Honest Jon's
278 Portobello Road
London
W10 5TE
England

Monday-Saturday 10 till 6; Sunday 11 till 5

Honest Jon's
Unit 115
Lower Stable Street
Coal Drops Yard
London
N1C 4DR

Monday-Saturday 11 till 6; Sunday 11 till 5

+44(0)208 969 9822 mail@honestjons.com

Established 1974.

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Dennis Alcapone

Spanish Omega

INBIDIMTS / Dub Store

Out-of-this-world toasting, the absolute bees knees, over Old Fashioned Way; and a stupendous piece of Skatalites, way from creation. Swing baby swing and do your own thing. Uptight and rocking out of sight.
Bims almighty.

Inner Vibes

Mix Up Blender

Firehouse / Dub Store

Monumental Tubbys digi terror. Tougher than Lee Van Cleef. Heavier than lead and cold as ice.

Carlton Manning

We Will Live & Love

Gay Feet / Dub Store

Gorgeous singing by Carlton (from Carlton & The Shoes and The Abyssinians), with tasty nyabinghi drumming in the accompaniment.
“I was writing songs but I didn’t record until 1968. I did one song for Lee Scratch Perry. He gave me £5 and then I didn’t hear anything more about it. Then I went down to Mrs Pottinger, did one song for her named Live and Love on the Gay Feet label. It was played on the radio for a couple of days and it wasn’t going anywhere really because she had some good artists down there at the time and they did some songs that were doing well, so my song wasn’t getting much promotion and it wasn’t being played. I think I heard it twice on the radio and then I didn’t hear it anymore.”

Lennie Hibbert, Count Ossie & Lynn Taitt

Pure Soul

Gay Feet / Dub Store

Pure loveliness, deep and stately.
Plus Patsy dishing it straight back to Johnnie Taylor on the flip, with a reworking of Blues In The Night.

Culross Cross

Moments

Escencia

Vibesing, jazzy bruk.
Culross… aka K15 from Wild Oats and Floating Points.

Bobby Wright

Blood Of An American

Melodies

Tommy McCook

Ska Flea

Treasure Isle / Far East

Irresistibly bouncy, pestiferous and nostalgic do-over of the version of One Note Samba/Spanish Flea which Sergio Mendes cut for Herb Alpert, with Lani Hall singing.
Perhaps a shame Homer Simpson wasn’t in Kingston at the time.
The flip-side sets the stage for Lloyd ‘Reggae Feet’ Williams with a quick mashing of the intro to I Can’t Help Myself by the Four Tops into some chords from Rescue Me by Fontella Bass.

Judge Winchester

Public Jestering

Black Art

The Upsetter’s imperious do-over of the almighty Skylarking rhythm, featuring himself alongside Winston Blake at the microphone, berating people for having fun in public. (‘Sylvester the jesterer from Manchester’, you know who you are.)
Contrastingly backed with Jimmy Riley in a sombre mood, c&w soul style, over a bare-bones reworking of the People Funny Boy rhythm.
Unmissable, obviously.

Andres Loo

Seto Dub

Sex Tags Amfibia

Captivatingly decentred, ghostly dubscapes, unhurriedly rolling out elements of jazz, reggae and — yep — Estonian folk music, with suspenseful toms, groovy double bass and punky-reggae guitar, and some lovely xylophone and accordion playing. Have a listen.

The Browne Bunch

There's Fun For All

Edge / Dub Store

Superb, soulful, easy-rocking, Philly-dilly reggae. Old-school call-and-answer vocals, full of personality and charm; beautifully arranged, with criss horns. Class.

U-Roy

Dynamic Fashion Way

INBIDIMTS / Dub Store

What a record. The studio debut of the mighty Daddy U-Roy in 1969, sparring with Val Bennett over Old Fashioned Way, both of them wigging out like a couple of beboppers, with the ghost of John Holt on the backing tape. “The studio is kinda cloudy,” reports U-Roy — and everyone sounds lit but utterly inspired. Pure vibes.
“My first tune I ever do was Dynamic Fashion Way with Keith Hudson, and then I do Earth’s Rightful Ruler for Scratch. Those tunes didn’t get very far, them sell a couple hundred.”
Cornerstone stuff. Show some respect and chuck your bootleg.

Michael Prophet

Sweet Me

Firehouse / Dub Store

Baba Brooks

1st Session (Alternative Take)

Gay Feet / Dub Store

Holland Dozier Holland

Why Can't We Be Lovers

Invictus

The Main Ingredient

Work to Do

RCA

The Mekons

Never Been In A Riot

Superior Viaduct

Thelonious Monk

Nutty

Gearbox

Merlyn Brooks

You'll Never Need Somebody

The Turntable / Dub Store

Augustus Pablo

Stabiliser

Stamma / Dub Store

The Crashers

I've Got A Power

Gay Feet / Dub Store

Johnny & The Attractions

Let's Get Together

Gay Feet / Dub Store

The Jays

Inna De Ghetto

Firehouse / Dub Store

Mighty Rudo

Ain't No House

Jammy's

‘Special dedication to all the people who live inna House… Ain’t no house like Waterhouse… Ain’t no house like Firehouse.’
From the Sleng Teng era but played live. Total, heart-lifting class.
Altogether now…

Trevor Wilson

Not I

Morwell Esq

Delroy’s bro in two feeling excursions on his punchy Better Must Come rhythm.

Alton Ellis

If I Could Rule The World

Duke

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