Tony Robinson/Prince Tony

Tony Robinson

There is something about Prince Tony and DJ’s. He was the first producer to place a DJ tune on a major label, Winston Scotland’s ‘Buttercup’ on the Philips label. How he ever connected with Philips must be a story in itself! Winston was just one of many DJ’s, who recorded for Tony during the early seventies. Dennis Alcapone, Dillinger, Prince Jazzbo, Carey and Lloyd and I.Roy, all recorded for Prince Tony’s ‘Groovemaster’ or ‘High School’ labels. He was recording singers as well: Jackie Brown, Keith Poppin, Gregory Isaacs and Barrington Spence. Barrington was probably the most successful of the singers, but none of them came close to his success with recording DJ’s. First it was Big Youth, ‘House Of Dreadlocks’, then ‘Mammy Hot Daddy Cold’ that led to the classic set ‘Dreadlocks Dread’, released on Klik in the UK. Then Tony got U.Roy signed to Virgin - and the release of the ‘Dread In A Babylon’ album took U.Roy all the way back to the top in fine style. And when he went into the Rockers era…