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Devotees of the Blood and Fire Message Board awoke to their worst nightmare a few weeks ago – the Web site was down and the long-feared demise of B&F seemed to be at hand. As a label, B&F was of late only dribbling out a release or two a year, a far cry from the explosiveness of its early and mid years. In truth, most were likely bemoaning the loss of what had become the top Internet reggae chat room, a place where novice and noted collector alike contributed Q&A sessions, humorous tangents (wanted a list of all the reggae songs about trains or with trains in the title? It’s archived…) and just general good vibes with fellow riddim-heads. And so it was with great relief that on July 14 the site was back up. A note of apology relating some technical problems was the only real sign of things previously amiss. But of course things are slightly amiss at B&F.

Poorer sales and increased competition in recent years – a competition B&F basically kickstarted – has led to a reduced role for the label. Steve Barrow, the A&R man and public voice and face of B&F since its founding, said his best prognosis is a no prognosis; B&F is more or less non-operational but more meetings with the money people are in the offing. Then we’ll see.

If eventually the investors behind B&F (Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, for one) decide that 14 years and some 50-plus releases was a good enough run and that’s that, well, we should all take a collective step back, reflect, then definitely applaud. At the time B&F was founded in 1993, reggae reissues were either poorly put together or focused mostly on Studio One and/or other obvious big names (uh, Marley). The recordings of the 1960’s & ‘70s – the golden age in JA music – had barely been touched at that time, and knowledge was purely in the hands of the lucky few – the collectors of this great old music. Artists and musicians were also rarely paid properly, a commitment B&F laudably took to heart from the beginning.

Since B&F’s March 1994 debut release – the compilation “If DJ Was Your Trade” – a slew of other labels have emerged: Pressure Sounds, Soul Jazz, Hot Pot, Auralux, Motion, Reggae Retro, Heartbeat and a resurgent Trojan Records have all made major contributions to the documentation of Jamaican oldies. As a result, the landscape for the newbie fan of reggae is vastly different in 2007 than what it was in 1993. Want Derrick Morgan’s rocksteady productions on his obscure Hop label from 1967-68? No problem. Want the long-lost King Tubby/Skatalites dub LP from 1975? You got it. And on and on it goes, and we’re still not done, not even close (who shall get that glittering prize of Prince Buster’s complete catalog?).

B&F, of course, largely focused on the ‘70s and with it that dense dub-and-DJ sound. This was really prescient on their part, because the "heaviness" of that period in Jamaican recordings held an innate relationship to the modern club culture in the UK and elsewhere. In the UK itself, these days the leading underground sound is something called dubstep. Do those young artists know who King Tubby is? You bet. B&F can take major credit for that. In 1997, Barrow & Co. started the Blood & Fire Sound System, a live touring ‘Sound’ that introduced not just the ‘heaviness’ of the old records but also the continued vitality of the classic artists who toured with them. Dennis Alcapone, Joseph Cotton, U Brown, U-Roy, Ranking Joe, Dillinger, Trinity – audiences have gotten to see them do their thing in ways they could only have previously imagined about. A big regret must remain that the late and great I-Roy couldn’t participate.

In the end, the oldies reggae scene is a small one. B&F’s top seller, the incredible Heart of the Congos by The Congos, sold 75,000 copies worldwide. At one level, it’s gratifying to know that many fellow souls own that record now, but really, these are tiny figures overall. It’s a precious gemstone, this musical output that was Jamaica for 20, 30-plus years. Not for all, to be sure – but intoxicating for a few, a very enthusiastic and committed few. Nuff respect to B&F, in the present or in the hereafter.

No good deeds shall be forgotten.

– Mark Williams

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