Bob Bell was born in London, England in 1946, bought Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock’ in 1955, and soon progressed to Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Joe Turner. His first job was with Island Records in 1965, progressing from supervising the company’s distribution to eventually running the company’s subsidiary, Trojan Records, then the world’s largest Reggae label. When Island sold Trojan in 1971, he worked in Island’s international office, developing acts in Europe. Finding the company’s musical direction running counter to his rootsier taste, he left to live and work on a 500 acre hill farm /commune in the west of England until 1979, when he returned to Island to supervise organization of the company’s archives. He visited the States in 1980 for a vacation, ran into Roomful of Blues in Atlanta, Georgia that spring, and was knocked out to find a band that not only played the music that he loved, but did it with taste, feeling and finesse. After negotiating European releases for the band’s then current album, he joined the organization as publicist, driver, soundman and manager. Since that date, he has watched the band garner all manner of awards, including numerous Handy and GRAMMY nominations, release over a dozen critically acclaimed albums, and become a world class touring attraction. It has been, he says, the best, and certainly the longest, vacation of his life!
