Trojan Records

The Beginning:
Although seemingly inconsequential at the time, July 28th 1967 proved to be a momentous date in the history of Jamaican music. For it was on that day that Island Records, one of the UK's leading independent record companies, launched a sub-label that would come to symbolise and forever be associated with the reggae style that was to make Jamaica a musical superpower.

The imprint was Trojan. A subsidiary created specifically to showcase the productions of one of Jamaica's most popular and successful producers, Arthur "Duke" Reid, who himself had acquired the moniker from the make of the British-built seven-ton truck he had used to transport his powerful sound system around the island since the fifties.

The company took its name from Reid's Trojan sound system and eponymous Jamaican label active at the same time -this has a different design, depicting two bulls [fighting in the label ring] and Tarus (sic) inscribed on the right.

Over the initial six months, eleven singles were issued in the UK on the Island off-shoot but, by the start of 1968, the company had pulled the plug, deciding their B & C Records, finally ending its involvement in October 1972.

In the 60s and 70s Trojan Records successfully spread Reggae throughout the UK and beyond, licensing Jamaican recordings as well as producing UK-based acts.

The original parent company Allied Records Ltd. in the 1970s and Allied continued to release records as Trojan Records.

The full Trojan Records catalogue was acquired by Townsend Music, who also run Trojan Records' webstore.

Label Code: LC 1344.