During the 1980s, Beth Lesser and husband, David Kingston, traveled frequently to Jamaica and New York, Beth to do research and take photos for her magazine, Reggae Quarterly, and David, to collect records for his radio show, Reggae Showcase on CKLN, listener sponsored radio in Toronto, Canada.
»In 1981, my husband and I started going to Jamaica with the sole purpose of getting involved in reggae music. Our first idea was the start a ›zine‹ devoted to Augustus Pablo and his crew. But when we got to Kingston, we found dance hall. After one issue of ›Live Good Today‹, a photocopied zine about Rockers International, we began looking at doing a real, color, glossy magazine. Even Pablo himself, was urging us to include other artists. So we began Reggae Quarterly. Hardly quarterly, the magazine came out when ever I could afford to get it printed, more like once year. Meanwhile, my husband David began hosting a reggae radio show on a local listener sponsored station. So our trips to Jamaica now involved getting records for the show. as well as interviews and photographs for the magazine.«
Reggae Quarterly published eight issues over that period of time featuring such artists as Josie Wales, Charlie Chaplin, U Roy, Yellowman, Supercat, Early B, Sugar Minott, Augustus Pablo, Burning Spear, The Roots Radics, Cocoa Tea, Harry J, George Phang, and many more. Out of this writing, grew the book, King Jammys which was published originally by Black Star in Helsinki, Finland in 1989, and later by ECW Press in Canada. The project was originally designed as an article for Ray Hurford’s Small Axe magazine, but it got too big. So, Ray suggested it might make a better book and contacted the late Tero Kaski in Finland whose company had published other small press classics like a book on Volcano Sound.
In the meantime, Beth’s photos have appeared on countess album and CD covers, and in books and magazines internationally.
After taking a 15 year break from reggae, spent working mainly with the Asperger’s Syndrome community, Beth is back in the reggae field, writing articles for magazines like Natty Dread in France and working on a new book
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