Tony Kingston

Anthony Patrick Orlando Mossop was born in Kingston, Jamaica on October 9, 1943. He was singing by eight, and at nine he stood on the stage of the city's Ward Theatre. In 1956 his family moved to London, where he sang in church and took a job in the post room of the Jamaican High Commission.

In the mid-1960s he became lead singer of The Soul Seekers, a gospel group from Calvary Apostolic Church in Camberwell. The group cut an EP for Herald Records, and Mossop drew a following of young women that gospel groups rarely saw. At one 1966 concert in Gravesend, teenage fans mobbed the group. He left in August of that year and began working London churches and clubs under a new name, Tony Kingston.

Decca signed him for a single, and 'Mama Come On Home' backed with 'Agony And Ecstasy' came out in April 1967. It sold poorly, then found a second life years later on the Northern Soul scene. Pye took the next one, 'Master Hand' backed with 'Look Into My Eyes', in October 1967, but it went out to radio as a promo and fans could not find it in the shops.

In 1969, billed as Tony Tribe, he recorded a reggae version of Neil Diamond's 'Red Red Wine' with producer Dandy Livingstone and The Rudies. Trojan's Downtown label issued it with his name misprinted as Tony Tripe. The record reached #46 on the UK Singles Chart, the first British chart entry for the Trojan group, and put him on Top of the Pops. On September 21 he played the first Caribbean Music Festival at Wembley, the first major reggae concert held in Britain. Record Mirror's Charlie Gillett wrote that a failing sound system could not spoil his voice on 'Speak Her Name' and 'Red Red Wine'. A follow-up cover of 'Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got' missed the chart.

Fourteen years later UB40 took 'Red Red Wine' to number one in Britain and the United States. The band knew the song from Tribe's record and had assumed the N. Diamond in the credit was a Jamaican writer.

By then Mossop was long gone from Britain. He settled in Toronto in 1970 as Tony Kingston and worked the club circuit, playing the Friars Tavern and the Broom & Stone, and soon moving up to hotel lounges with a steady band. The CBC brought him into its studios in April 1971 to record four songs at Studio 4-Sound with the Dave Woods Orchestra, produced by Dave Bird and engineered by Ian Jacobson: his own 'Now You're Gone', 'Tongue Tied' and 'People Started Talking', plus Bonnie Dobson's 'You're My Woman'. The session was pressed as CBC Transcription LM-101 for radio stations and was never sold to the public.

His album Tongue Tied came out on Marathon (ALS 330), the budget label run by Jack Boswell's Paragon operation. Kingston produced it himself, backed by Manuel Oliveira on bass, Tony Raposo on guitar, Fernando Tarares on piano and organ, Fansto DaCosta on drums and The Flying Chain on harmony vocals. It is the heaviest record he ever made. Organ and fuzz guitar drive his versions of 'The Letter' and 'Proud Mary', 'Dimples' and 'Teeny Weeny Bit' keep their R&B bounce, and Raposo's instrumental 'Lonely Blues' is pure acid fuzz. Alongside the covers sit his own 'Tongue Tied', 'Now You're Gone' and 'Lookin' Down The Aisle'. Marathon did almost nothing to promote it, and it disappeared. Today it is the most sought-after record in his catalogue.

Yorkville Records president Bill Gilliland caught Kingston at the Friars and signed him. He recorded with British songwriter and producer Roger Cook, and 'I Am A Preacher', written by Cook and Roger Greenaway and backed with their 'What We Need (Is A Great Big Melting Pot)', arrived around the turn of 1972. Riding the gospel mood of the Jesus Movement, it reached #2 on CKVN in Vancouver, #15 on CHUM in Toronto and the Top 30 in Hamilton, and peaked at #65 on the RPM national chart in February. Kama Sutra issued it in the United States as 'I Am The Preacher' with 'Satan's Choice' on the flip, and it made the Top 30 in Rochester, New York. Another Cook and Greenaway song, 'Faith, Hope & Charity', followed in 1972 with 'What We Need' again on the B-side, and stalled.

Kingston moved on to Sweet Plum, distributed in Canada by A&M, where Harry Hinde produced 'What D'you Say' in 1973 and 'Too Heavy To Carry' in 1974, the latter backed with Jimmy Webb's 'The Worst That Could Happen'. In 1978 he wrote, produced and arranged 'Sweet Music' for ADG Records, pressed with the same recording on both sides.

Anthony Mossop was killed in a car accident in 1979 and is buried at Pine Hills Cemetery in Toronto.

-Robert Williston