The legendary black British artist, activist, bandleader and label owner, Eddy Grant celebrates his 76th birthday and nearly 60 year career with the release of his most seminal and globally acclaimed multi-platinum selling album ‘Killer On The Rampage’. The entire album, with a rare alternative cover artwork, is now officially available for the first time ever to Eddy’s fans and a new generation of listeners around the world on streaming and digital services, a staggering 42 years on from its original release.
Eddy Grant is one of a kind, a black British artist with a nearly 6-decade career that has been hailed as a pioneer of British black music, released a staggering 15 albums and achieved five UK Top 10 singles, playing most of the instruments on his records. What sets him apart has been his uncompromising and unapologetic artistry. Physical copies of his music have become rarities, with cover versions and unofficial bootlegs rife across the internet. Until now, none of Eddy’s massive catalogue has been available digitally on streaming services. The digital release of ‘Killer On The Rampage’, his sixth and most commercially successful album, represents a milestone in an epic career. When it was released at the end of 1982, ‘Killer On The Rampage’ hit the Top 10 in the US and the UK, and featured the international hits ‘Electric Avenue’, a No.2 hit in UK and US, and ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’, which reached No.1 in the UK, firmly establishing Eddy as a trans-Atlantic pop star.
‘Killer On The Rampage’ is a musically adventurous album, a potent combination of reggae, pop, rock, funk, disco and new wave across ten tracks, which Eddy plays every instrument on, underscored by his phenomenal songwriting and pop sensibilities. He penned ‘Electric Avenue’ as a protest song after the street in Brixton where the riots took place, and ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ expresses Eddy’s farewell to Britain being a land of class and colour divisions.
Eddy Grant said “Following the worldwide success of the single ‘Do You Feel My Love’ and album ‘Can’t Get Enough’, I made the decision to leave the UK. That one decision sparked a chain of events that lead to the creation of the album we know today as ‘Killer On The Rampage’. In the 8 hours it took to travel from London to Barbados, my luggage containing songs for my next album were lost and never to be found. So not only did we have to build a recording studio, renovate a historic house, but I had to also create a whole new album, as the record company was losing patience. Who knows what the lost songs would have ended up being called, or what fruit they would have borne. The fact that ‘Killer On The Rampage’ was grown under such harsh conditions, like the grapes grown in tough terrain, it’s said they make the finest wine, 42 years later I am forced to agree. With every remix, cover version, commercial, film, TV show, stage play, video game, and now digital outlet that uses the songs, new life is breathed into my creations. I give thanks.”
‘Killer On The Rampage’ is released via ICE RECORDS and distribution/rights management partner !K7 Music. Later this year, Eddy will also reissue his debut album from 1975, ‘Hello Africa’, as he gradually rolls out his entire 15 album catalogue for fans to enjoy on streaming services for the very first time.
Born in Plaisance, Guyana, Eddy moved to London in 1960 at the age of 12. Eddy co-founded pop group The Equals in 1965, aged just 17, it was the first multi-racial band to achieve international acclaim with hits like UK No. 1 ‘Baby, Come Back’, ‘Police On My Back’ and ‘Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys’. The Equals hits have achieved global success, with covers by artists like UB40, The Clash, Green Day, Bonnie Raitt, The Specials and even Lethal Bizzle. By 1970, Eddy had founded his own label, Torpedo, and five years later Eddy released a debut solo album ‘Hello Africa’. 1979 saw the release of ‘Walking On Sunshine’, one of the most pivotal yet over-looked albums of that decade, which included the dancefloor classic ‘Living On The Frontline’. ‘Walking On Sunshine’ was later covered by Arthur Baker’s Rockers Revenge and got to No.1 in the US and No.4 in the UK in 1982. Eddy’s single ‘Do You Feel My Love’, reached No.3 in the UK, gave Eddy his first UK Top 10 single and was taken from ‘Can’t Get Enough’ the album.
Following the success of ‘Killer On The Rampage’ in 1982 came the album ‘Going For Broke’, which featured in the soundtrack of the Michael Douglas movie ‘Romancing The Stone’. The mid ‘80s saw Eddy at the forefront of Caribbean music, recording music with Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow from his Blue Wave Studios. By the early 90’s Grant debuted a new genre and philosophy that he named Ringbang, which he distinguished apart from Soca and Calypso. ‘Gimme Hope Jo’anna’ in 1988 was a UK Top 10 single and a soulful plea to South African’s white ruling elite to dismantle apartheid. In 2001, his Ringbang remix of ‘Electric Avenue’ reached number 5 in the UK, giving him his fifth UK Top 10 single. In 2023, Eddy was inducted into the Camden Music Walk Of Fame. His music continues to connect with intergenerational audiences around the world.
