Steve Barrow

Biography

While at Honest Jon's he met Peter Dalton whom he would later collaborate with on writing The Rough Guide to Reggae. Between 1979 and 1980 he was hired freelance by Island Records to compile a series of vinyl releases: Intensified, More Intensified, Catch The Beat and The Blue Beat Years. Since the 1970s and up to 1992 Barrow was compiling many albums and writing liner notes for Trojan Records in London.

In 1993 Barrow co-founded, along with Mick Hucknall, the Blood and Fire record label which specializes in reissuing older Jamaican music. Barrow's extensive knowledge of reggae was the catalyst for the creation of the Jamaican Reggae Archive Project which is funded and owned by Chris Blackwell with Barrow as de facto curator. Between 1994 and 1995 Barrow (along with Don Letts and Rick Elwood) conducted a series of interviews with Jamaican artists for the Archive that aimed to preserve the history of the music; the interviews and other related material were an important factor in the writing of the book The Rough Guide to Reggae. The reggae author David Katz credits Barrow's personal recommendation to Trevor Wyatt of Island Records for his involvement in the compiling of the 1997 Lee "Scratch" Perry CD set Arkology. In 2004 Barrow co-founded the reggae reissue label Hot Pot Music.