Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Jamaican Halloween Spooktacular 2011 - Track Twelve - Ten Commandments From The Devil

Short and sweet today...

In 1970, Eddy Grant, of incorrectly filed in the reggae bins at the record store and "Electric Avenue" fame, along with UK producer and sound system operator Lambert Briscoe, founded Torpedo Records in an effort to highlight and showcase British-made reggae.

The Hot Rod All-Stars were one of those bands... and their single "Ten Commandments From The Devil" fits rather nicely into our creepy little mix!
Though I couldn't uncover who was actually in the band I was definitely able to ascertain that the Hot Rod All-Stars were prolific in the early months of Torpedo... appearing in some capacity on all six of the labels first releases. To be honest, the band went kinda nuts in 1970 releasing 17 singles on 4 different labels; Torpedo, Duke Records, Trojan and their own Hot Rod imprint.

Eddy Grant eventually sold Torpedo Records in 1971 and shortly revived it again in 1974/75 but by that point their sound had moved away from reggae and Eddy Grant had moved on to other projects.

I ripped this tune from a 2007 various artists compilation LP on the Spirit Of 69 Record label out of Germany called The Skinhead Reggae Singles... I had been looking for the "Ten Commandments From The Devil" single on Torpedo for a couple years now but this album satisfied that urge well enough.


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