Sunday Under Covers

with Alton Nehemiah Ellis. Born in 1944, he has been making records since he was fifteen years old, when he and Eddy Perkins cut some r'n'b tracks as Alton and Eddy.

In the 1960s he cut several great rocksteady cuts for both Duke Reid ("Rock Steady", "Cry Tough") and Coxsone Dodd ("I'm Still in Love", "Mad Mad Mad"). His "Sings Rock and Soul" LP on Studio One showcases his best and worst - "Whiter Shade of Pale" does not translate well to a Jamaican beat, but there are some gems on that. He worked with most of the top Jamaican producers, including some of the early seventies "rebel dread" names, cutting "Big Bad Boy" for Keith Hudson, and the storming "I Can't Stand It" with U-Roy for Sonia Pottinger in 1976.

He moved to England in the late seventies, and continued to enjoy success on the "lovers rock" circuit with tunes like "It's Hard to Be A Lover". He dropped out of music for a while, but was rediscovered by Steely and Cleevie in 1992, and worked consistently for many uyears in Europe after that. Last year he was diagnosed with lymph cancer, so I fear he may not be with us much longer.

This is he, from 1972, produced by Joe Gibbs, covering the old Floyd/Cropper classic