The history of Lion Vibes is somewhat convoluted. There has been a record shop in its space in the Granville Arcade since the early 80s. Originally, it was owned by reggae legend Alton Ellis and punningly named Alltone. Later, it became Music Temple and ran until 2015, which is when Lion Vibes, at that point an online-only retailer, took over the premises.
Lion Vibes itself was launched in the early 90s by owner Matt Downs, initially as a stall near Brixton station selling CDs and vinyl from Jamaica. Current manager Ben Bell takes up the story: “At that point, Matt had started going to Jamaica to produce his own music. While he was there, he would always get people offering him records and he’d always say ‘no’. Then, after thinking for a while, he changed his mind and started bringing back some second-hand records. Eventually, he launched a website in the late 90s – it was one of the first purely reggae online stores.”
Meanwhile, Bell was a white musician growing up in leafy Andover, a drum ‘n’ bass and dubstep devotee who eventually alighted on their source genre and fell head over heels. “I was 16 when I heard a King Tubby dub and thought, ‘what the hell is that?’ I thought it had come out last year. I just loved the rawness of it. It spoke to me. Its heaviness shocked me.”