DUKE Vin, largely recognised as the man who introduced sound systems to the United Kingdom, is among the honorees for this year’s Tribute To The Greats.

The annual show, now in its 18th year, takes place August 1 at the Chinese Benevolent Association’s headquarters in St Andrew.

Music producers Chris Blackwell, Lee Gopthal and Sonny Roberts; singers Laurel Aitken and Owen Gray; and deejay Dennis Alcapone will also be honoured.

Kingsley Goodison, whose King Omar Promotions produces the annual event, considers Duke Vin an unsung hero of Jamaican dancehall.

“The sound system is really the birth of Jamaican music, and for him as a black man to go to England and introduce it is really an achievement,” he said.

Born Vincent George Forbes in central Kingston, Duke Vin was a protégé of Thomas ‘Tom the Great Sebastian’ Wong, a pioneer sound system operator.

In 1955, one year after stowing away to the UK on a ship, he started Duke Vin the Tickler’s, the country’s first sound system.

Three years later, he was involved in the UK’s first ‘sound clash’ with another Jamaican, Count Suckle.

As Jamaican music (ska, rocksteady) took off there during the 1960s, Duke Vin’s reputation as an ‘elder’ in the West Indian community grew.

He was also a co-founder of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1973. Duke Vin died in 2012 at age 84.

Blackwell launched Island Records in 1959 along with fellow producer Leslie Kong and Australian engineer/producer Graeme Goodall. That company helped launch the international careers of Bob Marley, U2 and Melissa Etheridge.

Gopthal was a founder of Trojan Records, another influential British label that released a number of major reggae albums and songs, including John Holt’s 1000 Volts of Holt and Everything I Own, by Ken Boothe.

Roberts, originally from Manchester, is the first West Indian to operate a recording studio in the UK. He opened it in London in 1961; through his Planetone and Orbitone labels, he helped popularise Afro Beat, lovers’ rock and soca.

Goodison has gone for theme events for the last two ‘tributes’. In 2013, he acknowledged the contribution of Australians to reggae; last year, he cited the impact of the Chinese.