15 Dec The Legend of DJ Danny Holloway
The Legend of DJ Danny Holloway
“There were two things that were at the top of my priority list from Chris Blackwell when I joined Island Records. One was to break Bob Marley, and the other was to bring reggae music to the world.” Danny Holloway
As told to Michael Allegretto for Herb an’ Music
Editing by B.Getz/Upful LIFE
Raised in Long Beach California, Danny Holloway played in bands through his teens and moved to London at age 20. In the early 1970’s, he worked as a music journalist at the world-renowned NME newspaper. During that tenure, he interviewed David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Elton John, Fats Domino, Joe Cocker. Led Zeppelin, Arthur Lee, among others. In December of ’72, Danny accompanied the Rolling Stones to Jamaica while the Stones recorded their Goats Head Soup LP. Shortly after, Holloway joined Island Records‘ London office, reporting to and mentored by visionary label head Chris Blackwell. Holloway contributed to three classic Bob Marley albums; he also assembled records by Jimmy Cliff, The Meters, Toots & the Maytals; as well as producing The Heptones album Night Food.
After leaving the business side of music behind, in 1997 Danny started DJing; in 2007 he joined the Internet radio collective Dublab. He has contributed over 80 mixes and also released a “Future Roots Mix” CD with Dublab. Holloway currently owns the popular reissue 45s label, Ximeno Records. Danny’s personal record collection was over 50,000 pieces before he trimmed it down to a manageable level.
Herb an’ Music founder Michael Allegretto is a music industry/festival production lifer, and a longtime friend of Danny Holloway. So it was only natural for the two pals to hop on the phone and catch up during this Covid-19 downtime. Danny was kind enough to hop in the way-back machine and revisit some of his colorful career journey. His professional and personal experiences are filled with epic highlights, mixing it up with generational icons in reggae, rock, punk, and hip-hop music, spanning over four decades.
Herb an’ Music:
Thanks for making time for Herb an’ Music! I want to start with where you’re from, and what sent you on the path in the entertainment industry?
Danny:
It all started when I was real small. I was the first one born. My parents were young when they had me. I was born in 1950, so by ’55 rock and roll had started. They were playing that kind of music in the house, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was all on 45s, and I got the bug when I was five years old, especially when they left the house, I would just be playing these 45s over and over again. At that time as a young kid I liked the tunes that were real fast and furious.
Then from there, I maintained my enthusiasm for music all the way through. It’s been the number one thing in my life. The first concert that I ever went to was 1957, when I was seven years old, I saw Elvis Presley in Los Angeles. I’m from Long Beach, California. I grew up there and then I eventually began to play music, and that started when I was about 12 or 13. I started to be in bands at that point, and that lasted pretty much all through the ’60s. I was a bass player in various bands.
At the end of playing with these bands in the ’60s, none of it had really progressed to the point of being professional or anything. I got restless and I sold some equipment, and I decided I needed to go on a trip to London and just for a change, a breath of fresh air. That’s how I kick-started my career in music, moving to London at the age of 20.
Herb an’ Music:
What about collecting vinyl? How did that begin for you? Was it always an obsession?
Danny:
I started collecting records in the ’60s really, just my own personal collection, not yet real ravenous like it became. Before I went to England I probably had a collection of maybe 300 or 400 records or something like that.
When I got there I liked the vibe and I decided I wanted to stay, so I got a job working in a record store. After I got the record store job, I got the idea that I should start to try to be an independent, a freelance writer, a music writer. Through the record store, they would send advanced copies of records before the release date, so I started to review those and then peddle the reviews around. I gradually started to be a music journalist doing that, and it led to me doing full features for a weekly newspaper called Sounds, that was like the Melody Maker and NME. I had features in there, in Time Out and some other magazines.
After doing that for a couple of years, eventually, I went for a job at the New Musical Express, to be a features writer there. I got the job, and it lasted probably a couple of years. I used to write the 45s reviews every week. Then I would interview people.
Herb an’ Music:
Were you into reggae music yet at that point in your life?
Danny:
When I first got to England, I heard Jamaican music, or reggae, whatever it was. We didn’t really know what it was in L.A., because there were only about three or four early reggae hits on the radio in the ’60s. There was “the Israelites” by Desmond Dekker. “Hold Me Tight” by Johnny Nash. There was “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” by Jimmy Cliff and maybe one other one. But they never announced it as being reggae. They never said it was from Jamaica. They just played the songs on the radio, and so that was the first stuff I heard. But, like I said, I didn’t know it was reggae.
Then I moved to London in 1970, and the reggae I heard when I first got there I didn’t like. It was kind of like English reggae; it had strings because they were trying to get a chart hit or whatever. When I arrived at the NME and I got the job of reviewing the 45s every week, a lot of them were Jamaican. There were two main companies. Trojan, and there was Pama. Those two labels just released floods of 45s, they were trying to throw it up against the wall and see what sticks.
I made a promise to myself that when I reviewed 45s that I would listen to every tune, so both sides of the 45. I wouldn’t listen all the way through. That would be too hard to do because I was getting like fifty to eighty 45s a week! So I would needle drop. Just learn how to needle drop and pick up the essence of what they were trying to do. That’s the first thing. Then the second thing: did they execute it well? Everybody got an even chance, whether you were known or unknown, or whatever. If you had an incredible tune, then I would write a review of it.
Herb an’ Music:
Did you have an understanding of what makes a good Jamaican number? A feel for the elements of a classic reggae tune? Or did you learn that as you went along?
Danny:
What I found with Jamaican music was… every once in a while, I started to have a feeling for that music. At first it was usually because it had qualities that I identified with a “soul” kind of vocal, one that was similar to American soul music. Then I could identify with it and it just grew. It went from being the exception, “Oh, I like the occasional Jamaican 45,” to being more of a fetish. I got more involved with it, and curious about it. I was reviewing 45s when Tubby first started. The very first King Tubby 45s that were released – that I can remember – was in 1973, when I was reviewing these records. That’s how my interest in Jamaican music started.
Herb an’ Music:
What other kinds of cool shit did you get into while you were in London, at NME, and in the music scene so far from L.A.? For instance, how exactly did you make your way into the whole Rolling Stones situation?
Danny:
In December of 1972, while I was still at the NME, I got invited to go to Jamaica, because the Rolling Stones were recording their album Goats Head Soup. For some reason I got asked to go and represent the paper. I went to Jamaica, I think it was for a week or 10 days. Then I contacted Island Records and the press person that I knew there. I said, “Hey, I’m going to be in Jamaica anyway. Would you please set up some interviews for me with your artists?” They did that. I ended up interviewing Bob (Marley), Peter (Tosh) and Bunny (Wailer) from The Wailers, just after Catch a Fire had been recorded but before it was released. I interviewed them in Jamaica, and they gave me a test pressing of the album because, like I said, it wasn’t released.
Then my history with Bob, it was like he just kept coming back around again. When I was at the NME, I got invited to a Johnny Nash album release party for his album, the one with “I Can See Clearly Now” on it, and it was at a posh hotel. It was a lavish event. A lot of press were invited. The daily newspapers were invited. The music papers were invited. As receptions go, this one, CBS … They’re called Sony now, but it was CBS back then … they threw down. The journalists in England really like an open bar. They like to have a drink, so they had an open bar. They had food. They had everything!
Anyway, Johnny Nash and the Sons of Jungle, they played an entire set. At the end of it Johnny Nash announced, “Here’s a guy I’d like you to meet. He’s written a couple of songs on my album. Welcome Bob Marley.” Bob Marley comes out on his own kind of like a solo kind of thing backed by the same band, the Sons of The Jungle. He does “Reggae on Broadway”, and he’s dressed like an American soul star of that era, of the early ’70s. He’s got an Afro. He’s got bell bottom pants. He’s just slick and more like in an American kind of way. He’s dancing a little bit like James Brown.
Herb an’ Music:
That’s incredible. Bob before the Rastafari. Wow! That’s like the dawn of the entire reggae culture right there.
Danny:
That was the first time I saw him. Then while I was still at the NME, I did a series on producers, and so I interviewed various producers. Among those people, I interviewed Chris Blackwell. Chris Blackwell owned and started Island Records, and he also started Trojan Records. We got along well when we did the interview, and he kept in touch. We both kept in touch a little bit. One day I got a call from him saying, “Would you like to go to a Wailers recording session?” I go, “Yeah, sure.” (laughs)
Herb an’ Music:
Now that’s an invitation! Those sessions must have been an out of body experience.
Danny:
I went over to the Island Studios, and they were recording tracks for Burnin’ at that time. We watched them work in the studio. The whole band was there. They were doing overdubs on tracks and some vocal overdubs and stuff like that. They eventually took a break. When they took a break, Blackwell asked me if I was willing to listen to one of the songs to see if it might have potential in the U.S. I said, “Sure.” He played me “Get Up, Stand Up”, and it was recorded very slow. It was recorded kind of rock-steady, kind of a laid back tempo. He asked me at the end of it, “What do you think?” I said, “That song is an anthem, and the arrangement of the music and everything is all cool, but it’s too slow. In America if you want to rally people to a cause or to an idea, expect them to stand up and put their fist in the air, it’s got to be more insistent. It has to have a little bit more drive to it.”
Herb an’ Music:
So what happened after you made that suggestion?
Danny:
Chris said to the engineer, he said, “Can you speed it up using VSO?” At the time, I didn’t know anything about the technical part of working in the studio. But VSO stands for “varied speed oscillator”. What it would do is speed up the entire tape, the entire tune. It would just speed it up. If you sped it up too much, the voice would sound Mickey Mouse. You know?
Herb an’ Music:
Right
Danny:
So, they sped it up to one notch, or whatever it was. Then he said, “What do you think? Is that the right tempo?” I go, “No, it’s not. You have to speed it up more.” Here I am telling them the speed, and how to do it! (laughs). I guess I was kind of a cocky young kid or something! But when they played it back to me the second time, it was the right tempo, and so I said, “Yeah. That’s the way it should be.”
And that’s the way the public heard it. They put it out exactly that way. It’s very much sped up.
Herb an’ Music:
That’s legit. Amazing, really.
Danny:
I’m friends with a producer called Mario Caldato Jr., he produced a bunch of albums by the Beastie Boys (ed: Mario C, you can’t front on that!), and I had lunch with him a few years ago. I told him that story about me with “Get Up, Stand Up” and the tempo stuff. He goes, “You know how I know you’re telling the truth? Because I got my hands on the multi-tracks. When I was playing that tune, I was shocked at how slow it was.” Anyway, that was like a confirmation that, yeah, it really did happen!
Herb an’ Music:
Could you take us into how you transitioned into the Island Records situation? Your experiences with that iconic label and roster…
Danny:
That’s literally what happened next. I was still with the newspaper at that time, the NME. But not long after going to that Bob session, I joined Island Records.
Herb an’ Music:
Big, big move.
Danny:
The way that happened was… I got bored with being a writer and I didn’t think I was that good. I was under a lot of pressure to deliver a lot of words and articles every week. I had to write 3,000 words. Usually that meant two or three different interviews. I had to transcribe them myself. I had to do the 45 reviews and then deliver all of that content. It was a lot of pressure, and I could never write a second draft. Everything was just straight off the head. You’d write the article. You wouldn’t have time to brush it up at all, and you’d deliver it and just keep going on it. You’re on this crazy like hamster wheel kind of thing.
So I called Blackwell. I just thought, “Okay.” I was getting a little bit tired of the writing thing. Also, he was a major part of a thought that I had at that time. What frustrated me about the writing job was that I felt I was on the wrong end of the spectrum; because I was reviewing other people’s artistic endeavors. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to be a part of creating those endeavors, so I wanted to work helping to put together albums. I just thought of everybody that I’d met, and who would be ideal to call. The very first choice at the very top of the list was Chris Blackwell.
Herb an’ Music:
No doubt. He was a pioneer, and you had a good rapport, already had a relationship. You knew he respected you already.
Danny:
We’d gotten to know each other a little bit and he seemed to like the things I wrote. The things that I was passionate about seemed to line up with his opinions about music and stuff. I just cold-called him one day and said, “I’m tired of being a journalist here. If there’s anything I can do at your label, I’d be interested.” I wasn’t specific at all. I knew that that was the right place for me to be, and I thought, “Give me a break. Just open the door a little bit, and I’ll work my way up.” I thought I would be pushing a broom or something. But ended up being his right-hand guy.
I guess he needed that, it was a very crazy time for him. It was a very crazy time at Island. David Betteridge was the Managing Director of Island Records in the U.K., and that guy ran the label on a day-to-day basis. They were enjoying so much success that Chris didn’t run it on a day-to-day basis. He was more like a “chairman” kind of thing, and he chose to work on certain acts and throw all of his energy into those acts. Bob was the main priority, Bob Marley. Robert Palmer, Steve Winwood. Those artists are who we worked for on a daily basis.
There was a need for me because Blackwell didn’t have enough time in the day to do all the things he was supposed to do. I didn’t really have a job description, but I was involved with a lot of creative things.
Herb an’ Music:
Such as?
Danny:
I would master records. After doing it with Chris Blackwell a few times, I would go off on my own and do it. I relieved him of that duty a lot. Like the song “King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown.” He came back from Jamaica one time. He played the tune. It was one of those tunes that it just blew you away the first time you heard it. There was nothing else like that tune before that came along. It really helped to launch and make dub popular. That one tune, “King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown”, just was a craze in a way. I mastered that record. I mastered a bunch of other stuff for Island during that time.
Herb an’ Music:
Yep, no doubt about it. That’s a classic too! Iconic dub anthem. Anything else we might know?
Danny:
I also put together compilation albums. The first, the album called Funky Kingston by Toots and The Maytals, there’s two versions of it. The version outside of the U.S. is the normal album called Funky Kingston, but the U.S. version is a compilation album that I put together of three different albums. In the Dark, the one they spell Toots and The Maytals backwards (Slatyam Stoot), and the album Funky Kingston itself. Blackwell just said, “Hey, we want to make the best album we can for the U.S. to try to launch Toots and The Maytals, so we’re going to call it Funky Kingston. But you take the best tracks off of those three albums, and we’ll put it out that way.” I did that. I did a Jimmy Cliff comp. The Meters, the group from New Orleans. I put together The Meters album in 1974, I think.
I basically learned the infrastructure of working at a label, all the departments and how they coordinate together. At some point I expressed an interest in going in the studio, and Blackwell said, “Hey, go. Find an act that you’d like, and take them in the studio, and learn it.” I did a little bit of that, too.
Herb an’ Music:
What artists did you find, groom, or help record in that capacity?
Danny:
Chris came back from Jamaica on another trip, and he was really enthusiastic about Third World. Somehow, I don’t know exactly what the details were, but they came to England and I did a demo with Third World. Again, he probably felt that I needed experience, so I went in and I did that. The Third World demo was nine or 10 songs. There were covers of “The World is a Ghetto” by War, “Living in the City” by Stevie Wonder, and then some originals by the band as well.
That started me off with more studio experience, and I ended up doing some live recording of The Wailers in, I think, it was ’73. I recorded three or four shows of them on tour. Most of it was in the midlands and in the north of England. They were college gigs. One of them came out in the 2000s, called Live at Leeds. That was one I recorded in ’73, I think, and it didn’t come out until the 2000s. That was one of the reasons why, I believe, I was asked to record the Lyceum show a couple of years later. That’s a whole story in itself.
Herb an’ Music:
I can imagine it is, my friend. Backing up for a second…. I’m curious, because I work in production, as you know, for many years. Coming from NME, how did you acquire the tech skills with regard to recording the concerts live, or working with the backline, microphones, mixing consoles, etc?
Danny:
Well, I’ll tell you how… because I had played in bands! So it was really helpful, because you understand the sensibilities of ensemble playing. You already know what it feels like to do that. I’d had that experience, and then I sat in on a bunch of sessions where Blackwell was the producer, so I got a chance to observe him as well.
There’s a lot of psychological stuff that goes into recording. I’ll just mention one thing, a trick that people sometimes pull when you’re in the control room and you’re trying to get a great performance out of the people, the players. I’m not sure if I saw Blackwell … I probably saw Blackwell do it, but it’s something that became a habit of mine.
When you’re first getting the session going, while the engineer is running around, and he’s placing the mics in various places and stuff like that. When the guys return and you say, “Well, is everything pretty much ready?” He goes, “Yeah, everything’s pretty much ready now.” Then I would get on the mic or Chris Blackwell would get on the mic and say to the musicians, “We’ve got just a couple of more things to get organized here in the studio. Why don’t you run down the track a couple of times?” In order to keep loose and limber, they wouldn’t know that they were being recorded. That’s one of those psychological tricks in the studio.
Herb an’ Music:
I see. Then you get some great first takes with no pressure, lots of energy, really fresh. That’s really brilliant.
Danny:
There’s other things, too. When a singer is trying to do a vocal take. You have to keep their spirits up. You have to help them to feel confident in their ability, and point out the things that they’re doing really well. Then say about some other things; you might want to make suggestions in terms of where they start, or how hard they lean into the vocal, or whatever.
The technical side of it, you know what? Yeah, I just learned how to do it! I kept an eye on what the engineers were doing. Then I got more familiar with the outboard here and what its capabilities were. That’s how I got my skills. It was like on-the-job training.
Herb an’ Music:
Any other reflections on your time at Island Records?
Danny:
I was making trips down to Jamaica because we were really involved with Jamaican music and, again, Blackwell didn’t have the time to do everything at once. I went down there in 1975 with a list of things to do, and he wanted me to get the publishing to “Satta Massagana”. I was supposed to track down Burning Spear and make a deal with him to record for Island.
Well, I’m going to jump through my history, and I’m going to try to do it quickly. The first record that I produced was by Owen Gray, the Jamaican artist, and he did a cover of “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon. That was a 45, and I produced that. It wasn’t that great. I didn’t know how to mix yet, but I was learning.
I was supposed to check on The Heptones, because Blackwell had paid an advance for a Heptones album. Months had gone by and we hadn’t received any music. I saw Leroy (Sibbles), the leader of the The Heptones. I met him at Harry J‘s studio where they were recording. I said, “What’s the deal? How come we haven’t heard any music from you guys yet?” He said that Harry Johnson was dragging his feet and that other people were allowed to record but for some reason The Heptones weren’t recording. He was very frustrated about it.
He asked me, “Have you ever done any recording?” I said, “Yeah, I’ve done a little bit. I’ve recorded Bob live and I recorded Owen Gray and stuff like that.” He said, “Well, would you like to take over and produce?” So that happened, and the album turned out to be called Night Food.
Herb an’ Music:
You made some moves in the mid-70’s, and came back to the States, right?
Danny:
In 1975, I did a lot of work for them in 1975….. I’d had a small little production career that went on for a few years. My time with Island ended that same year. I felt like I needed to go back to Los Angeles because I had a family at that point. The economy in England was really bad. It was really cold. I’d survived five English winters, but I was really cold, and so I just decided to go back to L.A.
So I went back and I worked independently for a few years. The punk movement came along in 1977, and I started working with some punk bands and producing them, and doing more stuff like that. Then I had a band called The Plimsouls that was very popular in the Los Angeles area. We released an EP and an album by them.
Eventually I got a call from Island. They’d been watching some of the things that I’d been doing independently, and they asked me to come back. So I came back to Island Records in 1982, and I pretty much stayed with them until 1996. Then they sold the company. Blackwell sold the company in ’89, so that’s how it went. Through the ’80s I was an executive at the publishing company. I was the head of the soundtrack division, and did a whole bunch of other work.
Herb an’ Music:
You eventually had your own situation, your own label?
Danny:
I started a label in the early ’90s called True Sound, that focused on some hip hop music. I signed the rock band Sublime. I only had Sublime for a year, or something like that. They were kind of hard to work with because there were drug issues. Eventually I pulled out of that situation. Because the drugs were hard drugs, and it was difficult to work with them. Anyway, that’s that period.
I left Island again in ’96, and I vowed at that point there I’d had enough industry experience, and I felt like I needed to be independent and freelance. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since! Since ’96, I’ve worked on my own. I started DJing in 1997 and it was very slow progress on the DJ front. It took 10 years for me to get anywhere. It was hard to get gigs, and it was kind of a closed shop in L.A. at that time. Then I joined DubLab in 2007. After that my DJ career started to eventually flourish more.
Herb an’ Music:
Where or when does Ximeno Records enter the picture?
Danny:
The label that you mentioned, Ximeno, it’s named after a street that I used to walk to school down in Long Beach. I used to walk to high school down a street called Ximeno. That label started in 2011. This coming year, 2021, will be our tenth year of releasing obscure, rare tracks from the past, from the ’70s and ’80s. Most of them were originally released outside the U.S. That’s just what I was interested in. I was interested in, okay, and I know what was happening in the U.S. during the ’70s. I know about Kool & The Gang, the Ohio Players and all these other groups. What was going on in France? What was going on in Peru, and other stuff like that.
I started to poke around, I found we were able to license and put out on 45s. That’s what I’ve been doing with Ximeno Records.
Herb an’ Music:
Amazing. How do you see things these days, with Jamaican music, in the Covid-19 era? The healing of the nations, like the Tree of Life in the Bible. How can we enact that concept in the present day? Because we really need that to happen.
Danny:
I think the encouraging thing that I see happening is that Jamaican music is international… during the mid ’70s, at Island Records, we helped to launch Jamaican music internationally. There were two things that were at the top of my priority list from Chris Blackwell when I joined Island Records. One was to break Bob Marley, and the other was to bring reggae music to the world. We achieved that part of it. I think the most exciting thing is that people became fans of Jamaican music around the world, and now we’re starting to see those people create music based on their favorite styles of Jamaican music so many years later.
For instance, in Europe, they like the steppers beat a lot because it’s four on the floor. The people that used to go to raves or used to dance to (electronic) music, that’s the four on the floor, and it’s easy for them to make the transition to a steppers beat. Now you see shows taking place in Europe with thousands of kids all in a big open space dancing to that
.I went to Brazil about 15 years ago. While I was down there I kept asking people, “Hey, is Jamaican music popular here?” They kept telling me the name of one city. Their country’s about as big as the U.S., and they were talking about one city where it was kind of popular in one city. It hadn’t made a lot of headway there yet. Now it’s completely reversed. In 15 years, I think the penetration has taken place over roughly the last five years. Jamaican music is huge there now, throughout the whole country. There’s sound systems. There’s people that are chatting over music. There’s people that are singing songs but in Portuguese. Singing like Lovers Rock… in Portuguese!
Herb an’ Music:
That’s a testament to the power of Jamaican music and the universal language of music. Give thanks!
Danny:
The most encouraging thing to me is that around the world, they’re picking different aspects of Jamaican music and reproducing it, and the Jamaicans don’t like it at all. They’re going, “Hey, you’re taking our music.” But Jamaicans are not playing that music now. They’re not making music that’s steppers. So people around the world are picking it up and going, “Oh, well, we’ll do it.” There’s some interesting music coming out of that.
There’s a label in the north of England … I think it’s Scotland … called Scotch Bonnet. It’s really roots, and when you hear the tunes it feels like it comes from Jamaica. They’re really good at getting the essence of the sound. A welcome change for me, because a lot of the music that is the most popular out of Jamaica right now, that stuff is sometimes hard for us. It’s hard for people outside of Jamaica to identify with some of that music. You got guys with rock-stone voices that are chatting on records, and sometimes in an aggressive way.
The current wave of Jamaican music, it’s real patchy. But you do see people like Koffee coming up, and a few of the other artists right now, and they’re being more inspired by positivity and roots music. Like what you were saying, the healing of the nation kind of thing. Popcaan and various others over there are starting to bring that back a bit. Bring back that the positivity that was associated with the roots movement in the ’70s. This is coming back with some of the artists.
There are some positive things happening in Jamaican music. But the most exciting thing to me is what’s happening around the world. Just like they’re having fun with it. Some people are doing crazy, crazy dubs and it’s really gone international now, and I think it’s a healthy thing.