Earl Sixteen & The Co-Operators - Concrete Rockers (Waggle Dance Records)

Back in late 2017, Eeyun relocated to Bristol, where he would eventually establish the Waggle Dance Studio and its namesake imprint, Waggle Dance Records. The label name itself is a nod to the “waggle dance” bees use to communicate the whereabouts of food and water sources.

Eeyun explains: “We named the label Waggle Dance because we started in Manchester and the city’s emblem is the worker bee. It’s a bit daft and playful especially if you don’t know about bees. Steve Rice of Downbeat Melody Sound System always says that playing out is alla bout getting people to dance together. And, in a world where love is such a rare commodity, as a musician you have a responsability to help people find love.”

It was in Bristol that Eeyun first crossed paths with Martin Poole: “Martin was trying to get an oldies compilation together with Earl Sixteen and I don’t think he realised I loved reggae as much as I did. He eventually even suggested he could get Earl to voice a tune for me!”

That one spark quickly ignited what would become a full-fledged album. Eeyun vividly recalls the moment Earl first walked into the Waggle Dance Studio in the summer of 2024: “When Earl first entered the Waggle Dance Studio, his opening remark was: “Wow… It’s like stepping into the Black Ark!”. The first tune we did was ‘Country Living’. I passed him the lyrics which I had typed up on my phone and he copied them onto a piece of paper. The riddim was playing in the background, but Earl wasn’t singing along. Suddenly he just stepped up to the mic and sang the verse and chorus while I was doing the level. He said: “Come again!” and just did the whole thing. He’d never sung it before but was just very fast! I’m in the studio three to four days a week and, if I’m not working on something specific, I just record riddim tracks on my own. I play everything, so me and Martin got maybe ten or fifteen riddim tracks together that we could present to Earl. In total we voiced eight songs and we went for the best. We didn’t want any fillers on the album and also wanted it to be a bit biographical as Earl’s got a real story to tell.”

One of those stories unfolds in ‘Kingston Road Map’, where Earl takes us back to early-1970s Kingston. The song transports listeners to a time when, on a visit to Half Way Tree, he stepped into the studio of producer Herman Chin Loy to record his very first solo single, ‘Hey Baby’, released in 1975 on the Total Sounds label:

I start my day down a West Kingston
Off the Chisholm Avenue
The cops are on the run yeah
Down there they will test you
You must be careful what you do
A place called Waltham Park Road
Where I was born and grown

Kingston road map
I’ll give you some direction
Well papa plays his little guitar
Sometimes he plays the banjo yeah

That’s the way that the vibes would grow
Well Stax the Soul Merchant
Plays across the way yeah
I had to try my luck
Cause music is the game I want to play

Head down to Bond Street
With the Flaming Phonics now
Yes I’ve got to make some music to be free
Check Mr Chin Loy up a Halfway Tree
That’s the way I build my vibe
Music set me free now yeah

And with Concrete Rockers, Sixteen does the same, but this time for the London and New York of the late 1980s and early 1990s:

From the east side in New York City to London Town

1985 on the Lower East Side
Pack my bags time to ride natty ride
I’m flying on a British Airways tonight
Heading in to London City
I hope it’s right
1989 down a Brixton Town
The skies were grey and the rains came down
I’ve got to find a session to go tonight

Stepping with the concrete rockers
Boom shaka laka laka boom
Stepping with the concrete steppers
We just a boom shaka laka
Jah Shaka yeah now

1991 what’s going on?
Link up with Peckings from Studio One
Outta Shepherd’s Bush on the Askew Road
London City a go vibes, it just a flow
On the southside of the river
The weather’s so cold it makes you shiver
But natty forward with the fire
We come to nice up the area

You’ll only find ‘Children Unite’ included with the digital version of the album. A bit of a shame, really, because Eeyun Purkins also cooked up a handful of glorious dub versions, and it’s precisely ‘Dub Together’, the dub take on ‘Children Unite’ featuring a rich, booming trombone solo by Jacob Zoob, that ends up being the real icing on the cake.

Fittingly, we leave the last word to Eeyun Purkins himself: “This music is like a thing you love and you’re never going to exhaust. I always think that we’re lucky people to have something like this to love, because a lot of people aren’t lucky enough to be besotted about something!”

Yet another gem of a roots release from the ever-reliable Waggle Dance Studio!