Calypsos, Boogies, Rockers, Ballads & Bluebeat: The Rise of Black Music in Britain

There has been a surge of interest over recent years in the roots of black music in Britain. The London is the Place for Me series (on Honest Jon’s) has led the way in showcasing the best examples of how British black music flowered after the Windrush docked at Tilbury in 1948. But this two-disc, 64-track collection is far less selective and offers a mostly depressing picture of a Tin Pan Alley world in which any hint of originality was systematically crushed out of black performers in order not to disturb the smug complacency of lace-curtained 1950s white Britain. So we get Danny Williams impersonating his white American namesake Andy on ‘Moon River’, Shirley Bassey’s bizarre ‘Kiss Me Honey Honey Kiss Me’ and the St Lucia-born Emile Ford sounding like a parody of Cliff Richard on ‘Slow Boat to China.’ Lost gems? Well there’s some authentic and original calypso from The Mighty Terror (whose lustful ditty about wanting to be arrested by every British policewoman he sees is a risqué delight) and some pioneering Anglo-Jamaican bluebeat from Laurel Aitken and Girl Satchmo. But the rest is depressingly deracinated stuff.