The Gladiators: Studio One Singles

Back in 1963, the now legendary producer Clement “Sir Coxone” Dodd opened the doors to 13 Brentford Road in Kingston and Jamaica’s very own hit factory was born. Often compared to Berry Gordy’s Motown, Studio One became host to countless fledgling groups like house band the Skatalites, the Wailers, and Toots and the Maytals: homegrown talent that would eventually rise up and spread the word far and wide. Among these innovators of the ever evolving island sound were a harmony trio called the Gladiators, who broke onto the scene just as ska was giving way to the rhythmically laid back vibes of rocksteady. The original line-up of Albert Griffiths, David Webber, and Errol Grandison had been around the block cutting records for Dodd’s rivals, including Duke Reid and Clive Chin, before they stepped up and into Studio One. Within months, the trio had their first hit record, “Hello Carol”, topping the Jamaican charts in late ’68. And even though the line-up featured here changed soon after with Clinton “Bassie” Fearon replacing Webber, while Grandison backed out leaving room for Gallimore Sutherland, the hot tunes kept on coming. In fact, they got better.

Initially a French bootleg before Heartbeat Records cleaned it up sonically (although the sound is still poor to fair on a couple of tracks) and added the authorized version to their outstanding Studio One series, the Gladiators’ Studio One Singles is a comprehensive collection, though less complete than its title suggests. Nevertheless, the album begins right after their first hit with the rakish skanking of 1969’s “Fling It Gimme” and ends with four songs taken from three rare 12″ recordings (released after the Gladiators left Studio One), including the excellent “Don’t Fool the Young Girls” backed by its dub version, with Griffiths’ fine soulful vocals recalling a young Bob Marley complemented by a hypnotic shuffle-rhythm that was the Gladiators’ answer to Sophia George’s bust-out single “Girlie, Girlie”. Sandwiched in-between are some of the finest harmony and dub tracks laid down by the trio with Dodd during the raw-roots heyday of the early 1970’s.

Although the Gladiators continued to record outside of Studio One with other producers around this time, most significantly with Lee “Scratch” Perry at Black Ark, before signing with Virgin Records at the end of the decade, the singles collected here remain the cream of their early output, dub versions and all. Resistance is futile as one classic follows closely after another. Uplifting one-love rasta-roots numbers such as “A Prayer To Thee”, with its soaring righteous harmonizing, are tempered by cheeky takes on popular tunes like the trio’s “Sonia”, a funky-organ driven tune referencing Eric Donaldson’s “Cherry Oh Baby”, and the less well-known 1968 cut “Baby Why” by rocksteady harmony group the Cables, recorded here as “Rearrange”. Meanwhile, the reverb-drenched dance hits, for example, “Bongo Red” (later recut as “Mix Up” on Trench Town Mix Up), the excellent rasta clarion call “Roots Natty”, and the Calypso-inspired skanking “Mister Baldwin” recall the sweat-stained, smoke-filled underground (sometimes literally) clubs scattered around Britain (especially the Dugout in Bristol) throughout the 1970’s and early ’80s where the deep throb of repeating bass riffs resounded off walls and ceiling.