17th North Parade: almost 50 years ago, this address in Kingston was just an ice cream parlour until Vincent Chin and his wife Patricia set up their record shop there in the 1960s, Kingston's first record store. Before long, a studio was born: Randy's Studio 17. Quickly unmissable, the studio saw the likes of Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs pass through. It was also here that the Wailers recorded part of "Catch A Fire". In 1979, Randy's became VP (from the initials of Vincent and Patricia), moving its headquarters to New York.
17th North Parade is now the name of the label VP launched this year. A "vintage" label devoted to the recordings accumulated over almost thirty years and now being made available through reissues of remastered albums, unreleased on CD. This year, the catalogue was opened with releases by Culture & Don Carlos ("Roots & Culture", 1982), Yellowman & Fathead ("Just Cool", 1982), Toyan ("Spar With Me", 1982), Little John ("Ghetto Youth", 1983) and Zap Pow (1973).
In 2008, the catalogue will grow at the rate of two new releases a month. Already announced are Byron Lee and the Dragonairs, "Gussie" Clarke, Donovan Germain, King Jammy, Sly & Robbie and Joe Gibbs.