Joe Gibbs
b. Joel Gibson, 1945, Montego Bay, Jamaica, West Indies. Gibbs started in the music business selling records in his television repair shop situated in Beeston Street, Kingston. In 1966 he moved into record production, releasing his material on the Jogib, Amalgamated, and Pressure Beat labels in Jamaica. He found instant success with Roy Shirley's Hold Them, one of the earliest records to introduce the new rocksteady beat, issued on the Doctor Bird label in the UK. By 1968 his productions were being released in the UK on Amalgamated, a subsidiary of Trojan Records set up exclusively for that purpose. The early issues were in the rocksteady format including Just Like A River and Seeing Is Knowing by Stranger ( Cole) And Gladdy (Gladstone Anderson), and El Casino Royale by guitarist Lynn Tait. Later came reggae sides by the Versatiles, who included Junior Byles in their number, Errol Dunkley, the Royals, the Reggae Boys, Ken Parker, the Immortals, the Slickers, Jimmy London, Ernest Wilson, Keith Blake (aka Prince Alla, also a member of the Leaders with Milton Henry), the Soulmates, and Nicky Thomas, whose Love Of The Common People reached number 9 in the UK charts during July 1970. Other local hits came via the Pioneers who recorded extensively for Gibbs before defecting to the Leslie Kong camp. Their hits included Give Me A Little Loving, Long Shot, Jackpot, Catch The Beat, and Mama Look Deh. Many of which were written and produced by Lee Perry who cut his own records The Upsetter and Kimble for Gibbs before leaving to set up his own label. The parting was not exactly sweet, Perry's first self-production, People Funny Boy, being a vitriolic attack on Gibbs, who responded on record with the identical sounding People Grudgeful. Once Perry had departed, Gibbs enlisted Winston Niney Holness to perform similar duties. With Niney at the helm, working the board alongside Errol ET Thompson at Randy's, Gibbs label entered into the nascent dub/version boom with instrumental sides like Nevada Joe and its version, Straight To The Head, and Franco Nero by Joe Gibbs And The Destroyers. Other popular instrumentals like Hi-Jacked and Movements were credited to the Joe Gibbs All Stars. In 1969 he installed a two-track studio at the back of his newly established Joe Gibbs Record Mart in West Parade, later moving to North Parade, and began producing successful records like Jack Of My Trade by veteran DJ Sir Lord Comic, Them A Fi Get A Beatin’, Maga Dog and Arise Black Man by Peter Tosh, the first cut of Money In My Pocket by Dennis Brown, and its DJ version A So We Stay by Big Youth, Warricka Hill by the Versatiles, and Pretty Girl by Delroy Wilson. These appeared on a variety of labels in Jamaica and, primarily, on the Pressure Beat imprint through Trojan in the UK. Gibbs also released several albums including BEST OF DENNIS BROWN, HEPTONES & FRIENDS VOLS. 1 & 2 and two of the earliest dub albums; the elusive DUB SERIAL and the first chapter of his classic AFRICAN DUB series, both mixed by ET. 
By 1975 Gibbs had opened his own 16-track studio and pressing plant at 24 Retirement Crescent, Kingston 5. With Errol T installed at the controls, the hits soon poured forth from artists such as Leo Graham, Sylford Walker (Burn Babylon), Junior Byles (Heart And Soul), Dillinger (Production Plan), George Washington (Rockers No Crackers), Dhaima (Inna Jah Children), Earl Sixteen (Malcolm X), Ruddy Thomas (Every Day Is A Holiday), Gregory Isaacs (Babylon Too Rough), Jah Berry aka Prince Hammer (Dreadlocks Thing), Naggo Dolphin Morris (Su Su Pon Rasta), Trinity's THREE PIECE SUIT (1977), Prince Far I's UNDER HEAVY MANNERS (1977), and a brace of Revolutionaries-style instrumentals by Joe Gibbs And The Professionals. This was his studio band, incorporating the talents of Lloyd Parks, Sly And Robbie, Bingy Bunny and Bopeep on keyboards, Sticky and Ruddy Thomas on percussion, and a horn section comprising Bobby Ellis, Tommy McCook, Herman Marquis and Vin Gordon. Two further instalments of the AFRICAN DUB series also emerged, with the notorious CHAPTER 3, benefiting (or suffering, depending on your point of view) from a particularly over-the-top mix from ET and Gibbs, achieving great popularity amongst the UK's punk adherents in 1977. These records appeared on a variety of Gibbs affiliated labels including Joe Gibbs, Town & Country, Errol T, Reflections and Heavy Duty. The late '70s/early '80s were a fruitful time for Gibbs, with two of his acts, Culture and Dennis Brown, breaking internationally. Gibbs scored two more UK chart entries, with teenage female DJ duo Althea And Donna’s novelty Up Town Top Ranking in 1977 and Dennis Brown's re-cut of Money In My Pocket in 1979. Gibbs’ also produced popular sides by Eek A Mouse (Virgin Girl), Nigger Kojak And Liza (Sky Juice), and Junior Murvin (Cool Out Son). This activity continued on into the '80s, when after moving to Miami, he temporarily ceased his operations following a lawsuit over copyright. He sold his old studio to Bunny Lee, but continues to lease and reissue his old material.