Miss Pat: The Chinese-Jamaican matriarch of reggae

In the late 1950s, Patricia Chin – aka Miss Pat – abandoned a career in nursing and, with her husband Vincent, started selling old jukebox records out of a grocery store. Their business moved to downtown Kingston and would grow into Randy’s Record Mart, Jamaica’s most famous record store. Upstairs, Vincent set up Studio 17 and worked with some of reggae’s biggest stars – Bob Marley and the Wailers, Lee ’Scratch’ Perry, Alton Ellis and John Holt. But political instability in the 1970s would force them to flee their beloved home. Miss Pat, with just a few dollars, had to rebuild her life and her business. Now, her family runs VP Records, one of the world’s largest reggae and dancehall labels. Her book is called Miss Pat: My Reggae Journey. (Episode first broadcast in October, 2021)

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Maryam Maruf

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(Photo: A black and white photo of Miss Pat as a young woman, seated on a wooden chair indoors. She has shoulder-length dark hair with a fringe and wears a striped sleeveless top and a pendant necklace. She looks directly at the camera with a calm, composed expression. Credit: VP Records)