Edmond Montague "Eddy" Grant
(born 5 March 1948 in Plaisance, Guyana [1]) is a British reggae musician.
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EDDY GRANT TICKETS
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Childhood
When he was still a young boy, his parents relocated to
London,
UK, where he settled. He lived in
Kentish Town and went to school at the
Acland Burghley Secondary Modern at
Tufnell Park.
Career
He had his first
number-one hit in 1968, when he was the lead
guitarist and main
songwriter of the
group The Equals, with his song "
Baby Come Back".
[2] The tune also later topped the
UK Singles Chart again when it was
covered by
Pato Banton. Another Equals' hits included "Viva Bobby Joe". In 1971, Grant went home to Guyana following a collapsed lung and heart infection which put him out of action at the beginning of that year.
[3] He promptly left The Equals to pursue his
solo career.
Also a shrewd businessman, in 1972 he set up the first
black-owned
recording studio in
Europe, Coach House, and began recording his own music on his Ice Records.
[4] As a result, he is thought to be the only major recording artist who owns the rights to all his songs. In 1979, Grant scored a hit "Living on the Frontline" under a distribution deal with
Columbia Records, which bought the masters to all of his recordings with the Equals and set up a record pressing plant.
In 1981, Grant relocated to
Barbados and built the Blue Wave
studio complex. Around this time, Grant moved Ice Records distribution in Europe to
RCA Records and recorded the
album,
Killer on the Rampage
. The relationship with RCA proved particularly fruitful as the album would spawn his hits "
I Don't Wanna Dance" and "
Electric Avenue". Both of these tracks made the UK Top five, with "I Don't Wanna Dance" going to number one in the UK chart in September / October 1982.
In 1991, Grant was the host of the first annual
Caribbean Music Awards at
Harlem’s
Apollo Theater in
New York.
Notably, he openly used his songwriting for political purposes, especially against the then-current
apartheid regime of
South Africa.
The Clash recorded a version of "
Police on My Back" for their
Sandinista!
triple album.
Later, Grant shifted his focus to Ice Records, and began reissuing recordings by
calypso and
soca artists, such as the
Mighty Sparrow,
Roaring Lion,
Lord Melody and others. In 1993 Grant returned to his native Guyana to act in
Darrell Wasyk's
Mustard Bath (film).
Grant has been married for 40 years and has four children. He currently splits his time between his studio, label and the Pepperpot Nightclub.
In 2008 Grant undertook his first UK tour for more than twenty years, playing
London's Bush Hall, Brighton Concorde 2, Cambridge Junction, Norwich Waterfront, and the Manchester Academy 2. He also performed at the
Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute in London's
Hyde Park, and at
Glastonbury,
Oxegen and
T in the Park.
He still makes use of any opportunity to voice political concerns. However, during an appearance on
British radio on 20 June 2008, he would not be drawn on the subject of the plight of the
Zimbabwean people, citing a distrust of the way the situation has been reported in the press.
He played at the closing ceremony of the
Indian Premier League in South Africa on 24 May 2009.
Musical achievements
Category:Articles with sections that need to be turned into prose
- In 1982, his solo recording of "I Don't Wanna Dance" spent three weeks at Number One in the UK Singles Chart. He scored a Top Ten album in the same year, with Killer on the Rampage
.
- "Electric Avenue" was both a UK and US number 2 hit single in 1983, selling over a million copies. [5] Plus, a later remix of the song was a UK Top Ten hit again in 2001.
- In 1984, Grant had a minor hit single in the U.S. with his original song written to accompany the Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner film, Romancing the Stone
. Despite being commissioned by the film's producers, all but the guitar solo would be cut from the film during its final edit.
- His later single, "Gimme Hope Jo'anna", during the apartheid regime ("Joanna" stood for Johannesburg, South Africa) was a song about apartheid in that country, and was subsequently banned by it. Lyrics include:
::
"Well Joanna she runs a country, she runs in Durban and the Transvaal.
:She makes a few of her people happy, she don't care about the rest at all.
:She got a system they call apartheid, it keeps a brother in subjection.
:But maybe pressure will make Joanna see, how everybody could live as one."
[6]
This song was later adapted for use on a commercial for Yop, a commercially available yoghurt-based drink, with the altered lyrics "Give me Yop (me mama?) when the morning come".
- Other tracks, such as "War Party" were also political protest songs. "The only decoration is the one upon the graves"
. [7] "Living on the Front Line" was another. "They got me living on top of my existence, oh appreciating my resistance"
.
- In 2001, Eddy Grant, The Greatest Hits
was released. He also appeared at that year's Party in the Park concert.
- On 29 June 2008 Eddy Grant performed at the Glastonbury Festival.
In the late 1970s Eddy Grant visited Nigeria and associated himself with local Nigerian recording artists. He recorded a single called "Omoge Wa", sung in a local Nigeria dialect (Yoruba). This particularly endeared him to the local Nigerian audience.
Ice Records
Grant set up his own recording company,
Ice Records, but more recently has returned to the
West Indies from
London, choosing
Barbados as a more realistic venue for a recording company, rather than his country of origin. He has also
produced for
Sting,
Mick Jagger and
Elvis Costello.
Ice Records is distributed in the
United States by Select-O-Hits of
Memphis,
Tennessee.
Discography
UK chart singles
- "Living on the Front Line" - 1979 - #11
- "Do You Feel My Love" - 1980 - #8
- "Can't Get Enough of You" - 1981 - #13
- "I Love You, Yes I Love You" - 1981 - #37
- "I Don't Wanna Dance" - 1982 - #1 (US #53)
- "Electric Avenue" - 1983 - #2 (US #2)
- "Living on the Front Line" / "Do You Feel My Love" - re-issue - 1983 - #47
- "War Party" - 1983 - #42
- "Till I Can't Take Love No More" - 1983 - #42
- "Romancing the Stone" - 1984 - #52 (US #26)
- "Boys in the Street" - 1984 - #78
- "Gimme Hope Jo'anna" - 1988 - #7
- "Harmless Piece of Fun" - 1988 - #90
- "Put a Hold on It" - 1988 #79
- "Walking on Sunshine" - 1989 - #63
- "Electric Avenue" - remix - 2001 - #5
- "Walking on Sunshine" - remix - 2001 - #57
[8]
Albums
| Year
| Album Title
| U.S. [9]
| UK |
| 1977
| Message Man
| -
| -
|
| 1979
| Walking on Sunshine
| -
| -
|
| 1980
| Love in Exile
| -
| -
|
| 1981
| Live at Notting Hill
| -
| -
|
| 1981
| Can't Get Enough
| -
| 39
|
| 1982
| Killer on the Rampage
| 10
| 7
|
| 1984
| Going for Broke
| 64
| -
|
| 1986
| Born Tuff
| -
| -
|
| 1988
| File Under Rock
| -
| -
|
| 1990
| Barefoot Soldier
| -
| -
|
| 1992
| Paintings of the Soul
| -
| -
|
| 1993
| Soca Baptism
| -
| -
|
| 2001
| Hearts and Diamonds
| -
| -
|
| 2006
| Reparation
| -
| -
|
Box sets / Compilations
- 1984 All The Hits
(K-tel) - UK #23
- 1989 Walking on Sunshine (The Best of Eddy Grant)
(Parlophone Records) - UK #20
- 1997 Greatest Hits
(EMI)
- 1999 Hits From the Frontline
- 1999 Hit Collection
(Wagram Records)
- 2000 Greatest Hits Collection
- 2000 Hit Collection
(Ice Records)
- 2001 The Greatest Hits
(Sire Records) - UK #3
- 2001 Greatest Hits
(WEA International)
- 2008 The Very Best of Eddy Grant - Road To Reparation
(Greenheart Music)
Parody
- "Flatbush Avenue", a parody of "Electric Avenue", was recorded by "Weird Al" Yankovic. [10]
- "Gimme Dope Joanna", a skit on "Gimme Hope Joanna", was recorded by the German satirical heavy metal band, J.B.O.
- "Give Me Yop! Me Mamma", a parody of "Give Hope Joanna", was used in an advertisement for Yop.
- "Electric Avenue" spoof by Lenny Henry.
See also
- List of black Britons
- List of disco artists (A-E)
- List of Eastern Caribbean people
- List of reggae musicians
- Afro-Guyanese
- Culture of Guyana
- Music of Guyana
- Caribbean music in the United Kingdom
References
- Allmusic biography
- "Baby Come Back" on www.everyhit.com detailing its UK chart performance
- NME Rock 'N' Roll Years
- Caribbean Hall of Fame
- 80smusiclyrics.com mini-biography
- Seeklyrics.com - "Gimme Hope Jo'anna" lyrics
- Seeklyrics.com - "War Party" lyrics
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- Title Unavailable
- "Weird Al" Yankovic: Concert Setlists