Double 12″ Spin #83 – Sanchez / Nereus Joseph –

A1. Sanchez – Rearrange My Life (Radio Mix)
A2. Sanchez – Rearrange My Life (Dancehall Mix)
B. Steely, Mafia, Fluxy & The Mule – Dub Rearrange
Label: Fashion Records – FAD 138

More info @ Discogs

The lovely Rearrange My Life rides the Pretty Looks riddim, one of Studio One’s most enduring riddims, and the single comes with two takes worth knowing. There’s the Radio Mix for those who want something easy on the ear, and then there’s the Dancehall Mix, built with the low end pushed up for proper sound system play. Flip it over and you get Dub Rearrange on the B side, an instrumental dub cut from a riddim team that reads like a who’s who: Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson on keys, Leroy “Mafia” Heywood on bass, David “Fluxy” Heywood on drums, and The Mule handling engineering duties. That’s the same Steely from Steely & Clevie, so the pedigree here runs deep on both sides of this release.

The voice on the A side belongs to Sanchez, born Kevin Anthony Jackson on 30 November 1964 in Kingston. He’s one of the most successful reggae singers of his generation, full stop. Sanchez grew up between Stony Hill and Waterford, and it was church choir where that voice first got shaped. The stage name, funnily enough, came from his footballing skills rather than anything musical. By the mid 1980s he was cutting his teeth on sound systems like Rambo Mango and Stereophonic, building the kind of stage experience that doesn’t come from a studio booth.

Loneliness in 1987 was his breakthrough, and from there the hits kept coming, working with Winston Riley, Bobby Digital, Gussie Clarke, Philip Fatis Burrell and Steely & Clevie among others. That smooth, soulful delivery earned him the tag “The Golden Voice of Reggae,” and it’s not hard to hear why. He’s cut plenty of originals but also built a reputation for reggae versions of R&B and pop songs that somehow never feel like covers.

And he’s also known for pairing beautifully with female singers. Across the nineties he cut standout duets with voices like Connie Campbell and Pam Hall, and tunes such as No More Heartaches with Pam Hall showed how easily he could share the lead without losing his own tone. And if you look at the catalog you’ll find staples like Missing You, Frenzy and the album Simply Sanchez, plus a long run of gospel sets that kept his audience close. From the late nineties he leaned more into gospel reggae, though he never fully stepped away from the mainstream side. Dozens of albums, hundreds of singles deep, Sanchez sits comfortably among Jamaica’s most influential vocalists of the last four decades.

Behind this release sits Fashion Records, the label John MacGillivray and Chris Lane started in London in 1980 as an offshoot of the Dub Vendor shop. Fashion went on to become the most important British reggae label through the eighties and into the early nineties, no argument there. What set it apart from most UK imprints was having its own studio. A-Class opened in Clapham Junction in 1982, then in 1988 the label moved to a proper 16-track setup in Forest Hill. That’s where the label’s sound got forged, that tight, digitally driven UK reggae sound that became its calling card.

The artist roster tells its own story. Cutty Ranks, Papa San, Frankie Paul, Nitty Gritty, General Trees, Maxi Priest, Peter Hunnigale, Sanchez, Sweetie Irie, all passing through Fashion’s doors at one point or another. And running through so many of those sessions was Mafia & Fluxy, the rhythm section that basically became the label’s sonic signature. Fashion shut its doors by the mid-nineties, but the catalogue it left behind still stands as one of the cornerstones of British reggae history.

A1. Nerius Joseph – Should’nt Touch It (Cubba Cubba)
A2. Nerius Joseph – P.A. Mix
B1. Nerius Joseph – Bad Boy
B2. Nerius Joseph – Mix II
Label: Saxon Records – SAX 036

More info @ Discogs

Shouldn’t Touch It stands as one of the strongest cuts from Joseph’s Saxon comeback. On the label itself it’s actually misprinted as Should’nt Touch It, but that little typo takes nothing away from the tune. It’s a straight anti drug tune and he doesn’t dress it up one bit. The line “I don’t want to see you waiting at the bottom of the cocaine line” tells you exactly where he’s coming from, no metaphors needed.

The A side carries two versions of the tune, standard practice for a Saxon twelve inch back then. Flip it over and you get Bad Boy, a solid cut with its own alternate mix, both riding the Hypocrites riddim that Bob Marley first cut back in the sixties. It never crossed into the mainstream, but for anyone deep into nineties UK lovers rock, this one sits right up there as a real gem in the Saxon catalog.

Nereus Joseph, sometimes credited as Nerius or Nerious Joseph, was born Nereus Mwalimu in Saint Lucia back in 1962. He ended up in the UK and built himself, slowly and steadily, into one of the defining voices of British lovers rock. His first real shot came in 1979, fronting the roots band Coptic Roots, recording the group’s debut single Roots & Culture. But things really took off in the mid eighties once he signed to Fashion Records. Sensi Crisis, Special Lady and later Guidance kept his name in steady circulation, and his voice, warm and soulful, moved comfortably between lovers rock, roots and dancehall without ever sounding like he was stretching for it.

After a quiet patch, he came back strong in the mid nineties through Saxon Records. Wonderful Feeling, Giving All My Time and Shouldn’t Touch It, the song featured in this ‘Double 12″ Spin’, all landed in that run, together making it clear he hadn’t lost a step. He went on to join the group Passion, and their track Share Your Love reached listeners well outside the usual reggae crowd. The song was actually a rework of Blackstreet’s No Diggity, which probably explains why it crossed over the way it did. Joseph also ran his own label, Sirius Records, and kept writing, recording and producing right up until he passed away in London on July 11, 2023, at 61.

Saxon Records grew out of Saxon Sound System, the Lewisham outfit that Dennis Rowe and Lloyd “Musclehead” Francis put together in 1976. Before they settled on the Saxon name, the crew had actually been playing under the name Imperial Rockers. By the eighties, Saxon had become the most influential sound system in Britain, first on the strength of lovers rock and then through the fast chat style that shaped a whole generation of MCs coming up behind them.

Once the nineties rolled in, the crew pushed harder into production, releasing their own dancehall and roots material. Musclehead ran the label with help from producers like Dillie, and by the end of the decade Saxon had built a serious catalog. The sound stayed tight and digital, proper nineties, built around strong melodies but never losing that sound system instinct. And the names they worked with tell the story too, Dennis Brown, Maxi Priest, Peter Hunnigale, Tippa Irie among them.