Junior Murvin
b. c.1949, Port Antonio, Jamaica, West Indies. Murvin first recorded for producers Sonia Pottinger and Derrick Harriottin the early '70s as Junior Soul (not to be confused with the New York-based reggae singer of the same name). Solomon, a traditional Jamaican air, sold fairly well in 1972, but shortly after, Murvin vanished from the public eye. In 1976 he turned up, guitar in hand, at Lee Perry's Black Ark studio in Kingston, with a song that he had been working on for some time. No-one was aware that this singer, now calling himself Junior Murvin, had ever recorded before, but Perry liked what he heard and within weeks Police And Thieves was the biggest-selling Jamaican record of the year. Its popularity crossed the Atlantic to the UK and, released on Island, became the anthem for that year's violence-troubled Notting Hill Carnival. Perry recorded another couple of versions of the rhythm before issuing a strong album of the same title in 1977. The single was finally a UK chart hit in 1978. Junior's Curtis Mayfield-styled falsetto (he covered Mayfield's People Get Ready and Closer Together) worked well with Perry's silky, complex arrangements, but the pair never put together another album; Perry was about to crack up and demolish his studio. Murvin moved on to work with Joe Gibbs, Mikey Dread, Henry Junjo Lawes and Prince Jammy, but he has never quite captured the moment as Police And Thieves did. Murvin's influence spilled over into rock, however, with Police And Thieves right-on rude-boy image suiting the Clash's first album.