In the UK, Reggae music has always been associated with the urban jungle. Basslines booming from the council blocks in the toughest parts of the inner cities. Without exception Britain's most influential artists have come from the first generation of black youth to grow up in a hostile environment that made them hold tight to their Caribbean roots. When I met up with Nereus Joseph the echoes of this history were everywhere.

Nereus, along with Kenny Edgehill, owns Sirius Records and their studio is situated in an industrial, concrete, monolith of a tower block in Poplar, East London. Hidden away inside this brutalist high rise, the man who's been described as both the 'English Crown Prince' and the 'UK Cocoa Tea' is still producing timeless Reggae music. As he explained

"We ain't trying to do anything new because Reggae is Reggae already. We're not trying to change it, yank it, move it. We're paying homage to it, trying to re-create it. It's been going for longer than some other music that's dropped by the wayside and you don't hear about again. I'm just trying to keep it real, keep it authentic. I ain't trying to change Reggae, just trying to give you my rendition."

Songs like 'Rude Boy Town' and 'Jah Never Fail I' that Nereus recorded at Ruff Cutt in the nineties have recently been re-released and they still sound incredibly fresh.

"That's down to keeping the music authentic. Certain tune you play anytime. You can play Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown or Freddie MacGregor anytime. It doesn't matter from which era, it could be some of the earliest tunes to the latest. You still hear them year to year. That's how I try to make my music."

 

The time he spent at Ruff Cutt, recording the album 'Hope Faith & Love', had a big influence on how the Sirius Camp operates today.

" I worked with Ruff Cut and it was a big education because I saw how it ran for so many years, as a camp, with unity. We were fascinated by how Ruff Cutt studio sounded. So our studio is an exact duplicate of the one that Bubblers had in his house. In the days at Ruff Cutt, when you had stuff to do, they'd involve you in the recording. Sometimes I'd go in there to do a couple of tunes and I might have to balance the riddim myself. It meant that when I was running Sirius Records I was starting with some experience. Since then Ken has developed his engineering and song writing skills. We help each and every artist with their songwriting. We don't rent studio time and don't have any time limit on the works. We take our time and are very careful with the production. We have an atmosphere that we're very relaxed in and that's key to what we do, you know what I'm saying."

The relaxed atmosphere was much in evidence when I visited. With no paper or pen in sight, the vocal for a new song was recorded from scratch. Lyrics and melody were literally conjured out of the ganja smoke by Nereus and crew member King Jay. Kenny Edgehill's engineering was so in tune, you'd swear that he and Nereus were operating telepathically.

 

It was a poignant moment. I could hear one of UK Reggae's finest voices singing of how Rasta had been offering warnings for years and that no-one should be surprised now that the system was on its knees; and then look over my shoulder for an uninterrupted view of the Canary Wharf Tower, a nineteen eighties vision of unabated capitalism, looming large over the whole area. One week after this recording session, newspapers reported that the company that owns Canary Wharf could go bust, because the value of office space in the financial hub has tumbled.

The London Docklands Development will forever be regarded as a symbol of the struggles of the Thatcher era, when Britain de-industrialised, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. A time of mass unemployment and inner city uprising. Punk Rock may have stolen the headlines, but Reggae was the real music of the ghetto at that time. I asked Nereus how things had changed since then and his first response was to mention that he'd grown up during the time of the GLC. His point being that the Greater London Council, which the Thatcher Government scrapped in 1986, funded numerous community centres, youth clubs and local events. There were plenty of places to gain valuable experience as an artist. By the time he began his solo recording career he was already a seasoned performer; first on soundsystem and later with a band. When he started making records, Reggae was so popular in England that there was a little industry to support it. He joined up with the main players; Fashion.

"Fashion was the cream of the crop. Even if artists were recording for other labels they wanted to be on Fashion because it was the most promising label. They took care of your career. We had a booking agent, the 'A-Class Crew' and our own Fashion Band. It worked good. Chris Lane was the main engineer, but there was also Gussie P. Various musicians came through there. Aswad was the earliest session band that used to record live stuff. Then later on Sly & Robbie started coming, then Steelie & Cleevie. They were reaching for the best."

The eighties may have been a violent and turbulent time in the inner city, but it wasn't all about protest music. Lover's Rock was hugely popular and Nereus Joseph was one of it's most successful exponents.

"I was originally Roots. Before Fashion I was with the Coptic Roots Band, but I joined onto Fashion and they looked at the market as a record company. I grew up listening to Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott and Freddie MacGregor who sang love songs, so the influence was always there. It was part of my identity. I still record some love songs now. Some people say "right now tings get tough, we no have no time fe talk about Lover's side". Yes, tings are tough and we have to demonstrate how we feel, but Reggae music has always had both sides to it."

He recently performed at the Lovers Rock Showcase, a massive show that featured acts like Matumbi and Maxi Priest. Everybody who was invited to perform received an award in recognition of their part in the industry and its history. I can certainly remember when artists like Nereus, Peter Spence and Mike Anthony were regularly playing big shows in all the English cities with a Caribbean population, had songs at the top of the Reggae chart and did interviews on the radio and in the press. To me, he's a star. I understand that Reggae was making very little impression outside the West Indian areas at that time, but surely there must be something to be said for being a big fish in a small pool?

"That was the problem, the pool was too small! To survive, you have to think internationally. Reggae was bigger in Britain back then, but it's bigger now, worldwide. We had a little industry then, but it was only in England. British artists couldn't say that they were international. Back in the day if you wanted to listen to Reggae music on the radio you had to tune in to David Rodigan and Tony Williams. What you heard was what everybody was hearing. Everybody was in synch. if they said "big show a gwaan" everybody knew. The Jamaican artists that were coming here were also going to the United States and Japan, but the British artists weren't really doing that. Times are better now because we're available to the rest of the world. In those days we weren't reachable, the communication was very poor. For example I went for an audition at Fashion and they kinda liked me. They asked me to come back and do some dubplates to test the market. I thought "I don't want to do no dubplate", it's music I wanted to make. I left and didn't leave a phone number. So maybe a year or two later I went to check them about some tunes I'd done with Coptic Roots and they explained that they'd been searching all over the place looking for me all that time!"

 

The internet and Myspace have made it easier to find Nereus Joseph, but there haven't exactly been a lot of records to buy in recent years. 'Ole Vampire' on the Rads label has proved popular and is a signature tune for Jah Youth Soundsystem. The Sirius produced 'Fundimental' riddim has achieved exactly that timelessness that he's seeking, having been released three times over the years with different vocals and still sounding fresh today. But his solo career has only yielded five albums.

"For the past five years I've just been making stuff. It's mostly been albums. With Sirius Records we've done one Nereus Joseph album, an Afrikan Simba, an Empress Ayeola, a King Jay, a Wayne Lyrics and a Rasta Indian album. This stuff will be coming out as will a few singles that I've done with different producers."

Given his love of the classic Reggae sound, I wondered where singles like the recent 'Jah Guide I' fits in. It's the second vocal that he's recorded on a tough digital riddim from Conscious Sounds studio. What does he make of the UK Dub style?

"I love it just as much as I love sweet Reggae music, because Roots and Dub has always been part of what Reggae music is to me. When I grew up there was Shaka, Channel One and Jah Youth Sound. I had some Scientist Dub LPs when I was a likkle youth. I used to click on the treble when I started playing it in my bedroom and then I'd drop the bass in and my mother downstairs, who loved her Ken Boothe, could never understand why I would listen to music like that. At them time there, three version of 'Rice & Peas' was so much part of it to me. It was essential to me to play these tunes. I can see now that there's a younger generation on the Dub side, that's what gives them a vibe and I understand it."

A recent Sirius production had a very specific message for the youth. It was the hilarious single that Nereus recorded with Vivian Jones, 'Pull Up Your Trousers'. I asked him how it came about.

"We're two big man still you know, and as a big man you have to try to reach out. Vivian come with the idea, said he'd noticed that the youth had them trousers hanging down. So he had his part written and while we there in the studio I have to write something as a combination. Yeah man, the youth they really must think about this thing because it's a growing trend to have your trousers hanging down."

It contains the wonderful lines "don't try to run, you might tumble down" and "look like you did a doo-doo in your pants".

The crazy fashions of the younger generation, the ups and downs of the music business and the transformation of the East End have been going on around him but Nereus Joseph has stayed true. The classic Reggae of Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott and Freddie MacGregor that sustained him through his youth, is still his inspiration today. And he continues to record with the most successful British Record labels - watch out for the new single on Peckings, it's causing a real stir.

The day after we met 40,000 people marched through central London to kick off a week of protests aimed at the G20. They all walked behind a banner, as wide as the whole street. It said 'Capitalism Isn't Working'; a parody of the advertising campaign 'Labour isn't Working' which helped bring Thatcher to power all those years ago, starting the process that left us so exposed to corporate greed and created Canary Wharf.

Capitalism isn't working and everybody knows it now. Nereus Joseph has been working, through boom and bust. With hope, faith and love.

Guidance.

 

March 2009

 

Nereus Joseph Myspace: www.myspace.com/nereusjoseph