If you want to read up on the history then Lloyd Bradley's "Bass Culture" is all but unimprovable as is David Katz' "Soild Foundation". Should be easy enough to get both through a library. The Rough Guide is very good too.I would recommend my sleeve notes for The Front Line box set but reading back twelve years later I think they are probably a bit shit. Not least because I completely forgot, in a UK context, about the under rated and unsung UB40. Rookie hipster mistake!