Our Founder: Chris Blackwell

Born in London in 1937, Blackwell spent his childhood in Jamaica. Sent back to England at age 10 to finish his education, Blackwell returned to Jamaica in 1955 and held a variety of jobs, including selling real estate, renting motor scooters and acting as aide-de-camp to the Governor of Jamaica. However, when he heard an ensemble led by blind pianist Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay, Blackwell decided to record them and, borrowing the name from Alec Waugh's novel, Island in the Sun, founded Island Records.

In 1960, Island Records opened an office in Kingston, Jamaica, and a series of local hit singles soon followed. The growing Jamaican immigrant population in England also bought Island's discs and, finding that he was selling more records in England than in Jamaica, Blackwell moved Island's headquarters to London in 1962. A succession of minor hits followed, mainly ska records from the seminal Jamaican producers of the time, including Duke Reid, Leslie Kong and Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, and within a few years Blackwell had produced or licensed several hundred singles for Island and its various subsidiary labels in Jamaica and Britain. In 1964, Blackwell produced "My Boy Lollipop" by a 15-year-old Jamaican girl named Millie, and it became the worldwide hit that launched Island's global fortunes, selling more than 7 million copies. (Aware of his independent label's limitations, Blackwell licensed the record to Fontana Records to ensure wider exposure and distribution.)

Throughout the '70s, Island Records introduced the world to scores of critically acclaimed artists, and the UK and U.S. album charts were continuously re-stocked with records from Island and its licensees (U.S. distribution was typically licensed to other companies). In addition to Traffic and Winwood, Island formed the launching pad for the recording careers of Free, Cat Stevens, Spooky Tooth, Robert Palmer and Mott the Hoople, and also distributed Chrysalis and E.G. Records (Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Eno, etc.). The winning streak continued into the '80s and '90s, and artists whose significant releases appear on the Island label include Grace Jones, Ultravox, U2, Tom Waits, The Orb and Pulp.

But perhaps Blackwell's most lasting influence on modern popular music resulted from his Jamaican roots and familiarity with the Caribbean musical heritage. Starting with The Wailers' innovative Catch a Fire album (which featured a Zippo lighter-shaped album cover), Island Records introduced the world at large to Bob Marley and reggae music. Artists such as Toots and the Maytals, Burning Spear, Third World and Black Uhuru not only added a multicultural component to pop music but also had lasting influence on Island Records labelmates and recording artists worldwide. Blackwell was also the first major label executive to expose African musicians, including King Sunny Ade, to a wider audience.

Although he downplays his personal involvement in production and engineering, Blackwell was a hands-on executive for a significant number of Island's records. But if his role as a producer in the studio is not easily defined, his influence on final product is clear. Early in the 1970s, Blackwell foresaw that the LP would replace singles as the primary format. Even as he gave Island's artists unprecedented creative freedom to develop their music, Blackwell also encouraged innovative graphics and album cover design. The company both upended traditional notions of packaging and spearheaded a new sense of style in cover design, as a glance through any coffee-table compilation of album cover art will confirm.

Island and Blackwell also have a long history in film and film sound. Blackwell backed his first film project in 1971, The Harder They Come, starring singer Jimmy Cliff. In 1981, he produced Countryman, which broke all Jamaican box office records. In 1983, Blackwell formed Island Alive, the film production and distribution company responsible for Kiss of the Spiderwoman, which won a Best Actor Oscar for William Hurt, and The Trip to Bountiful, for which Geraldine Page earned a Best Actress Oscar. Island films Mona Lisa and Dark Eyes also garnered Best Actor nominations for Bob Hoskins and Marcello Mastroianni, respectively. Other Island-produced films in the 1980s were A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (starring River Phoenix), Choose Me and Return Engagement (featuring Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy).

In 1989, Island was bought by Netherlands-based conglomerate PolyGram, although Blackwell stayed on to supervise the Island companies. Separately, in the early '90s, Blackwell created Island Outpost, a hotel and resorts company, and debuted in November 1991 the renowned Marlin Hotel in Miami's South Beach and Jamaica's Strawberry Hill in 1992, followed closely by Bahamian Pink Sands and Compass Point and The Caves, Jake's and GoldenEye in Jamaica.

Major Contributor: Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide.

Our Founder: Chris Blackwell

Goldeneye

Goldeneye forms part of an exclusive 18-room beachfront hotel with a loyal, starry clientele including Johnny Depp and the Clintons. The site has a lagoon, tree-packed gardens and 1.5 miles of seafront.

Now owner Chris Blackwell has unveiled ambitious plans for a 90-property, £60-million expansion on this glorious 100-acre site.

Planned property, for sale through Pure International, ranges from one-bedroom Bond suites for about £375,000 (all glass and polished concrete) to four-bedroom Lagoon villas for about £1.6 million.

Two-bedroom island cottages cost about £626,000 and three-bedroom villas are about £1.35 million. Property will be low-level with direct sea access and will come fully furnished with interiors designed by Biba founder Barbara Hulanicki.

Fleming gave Blackwell his first job, recommending him as a location scout on Jamaica for the Bond film Dr No in 1961. From there, Blackwell went on to found Island Records, signing reggae star Bob Marley and U2.

There’s no doubting his love for Jamaica and its people. He has accommodated 40 fishermen on his land, paying to improve their boats, and is passionate about encouraging local enterprise. So how does he justify such a dramatic change at Goldeneye?

The benefits to the local community will be huge, with new jobs and opportunities,” says Blackwell, a youthful 72-year-old. “Jamaica has always been an inspirational place for me and I want to give something back. I’m very positive about Jamaica’s future.”

Fears over high crime levels and a lack of suitable property have kept house-hunters away in the past, but things are changing says Nick Simmonds, Goldeneye’s managing director.

“The present government is forward-looking and pro-foreign investment,” he says. “Crime is mainly drugs-related and concentrated in Kingston. Crime against tourists is very rare.”

The Goldeneye development is two hours from Kingston and Montego Bay. Completion of the first villas is expected by summer 2010, when facilities will include a spa, restaurants and bars. This is one to watch with interest as Island Outpost, Blackwell’s company, handle the delicate balance of transforming a piece of paradise into a larger resort.

Fact File

* Owners at The Colony have 60 days use of their house annually but then must place it into the hotel rental pool. They have free access throughout the year if it is not rented (within 21 days) and receive 70 per cent of rental income.
* Owners at Goldeneye can choose to put their property into an on-site rental programme.
* Annual maintenance at The Colony is steep, starting at about £36,000, covering three full-time staff, insurances, green fees and electricity.
* Annual maintenance at Goldeneye is estimated at £6,000 per bedroom.

Blanche Blackwell: The muse who inspired Bond and Noel Coward

THE PARTIES were legendary, with guests including Laurence Olivier, Sean Connery and Elizabeth Taylor.

Blanche relaxes on the terrace of a colonial home in Jamaica

Their hosts, Noel Coward and James Bond creator Ian Fleming, would entertain at their beautiful Jamaican retreats. There was, however, another stunning host, who was more than a match for them intellectually and socially. Her name: Blanche Blackwell.

A neighbour of both Coward and Fleming, she was a society beauty who beguiled the guests who came to her home, Bolt House, in St Mary, Jamaica.

Errol Flynn referred to her laugh as “like the sounds of water tinkling over a waterfall” and was madly in love with her. He even considered proposing to her (even though he was still married). At first she had not wanted to meet him, telling him she was suffering from boils on her bottom.

“He was the most handsome man I had ever seen,” she says swooning still at the thought. “We became great friends.”

She would later become the lover of the married Fleming, who is thought to have based the character of Pussy Galore from Goldfinger on her (although Blanche shakes her head, unaware of this, and laughs at the mention that men found her intoxicatingly beautiful).

I knew an Ian Fleming I don’t think a lot of people had the good fortune to know

Indeed, it was this romance which was to inspire one of Coward’s most controversial and darkest plays, Volcano, which was completed in 1957. The play, never performed in Coward’s lifetime and not published, offers a peek into the simmering passion and tensions of this exclusive community.

But what of Blanche Blackwell?

Born in 1912 in Costa Rica, she was descended from Sephardic Jews who had fled Portugal during the Inquisition. The family set up home in Jamaica in the 1700s and became wealthy merchants. Their business included rum and sugar, and they owned vast tracts of land. (Her brother Roy sold Coward the land for his Jamaican houses).

Blanche married Middleton Joseph Blackwell and they had a son Chris Blackwell (the founder of Island Records who, as a young man, was appointed to work on the set of the film Dr No by Fleming).They divorced when Chris was 12.

Firmly ensconced in society circles it was not long before Blanche would meet the philandering, but very much married, Fleming.

Indeed, she was 44 and he was 48 when they encountered each other.

“I remember I sat next to him at dinner and he said: ‘Why haven’t I seen you before?’” she says sitting elegantly in her Knightsbridge apartment, beautifully dressed and wearing a slash of vibrant coral lipstick. “I told him I was just over from England and he said: ‘Oh good God, you’re not a lesbian, are you?’ And I laughed.”

Blanche, Fleming and Coward made a trio everyone wanted to be seen with.

While Blanche and Fleming were close, she was aware of his failings.

“Don’t forget I met him when he was 48,” she says. “In his early life I believe he did not behave terribly well. I knew an Ian Fleming that I don’t think a lot of people had the good fortune to know. I didn’t fawn over him and I think he liked that. I just happened to be happy in both Ian and Noel’s company.”

As Fleming and Blanche became friends so gossip spread that they were having an affair, although Blanche insists that it was only after a year that they became close.

“One morning I got on my horse and rode over to Noel’s house,” she recalls. “I said: ‘Noel, I know what you think and it isn’t true.’”

That episode, says Blanche, is perhaps what inspired Volcano.

The free-spirited Blanche became Fleming’s muse and her presence seriously worried the author’s wife Ann, who was often in the UK. She was aware of her husband’s philandering (Ann, too, was unfaithful) but she realised his relationship with Blanche was different. On one occasion when Ann returned to their Jamaica home Goldeneye she ripped up the garden Blanche had lovingly planted.

“She disliked me but I can’t blame her,” Blanche says. “When I got to know Ian better I found a man in serious depression. I was able to give him a certain amount of happiness. I felt terribly sorry for him.” Their relationship would last until shortly before his death.

Coward, who had been a witness at the Flemings’ wedding in Jamaica, recalled in his diaries Ian and Ann’s constant bickering.

This hotbed of lust, disappointment and infidelity, plus the oppressive nature of expat community life, would all prove rich material for Coward.

The play, Volcano, deals with themes of jealousy, envy, passion. Set on the fictional island of Samola, the threatening rumble of the volcano is always in the background. The plot follows Adela, a widow (thought to be based on Blanche), and Guy who have yet to consummate their love. Guy’s wife Melissa is thought to have been based on Ann, Fleming’s wife. There is also the suggestion of a homosexual relationship in the play.

When Coward wrote the play he was, suggests his biographer Philip Hoare, somewhat critical of chaotic and destructive affairs.

As for Blanche, she knew about the play but never saw a script and Coward and Blanche never discussed her relationship with Ian. Despite its compelling plot, when theatre producer and manager Binkie Beaumont read the play he turned it down, suggesting it would not work.

It is thought the overtly sexual themes and the homosexual undercurrent would not get past the censors. But Coward, himself a homosexual, was convinced it was a fine play and insisted a script be sent to Katharine Hepburn in New York. It was a wasted effort.

Ian died in 1964, aged 56.

“For a long time after his death I could feel that he was around,” Blanche says. “I sensed his presence.”

She moved back to London and will celebrate her 100th birthday in December. She will finally see Volcano, which stars Jenny Seagrove as Adela, at a performance in Richmond.

“I am hoping for Noel’s sake that this play is a success,” she says smiling. “I adored him and he was a very loving man. He loved to give me hugs. He was just the most extraordinary man and a genius, and, with Ian, we had the most enormous fun.”

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/321342/Blanche-Blackwell-The-muse-who-inspired-Bond-and-Noel-Coward

Blanche Blackwell and Ian Fleming

Noël Coward, a mutual friend, wrote a play Volcano, about the relationship. However, according to Matthew Cain: "Not only does Volcano offer up a more overt exploration of sexuality and sexual activity than Coward’s earlier work, it deals with the theme of adultery. His producer Binkie Beaumont reportedly turned down the play on the grounds that it wouldn’t make it past the Lord Chamberlain’s Office. But perhaps the most significant factor in the play’s non-performance was the identity of the adulterers themselves. The play is a thinly veiled fictionalisation of the extra-marital affair between two of Coward’s neighbours in Jamaica – the James Bond creator Ian Fleming, and Blanche Blackwell."

Fleming's difficulties with Ann brought him closer to Blanche. Andrew Lycett, who carried out indepth interviews with Blanche argued: "So instead Blanche herself rallied to his side emotionally, and a tropical dalliance developed into a deep love affair. The circumstances were just right for it. Work on her new house had started, and she was on the north coast much more frequently. From Bolt it was just four miles along the coast to Goldeneye and what she considered the best beach in the neighbourhood. But she never pushed herself on Ian, part of her attraction for him being her respect for his routine. She realized from the start that he was a man who kept to a strict timetable. It was no use her turning up at any time in the morning. But around twelve o'clock, he liked to stop working and to swim. She would join him and often stay for lunch. Afterwards she would leave him to rest, returning after he had done another hour's work in the late afternoon."

Ann Fleming continued to live with Ian Fleming. In 1962 he wrote to her: "The point lies only in one area. Do we want to go on living together or do we not? In the present twilight we are hurting each other to an extent that makes life hardly bearable." In an attempt to make the relationship work they purchased a house in Sevenhampton. Blanche moved to England to continue the relationship. Every Thursday morning Blanche would drive him down to Henley where they would have lunch at the Angel Hotel.

Ian died of a heart attack the following year. According to Christopher Hudson: "Ann never recovered from grief that she had not made Fleming happy... took to the bottle".

Volcano was first performed on 22nd May, 2012. Blanche Blackwell, aged 99, saw the play two days later.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WNblackwell.htm

Ian Fleming mistress Blanche Blackwell

Fifty-six-year-old Ian Fleming died of a heart attack on the morning of August 12, 1964, in Canterbury, Kent, England, and was later buried in the churchyard of Sevenhampton village, near Swindon. Upon their own deaths, Fleming's widow, Ann Geraldine Mary Fleming (1913–1981), and son Caspar Robert Fleming (1952–1975), were buried next to him. Caspar committed suicide with a drug overdose.
Birds of the West Indies bok

James Bond (January 4, 1900 – February 14, 1989) was a leading American ornithologist whose name was appropriated by writer Ian Fleming for his fictional spy James Bond.

Ian Flemings Goldplatetypewriter Royal Quiet de Luxe.
1952 beställde en gyllene skrivmaskin från The Royal Typewriter Company i New York.


Location	Oracabessa
Coordinates	18°24′37″N 76°56′37″W / 18.410406°N 76.9436502°WCoordinates: 18°24′37″N 76°56′37″W / 18.410406°N 76.9436502°W
Management	Island Outpost
Owner	Chris Blackwell
Website	www.islandoutpost.com

Our Story: The House that Fleming Built

GoldenEye History, Part One: Ian Fleming

GoldenEye History, Part Two: Chris Blackwell

Our Founder: Chris Blackwell

Goldeneye

Fact File