Blood & Fire

Blood and Fire was a British reggae record label specialising in reissues of 1970s dub. Steve Barrow, Bob Harding, Mick Hucknall, Elliot Rashman and Andy Dodd formed the record label in Manchester in 1993 with the objective of reissuing roots reggae, dub and DJ albums with the integrity of jazz reissues. In the process, Blood and Fire influenced the overall aesthetic of other labels issuing archival Jamaican recordings in the 1990s and beyond.

Initial releases drew on mid-1970s Bunny Lee produced material but the label subsequently reissued material produced by Yabby You and Glen Brown along with the Lee "Scratch" Perry produced Congos set 'Heart of the Congos' and a three-CD Big Youth set 'Natty Universal Dread'.

In 2007, news leaked out via the company's popular message board that Blood and Fire had stopped trading as an active company.

(Read more at Wikipedia.)

Links To Peel[]

In his later years, Peel frequently returned to vintage roots reggae material from earlier decades, including many releases on the Blood & Fire label co-founded by Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, who were far from his favourite band. While the DJ always praised the quality of the label's work, he was often moved to express surprise that the singer should be involved in such a worthwhile enterprise.[1]

In the 1995 video Rare, Precious Or Beautiful, Peel wears an ‘If Deejay Was Your Trade’ t-shirt, promoting the first album released by the UK reggae re-issue specialists.

In autumn 2001, the same various artists LP was one of the DJ’s five “must-have” selections from the label’s first 35 releases for his Featured Label spot (later Label Of The Month) on the BBC website:[2]

Congos: Heart Of The Congos [3]
Impact All Stars: Forward The Bass: Dub From Randy’s 1972 – 1975 [4]
I-Roy: Don’t Check Me With No Lightweight Stuff (1972-75) [5]
Yabby U: King Tubby’s Prophesy Of Dub [6]
V/A: Dreads At King Tubby’s: If Deejay was Your Trade [7]

All five albums were played on his shows by Peel, along with most of the label’s other releases in his lifetime, including the 3xCD Big Youth collection ‘Natty Universal Dread’ and several albums related to JP favourite King Tubby, plus re-releases of vintage material by Horace Andy, Cornell Campbell, Johnny Clarke, Gregory Isaacs, Keith Hudson, Inner Circle, Jah Stitch, Morwell Unlimited, Niney The Observer, Prince Alla, Trinity and Tappa Zukie, as well as assorted compilations.

Compilations[]

(Plays by Peel of various artist (v/a) albums released by Blood & Fire, in order of first play. Please note that the DJ also played compilations of remixed Blood & Fire material released by the Select Cuts label (see Reggae Compilations).