‘Sir Coxsone’ (Clement Seymour Dodd) had received his nickname at school because of his own teenage talent as a cricketer and his friends compared him with the Yorkshire player, Alec Coxon, from Huddersfield (who was selected but never played during the West Indies Tour of 1950.
Later, Coxsone’s name was borrowed by Lloyd Morant, the Jamaican-born sound system operator and record producer whose success in London with his sound system, Coxsone Sound, has encouraged later generations of sound system men, including Nyah Shanti, right here in Bradford.
There’s a whole history to uncover of how people gained their nicknames and gave names to their own sound system. Names are about identity, belonging and offer a clear message about what each sound system and their members were all about. We hope to capture some of those stories over the coming months, so please contact us if you have a memory to share.
Rites of Passage: Bradford's Sound System Stories 