Penny Reel
Penny Reel was one of the UK's reggae foundation writers. His work in the '70s and '80s was and still is a tremendous inspiration. His interviews and articles in publications like Echoes, NME, Sounds and Small Axe gave the readers real insight into a music that was and still is misunderstood. His book Deep Down With Dennis Brown was published in 2001. Penny passed away in August 2018.
106 articles
List of articles in the library
Overview by Penny Reel, International Times, 31 May 1973
WHITE MAKES his move. Black makes his move. White moves and Black reciprocates. Black moves and White reciprocates. The players perpetuate the game for the ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Wailers: Catch a Fire (Island)
Review by Penny Reel, International Times, 31 May 1973
WITH THE Wailers presently heralded as the reggae band by music acclaimants, I expect to see Catch a Fire amongst those record collections where Eddie ...
Toots & The Maytals: Funky Kingston (Dragon)
Review by Penny Reel, International Times, 28 June 1973
Jamaican Rock'n'roll ...
What Made Rizla Famous Made A Loser Out Of Me
Comment by Penny Reel, International Times, May 1974
AFTER YEARS OF shadowy unwillingness as one of the mainstays of the dope scene, Rizla and their finest quality gummed papers have finally put one ...
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, February 1975
1961. Rock'n'roll was dead and buried. The Beatles weren't even a twinkle in Epstein's eye. Pop was Kenny Ball and Anne Shelton, Acker Bilk and ...
Jimmy Jones: Timin' Is The Thing
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, May 1975
What would have happened if you and IHadn't just happened to meet?We might have spent the rest of our livesWalking down misery street. ...
Toots & The Maytals: Toots and Maytals: Caribbean Vikings
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, December 1975
IT IS TWO YEARS since those behind the Maytals previously attempted to promote the group to a rock audience. ...
Junior Byles: From the Dread Depths of Despair
Report by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 7 February 1976
JUNIOR BYLES emerged as the supreme talent of the year, if not of the decade. His moving 'Bur O Boy' was without peer. ...
Toots & The Maytals: Toots Hibbert: The Man Who Would Be God
Profile and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 21 February 1976
Rasta revelations courtesy of FREDERICK "TOOTS" HIBBERT of Toots and The Maytals, who'd rather incarnate here and now than talk about old times with PENNY ...
Johnny Clarke: Where are the songs of Spring?
Profile by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 28 February 1976
Ay, where are they? PENNY REEL looks at the erratic career of JOHNNY CLARKE, the star should have been. ...
The Twinkle Brothers: Rasta Pon Top
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 March 1976
EVER SINCE ITALIAN propagandists began spreading false rumours concerning the demise of the Emperor, Negus Ras Tafari, Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Conquering Lion ...
Dr. Alimantado: The Curious Case of Dr. Alimantado
Profile by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 24 April 1976
"Ere Jah Man!""Ites!""Whadda word Babylon mean, dread?" ...
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 29 May 1976
THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS emerged in the wake of the resurgence of interest in Burning Spear – "I and I, son of the Most High – ...
Joe Higgs: The Fastest Left Hook in Rock Steady...
Profile by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 29 May 1976
...was not JOE HIGGS. He was the one on the receiving end of Coxsone Dodd's mighty fist. But then that's all in a day's work ...
Mighty Diamonds, U-Roy: Mighty Diamonds/U-Roy/Delroy Washington: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 11 September 1976
The Lyceum rockers wore dreadlocks, the Aldwych wouldn't do the Strand; the rude bwoys were on a ballroom blitz; and PENNY REEL reports on a ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 2 October 1976
MY LAST VISIT to the quaint, cobbled pavements of Camden Lock was to see Eddie Floyd knocking on wood in standard mid-60s soul routine. Ben ...
The Gladiators: Trenchtown Mix Up
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 2 October 1976
RED HOT IN BABYLON OR MAUVE IN THE GROVE ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 6 November 1976
I-CENSE IS SWEET, but rockers is sweeter yetter; as the good brother I King Tapper Zukie would say. The man from Bosrah came to High ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, Black Echoes, 29 January 1977
Let's hear it for some real talent ...
Profile and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 26 March 1977
Unfortunately, we don't have Patti or Lenny here to tell us. We DO have Penny Reel, who INSISTS he use this space to lord the ...
The Slits, Steel Pulse: Slits, Steel Pulse: Clouds, Brixton, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 August 1977
Once more the NME asks the question on the lips of thousands: Is this woman a prat? Yup, 'fraid so says PENNY REEL ...
Dr. Alimantado: Doctor Alimantado Meets His Duppy Uptown
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 7 January 1978
A DIAGNOSIS OF NEAR-DEATH ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 14 January 1978
HAVE THE Black Slate group been taking their cue from Glitterbest Promotions? ...
Keith Hudson: A Better Brand Of Dub
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 14 January 1978
YOU MAY recall reading, a couple of years ago, an NME recommendation of Keith Hudson's Pick A Dub LP, on the now sadly defunct Atra ...
Johnny Clarke: Don't Stay Out Late (Penguin)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 21 January 1978
THIS IS the second album from Johnny Clarke since the sudden termination of his Virgin contract, and it marks the general decline in standard and ...
The Equators: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 28 January 1978
DURING RECENT months we have been witness to increasing media interest in the indigenous UK reggae scene, especially as focussed upon Matumbi, Black Slate, Steel ...
Dillinger: Central London Polytechnic, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 25 February 1978
ON THIS opening night of his first full-length tour of the UK college circuit, Lester Bullocks better-known as Dillinger maintained an impressive, large and volubly ...
Jacob Miller, Tapper Zukie: Jamaica: Peace Conference In A Western Kingston
Report by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 11 March 1978
ON JANUARY 10 of this year, Samuel Dreckett — JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) Councillor for the Western Kingston district of Tivoli Gardens — entered the ...
Reggae Regular: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 25 March 1978
CONSIDERING THE brevity of its existence, seven-piece outfit Reggae Regular has caused considerable stir in this man's town in recent months. ...
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 1 April 1978
The Love Story Of Leroy Smart ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 13 May 1978
ALL ROADS LEAD to the 100 Club in London's West End every Thursday night, where – "in tune to Silver Camel Sound" – the weekly ...
The Cimarons: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 20 May 1978
FIVE LIVE Cimarons is generally cognate with an agreeable evening's entertainment, such as this duly proved. ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Bingley Hall, Stafford
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 29 June 1978
BETWEEN I AND I, a writer's relationship with his reader is a balance of equal power: the former dictates terms, but only at the latter's ...
Boney M: By The Rivers (well…sands, beaches, coves, quays and bays) Of Babbacombe
Report by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 8 July 1978
TORBAY OR NOT Torbay – that is the question! I am standing at the barrier of Platform 2, Paddington, one chilly Saturday morning expressing Brandoesque ...
Black Slate: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978
THE ACCOMPLISHED Black Slate roadshow has reached just about the limit of its capabilities without coursing a drastic change of direction. ...
Culture: Support the New Ministry of Culture
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 29 July 1978
Better Living Through Roots Reggae! Harder Than The Rest! ...
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 5 August 1978
IN THE words of the legend inscribed on t-shirts won by WEA pinheads at the time of the Hansaettes' second album, Love For Sale – ...
Gregory Isaacs: Presenting Mr Isaacs
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 12 August 1978
PRIOR TO the glorious advent of soulful lover Pat Kelly in more recent weeks, lean, laconic crooner Gregory Isaacs was recognised as possibly the most ...
Dr. Alimantado: Dr Alimantado: Best Dressed Chicken In Town
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 7 October 1978
INTRODUCING THE august surgeon of ital nourishment on a ten track album of selected singles dating from 1973-6. ...
Report by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 14 October 1978
ONE NIGHT I AM standing outside the Jamaican pattie shop in Portobello Road partaking of the same when a car pulls up on the street ...
Report and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978
BETHNAL, who by virtue of their multi-national background can't help accumulating 'political' overtones in these Rock Against Racism days, talk to PENNY REEL about the ...
The Cimarons, Sham 69: Sham 69 & The Cimarons: The West Country Invasion Starts Here
Report and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 18 November 1978
IT WOULD appear that someone's got it in for Jimmy Pursey and Sham 69. You see they're planting stories in the press to the effect ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978
IT IS surely not coincidental that now Island seem to have relegated Bob Marley and company to the status of lampoonery with joke titled albums ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 6 January 1979
ON THE FIRST day of Christmas bondage bretheren and neon siteren children of the Rainbow – pace Aswad – left their parents' turkey tables en ...
Burning Spear: Social Living (1 Stop)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 13 January 1979
Majestic, Mysterious: Burning Spear's Celestial Music Shimmers On ...
Israel Vibration: The Same Song (Top Ranking)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 13 January 1979
CURRENT CULT item on the local reggae scene, this debut album from the Israel Vibration trio augurs well for Jamaican music in 1979, with an ...
Overview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 January 1979
Say hello to the schoolgirl revolution and the shortest cut to cleaning up in UK reggae. And ya thought reggae was all about guns, ganga, ...
Dennis Brown: The Cool Runnings Of Dennis Brown
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 24 February 1979
Never far from reggae charts and hearts, Dennis Brown wakes up the UK's frozen airwaves. ...
Aspects of Superpop: It Will Stand
Retrospective by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 3 November 1979
The Minit label of New Orleans flourished during the period 1960 to 1962 and consolidated one of the cornerstones of the Superpop era. Allen Toussaint ...
Battle Of The Sound Systems: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 5 April 1980
PERSONALLY, I have seen more wonderful sound system contests playing out of a freezing November evening at the Stratford Municipal Hall. ...
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 26 April 1980
BASSIST LLOYD Parks carries a superior band of musicians to these shores on every occasion of his visit. As leader of Skin, Flesh & Bones ...
Gregory Isaacs: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980
TAKE ANY moderate gathering of citizens intent on peaceable pursuit and out comes the Babylon in force. I am growing altogether more and more disgruntled ...
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980
VETERAN JAMAICAN singer Jimmy Cliff finally achieved international status for his leading role in the seminal reggae film The Harder They Come in the early ...
Toots & The Maytals: Toots And The Maytals: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 11 October 1980
Toots Comes Home To Roots ...
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 20 December 1980
"I MADE my first money at a medicine show. I didn't know there were such things except in movies or in films until I was ...
Jah Shaka: Hail Brethren And Sistren: A Big Big Sound System Splashdown
Special Feature by Paul Bradshaw, Vivien Goldman, Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 21 February 1981
WHERE REGGAE really begins — in tune to the sound system. Here is the heart of the music: groups of youth, each with their different philosophies, ...
Misty in Roots: Must It Be Total Destruction
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 9 May 1981
...brimstone, fire, death in a Sodom and Gomorrah?... Reasoning with Misty In Roots By Penny Reel ...
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 16 May 1981
MR. DENNIS Brown is a distinctive voice in reggae this past decade and longer, and is regarded as such by all and sundry and many ...
Special Feature by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 6 June 1981
THE DEATH of Bob Marley last month robbed reggae music of its foremost ambassador, the man who more than any had turned outside ears and ...
The Twinkle Brothers: It Dread, It Dread, It Dread But... It Gwine Dreada
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 10 October 1981
THE RURAL RUNNINGS OF THE TWINKLE BROTHERS. LIFELONG COUNTRYMAN NORMAN GRANT TALKS TO PENNY REEL, COUNTRYMAN OF SIX WEEKS STANDING ...
Adam & The Ants: Adam's Xmas Antomime
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 2 January 1982
Adam & The Ants: Theatre Royal, London ...
Carroll Thompson: Simply, hopelessly in love...
Profile and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 9 January 1982
A post-Christmas Carroll by PENNY REEL ...
Bo Diddley: University of East Anglia, Norwich
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 February 1982
BO DIDDLEY, as we all know, spans a 27 year career permutating a single riff to a sole conclusion: he is Bo Diddley! ...
Gregory Isaacs: Night Nurse (Island)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 4 September 1982
IT'S SINGULAR how Gregory Isaac releases a better number of tunes as good as 'Night Nurse' over the past decade and longer, and as good ...
Eric Burdon: Rocco The Rockist
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 November 1982
IN THE final frame of Comeback, rock hero Rocco is shot dead as he leaves a Berlin stage, which is to begin at the end ...
The Gladiators: Commonwealth Institute, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 22 January 1983
THE INSTITUTE repays a visit. A central space enclosing stage and with surrounding access on tiered levels subdivided into small areas pertinent to the respective ...
Marianne Faithfull: Child's Adventure (Island)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 5 March 1983
THE NEOPSYCHE portrayed in the skirmishes related here is quite that which an unprejudiced layman – having perhaps some passing memory of tears gone by ...
Yellowman: Pickett's Lock, Edmonton, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 23 July 1983
...
Neil Young: Everybody's Rockin (Geffen)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 20 August 1983
AT LEAST Neil Young has yet resisted rejoining Crosby, Stills and Nash, although this foray into rockabilly pastiche is hardly much less regressive than that. ...
The Cimarons, Winston Reedy: Winston Reedy: Reedy Steady Go
Profile and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 20 August 1983
GIVEN ALL antecedents the renaissance of Winston Reedy during the past 18 months is a remarkable tale of the prodigal. ...
Big Jay McNeely, Young Jessie, Chuck Higgins, Willie Egan: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 10 September 1983
I DOUBT WHETHER I am sufficiently qualified to pronounce on the merits or otherwise of the foregoing concert, considering I involve a substantial proportion of ...
The Everly Brothers: Devoted: The Everly Brothers at the Royal Albert Hall
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 8 October 1983
THERE'S THIS certain tension which exists between the Everly Brothers that is the genius of their music. It's as if the lyrics of such as ...
Eek-A-Mouse: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 22 October 1983
UNEEK! ...
Paul McCartney: Pipes Of Peace (Parlophone)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 5 November 1983
CONTRARY TO current feeling here at the NME and elsewhere, I personally nurture no antagonism towards Paul McCartney, nor regard him with any of my ...
Gil Scott-Heron, John Cooper Clarke: Gil Scott-Heron/John Cooper Clarke: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 24 March 1984
SCOTT-HERON OF THE ANTARCTIC ...
Barrington Levy: Electric Ballroom, Camden, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 14 April 1984
DEADLEE! ...
Ben E. King: Here Comes The Night
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 20 October 1984
WHEN, IN 1967, Ben E King asks What Is Soul?, the answer is properly Ben E King himself, although not on What Is Soul?! And ...
Johnny Mathis: Play Misty For Me
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 20 October 1984
JOHNNY MATHIS stands still long enough to move PENNY REEL at the Hammersmith Odeon. ...
Barrington Levy: The Mellow Canary
Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 16 February 1985
Here comes Barrington Levy... Penny Reel listens to the sense and sensibility, trials and tribulations of a man on the verge of international stardom. ...
The Tremeloes: Brian Poole And The Tremeloes: Stoke Newington Town Hall, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 9 March 1985
DRESSED DASHINGLY in a detergent white jerkin, black shirt and slim black slacks, wearing a white knitted tie and white plimsolls, black belt and black ...
Alton Ellis: Skabeana in Soho: Alton Ellis at Gossips, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 April 1985
ROCKING STEADILY to the dogged rhythms of Studio One spiced with ska, the crowd tonight are in appreciative mood to welcome Alton Ellis onstage, where ...
Barrington Levy: Top Rank, Brighton
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 1 June 1985
INSIDE THE Barrington Levy coach to Brighton everything is bubbling. Bubbler plays dominoes with Bassie and Bertie. Benson makes short work of a box of ...
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 29 June 1985
"Slim was a builder, soul singer, and a very good entertainer, and I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, Slim had to leave us, leave us ...
Frankie Paul: Ripe Mango (Blacker Dread)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 11 January 1986
OF THE GLUT of fine new singers to have emerged from the Jamaican dancehall sound during the past few years, Frankie Paul is probably the ...
The Bloodfire Posse: Are You Ready? (Synergy)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 18 January 1986
POSSE POSES ...
Ruby Turner: Jewel In The Crown
Profile and Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 8 February 1986
IT MIGHT be late to break nationally but in this man's town at least Ruby Turner's beefy update of 'If You're Ready (Come Go With ...
Atlantic Records: Label Of 1,000 Dances
Essay by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 16 August 1986
ATLANTIC RECORDS was the supreme R&B label among many which flourished during the music's pre-eminence from shortly after the Second World War up to the ...
Notting Hill Carnival '86: Everybody Wet Wet Wet
Report by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 6 September 1986
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO I back up on my first Carnival almost by accident. ...
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 13 September 1986
OF COURSE Paul Simon has always been blessed with a remarkable facility for penning eminently hummable melodies, but since the heyday of his association with ...
Freddie McGregor: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 25 October 1986
THAT FREDDIE McGregor has been the best and the most consistent reggae artist working in a traditional vein outside the strictures of the dancehall since ...
The Chords: Live At The Rainbow 1980 (Unicorn)
Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 1 November 1986
IT WAS QUITE laughable to see how pathetically misinformed were all parties concerned in the great mod revival swindle of 1980. But then it was ...
The Pink Fairies: Kill ’Em And Eat ’Em
Review by Penny Reel, Sounds, 21 November 1987
A FURTHER DOSE of flash trash from the Pink Fairies, who plough a relentless psychedelic grunge underpinned by the double drum onslaught of Russell Hunter ...
Interview by Penny Reel, Music Week, 14 January 1989
Penny Reel prowls Miller’s Terrace with Super Cat ...
Cat Stevens: Fundamentally Speaking: Cat Stevens vs. Salman Rushdie
Comment by Penny Reel, Sounds, 25 March 1989
AN ASPECT of the Salman Rushdie episode that particularly intrigues is the way passions have been so readily aroused. It is as if the text ...
Various Artists: King Tubby’s Fast Car (Serious Business)
Review by Penny Reel, Black Echoes, 26 May 1990
THE MAN WHO own the Serious Business record label also drives a gleaming scarlet Mercedes-Benz sports car bearing the famous registration number JAH 50N, or ...
Review by Penny Reel, Select, September 1990
IT IS an irony that The Dubliners should have come to prominence with ‘Seven Drunken Nights’ in 1967, the same year that Dermot O’Brien’s IRA ...
Alton Ellis: Alton and Hortense Ellis: Alton and Hortense Ellis
Review by Penny Reel, Select, January 1991
THE COMMANDING voice of Alton Ellis has been a constant feature in popular Jamaican music for over a quarter of a century and his classic ...
Teddy Dan: United States Of Africa (Rootsman)
Review by Penny Reel, Black Echoes, December 1994
IT IS CURIOUS how, having lain dormant in reggae music throughout the length of the Eighties, Rasta ideology should once again be making its presence ...
Obituary by Penny Reel, MOJO, July 1995
In January, Penny Reel witnessed the last British appearance by Delroy Wilson. Here he pays tribute to the reggae ruler famously namechecked by The Clash. ...
The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones in Hyde Park # 3
Memoir by Penny Reel, MOJO, July 1995
IT IS OF COURSE A memorable occasion among the many I experience during years in pursuit of musical diversion, although in truth I barely remember ...
Gregory Isaacs: That Easy 127th Album
Review and Interview by Penny Reel, MOJO, October 1995
SEEMS LIKE EVERY TIME you turn around, as Bob Dylan so succinctly put it, there's another hard-luck story you're gonna hear. Most would appear to ...
Memoir by Penny Reel, Black Echoes, 13 January 1996
Penny Reel at the pool table meets a man from creation. ...
Rosco Gordon: Rosco’s Rockin’ Return
Live Review by Penny Reel, Darker Than Blue, 28 September 2000
PENNY REEL, at the Jazz Cafe, London NW1, gets high with Rosco Gordon ...
Book Excerpt by Penny Reel, Deep Down With Dennis Brown, 9 February 2002
Penny Reel was the pre-eminent reggae writer of reggae's '70s heyday, contributing regularly to NME, Black Echoes and other publications. His Deep Down With Dennis ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Night Bob Marley Didn't Play the Bouncing Ball
Memoir by Penny Reel, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
IT IS 1973, around the time of the release of Catch A Fire, that Bob Marley And The Wailers are booked to play at Admiral ...
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