JOE GIBBS A LEGEND IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

The Montego Bay-born GIBBS began producing on his Amalgamated label in the 1960s.

His first major hit was singer ROY SHIRLEY's “Hold Them”, but it was in the next decade that Gibbs really hit his stride.

In 1977, the year of the punk-reggae fusion, it seemed that every ghetto-blaster was pumping out yet another crisp, clear mix from the studio of JOE GIBBS and his seemingly unstoppable hit machine.

The Jamaican import of his seminal "Two Sevens Clash" by CULTURE , a prediction of the change that the year brought, acquired the status of prophecy; when it finally received an official UK release, it was a chart hit. The next year ALTHEA & DONNA 's irresistibly catchy "Uptown Top Ranking" made it to number one.

And in 1979 DENNIS BROWN, Gibbs's star performer, as big a name on his native island as BOB MARLEY , finally breached the UK charts with "Money in my Pocket”

Joe Gibbs produced some of the best reggae ever, and was one of the most successful record producers of all time," the broadcaster Dotun Adebayo said.

"He was a real reggae giant. Yet he was always one of the most hardcore of reggae entrepreneurs”.

Joe Gibbs even gave a career break to LEE "SCRATCH" PERRY, the greatest of all Jamaican producers. In 1967, when he installed a two-track recording machine in the rear of his Beeston Street television repair shop, he brought in Perry as his engineer. Their first success came the next year with one of the earliest rock steady tunes, Roy Shirley's "Hold Them"; meanwhile Perry wrote a number of local hits for the Pioneers for Gibbs before he left to set up his own label.

Scratch's first release, "People Funny Boy", was a viciously satirical attack on his former boss's business practices. (Almost inevitably, Gibbs released an answer record using the same rhythm, "People Grudgefu)l".

Gibbs's productions entered the early dub era, with a "version", as they were known, being put on the B-sides of singles. But it was the A-sides that really sold, with a roster of Jamaica's finest talent: THE HEPTONES. DENNIS BROWN, BIG YOUTH, DELROY WILSON, and PETER TOSH who recorded the singles "Them A Fi Get a Beating", "Maga Dog" and "Arise Black Man" for Gibbs.

Gibbs also produced Culture's massive Two Sevens Clash, George Nooks' Tribal War and Althea and Donna's Uptown Top Ranking which made the British pop charts in 1977. His last major hit was singer J.C. LODGE's Someone Loves You Honey, a song originally done by African-American country singer Charlie Pride.

cut a series of songs for Gibbs that were rarely off the charts. These included Money In My Pockets, Should I, Stay at Home, Love Has Found Its Way and How Could I Live.

GIBBS music is still in huge demand, his son ROCKY confirmed, the legacy will be extended to the new generation and the future. GIVE THANKS !