Keep On Moving: The Island Records Story

Words by Eddie STATS Houghton, via CoolHunting

The masters of the coffee table universe over at Rizzoli books just gave new meaning to the term hard-cover with the publication of a thing called Keep on Running, a document in words and pictures of the history of the original independent label: Island Records. Mostly pictures, actually, which makes sense because a large part of the Island strategy to create a coherent brand around artists as diverse as Bob Marley, U2, Steve Winwood, Eric B & Rakim, Roxy Music, Grace Jones, Brian Eno, King Sunny Ade, PM Dawn, Robert Palmer and Third World can be summed up in the phrase visual culture. Not surprisingly, Island founder Chris Blackwell was instrumental in the movement to emphasize long-playing albums over singles and in the process helped elevate the humble LP cover into the realm of fine art. We have yet to get our hands on it but looks like a haffi-get for any Marley and/or reggae fan…my only criticism is that they seem to have gone for the same record-shelf shot as the recent Greensleeves retrospective. Don’t get it confused; we like records but when photographing you should try to get their good side: