Maverick Photos

Simon “Maverick” Buckland is a portrait photographer who spent the mid 1980s to the 2000s documenting the world of reggae. His work has been exhibited in Jamaica, Japan and France.

View the photographs ↓ Reggae In View, 1995

Anthony and the new Johnsons, Clissold Park, Stokey — No. 02 Maverick Photos

About

Simon “Maverick” Buckland

Simon “Maverick” Buckland photographed reggae musicians and the people around the music from the mid 1980s into the 2000s, often working in black and white.

In 1995 Overheat Music in Japan published a selection of the pictures as Reggae In View, credited to The Maverick Lensman, to go with an exhibition of his photographs in Tokyo that year. The book's subjects range from Alton Ellis, Lee Perry and Burning Spear to Buju Banton, Garnett Silk and Shabba Ranks. The exhibition included a large hand-painted mural of Garnett Silk.

In Japan he is likely familiar to readers of Riddim, the reggae magazine published by Overheat Music, where he wrote a monthly column for many years.

Photographs

Select to enlarge

A belly-flop of a show (at Shoreditch) three decades since, but that didn't stop the hi-jinx......Dominic (favour Boy George!), Alton, Smiley Culture — ▸ 01 01A

Lee 'Scratch' Perry Born: March 20, 1936, Kendal, Jamaica
Died: August 29, 2021 — ▸ 05 05A

Previously unpublished photo of Garth Dennis (Wailing Souls, Black Uhuru), Earl 'Bagga' Walker, Dennis Brown — ▸ 10 10A

The late and very genial Bim Sherman. Back in the day, when our daughter Georgia was still a toddler and before big fancy luxury buses were the preferred mode of touring transport for Bim and band, I shared van driving van/responsibilities on a mini-tour to Cornwall and - if my memory serves me - Bristol, with an extra car load in tow. THOSE were the days!! — ▸ 11 11A

Sifting through some negs this last week and came across a few vintage shots that have never been published, so set about a scanning session.
Here is Coxsone Outernational Sound System (UK) singer/deejay Levi Roots as roaming minstrel, some years before the advent of 'Reggae Reggae Sauce'!! — ▸ 12 12A

Hi folks, reposting this photo of the great Ken Boothe today as the missus - Gilly Roots - is posting a pile of Ken's tunes over at the Studio One page......a photo I always dreamed of seeing on a Studio One album jacket!! — ▸ 13 13A

With our friend Vin 'Don Drummond Jr' Gordon busy in England recently, time to drop this photo from 1989 taken in Kingston in Jimmy Cliff's studio garden: Bobby Ellis, Vin Gordon, Rico Rodriguez and Joseph 'Culture' Hill. Nuff niceness! — ▸ 14 14A

Unpublished photo of the great Garnet Silk - such a shame that he never lived to fulfil his true potential..... — ▸ 15 15A

Just posted this photo on an album cover page in response to a Judge Dread sleeve, and thought it would be a good excuse to post it here, too. The following is what I wrote to accompany the posting:

"Never been a great fan of Alex 'Judge Dread' Hughes music either, but he lived with his mum in the village of Snodland where the Buckland family also lived, and he was a great raconteur and wit. I took photos of him around some of the village landmarks. Here's one of him by the old clocktower, taken when the historic film studios were being knocked down to make way for some horrid little rabbit-hutch houses." — ▸ 16 16A

The dapper Sanchez, snapped in the hills overlooking Kingston....sporting just one of the many fashionable ensembles he carried with him for a shoot that finally made more than one album cover..... — ▸ 23 23A

In 1991/1992, Pinchers was an enormous star in Jamaica, and - like many of his peers - was outfitted by the island's top fashion designer Biggy. — ▸ 24 24A

Junior 'Jux' Delgado (RIP) photographed along the Regent's canal, not far from my flat......I don't remember any particular reason for shooting these pix, other than that Jux liked to cut a pose — ▸ 25 25A

Can't remember what this pic, which was never used or published, was about....the late, great Devon (Russell) and me cruising central London??!!!! Dunno, but we can call it 'dread inna babylon'!!!! Devon lived just around the corner from me, and from the moment he arrived in London in 1986 (with Prince Alla, Phillip Fraser and Tristan Palma), we became the best of friends. The story of this man's life is enough to make you cry...... — ▸ 26 26A

Fast mouthed Daddy Freddy, who I first met in 1986 when he came to the UK with Fatis 'Xterminator' Burrell, famously made his way into the Guinness Book Of Records for spouting the fastest number of syllables in a minute.... — ▸ 27 27A

From a session I did in my 'studio' (read flat!!).....the sesh wasn't going great until I produced a rented firearm, and suddenly my friend Cutty (the one-time butcher who, back in Kingston, didn't have the heart to slaughter a goat he'd bought to fatten up and ended up keeping it as a pet!) sprang into action!! The results wer used for UK and US issues of Fashion's 'The Stopper' album. — ▸ 28 28A

Coco Tea, from the same day's outing to Caymana's Park racecourse that produced the pic for an Exterminator album - the name of which I'll have to add later as I've forgotten it!!!!! — ▸ 29 29A

Carlene Davis, singer and wife to Tommy Cowan, snapped for Regge Report — ▸ 30 30A

Buju just starting out...photos from this quick session were used by VP and Reggae Report....and a black and white pic reproduced in the Gleaner was pirated for a T-shirt that half the island of Jamaica was wearing in 1992.....didn't make a f*cking red cent off that one!! — ▸ 31 31A

Dedicate this posting to the dear departed Steelie...photo taken at Peter Couch's studio in Jack's Hill, Kingston...it was an eventful day as I'd smashed my thumb in the sliding door of my dilapidated VW earlier in the afternoon, and Steelie 'n' Clevie refused to get out of the car when they arrived until I'd calmed down Peter's two roaming dobermans.....big man 'fraid ah dawg!!! — ▸ 32 32A

The former Yabby You protegé in my London 'studio' (or, in other words, the spare bedroom in my flat used for such purposes and which saw many a supe passing through. — ▸ 33 33A

Johnny Osbourne cutting a pose against the 'wall of fame' outside Jammy's studio in Waterhouse — ▸ 34 34A

King (formerly Prince) Jammy, posing proudly in his studio office alongside a wall full of awards. — ▸ 35 35A

Home T, Coco Tea and Shabba outside Music Works studio. — ▸ 36 36A

The great Freddie McGregor caught in a relaxed mood outside Gussie Clarke's (then-new) Anchor studio in uptown Kingston. — ▸ 37 37A

Frankie Paul at sunrise on stage at Sunsplash....see the sun breaking the horizon in his glasses.... — ▸ 38 38A

Much loved veteran Ernest Ranglin in Grove Studio, Ocho Rios, for album recorded there with Barry O'Hare. — ▸ 39 39A

Exquisite harmony singers Brian & Tony Gold (not brothers!!) in the back of my clapped-out VW van on the Music Works parking lot in Slipe Road, Kingston — ▸ 40 40A

The late Bim Sherman demonstrating how agonising live can sometimes be!!!! — ▸ 41 41A

Soul singer Regina Belle photographed on the streets of London for Echoes article and cover. — ▸ 42 42A

Ninjaman in the studio with the late producer Ossie Hibbert........(Jamaica) — ▸ 43 43A

Maverick here: this shot was taken in Amsterdam in 1987, October I think. It was a big show with Freddie, Dennis Brown and Marcia Griffiths. Marcia had terrible flu and as I spent some time speaking to her while she was laid up in bed in her hotel room, I caught the bug, and on the flight back to England I got stuck in the terrible hurricane that hit....The flight should have taken 45 minutes, but took 2 hours instead as we circled London waiting for a safe moment to land....the bloke next to me had never flown before, and the turbulence was terrible........Good show, though!! — ▸ 60 60A

SCREW SHOE BRITISH ARTIST
SELECTION TOMORROW on
GILLY ROOTS SUNDAY ROAST
REGGAE WORLD MUSIC NETWORK
Sunday (15th January) 10am-11am (Jamaica & East Coast US)
3pm - 4pm inna UK and 4pm - 5pm in France. — ▸ 68 68A

This Fri 13th - Sun 15th Jan British Reggae Artist Weekend on Reggae World Music Network — ▸ 69 69A

LEONARD DILLON - THE ETHIOPIAN ......RIP — ▸ 70 70A

Starting out young....Circa '92. — ▸ 74 74A

Bim Sherman with the Coptic Roots Band. — ▸ 81 81A

Published Work

Record sleeves · magazine covers · posters

Record sleeves

Culture, Seven Sevens Clash — Culture

Seven Sevens Clash

Sugar Minott, Jah Make Me Feel So Good — Sugar Minott

Jah Make Me Feel So Good

Yellowman, In Bed With Yellowman — Yellowman

In Bed With Yellowman

Yellowman, Operation Radication — Yellowman

Operation Radication

Beres Hammond, Lifetime Guarantee — Beres Hammond

Lifetime Guarantee

Cocoa Tea, Row Dem Flex — Cocoa Tea

Row Dem Flex

Horace Andy, The King Tubby Tapes — Horace Andy

The King Tubby Tapes

Jerry Johnson, East of the City — Jerry Johnson

East of the City

Shabba Ranks, Just Reality — Shabba Ranks

Just Reality

Ninjaman, 2 for 1: A Double Dose of Ninja — Ninjaman

2 for 1: A Double Dose of Ninja

Alton Ellis, The Legendary Alton Ellis — Alton Ellis

The Legendary Alton Ellis

Sanchez, Amazing Grace — Sanchez

Amazing Grace

Mykal Rose, Rising Star — Mykal Rose

Rising Star

Magazine covers

Echoes, Regina Belle — Echoes

Regina Belle

Echoes, Maxi Priest — Echoes

Maxi Priest

Echoes, Cutty Ranks — Echoes

Cutty Ranks

Echoes, Frankie Knuckles — Echoes

Frankie Knuckles

Ragga, Dennis Brown — Ragga

Dennis Brown

Posters

Rocksteady Revue, Poster for the 1993 Rocksteady Reunion, Jamaica — Rocksteady Revue

Poster for the 1993 Rocksteady Reunion, Jamaica

Photobook · 1995

Reggae In View

A 94-page book of black and white photographs, published in Japan by Overheat Music in 1995. The pictures were chosen from tens of thousands of frames shot over nine years.

The book has been out of print for many years and is now a rare collector's item.

It may be possible to find a copy for serious collectors. If you are looking for one, get in touch. In the past, copies have even been signed or dedicated on request.

Publisher: Overheat Music, Japan
Published: 1995
Extent: 94 pages
Printing: Black & white