Step Forward Youth

“The marriage of reggae and punk rock,” said Dave Hendley, reggae connoisseur and photographer of many a great album cover, “is mostly a shotgun job forced on both parties by the good old rock papers.” This goes someway to explaining a few juxtapositions; dreads versus baldheads, black versus white in a much less multicultural London, reggae's slow skank versus punk rock's high-tempo, sharp-edged melodies. VP Records' two-disc Step Forward Youth compilation explores this ‘shotgun marriage’ from punk's perspective; that is, a look at 70s reggae through the eyes of the ultimate anti-establishment movement.

For sure, reggae's influence on punk was considerably more than the reverse. The Clash covered Junior Murvin's ‘Police and Thieves’, and Johnny Rotten shared his favourite reggae records during a 1977 radio show. This compilation does justice to reggae's fresh appeal, showcasing a brilliant mix of legends and little-known gems without a duff track. A few UK reggae groups feature, with the stand-out of their tracks being Capital Letters' punchy, dub-heavy anthem ‘UK Skanking’. Perhaps it was punk's unpretentious, say-it-how-it-is attitude that made reggae an easy adoption; it's hard not to fall in love with this music.