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Sonny “Clinton” Roberts was born in 1931 in the rural district of Spice Grove, Manchester, on the family farm. As with many of his peers, the young 15-year-old Sonny travelled to Downtown Kingston in search of work, this was where he learnt the trade of cabinetmaking. Then, everything changed in the mid-1950s, when an aunt secured Sonny’s passage across the Atlantic. He sailed on the SS Manistee, a banana boat which took 12 days to reach England. Like many Jamaican immigrants of his generation, Sonny settled in Ladbroke Grove. He found employment as a carpenter and set designer in Westminster and North West London and began building speaker boxes after hours for the country’s first sound systems, founded by Duke Vin and Count Suckle. Soon Roberts formed his own sound system, called Lavender, its success yielding better earnings than the day job.
In 1961, he opened Planetone Studios in the basement of 108 Cambridge Road in Kilburn was the very first black-owned recording facility in Britain, his Planetone and Sway label similarly the first to be launched by a Jamaican immigrant. Roberts was also indirectly responsible for the subsequent growth of Island Records in Britain and the birth of its Trojan subsidiary; Sonny being a crucial catalyst.
The related Orbitone Record shop and attendant label, saw Roberts widen his musical net, helping Afrobeat, Soca, Gospel and Soft Reggae acts to attain international acclaim, yielding some significant chart hits in the process.
nd. Like many Jamaican immigrants of his generation, Sonny settled in Ladbroke Grove. He found employment as a carpenter and set designer in Westminster and North West London and began building speaker boxes after hours for the country’s first sound systems, founded by Duke Vin and Count Suckle. Soon Roberts formed his own sound system, called Lavender, its success yielding better earnings than the day job.
In 1961, he opened Planetone Studios in the basement of 108 Cambridge Road in Kilburn was the very first black-owned recording facility in Britain, his Planetone and Sway label similarly the first to be launched by a Jamaican immigrant. Roberts was also indirectly responsible for the subsequent growth of Island Records in Britain and the birth of its Trojan subsidiary; Sonny being a crucial catalyst.
The related Orbitone Record shop and attendant label, saw Roberts widen his musical net, helping Afrobeat, Soca, Gospel and Soft Reggae acts to attain international acclaim, yielding some significant chart hits in the process.
