errol ‘et’ thompson

Did you know this about errol thompson?

• Thompson was influenced from an early age by a family member who, as well as being an electronics engineer, ran the sound system 'El Don' and built amplifiers.

• This early family influence helped impress the young Thompson how important the electronics side of recording music was becoming.

• Like many other sound engineers before him, Thompson served his first apprenticeship at the celebrated 'Studio One.'

• The first song he worked on was the unfortunately named 'Wet Dream' with Max Romeo on vocals. The song was a surprising hit in the UK, spending 25 weeks on the charts in 1969.

• He then moved to Randy's Studio 17, a small 4-track studio above Randy's record shop. Thanks in part to Thompson's increasing reputation as a sound engineer, Randy's became the studio of choice for many artists in Jamaica, including Bob Marley and the Wailers.

• Thompson began experimenting with the board at Studio 17, focusing on bringing out the bass and drums and using switches to manipulate sound instead of faders.

• Thompson's expert engineering, which ensured clean and balanced recordings, helped catapult Bob Marley and the Wailers to international notice. They recorded numerous tracks together.

• He enjoyed a long collaboration with producer Joe Gibbs at Randy's, and they eventually set up together in a new studio – Joe Gibbs Record Globe. Such was their reputation that they became known as 'The Mighty Two.'

• Gibb's 16 -track studio enabled the pair to attract a wide variety of talent. Althea and Donna and Prince Far I were just some of the notable artists that beat a path to work with the 'Mighty Two.'

• Sensing the world-wide appeal of Reggae music, Warner Brothers agreed to a UK distribution deal with the studio - a ground-breaking step for Jamaican music.

• They released several dub albums in the late '70s and early '80s, which are still considered seminal works in the dub genre, notably the African Dub series.

• The series is frequently credited with widening the audience of dub and breaking it away from being considered reggae's poor relation.

• Always on the lookout for new challenges, Thompson began to work with early Jamaican hip-hop and rap artists, most notably Yellowman, one of Jamaica's best-known rappers in the early '80s.

• Gibb's studio enjoyed such success that they found themselves in a position to upgrade to a 24-track facility meaning that Thompson could continue to hone and develop his skills.

• The end of the line for the 'Mighty Two' came when a law-suit was taken out against the studio over unpaid royalties from the Mighty Two's re-working of the Charley's Pride song 'Someone Loves You, Honey.'

• The studio closed, and Gibb's moved to Miami.

• Thompson took over managing one of Gibb's supermarkets in Kingston and was reputed to have died in 1983 after being attacked.

• These rumors were not true, and he continued to work in the supermarket for several years until making a brief return to engineering in the early 1990s.

• He died aged 55 in November 2004 after suffering a series of strokes.