RUDEBOY: THE STORY OF TROJAN RECORDS

A love affair between Jamaican and British Youth culture
told through the prism of iconic record label, TROJAN RECORDS.

Saturday 23 March | Town Hall | doors 7.30pm; ​film 8.00pm

Directed by Nicolas Jack Davies 2018 | UK | English | 85 minutes | TBC

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Rudeboy tells the story of the love affair between Jamaican and British youth culture through the prism of Trojan Records, one the most iconic labels in history. Combining archive footage, interviews and drama, the film speaks about the revolution that unfolded in the council estates and dancefloors of late 60's and early 70's Britain and how immigration and innovation transformed popular music and culture. Told by a cast of legendary artists including Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Toots Hibbert, Ken Boothe, Neville Staple, Marcia Griffiths, Dave Barker, Dandy Livingstone, Lloyd Coxsone, Pauline Black, Derrick Morgan and more.

Doc'n Roll Jury Prize Winner 2018

RUDEBOY: THE STORY OF TROJAN RECORDS TRAILER ROCKS STEADY Ska musicians have been rocking steady for half a century. The small Jamaican record label that started it all is celebrating their 50th anniversary with the documentary film Rudeboy: The Story Of Trojan Records and how Jamaican music paved the way for a modern multicultural Britain.
The documentary is about “the love affair between Jamaican and British youth culture, told through the prism of one the most iconic record labels in history, Trojan Records,” according to the press statement. Mixing archival footage, interview and drama, the film puts Trojan Records at the “heart of a cultural revolution that unfolded in the council estates and dancefloors of late 60s and early 70s Britain and how that period of immigration and innovation transformed popular music and culture.”
Rudeboy: The Story Of Trojan Records was directed by Nicolas Jack Davies, who was nominated for a Best Music Film award at the 2014 Grammys for The Road To Red Rocks.
breached those walls altogether.

With the help of a certain West Indian record collector Lee Gopthal (a mixed-race East Indian, Jamaican-born Brit,) and London’s Chris Blackwell, the mighty Trojan Records changed the landscape of British popular music, integrating those Jamaican sounds into the culture at large. Soon enough, working-class classrooms saw young, white skinheads blasting reggae, doing the moonstomp, and finding kinship amongst their second/third-generation Jamaican peers.
 

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FILMAKER

Nicholas Jack Davis is a natural story teller with a reputation for hightly cinematic, innovative and emotive work across film, television, commercials and music videos.

Rudeboy is gorgeously shot, recreating scenes from the past and drawing on very little archival footage. What was the choice behind that, and what was the process of casting actors for those scenes like?
​Nicolas Jack Davies: We had no choice really BUT to consider shooting recreations. The reason being that there is very very little archive of those times from the Jamaican and Jamaican Immigrant perspective. Also, there is no ‘behind the scenes’ type of footage to lean on with regard to the artists. So we imagined it all with our filming. We interviewed them first, built our story and then recreated the most pertinent memories or story points in an impressionistic way so you hopefully get an atmosphere or a feeling from it.
Casting actors and working with them was amazing… All young Brits, mostly of West Indian origin.  I would give them sections of real interview answers from the people they were casting for and they would take on their persona— and if there was a performance element they would adopt the mannerisms and styles of the singing. It was a great part of the process for me.