Junior English

Junior English (born Lindel Beresford English, 1951) is a Jamaican-born reggae singer who began his career in the early 1960s before relocating to England.

Biography

English was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1951. He began performing as a teenager and recorded early tracks such as "Fay is Gone" and "My Queen" (a duet with Errol Dunkley) for producer Prince Buster in the early–mid 1960s. He relocated to England in 1964, living at first in Preston then London, where he completed his education. After entering and winning a talent contest organised by the Palmer brothers (of Pama Records), he joined The Magnets, with whom he toured Europe. He then joined The Nighthawks, releasing an album with the group in 1969, Man it's Reggae, before restarting his solo career the same year. He had a string of reggae hits in the early 1970s, working with producer Clement Bushay, but his career was interrupted when he served a six-month prison sentence for driving whilst disqualified. While in prison, he wrote many of the songs that would appear on his debut solo album, The Dynamic Junior English, released in 1974. This was followed in 1976 by The Great Junior English, but his most prolific year would come in 1978, when four albums were released, and he had a Christmas number one on the UK reggae chart with "In Loving You". His success continued through the 1980s, and he set up his own International English label for many of his subsequent releases. In 1985, he contributed to the British Reggae Artists Famine Appeal single "Let's Make Africa Green Again". He continued to perform and record into the 1990s and 2000s, with cover versions of "Queen Majesty", and "Cruising", and the album Mr. Man.