John Masouri

John Masouri is a journalist, reviewer, contributor and author for reggae music and several of its musical offshoots including dub, roots and dancehall.

Early life

He was born in 1953 in Nottingham, England to a working-class family. Between 1964 and 1969 he attended Carlton-Le-Willows Grammar School. His love of music flourished during this period and would encompass rock, blues, soul, folk and Blue Beat, which he discovered during visits to illicit house parties known as "blues" or "shubeens", in an area of Nottingham called the Meadows.

Early career

After leaving school, he worked in design studios as a paste-up artist and made freelance contributions to the local magazines Third Eye and Platform. In 1973 he moved to London and worked for two years at The Tate Gallery where he met artists like Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol – fleeting experiences that inspired him to renew his enthusiasm for fine art painting. After moving to Brighton in 1976 he worked in bookshops and art galleries whilst exhibiting his work – mainly large scale oil paintings, but also lino cuts and pen and ink drawings – in group and one man shows. His work also featured in multi media events co-hosted by the Jamaican poet James Berry, who became a friend and mentor.

In the early eighties, he began DJing reggae music in Brighton clubs and house parties. This led to him becoming a presenter – again playing reggae music – on Radio Falmer, local pirate station Faze FM and community station Festival Radio, where his fellow presenters included Norman Cook and Carl Cox.

Journalism

His work as a music journalist specialising in all forms of reggae, from ska to bashment began in 1989 when he started writing for Echoes, a UK weekly black music newspaper formerly known as Black Echoes. In 2000 this publication became a monthly magazine, still called Echoes, for which he continues to write full-length features, singles and album reviews on the genre's artists and producers.''New statesman society'', Volume 5, Issues 222–233 (1993), p. 34 For the first eight years he worked in tandem with portrait photographer Tim Barrow on location in the UK and Jamaica. John Masouri's extensive list of interviewees from the past thirty years include Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer, Gregory Isaacs, Toots and the Maytals, UB40, Burning Spear, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sean Paul, Shaggy, Maxi Priest, Damian Marley, Stephen Marley, Chronixx, Vybz Kartel, Garnet Silk, Sizzla, Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, Bounty Killer, Capleton, Prince Buster, Augustus Pablo, Alton Ellis and Beres Hammond, among many others.

He has written album liner notes and promotional material for record companies including Virgin, EMI, Island Records, BMG, Sony, Greensleeves, Jet Star, VP Records, Xterminator, Sanctuary, Trojan, Island Jamaica, Charly Records, Maximum Sound, Cherry Red and Pressure Sounds.

In 2011 he appeared as a talking head in the film ''The Story of Lovers Rock'' directed by Menelik Shabazz. Additionally he has contributed to several radio and television documentaries commissioned by the BBC
...