry.. FameChain has their amazing trees. Chris Blackwell Mary Vinson Blackwell Bio Details Full name Mary Blackwell Maiden name Mary Vinson Gender Female Birth place Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA Date of death: 8 Nov 2004 Place of death New York City New York, USA Mary Blackwell Died 8 Nov 2004 Start a FameChain Mary Vinson Blackwell Partner (s) Other Children Vinson is an apparel and home-furnishings designer; Blackwell is the man who first recorded Bob Marley and who, since the mid-1960's, has been a fervent promoter of world music. Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love. . Eventually we pile into several vehicles for a drive up to Firefly, Nol Cowards old house, now owned by Blackwell, whose mother was also a friend of Cowards. (Blackwell also has a 46-year-old daughter, both products of different romantic dalliances. Anyone have a match? No one has a match. From the back, Chance shouts a question at hisfather, who doesnt hear him. That was the band that Bob did really want, but those guys didn't want to get involved. Nothing, Blackwell says softly, ages one faster than pain., For all his inscrutability and sangfroid, Blackwell, at heart, remains what used to be called an aesthete: a man of wealth and taste, with the emphasis on taste. designer Mary Vinson. With Chris, it was like royalty had come to town, like Jesus had come over the hill, he says. Take it out! Blackwell attempted to broaden Cliffs reach with The Harder They Come, a blaxploitation film with a Caribbean twist starring the singer as a musician turned criminal trying to get by in the mean streets of Kingston. [25] Blackwell developed the property into a community of villas and beach cottages, each with its own private access to the sea, and Goldeneye is considered the most exclusive of the Island Outpost resorts.[7]. The streets were lined all the way along, Blackwell says. Chris Blackwell formed Island Records in 1958, when he was in his early twenties. Thanks to his contribution to music, he was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. In 1961, Blackwell worked in the James Bond film Dr No, as a location scout and production assistant. Space-X continues to reach for the stars. Your email address will not be published. Collapsing on the beach, Blackwell was rescued by Rasta fishermen who tended his wounds and restored him to health with traditional Ital food. He first was married to Ada Blackwell until their divorce in the mid-1990s. The success of these bands and musicians increased Blackwells net worth by a large margin. Blackwell smiles and says, No, hes been turning me onto dubstep. Its ridiculous and only grudgingly conceded to the demands of luxury tourism by installing units in the guest lodging. 1 Rip-Off Man. Sample lyric: Helped you to build your empire, but you turned out a dirty old liar. (Theyve since made up.) As the beautiful images fade from one to the next, Marleys voice repeats the chorus in sharp, taunting counterpoint: Time alone, time will tell / Think youre in heaven / But youre living in hell. Or so he insists. Me and my friend are coming, so no smoking weed in this car! he tells his father. See the Elon Musk family tree here at FameChain. One night, the singer found himself sitting with Blanche Blackwell. He speaks in a low-toned, aristocratic mumble, the voice of a man who should be narrating a book on tape by P.G. He was later married to Mary Vinson from 1998 to her death in 2009. The latter, Blackwells girlfriend, Joanna Saulter, used to work at the Marlin, one of Blackwells Miami hotels, but she grew up in Negril in the 1970s with her hippie parents. Backed by Stanley Borden from RKO, Blackwell's business and reach grew substantially, and he went on to forge the careers of Bob Marley, Grace Jones and U2 among many other diverse high-profile acts. His mother was a Costa Rican-born Jamaican heiress. We kept on meeting and he (Blackwell) decided that the backing band that back all of the songs, the recording band, should be the Maytals band And then we hit the road in 1975we were the opening act for the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and Jackson Browne. Since it was difficult for him to choose between music and films, he went to a psychic, who told him that he would find success if he chose music. The cause of death was multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cell, according to her husband, NEW YORK Mary Vinson, a designer of apparel and home goods who was also an owner of the Island Trading Co. store, died Nov. 8. As we stroll along a path, two kids dash past us. Wodehouse. In 2003, Blackwell launched the Goldeneye Film Festival, which ran for three years. [3] The family moved to Jamaica soon after his birth where his father became a major in the Jamaica Regiment. He received a startup investment of $10,000 from his parents for this purpose. Bono and his wife, Ali, spent their honeymoon at Goldeneye in 1982, a gift from Blackwell at a time when the fledgling band was still deeply in debt to Island. You know that the situation around Bob was pretty hecticThey turned it down. . At this, the crowd begins to laugh. (Waits told Billboard that in subsequent years, Blackwell never ceased to remind him that one of the songs ended on a sour note . The business took its name from Alec Waugh's novel Island in the Sun. and found a little girl selling bootleg Marley CDs. Well, he says, slowly, I think Id like to feel that Ive made an impact. In New York in 1960, he met Miles Davis through mutual friends and ended up spending three months with him, going to shows and soaking up the music of a band that also included John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. All this stuff is one of the reasons people are getting cancer. Millie was only 15, with a distinctive, high-pitched singing voice. The UK's supply crisis puts extra pressure on Prime Minister Boris. Its a quick fix.. When Hugh Malcolm joined the group, he couldn't keep up, so they got rid of him. [7], Blackwell revisited his family's legacy in Jamaica's banana, coconut, and rum export industries in 2009, when, at the age of 72 years, he introduced his own brand of rum, "Blackwell Black Gold", onto the market. Beyond reggae, Island continued to work with some of the most interesting artists of the Seventies and early Eighties, including Richard and Linda Thompson, Brian Eno, Marianne Faithfull, and John Cale. Its a hot day, and as we tour a shadeless section of the property, Blackwell wraps an extra T-shirt around his head like a turban. I was about to arrest you for trespassing! It turns out to be Marco Fila, the Italian sneaker heir, who owns 50 acres on a nearby hilltop formerly owned by Blanche Blackwell. 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For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube! After selling these companies, Blackwell went on to found Palm Pictures, a media entertainment company with music, film and DVD releases. With this seed money, he began traveling. In 1958 during one of his boat trips, his boat got stuck on a coral reef, and Chris swam back to the shore to find help. Chris Blackwell Net Worth. Millie put me on the map, Blackwell says. ), age 13 (bef.) In a fit of pique, Blackwell left Island and started Palm Pictures, a film and music production company that was meant to further this fusion of the two mediums; it would become the biggest business failing of Blackwells career. Chris Blackwell, the 76-year-old founder of Island Records, did more than almost anyone to transform reggae from a niche, fairly provincial music into a full-fledged international pop genre. 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