Celebrating the life of my father
Dad and me. I’m wearing his sunglasses, he was trying to cheer me up as I had an earache (note the cotton wool in my ears!)
- Joseph Nathaniel Thompson a.k.a Django
I hold no photos of my dad as a child so the time period of this post begins in the early 80s when my mother met my dad in Manchester a few years after he arrived in the country from Jamaica. My dad would have been around 23 or 24 years of age when he met my mother and lived in Hulme, Manchester where there was a strong West Indian community that would often come together to enjoy Jamaican reggae music in places that were known as the Blues or Shebeens. My dad died when I was 3, so much of what I write is not from my own account but from stories I’ve heard from my mum and uncle Geoff, which centres on my dad’s love of music.
I recently got a Whatsapp message from my uncle Geoff telling me that a video had resurfaced of my dad MCing at a Blues in Moss Side, Manchester in the 80s. He sent it across to me. I was stunned. An actual clear piece of footage that had sound with my dad. I replayed the video, carefully studying my dad’s movements, the sound of his voice, what he was wearing, trying to figure out who he was with. First seen at the 2 minute mark, he comes on the mic around 11 minutes and 34 seconds with “Good Evening Manchester…Selassie seen!’ He is wearing a white jacket, black turtleneck and red hat. His dulcet tones sound so familiar but also not.
The video was captured at a Blues in 1986 a year before my dad passed away, at a soundclash between Coxstone vs Jah Guide. I’m told my dad was with Jah Guide. The video brilliantly captures a moment in Manchester’s musical history that the majority of people in the UK don’t know about. A subculture that was instrumental to helping the black community feel a little more at home, that allowed them to enjoy their music, their culture. Popular haunts in Manchester’s Blues scene included, Jah Guide Blues on Quinney Crescent, the Blues of Rock-Dove off Jackson Crescent and the Nile upstairs from Reno.
Shebeens were not usually held in an actual club, but in peoples houses. They were termed as illegal by the police and local council due to the tenants often selling alcohol without a licence. The origin of the word Shebeen can be traced back to the eighteenth century and comes from the Anglo Irish sibin from seibe, which translates to mugful and was used to refer to an establishment that sold alcohol without a licence. In the nineteenth century it was commonly associated with Scottish and Irish immigrant communities that lived in England. What I also find interesting, is that more recently, the word Shebeen is also used in the same context for segregated parties held by black people in South Africa.
For context, it's important to note why these parties started in the first place. The first documented Blues held by the West Indian and African communities appears to have begun some time in the late 1940s. Initially, the black community started having their own Blues parties in the late 1940s as a response to the discrimination black people faced daily such as being denied entry or being served at white pubs and clubs. This time period specifically relates to black soldiers who served in World War 2. By the 1950’s, black entrepreneurs were establishing their own legal clubs and bars alongside illegal Blues parties.
For the black community, having venues of their own ensured that they could relax and party, enjoy the sounds they wanted to listen to, without fearing the racial harassment and discrimination that was commonplace then. The Blues continued to flourish until the 90s when both legal and illegal clubs and parties were shut down by the local council and the police.
Mum’s reggae music list from 1984.
That moment in the history of the British Isles was culturally massive, having gone on to influence Two Tone bands such as The Specials and The Selector, pop / reggae bands such as UB40 and I would argue went on to influence genres such as Jungle, Drum and Bass, UK Garage and Grime. Not only did it have an influence on the music scene but on the social histories of young white adults living in Manchester and other regions of the UK at the time. My mum, who was born in Liverpool and who is of Scottish and Irish descent, recalls how exciting it was to live there.
“You would sometimes see crowds of young men pushing their giant speakers down the road, moving the soundsystem from house to house. For someone who loved Reggae it was exciting. To be able to hear the music that you loved and experience a part of that culture. ”
When my dad died, he was in the middle of starting his own sound, Mellowtone. I sometimes wonder where I would be if he had lived and seen his dream realised. My life would have been very different I expect.
I initially thought I would find this post quite difficult to write as I left Manchester when I was 6. I have photos from the house we lived in on Rosebery Street, Moss Side, photos of my mum, dad and their friends, my family - it seemed I was so far removed from the place I was born. It turned out to be one of the easier pieces of writing. I remember feeling sad once as I thought I had lost one of the only items I have of my dads, his dominoes. My mum consoled me and said but he is in your blood, running through your veins. He is always with you. I found the dominoes. But she is right. No matter how many times I move or different lands I travel to, he will always be with me. That memory code, ancestry and love will be carried with me throughout my life and perhaps onto the next.
So this is my homage to my dad who I wished I had known more. He lived a short life, but he lived. He lived and people loved him. I’m honoured to be his daughter.
I would like to shout out Crucial from Jah Guide Sound, and give a special thanks to him for letting me use the video footage in this blog post. Also a massive thanks to my mum and uncle Geoff, big love to you too! If you found this post interesting and want to know more about the history of the black music scene in Manchester I encourage you to check out the paper I used to research this article. A link to which can be found at the bottom.
Bibliography
Tebbutt, M and Bourne, D (2014) Shebeens and black music culture in Moss Side, Manchester, in the 1950s and 1960s. Manchester Region History Review, 25. pp. 21-34. ISSN 0952-4320 https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/621819/16/shebeens.pdf
