ERROL DUNKLEY FOR STARTIME JANUARY 9

Errol Dunkley, one of Jamaica’s “boy wonders”, like Delroy Wilson, Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor, Jacob Miller and Horace Andy, hit the headlines as a youngster,  at eleven years old when he made his recording debut.

The early demand for his talent saw him recording  with most of Jamaica top producers. His debut 1964  recording My Queen was produced by Prince Buster while Joe Gibbs   produced his first hit  You’re Gonna Need Me in 1967.

After blazing a trail in Jamaica in the 1960s, he decided to join other Jamaican hit makers  who were making it big in the United Kingdom; and it proved a good move as he was among   those who enjoyed success in the l970s when reggae ruled in the UK. In fact his biggest hit,  a remake of John Holt’s OK Fred, just missed the UK Top Ten in 1978 and again hit the   spotlight in 1996 when he re-recorded it as a duet with Queen Sister.

Dunkley had already been making great music for over a decade by the time OK Fred hit the UK charts, as evidenced by Please Stop Your Lying, I’m Going Home,   Darling Ooh,    his slow, rocking A Little Way Different recorded for Sonia Pottinger, his Movie Star and It’s Impossible remakes of Delroy Wilson’s Don’t Know Why and It’s Impossible respectively, his outstanding  cover of the Beatles’ You’ll Never Know, and dancehall anthem Black Cinderella.

Although he founded the African Museum label with Gregory Isaacs on which he scored with “Movie Star”, Dunkley left the label and moved to London in 1973.  There  he recorded the album “Sit and Cry” and continued to build a following in the United kingdom and Europe. His first British hit “A Little Way Different” came  in 1974 and was followed by several other releases including “Betcha By Golly Wow” and “Happiness Forget.”

His album credits include “Darling Ooh”, “Errol Again”, “Continually” and “The Best of Errol Dunkley.”

Since returning from the UK, Errol continues to be in the studio, make overseas tours and appear on several local shows. He welcomes the return of the Original Startime and says he’s anxiously awaiting the January 9 edition where he says he’s “going to rock the joint as only Errol Dunkley can”.

This highly anticipated staging of the Original Startime is a Monymusk Plantation Rums premium event in association with Ting, Jamaica Observer, Kool 97FM, Chung’s Catering, Starlight Productions, On Stage TV, Creative Production and Training Center (CPTC), Devon Bourne’s Rubis Service Station, Seals & Engravables, Christar Villas Hotel, Kingston Hireage, Happy Ice, Interlinc Communications … host of the startime.com.jm website and security by Securipro.