ROCK’N’ROLL CONFIDENTIAL
KEN BOOTHE
The reggae elder on number ones, losing every thing and fighting back.
Not for sale: the great Ken Boothe, soul reviver.
BORN IN DENHAM Town, Kingston, Jamaica, Ken Boothe brought soul, grit and emotion to reggae. From ska beginnings as half of Stranger [Cole] & Ken for producer Duke Reid, through rocksteady with Coxsone Dodd, he moved on to recordings for Trojan with Lloyd Charmers, including his cover of Bread’s Everything I Own, a 1974 UK Number 1.
Wrongfooted when Trojan folded in 1975, he pushed forward into dancehall, was namechecked on The Clash’s (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais in ’78, received Jamaica’s Order Of Distinction in 2003 and never stopped singing. Now 73, he used lockdown to record his kids LP Wait For Us and Tell Me Why, a mournful roots recorded with west London’s Soul Revivers for their On The Grove project.