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Interview Clive Chin
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OUT OF MANY BY ANGUS TAYLOR / PHOTOS DAVID CORIO
The history of Jamaican music is crowded with important figures. But in terms of being connected to so many pivotal points and people Clive Chin has a seat reserved in any hall of fame. His father Vincent “Randy” Chin (19372003) founded the Randy’s record mart and studio - recording some of the Skatalites and the Wailers’ best work. Clive became a successful producer there himself in the early 1970s, releasing Augustus Pablo‘s Java, one of the earliest and most popular examples of dub. Randy‘s would become the global reggae distribution giant VP - so Chin can claim decisive involvement in the music‘s birth, „golden age“, present and future.
Jamaica’s motto is “out of many, one people” and few families typify this phrase quite like Clive’s. “My grandmother is part Irish and European and on my mother‘s side it’s mixed between Latin and black Jamaican” he recalls. His paternal grandfather left mainland China in the 1920s seeking a new life. “When the Chinese left they didn’t just come to one area – they scattered. Some went to Guyana, some to Cuba, anywhere you’d find British settlements.” William Chin Sang stopped off in Cuba for a while for reasons unknown. “He didn’t really talk much about his experiences there because he wasn’t a person to talk much about his past.” Grandfather Chin was a carpenter by trade but, showing an eye for opportunity that his children would inherit, he set up a successful Ice Cream parlour, selling sweet cakes, patties and soft drinks. His third son Vincent was a seeker like his father and became a sailor in his teens. “Under British rule a lot of Jamai-
cans wanted to explore outside of the island. One of his friends drowned trying to get to the ship before it headed out to open sea.” Before leaving, however, Vincent had fallen in love with his school sweetheart Yvonne Fay Lauder and their eldest son Clive was born on 14th May 1952. Vincent Chin entered the music business from an unusual angle. Living in East Kingston’s Vineyard Town he got a job in the mid 50s with a Syrian Jamaican, Isaac Issa, who supplied jukeboxes to bars across JA. “During those days that was the entertainment. They didn’t have sound systems, discos, television or the internet. After they’d buy their drink they’d punch a music.” Collecting change and swapping records wasn’t easy work, “To travel around the island took him a week and some days to complete collecting the monies because he had to stop at certain points to rest before coming back.” The legendary singer, Alton Ellis, who would later play a vital role in