The Small Axe Codex

The Small Axe Codex - was started in 1991 - a Codex is a collection of papers. The idea was to try and create a timeline for reggae music. One of the first entries into this timeline was Count Shelly setting a sound system in 1954 in Swindon in England. Shelly had come to work in England - to work at the 'Singer' car factory in Swindon. The codex was created on the old Amstrad 8512 PCW machine - saving was becoming a problem on it - so to make sure nothing was lost - I began to print off everything - page by page - after a year or so - I had a box of papers - this kind of box contained 500 sheets of A4 paper. Each sheet had between 400-500 words - so I had created about 200,000 words. By then I had reached about 1967! Without no means of publishing anything that size - I decided to stop or pause. From time to time over the years the Codex was shown to visitors - sometime around 2008 - Joakim Kalcidis aka 'Mashfinger' asked me if I had any plans for any new books. Of course I mentioned the 'Codex' he showed a great interest in the concept. It was then that I discovered that the box was missing - after searching everywhere that I could for an entire week - I realised that the codex was never going to be seen again. Still the concept is a good one - and so here it is in a very edited form. All the major events that I feel shaped reggae music.

Karl Walker/Keith Walker - Event 2

The Skatalites - Event 3