Magic, music & rum: the intriguing story of James Bond, Jamaica and a visionary record label
Perhaps best known as the founder of Island Records, Chris Blackwell is tapping into his family’s deep Jamaican roots and connections to author Ian Fleming with a special edition 007 rum. By
Ian Fleming, best known for his James Bond novels, first went to Jamaica on a Naval Intelligence assignment during the World War 2. He fell in love with the beautiful island and returned to Jamaica three years later, in 1945, to buy a piece of land and build a house.
At the time, Fleming was reading Carson McCullers’s novel Reflections in a Golden Eye and had been involved in an operation called Goldeneye during the War, so he decided to call his three-bedroom Jamaican getaway GoldenEye. Not only did Fleming write every original James Bond novel at GoldenEye, but both Dr No (1962) and Live and Let Die (1973) were filmed near the estate.
No Time To Die, the latest Bond movie, opens with Bond sipping Blackwell Rum while enjoying retirement in Jamaica.
Chris Blackwell is the man behind Blackwell Rum. He is also a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and the owner of Fleming’s former residence, GoldenEye.
His connections to Fleming and Bond are far-reaching: Blackwell’s mom, Blanche Blackwell, was Fleming’s neighbour when he lived at GoldenEye, and the two of them developed a close relationship. She was a muse as he wrote the James Bond novels.
Blackwell was born in London in 1937 and first taken to Jamaica when he was just six months old. A descendant of one of the island’s oldest merchant families, he spent his childhood absorbing Jamaica’s mysteries and marvels – and observing his parents’ lively social scene featuring Noel Coward, Errol Flynn and Ian Fleming.
Expelled from school at 17, Blackwell expected to take over his family’s famous rum distiller, J Wray & Nephew Ltd, but his family unexpectedly sold the company. Learning to live off his wits, he briefly worked as an aide to Sir Hugh Foot, the British governor of Jamaica, rented scooters, sold air conditioners, and taught water-skiing at Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay.
Blackwell is probably best known as the founder of the ground-breaking independent record label Island Records. He helped internationalise reggae music, bringing the island’s culture to the world, signing among many others Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, Burning
Spear, Third World and Black Uhuru.
Diversifying into British folk and rock, Island Records also signed and developed Steve Winwood, Robert Palmer, Free, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Roxy Music, Melissa Etheridge, nurtured early U2, and then worked with such classic “Island mavericks” as Tom Waits, Grace Jones and Marianne Faithful as well as the iconic African artists, King Sunny Adé, Salif Keita, Baaba Maal and Angélique Kidjo.
Blackwell sold Island Records in 1989 but remained on the company’s board until 1997, and his enigmatic influence is still felt at the label.
In the early 1990s, Blackwell created Island Outpost, extending his interests into leisure and hospitality, while applying the principles he had learnt in music to running hotels. He contributed to South Beach’s resurgence by renovating the Marlin Hotel and then turned to The Tides and The Kent.
He went on to open Pink Sands and Compass Point hotels in the Bahamas. Never straying far from Jamaica, he opened Strawberry Hill, tucked into the Blue Mountains above Kingston, in 1994. The Caves on the dramatic cliffs in Negril followed in 1997. A year later, he decided to develop the historic ocean-front GoldenEye.
Set along the pristine coast, among lush tropical gardens and around the calm waters of the property’s lagoon and secluded beaches, the 21ha estate now comprises 45 units — nine beach villas, two lagoon villas, six lagoon cottages, 26 beach huts, one oceanfront villa and the Fleming Villa. That’s not all: guests can book Fleming’s own private two-bedroom villa, where his writing desk still stands just as he left it.
Returning to his roots as one of the oldest rum-producing families in Jamaica, Blackwell launched his eponymous Blackwell Rum in 2008, based on a family recipe, increasingly a favourite with rum connoisseurs and leading international mixologists.
Blackwell co-founded the company with advertising industry guru Richard Kirshenbaum. Blackwell Rum is distributed throughout the Caribbean, North America, the UK, and parts of Europe and has won many awards.
Chris Blackwell is, more than anything, a lover of Jamaica, its people, its culture and its
style. Endlessly fascinated by how this small island’s music has had such a deep-reaching effect on all genres of music, he’s consistently determined to find new ways to show it off to the rest of the world.
“James Bond has been a big part of my life, from my childhood lunches with Ian Fleming at GoldenEye to being a location scout on the first movie, Dr No,” says Blackwell.
Fast forward to 2019, and Blackwell was once again involved with a James Bond movie, shot in Jamaica as well.
For No Time to Die, the 25th Bond movie released on 1 October this year, Blackwell collaborated with
Eon Productions on the latest shoot in Jamaica.
Blackwell worked alongside the production team to provide
Blackwell Rum for the set and in Bond’s house in Jamaica.
Now he is celebrating the release of the
25th Bond film with a special “007 limited edition” release of his
Blackwell Fine Jamaican
Rum.
Side note: Blackwell Rum is not currently available in South Africa, but is available in the US, Canada, UK, Denmark, Czech Republic and Italy.
Blackwell Rum can trace its roots back to when Chris Blackwell’s ancestors came to Jamaica in 1625 and became one of Jamaica’s most important merchant families — exporting bananas, coconuts and rum.
Its lineage continues to the beginning of the 20th century when Cecil and Frederick Lindo (Blackwell’s grandfather) bought J Wray & Nephew — Jamaica’s most important distillery — and created its star product, Appleton Rum, considered the world’s leading premium rum. This is the same distillery that makes Blackwell Rum.
It’s safe to say that Blackwell and Island handled some of the most important music of the past 60 years. So how is it possible that one man could be behind Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, Burning Spear, U2 and so many other iconic artists of our time?
According to Bono, when he inducted Blackwell into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the answer to this question is “magic”: in the same way that Island Records was the vehicle that Blackwell used to share the magic of music with the world, Blackwell Rum has become his vehicle for sharing the magic of Jamaica through sipping rum and cocktails like the Ginger Mojito, Jungle Bird, Black & Ginger, and much more.
Shaken copyright © Ian Fleming Publications Ltd and the Ian Fleming Estate 2018, quoted with permission of IFPL. James Bond and 007 are registered trademarks of Danjaq LLC, used under licence by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. The Ian Fleming signature and the Ian Fleming logo are trademarks owned by The
Ian Fleming Estate and used under licence by Ian Fleming
Publications Ltd.