Winston Groovy
Winston Tucker, better known as Winston Groovy, was born to sing. He was the third of four brothers born in the heart of Kingston, Jamaica. But whilst still in his early childhood, he knew that his one love was music, and he actively pursued his ambition to be a singer and to perform in front of the crowds in the clubs. The jukeboxes and 'R&B' broadcasts from the USA soon made their mark on him and influenced his style of singing, but he realised that Reggae would be his main style.
In the early 1960's, Winston made a move to Birmingham , England and it wasn't very long before he joined a band, The Ebonite’s, whilst continuing his studies. As lead singer and songwriter he toured England and France with the band, but made no recordings. This was soon to change after a move to London in 1969. There he met the Ska legend Laurel Aitkin, who quickly put Winston's voice onto vinyl. As a team, they enjoyed hits with " Island in the Sun", "Free the People", "Yellow Bird" and "Funky Chicken".
Later, Winston became recognised as a recording artiste and songwriter for the Pama Label, now known as Jet Star.
Winston next joined Trojan Records, and started to mingle with artistes like Desmond Dekker, John Holt, Ken Booth, Bob & Marcia and other well established performers. It was here that he recorded hits such as "So Easy" and "I'm Going Back".
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Soon afterwords, Winston met up with Eddy Grant of The Equals fame. From this encounter came the opportunity to record for Eddy's Torpedo label. The result was the recording of one of his compositions, the unforgettable "Please Don't Make Me Cry", which was first released in 1970 and sold close to 60,000 copies. Winston still continues to be recognized by this great track, which also became a massive worldwide hit for reggae band UB40 in 1983.
Winston's popularity spread to Africa , and he delighted thousands with tours there in 1978 and 1979.
Producer Tony Hatch soon recruited Winston's talents, and the resulting single "Something On The Side" hit the British charts in 1981.
In 1985, Winston recorded the reggae version of the Commodores hit "Night Shift" on the Jive Records label. This catchy track became a monster hit in Belgium , Germany and Holland , and reached to No.83 in the British charts. The popularity of this single prompted Winston's tour of Europe .
A few years later, in 1990, Winston set up the W.G.Records label, on which he produced and released the albums "Talking Love", "Please Don't Make Me Cry" and "Coming On Strong".
In 1998, reggae band UB40 invited Winston to their Birmingham recording studios to add his voice to their version of his song during the filming of Melvin Bragg's documentary entitled "UB40 - Story of Reggae". The program was screened in Britain early in 1999 on The South Bank Show.
Winston was a guest on the UB40 Labour of Love 3 tour 2000, where he appeared with the group at the Brixton Academy and Wembley Arena performing their hit 'Please Don't Make Me Cry', which Winston Groovy wrote.
Winston has recently recorded one of UB40's songs for their forthcoming 'Fathers' album, which was one of UB40's early hits.
Winston’s latest album is called 'Step By Step', which includes covers of songs that Winston thinks are outstanding. Take UB40's 'I Love it When You Smile' and 'Can You Keep A Secret', which may very well be the new single. This new album is released on Winston’s very own label, WG Records and distributed by Jet Star. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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