Lee Gopthal
Producer. Rocksteady, reggae
- Active
- 1960s-1970s
- Sunrise
- March 1, 1938, Constant Spring, St. Andrew, Jamaica
- Sunset
- 1997, London
- Also known as
- Trojan Records, Beat & Commercial, B&C, Musik City
Lee Gopthal was the Indian-Jamaican accountant in London who turned Trojan into the label that carried reggae to the British public.
He settled in Britain in 1952 and studied accounting. He was Chris Blackwell's landlord, and though at first skeptical of the black music business he became so taken with it that he set up Beat & Commercial (B&C) to distribute Jamaican records, with Island among its first customers. He then opened shops, from a stall in Portobello Road to the Musik City chain in Dalston, Shepherd's Bush and Brixton, and the more mainstream Musicland. Early on he also sold records by mail order, and Dandy Livingstone, who sold them door to door for him as a teenager, owed his first recording, in 1964, to Gopthal's introduction to the Carnival label.
In partnership with Blackwell, B&C/Island launched labels dedicated to individual producers, among them Treasure Isle, Studio One, Amalgamated and High Note. Trojan, established in 1967 as a Duke Reid imprint, became the flagship, and when Blackwell stepped back in the summer of 1968 Gopthal made Trojan/B&C a company in its own right, determined to win a mainstream pop audience. Remixed and often string-laden releases followed into the British charts, from the Upsetters, Jimmy Cliff and Harry J in 1969 to Bob & Marcia, Nicky Thomas and the Pioneers, and Ken Boothe's "Everything I Own," a number one in 1974; it was Gopthal who called Dave & Ansel Collins to London when "Double Barrel" climbed toward number one in 1971.
Bradley judges that Gopthal was a salesman rather than a record man and had no Plan B once the skinhead audience moved on. His daughter Valerie Haines remembers an "excellent ear" tested on his children, and Bunny Lee a "gentleman who helped us out a lot." Musik City shops were closing from 1973, and by early 1975 B&C was months from being sold. He later worked for RCA and then left music to sell insurance, and departed in 1997. His daughter said he was "truly a broken man when he lost" Trojan.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Duke Reid (collaborator)
- Jimmy Cliff (collaborator)
- Harry J (collaborator)
- Ken Boothe (collaborator)
- Chris Blackwell (collaborator)
- Desmond Dekker (collaborator)
- The Pioneers (collaborator)
- Dave & Ansel Collins (collaborator)
- Nicky Thomas (collaborator)
Notes
- Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 131, 238, 243.
- Howard Campbell, "Remembering a Trojan," Jamaica Observer, March 5, 2020, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2020/03/04/remembering-a-trojan. McGowan, "Lee Gopthal."
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 131, 132, 238, 239. The Observer says he had thirteen record stores by the mid-1960s. Campbell, "Remembering a Trojan."
- Livingstone's account to Augustyn: "Lee Gopthal was an accountant by profession. He got involved in those days in mail order records." Heather Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!," SkaBook (blog), January 8, 2016, https://skabook.com/2016/01/08/a-message-to-you-from-dandy-livingstone/.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 239, 240. The Observer dates Trojan's founding to 1968 and Blackwell's withdrawal to 1971. Campbell, "Remembering a Trojan."
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 241, 242, 243, 258; Dave Barker's account in Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 233, 234.
- Charis McGowan, "How Trojan Records Founder Lee Gopthal Created a Musical Legacy of Love, Hope and Unity," Mixmag, July 5, 2023, https://mixmag.net/feature/lee-gopthal-trojan-records-tribute-windrush-75-generation-anniversary.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 258, 259.
- Campbell, "Remembering a Trojan." Wikipedia gives his dates as March 1, 1938, to August 29, 1997. "Lee Gopthal," Wikipedia, accessed October 6, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Gopthal.
