Biography
Junior first
began singing in a local band at the age of 14, encouraged by
the
Sounds of
doo-wop, early Motown, soul and reggae.
As the years
passed however, the hobby became a full time musical career and Junior realised
that his talents lay in writing and performing his own music. His first
recordings date back to a cover of the ever green song “Nice and Slow “by Jessie
Green, then the song which got him noticed “Hot up and Heated”.
Initially signed
to Phonogram Records, 1982 saw Junior hit the chart heights with the infectious
anthem ‘Mama Used To Say’ which
became a transatlantic hit, prompting Junior’s appearance as the first black
British artist on Soul Train and earning him Billboard’s ‘Best Newcomer Award’ presented
by the legendary James Brown. The U.S. hit, ‘Too late’ which reached no 8 and his
auspicious debut album ‘Ji’
followed.
Junior’s second
album ‘Inside Looking Out’ was
released in 1983 featuring the U.S. hit ‘Communication Breakdown’. Travelling
throughout the U.S. for promotion, Junior teamed up
with the renowned producer Arif Mardin, who was later to contribute tracks to
Junior’s third album ‘Acquired
Taste’ released in 1984. That same year Junior wrote ‘Do You Really Want My Love?’ for the multi
platinum selling Beverly Hills Cop
sound track album. At this time he was subsequently enjoying success
as a songwriter with his compositions recorded by artists such as Phyllis Hyman
and Sheena Easton.
What followed in
1987 was Junior’s biggest European hit, ‘Another Step’, a duet with Kim Wilde,
which reached number 6 in the U.K charts. A string of performances including a
tour with Wilde as opening act for Michael Jackson took
place.
Towards the end
of 1987 Junior completed ‘Sophisticated
Street’, his fourth and last album for
Polygram. Recorded in Minneapolis with producer Monte Moir and in L.A. with
Stewart Levine, the track ‘Yes If You Want
Me’ emerged as the album’s biggest hit single, providing Junior with
yet another top 20 U.S. R&B entry in the Spring of
1988.
Taking time off
to re-evaluate his direction, Junior felt he needed to enhance his creative
control and went on to work with his choice of producers namely; Alan Glass,
Blacksmith, Simon Law (ex Soul II Soul), Robbie Taylor and Greg Smith. From this
collaboration of writers/producers came the album ‘Stand Strong’, released on MCA. This
heralded as Junior’s most focused work since his debut album. Mixing an
exciting variety of music, the album included such outstanding tracks as the
sublime’ Morning Will Come’ and
the nasty groove of ‘Step
Off’.
Although
critically acclaimed by all who heard it, Junior felt the album should have
achieved more. “Both I and the record company (MCA) felt that the songs on
‘Stand Strong’ were just too good
to be ignored and so I wanted to do something to reintroduce them to a new
audience. Finally we rested on the idea of re-working the tracks and producing
a new album, which would include 6 new tracks so as to give something more to
those people who bought ‘Stand
Strong’.
The album aptly
entitled ‘Renewal’ was released in
November 1992 on MCA and it saw Junior continue the relaxed theme of ‘Morning Will Come’ but taking it into the
next phase. As Junior said, “on this album I became a lot more spiritual and
lyrically I felt I became much stronger.
On the ‘Renewal’ album are innovative tracks such
as ‘Never Gonna Let You Walk Away’, You Don’t
Have To Look Far’ and ‘Why’. Junior Once again demonstrates his
ability to reach out and appeal to a wide cross-section of
people.
Junior went on
to release a recreation of the Detroit Spinners and Dionne Warwick classic,
‘Then Came You’ in 1992. This
achieved national top 30 chart success.
In 1995 Junior
contributed to that infamous first album by The ‘Lighthouse Family’ simply entitled
‘Ocean Drive’. “The
titles, the titles I hear you ask. Well they are ‘Keep Remembering’ and ‘What Could Be Better’. This album sold
over 5,000,000 (five million) copies worldwide.
That same year
Junior decided to set up his own Label StepOff Music, “I was meeting so many
talented people that it just made sense plus there were things that I wanted to
say and new I couldn’t say while being signed to a Major. The following year
saw the release of ‘The Best of
Junior’ album on Polygram. Here they were to capitalise on Junior’s
notoriety as a brilliant songwriter/producer’ singer once again. Junior released
‘Honesty’ his first album on his own
label in Japan and commanded sales to the tune
of 30,000 (thirty thousand) copies, this album was released in the U.K in
January 1997.
Being that all
giving natured person, Junior decided it was time to continue spreading his
style around so during the same year he leaned more towards production. This
saw him doing more work with new artistes on Sony and Warner record
labels.
Phillip
Bailey of Earth Wind and Fire used one of Junior’s
songs entitled ‘Anything Is
Possible’. The first single from his solo CD in Japan this
reached sales in the region of 30,000 (thirty thousand) the album was released
in the U.S in June 1998.
Junior’s song
writing skills have in no way been left untapped and while he has been out of
the limelight, he has continued to be prolific, penning songs for a number of
artistes, including Maxi Priest, Penny Ford (ex Snap), Amy Stewart, and
RubyTurner.To-day we have such artistes as Heavy D, Warren.G, Cam’rom and Brand
Nubians taking a lick of the classics’ Mama
Used To Say and Too Late’.
A pioneer in his
field, Junior was the first artist to create and present
British
based black
music to audiences outside the U.K 25 years ago.
Since
Then he has
consistently produced a number of important albums which
have
Charted his
artistic growth and development. Junior demonstrates his
unique
Talent for
well-crafted and beautifully sung songs, which transcend
categories
Simply drawing
in and delighting any audience.
In 1999 he
teamed up with T.V Presenter Richard Blackwood, who is his Nephew, to re-record
Mama Used to Say as Mama Who Da Man. This was released in the
spring of 2000 giving Junior his biggest hit to date as a Producer reaching No 3
in the UK National Chart. There then
followed the Top 10 hit 1234 Get With The
Wicked and Top 20 hit Someone
There for Me and the album You’d
Love To Hate This.
What of the
future for our jovial genius you ask;
“I just want to
touch a lot of people with my music,” he says. Junior is full
of
Surprises for
those of you who dare to treat your ears to a wide
ranging
Sphere of great
music, you have already followed him into the millennium and he won’t let you
down. “I believe I am here for a reason and my next project which is a New Album
my first in 10 years will show that.
“The Prophet
Rides Again”.
New Album “OCEANS
“
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