EASY STAR RECORDS 2009 IN REVIEW

2009 was a great year for Easy Star Records. Here's a quick recap of some highlights.

We released four new albums, Easy Star All-Stars' Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band, John Brown's Body's Re-Amplify EP, and two albums from two new artists on our label, The Black Seeds' Solid Ground, and Tommy T's The Prester John Sessions.

Lonely Hearts hit number one on the Billboard Reggae Chart and reached the top 200 twice. It was the 8th best selling reggae release of the year in the US, followed at #23 by Dub Side of the Moon and #49 by Radiodread. John Brown's Body's Amplify also was a top 100 seller for the year.

The Easy Star All-Stars continued to bring their great music all over the globe, with the Lonely Hearts World Tour playing 125 shows in 25 countries on 6 different continents (the band still seems unable to find a place to play in Antartica!). Highlights included three shows on three different stages over three days at Glastonbury in June, which resulted in the band's first ever UK Festival Award nomination; an appearance on Italian national television during the San Remo Festival in February; plus first ever appearances in Japan, Australia, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, United Arab Emirates and more.

John Brown's Body was as active on the road; they played their first international shows in October and November, when they joined Easy Star All-Stars for a great 2 week tour of the UK and then teamed up with The Black Seeds in New Zealand for a few more weeks. The Black Seeds made their North American debut in September, opening for John Brown's Body on a US tour. Tommy T spent most of the year touring with his main job, as bassist of Gogol Bordello, and is looking forward to putting his band on the road to support his incredible release.

Michael G was also active, doing remixes for Rebelution, Umphrey's McGee and Tommy T.

We also launched two new apps for the Easy Star All-Stars with Mobbase and Zoozbeat in December (look out for official news on those in early January).

Thanks to all of Easy Star's great fans for making 2009 such a successful year for the label and its bands. We couldn't have done it without you and we can’t wait to get back to it in 2010.