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Errol Thompson, also known as Errol T or simply ET, was the most gifted and distinctive recording engineer in the history of Jamaican music. His contribution to the sound of reggae can never be overstated…
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| Date Added: Dec 17, 2013, Date Updated: Dec 26, 2013 Copyright (C) 2024 Dub Store Sound Inc. |
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The balance and clarity of Errol Thompson's recordings were an essential, but often overlooked, element in reggae's international breakthrough. Born 29th December 1948 one of Errol Thompson's earliest influences was a family member who was an electronics engineer and built amplifiers in Harbour View in Eastern Kingston. Although he was still attending Glenmore Road School Errol spent a lot of time at their home, which was also the headquarters of the El Don sound system, and where the foundations were laid for the career of Jamaica's foremost recording engineer...
Errol's first job was as apprentice engineer under Sylvan Morris at Studio One on Brentford Road and his first session produced a huge international hit... despite Mr Dodd(CS Dodd)'s protestations "you can't do those kind of tunes in my studio..." However, Errol manned the controls as Max Romeo voiced his infamous 'Wet Dream' for Bunny Striker Lee, much to Mr Dodd's disgust, and Striker "got the tune mixed and sent it up to England to Mr Palmer". The record, released on Pama's Unity subsidiary, spent twenty five weeks in the UK National Charts in 1969 but Errol had already moved on...
"ET used to work at Coxsone's too you know and the first tune he ever recorded was 'Wet Dream'... " Bunny Striker Lee
His next move was to the recently opened Randys Studio 17, situated above Randy's Record Store on North Parade, and everyone who was anyone in Kingston's musical arena now began recording upstairs at Randy's including Lee 'Scratch' Perry(Lee Perry) and Bob Marley & The Wailers.
"Well after Bill Garnett left to go to the States to work... we had to employ another engineer and we were scouting around...
What happened was that Errol came and saw the equipment and everything and said 'Let's just play around and ship around certain things... you know.' Then bam! The main thing, the most significant thing, that we got was the bass and the warmness of the drums. He had to do some modifications obviously and when he got that patterned I think the first recording that we did that proved that the sound was perfect was Lee 'Scratch' Perry recording Bob Marley & The Wailers: the first 'Soul Rebels' album and tracks like 'Soul Rebel', 'My Cup', 'Sun Is Shining'... every single track that was recorded there proved that we had the sound that people were hungry for..." Clive Chin
Errol's engineering innovations began to shape and form the early stirrings of dub and the switches on the Studio 17 board, as opposed to King Tubby's faders, gave his music a unique and totally individual sound. Errol and Clive Chin were always keen to experiment with new ideas and Randy's released one of the first ever dub albums: 'Java, Java, Java, Java' also known as 'Java Dub' on their Impact! label in 1973. Masterminded by Clive and mixed in ground breaking, trend setting fashion by Errol the album featured a highly amusing cut to Lloyd Parks' 'Ordinary Man' where Errol played the part of an established engineer (not too difficult by this stage!) and Eric 'Bingy Bunny' Lamont played the young hopeful who was willing to co-operate although he did not know how to operate... "listen everything now"..
"Hold on just a little...
Right now I man a go show you how fe operate...right?
Watch the bass now... you hear the bass how it sound round?
Just listen the bass... you see how it make the girl them wiggle their waist?
Alright?"
'Ordinary Version'
For the best part of six years it would be easier to list the hit records that he did not work on upstairs at Studio 17 for a prodigious number of productions were engineered and mixed by Errol T including Big Youth's 'Screaming Target' album, a milestone in reggae music first released in 1973, and Burning Spear's majestic 'Marcus Garvey' long player from two years later. Niney The Observer(Winston 'Niney' Holness) had first introduced Errol to Joe Gibbs(Joel Gibson) when Errol was working at Randy's "Gibbo you want engineer?" and Errol would often work on Joe's Studio 17 sessions. In 1975 their ready rapport developed into a full time working relationship when Errol left Randy's to work in Joe's new sixteen track studio on Retirement Crescent which "took reggae to another level through complex productions expertly mixed by ET". Clive Chin was understandably upset.
"If I could turn back the hands of time Errol would never leave Randy's. He was the innovative one. I felt like something left me when he left... an innovative producer. You see Errol is the history of certain music in the seventies...
Errol mixed a couple of dub albums for Mr Gibbs... the 'African Dub' series and they had a relationship going..." Clive Chin
Each successive chapter of 'African Dub' proved to be a vital catalyst in breaking dub music outside of the reggae audience and Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson, now known as 'The Mighty Two', were at the cutting edge of grass roots reggae's international breakthrough. They ran auditions searching for new talent and Joe would handle the ones with a more gimmicky feel while Errol T would deal with the more roots oriented artists. If Joe heard a conscious song "I would a say... boy you better make sure Mr T like it!" and many of their greatest hits, including Culture's 'Baldhead Bridge' and I Roy's blistering 'Sufferer's Psalm', were released on Errol's Errol T label.
Although his musical innovations were at the front of reggae's commercial thrust Errol had always preferred to stay in the background. "Errol T was instrumental in capturing and crafting the sound of recorded reggae as the style developed" and when Joe Gibbs' studio upgraded to twenty four tracks it became one of the most popular and in demand studios in Jamaica. But "a protracted lawsuit" over The Mighty Two's version of Charley Pride's 'Someone Loves You Honey' by JC Lodge "resulted in the closure of Gibbs' studio" and Errol Thompson took over the management of Joe Gibbs' Kingston supermarket where he remained, largely in the background, for the next twenty years. He died on 13th November 2004 after a series of strokes. |
| Dec 17, 2013 (Dec 26, 2013 Update) Text by Harry Hawks
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Various - Reggae Anthology: Socrchers From The Early Years (2CD) VP US |
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