The Islander

My Life in Music and Beyond

By: Chris Blackwell, Paul Morley - contributor

Narrated by: Bill Nighy

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

'An adventurer, an entrepreneur, a buccaneer, a visionary' - BONO

As the founder of Island Records, renowned music producer Chris Blackwell has discovered and worked with some of the most legendary artists of the second half of the twentieth century - from Steve Winwood to Cat Stevens, Bob Marley to Grace Jones, U2 to Roxy Music, via Nick Drake, the B-52's and Robert Palmer. A maverick free spirit himself, Blackwell turned Island into a home for groundbreaking musicians and their wildly divergent music styles, playing an instrumental role in bringing reggae to the world stage.

Now, as he turns eighty-five, the great raconteur takes us back to the island where it all began: Jamaica - the paradise where his family once partied with the likes of Noël Coward, Ian Fleming and Errol Flynn and where, as local Jamaican sounds began to adopt contemporary American trends, Blackwell's burgeoning musical instincts flourished. It was also the birthplace of the cutting-edge Island Records, founded by Blackwell in 1959. But that was just the start of a truly remarkable career...

Winding through the music industry, this fascinating memoir makes for a giddy ride, encountering Island's many esteemed collaborators over the years and unpacking the initiatives, decisions and risks that ultimately brought such enduring success to Blackwell, both in music and beyond.

©2022 Chris Blackwell (P)2022 Bonnier Books UK

Critic reviews

"An adventurer, an entrepreneur, a buccaneer, a visionary." (Bono)

A disappointing hagiography

Bumped into Blackwell once at one of those uptown backgammon bar evenings , I truly wanted to like or learn something form this. Living in Jamaica for more than a decade and drinking in an eclectic range of bars and having visited all his local Island Outposts , you hear stories. I am very much of the category that Chris is a net positive for Jamaica .

When this was suggested with Bill Nighy reading it was a no brainer, yet he was languid leaning to bored and his pronunciation made me think he had never been to Scotland far less Jamaica.

Morley's fingerprints are all over this, he must have listened to hours of PG13 anecdotes, or perhaps the real stories and edited out the essence.

That is not to say there is no merit, listen at least 1.5speed. This is after all the soundtrack of our lives. As Salman Rushdie said on his blurb.

Grace Jones says Chris is a "Mover, Shaker & Mischief Maker" if only we got to see that.

This is basically an old man in lockdown reading through his diaries and fleshing out some detail.

If you want to know about Bob there are many better tomes, not least Marlon James' History of Seven Killings .

Still thank you lucky sperm for your wonderful life and contribution to the catalogue and indeed the Rock