Reggae walk of fame launched in Harlesden

Reggae walk of fame launched in HarlesdenImage caption, Cleon Roberts shows Reporter Alice Bhandukravi the plaque dedicated to music pioneer Sonny RobertsByAlice BhandukraviLondonPublished1 hour agoA walk of fame celebrating Harlesden's reggae heritage has been launched in north-west London.The Harlesden Walk of Music's commemorative discs pay homage to musicians, producers and record shops that made the area the reggae capital of the UK, from the arrival of the Windrush generation onwards.Inspired by the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the project was created by community group Harlesden Bassline in partnership with Brent Council, using £70,000 of funding from the government's UK Shared Prosperity Fund.It launched on International Reggae Day, 1 July, honouring artists with links to the area including Janet Kay, Aswad, General Levy, and The Cimarons.Image caption, Harlesden became a hub for reggae in the post-war yearsHarlesden became home to one of London's largest Jamaican communities after World War Two, and organisers say record shops and labels such as Orbitone and Jet Star Records, originally Palmer Records, made it a hub for reggae, ska, dub and lovers rock.Cleon Roberts, co-founder of The Harlesden Walk of Music and Harlesden Bassline, is the daughter of Sonny Roberts, the Jamaican-born producer credited with opening Britain's first black-owned recording studio, Planetone, in nearby Kilburn in 1961.Image caption, Cleon Roberts is the co-founder of the Walk of Music and daughter of Sonny RobertsHe went on to run the influential Orbitone record shop and label in Harlesden from 1970 until returning to Jamaica, where he died in 2021.She said her father's generation had to build the industry from scratch."There was nowhere for musicians to record, black musicians from the Caribbean, and they were coming over," she said."There was loads of them in the Windrush era."Image caption, Roy Forbes-Allen of Hawkeye Records said Ha...