Quite a story! - Chris Blackwell and Island Records

Chris Blackwell has had a charmed and interseting life!

Though his mother's family, Chris Blackwell was of Sephardic Jewish heritage, originally from Spain, the family adopted Christianity and became New Christians. His parents divorced when he was 12 years old. He became a major in the Jamaica Regiment.

Blackwell spent his childhood in Jamaica, and was sent to Britain to continue his education at Harrow. Deciding not to attend university, he returned to Jamaica to become a personal assistant to Jamaica's Governor. A bit later he pursued a career in real estate which included managing jukeboxes up and down the country. This brought him into contact with the Jamaican music community.

In 1958, Blackwell was sailing off Hellshire Beach when his boat ran aground on a coral reef. The twenty-one-year-old swam to the coast and attempted to find help along the shore in searing temperatures.

Hellshire Beach

(NOTE: Not Chris' actual shipwreck)

Collapsing on the beach, Blackwell was rescued by Rasta fishermen who tended his wounds and restored him back to health with traditional Ital food. The experience gave Blackwell a spiritual introduction to Rastafarianism, and was a key to his connection to the culture and its music.

After discovering The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve Winwood, Blackwell focused on the rock acts that Island had signed.

Island became one of the most successful independent labels of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with artists like Nirvana, Traffic, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, Free, Fairport Convention, John Martyn, Sly and Robbie, Sparks, Spooky Tooth, Nick Drake, Roxy Music, Robert Palmer, Etta James, Melissa Etheridge, The Cranberries and U2.

Blackwell revisited his family's legacy in Jamaica's banana, coconut, and rum export industries in 2009, when, at the age of 72 years, he introduced his own brand of rum, "Blackwell Black Gold", onto the market. The beverage is made from Jamaican sugar cane, water, and yeast, and aged in American oak barrels.

Source:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Blackwell

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Additional Info on Chris Blackwell:

Chris Blackwell: the original trustafarian
As a boy, he socialised with Ian Fleming and Noël Coward; later he made Bob Marley a star; now he hosts the jet set at his island paradise.

An Interview with Chris Blackwell
MARCH 22, 2012