About Jimmy Lindsay
Hometown
Kingston, Jamaica
Born
1950
Genre
Reggae
b. 1950, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. At the age of nine Lindsay and his family relocated to the UK. His first venture into music began in 1965 with a soul group named the Healers, followed by a short term with the Nighthawks. Other ventures included a spell with the rock band Pure Medicine, back to soul with the Garments, and notably as a member of the more successful group Cymande. In the early 70s his first recordings surfaced, ‘Tribute To Jimi Hendrix’, and on the Cymande album, Promised Heights. By 1976 he began concentrating on reggae and recorded lead vocals on the sound system hit, ‘What You Gonna Do’. This encouraged Lloyd Coxsone to produce him as a soloist. The first release, ‘Motion’, surfaced through Cactus, followed by ‘Easy’, a cover version of the Commodores hit, on Lloyd’s own Tribesman label. The latter was picked up for release by Island Records, appearing on the revived Black Swan logo. The single’s success led Lindsay to put his energies into his own Music Hive label and, sharing lead vocals with Larry Walker under the collective name of Dambala, they enjoyed a big hit with ‘Zimbabwe’. The song, featuring the lyrics, ‘Crucify Smith and take back Zimbabwe, crucify Smith and take back Namibia, crucify Vorster and take back Anzania’, was released shortly before Bob Marley’s plea for the country then known as Rhodesia. The group comprised a multiracial line-up including members from Nigeria, Guyana, St. Lucia, Barbados and the UK. The group was commissioned by the BBC to record a theme to a six-part current affairs programme, Babylon. Lindsay began to concentrate on his solo career when he signed a contract with the Gem label, and in the autumn of 1979 he released Where Is Your Love, produced by Lloyd Coxsone. To promote the album he toured with his new band Rasuji, including members from Dambala in the line-up. In 1980, he released Children Of Rastafari, which conveyed a more spiritual message, notably on the track ‘It’s Hard (For A Dread To Live In Babylon)’. It was lifted for single release and promoted on a tour of the UK when Lindsay supported Steel Pulse.
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