Roy Livingstone Plummer (born c. 1948), better known as King Sounds, is a Jamaican
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...
musician who released several albums from late 1970s onwards.
Biography
Born Roy Livingstone Plummer, c.1948 in
Saint Elizabeth Parish
Saint Elizabeth, one of Jamaica's largest parishes, is located in the southwest of the island, in the county of Cornwall. Its capital, Black River, is located at the mouth of the Black River, the widest on the island.
History
Saint Elizabet ...
, Jamaica, King Sounds emigrated to the UK in 1964, having already made some recordings in Jamaica.
[Butaumocho, Rita (2010)]
Zimbabwe: King Sounds Coming
, ''The Herald'', 5 November 2010, retrieved 2 July 2011[Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p. 154-5] Known simply as 'Sounds', he acted as an
MC for reggae shows, and impressed
so much that Ellis gave him the name 'King Sounds'.
His debut single was "
Rock and Roll Lullaby", released in 1975.
[Moskowitz, David V. (2006) ''Caribbean Popular Music: an Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall'', Greenwood Press, , p. 167-8] He formed the Grove Music collective in
Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue.
It is also a name given t ...
with Mikey Campbell.
He performed regularly with artists such as
Aswad
Aswad are a British reggae group, noted for adding strong R&B and soul influences to the reggae sound. They have been performing since the mid-1970s, having released a total of 21 albums. Their UK hit singles include the number one " Don't T ...
and at the
Notting Hill Carnival, his band the Israelites featuring Clifton "Bigga" Morrison,
Eddie "Tan Tan" Thornton, and Michael "Bammi" Rose.
After two albums on Grove Music and his own KSI label, he was signed by
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, an ...
for the 1981 album ''Forward''. He released further albums into the 1990s on his own King & I label.
Discography
*''Come
Zion
Zion ( he, צִיּוֹן ''Ṣīyyōn'', LXX , also variously transliterated ''Sion'', ''Tzion'', ''Tsion'', ''Tsiyyon'') is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole (see Na ...
Side Happiness'' (1979), Grove Music
*''Moving Forward'' (1980), KSI – with the
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
*''Forward'' (1981),
Island
An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...
– with the Israelites
*''There Is a Reward'' (1985), King Sounds – with the Israelites
*''Strength to Strength'' (1988), King & I
*''I Shall Sing'' (1992), King & I
*"I Don't Want to Hurt You", single
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:King Sounds
Jamaican reggae singers
Living people
People from Saint Elizabeth Parish
Year of birth missing (living people)