Sonia Pottinger – Marcus Garvey album art
Caroline on the cover of an album of dub music dedicated to Marcus Garvey (1887–1940). The Jamaican political activist died on this day 81 years ago. From the back cover (with original spelling preserved):
Who is this man?
Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica and to become one of the greatest leaders oppressed people have known, still he is unkwon to a great lot of people. Maybe becouse his skin was black and he was teaching black-people not to accept those days of slavery, to know themselves and to be proud for their cutlture, but you will never know yourself until your back is against the wall.
As a human-been he had passed away, but as a prophet he still remains with us.
Let his music talk to you. Reggae-music Dub-music.
Live it up and be no bag o wire otherwise you’ll burn in fire. Step forward and unite.
The author of these lines is Jah Roy. Born as Roy Kenneth, he “migrated from Surinam to Rotterdam (Netherlands) and brought over his musical foreknowledge. Arranged the first Reggae concerts in Rotterdam, late 70s”. He was also the “owner of several record shops and reggae label Midnite Records and foundation Roots Music International”. [Discogs]
Jah Roy further mentions that the record was “produced by one of Jamaica’s top-producers: S. POTTINGER ‘the lady is magic’”. Sonia Pottinger (1931–2010) was the first female Jamaican record producer and an icon in the music business. The shown cover is for the 1976 release by Roots Music International, Rotterdam. The same album had been released in the UK the year before by the Klik label in London, as Bag-O-Wire, with the production here credited to Sidney Crooks, and with a different cover design (but already featuring the portrait of Garvey) by Dave Field.
The Dutch sleeve is by local studio I.D. (International Design), with the concept credited to R.K.L., i.e. Roy Kenneth. The printing was done by Van de Steeg in Enschede. Founded in 1931, this company specialized in vinyl sleeve packaging in the 1970s. Just recently, after almost 89 years in business, it closed its doors.
Caroline is an outlined and shaded italic with ball terminals, in caps and numerals only. Designed by Dudley Rees, it was added to Mecanorma’s range of exclusive faces for dry transfer lettering in 1975. It didn’t last for too long, though: Already in 1980, Caroline had disappeared from Mecanorma’s library again. Much later, in 1997, Rees released another typeface design named Black Tulip through ITC.
