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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Daniel Dylan Wray

‘We had no future. So we made a future for ourselves’: the untold history of Welsh reggae sound systems

A group of people sitting around a large sound system
‘We were cut off from the rest of mankind’ … Butetown carnival in Cardiff, where reggae sound systems thrived in the 1970s. Photograph: Robert Brazier

Growing up Black in Wales in the 1970s, “it was like we were cut off from the rest of mankind”, says Lawrence “Tylo” Taylor. “There was nothing for young Black people.”

Despite Cardiff being home to one of the oldest Black communities in the UK, stretching back to the 19th century, it could be a tough place. “As children, the police would abuse you, calling you a Black bastard,” Tylo says. “There was pure racism in school and you’d be singled out by teachers and belittled. We grew up very disillusioned.”

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