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NEW: Against a backdrop of a hostile wider society, Lovers Rock music and the house parties of yesteryear were a cocoon of serenity. I spoke with musical icons @JanetKayMusic, Carroll Thompson ( @queenoflovers) and @BarryBoomMusic about it. #SmallAxe https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/small-axe-lovers-rock_uk_5fb6895dc5b695be83009369?ncid=other_twitter_cooo9wqtham&utm_campaign=share_twitter
"Lovers Rock was made at a time when we were all teenagers, mid-late 1970s, and we sang about falling in love for the first time because that’s what was happening, meeting our partners, working,” Janet Kay – whose classic 'Silly Games' we love – told me.
https://www.huffp.st/6K1owvg
https://www.huffp.st/6K1owvg
Barry Boom explains that racist UK nightclub venues did not welcome Windrush migrants at the time – so his parents' generation would have parties at each other’s houses and it soon became an important tradition. "The energy was all about love," he says.
https://www.huffp.st/6K1owvg
https://www.huffp.st/6K1owvg
Carroll Thompson said: “There’s a trajectory, in terms of UK sound, and the mother of that is lovers rock. It goes right through to @EstelleDarlings, @CorinneBRae, you can hear the influences in their sound. Sade, Soul II Soul." https://www.huffp.st/6K1owvg
Carroll says Britain's mainstream music industry didn't embrace lovers rock because they never controlled it. “It was controlled by independent Black record labels," she explained. Interesting. Something like the UK's answer to Motown? https://www.huffp.st/6K1owvg
