I have heard a rumor that Tuff Gong is the last running vinyl pressing plant in Jamaica. I have had no luck finding out if this is true, but I did stumble upon a really cool write up on Gearslutz about working in the Federal Records pressing plant. It's credited to Graeme Goodall who was the Chief Engineer. Here is a quote:
At one time we ran out of the pure wood soap used to clean the masters..I think the Ja. Govt put a ban on importing soap as Colgate Palmolive had opened a soap factory on Foreshore Road. Nothing daunted, I grabbed about a dozen L.P's from the factory, took a sample of the wood soap and located the chief chemist at CP, and asked him to analyze it and see if he had something similar. Guess what....they used a coconut based oil
But WAIT, there is more. Searching for Grame Goodall pulled up a 5 page interview with him at reggae-vibes.com. This interview is a who's who of reggae artists and loaded with first hand accounts of the Jamaican music scene going all the way back to the 1950s. This is a must-read interview.
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