PART 4: DEPARTURE AND RETURN   Lack of money meant little time was spent clubbing in those early days, although I’d occasionally go to the Cue Club in Paddington (run by Count Suckle) and on a few occasions the Scotch of St James (which was hideously expensive). I was willingly dragged to the latter by Aaron Williams of the Merseybeats whom I had befriended, and I’d nurse a beer for hours in his company, and the likes of Viv Prince, the Pretty Things drummer and a few others. Those days...

My first day on the job was spent sleeving ILP 922 - the Larry Williams LP that had just come out. For some reason they had not been sleeved at the factory. It was a job that seemed to go on forever. The stores were dank and rather dark, and whatever bits of wall showed thru the racks and shelves, were covered in egg cartons, as was the ceiling. Turns out the room had previously been a studio run by Sonny Roberts - he of Planetone Records.

My dear friend Rusty Zinn, the musician who is equally at home playing blues or reggae, recently posted this memory of Sly Dunbar on Facebook. Sly's partnership with Robbie Shakespeare was truly legendary - the two of them formed one of the most enduring partnerships in Jamaican music, and played together in literally countless sessions. Rusty was fortunate to know and play with Sly. As Facebook is a kind of 'here today, gone tomorrow' type of media, I asked Rusty if it was OK to put his...