Nicky Thomas

In the mid-seventies, Jamaican music was considered to be ‘en vogue’ with world music followers, which was probably due to the fleeting major label interest at this time.

Through the punk/reggae connection, the uninitiated discovered already established artists such as Culture, the Mighty Diamonds and the Gladiators.  While this new following championed the major label signings they unbelievably dismissed other recognised acts such as Desmond Dekker, Dandy Livingstone and Nicky Thomas as being too commercial!

What the new soul rebels did not realise was that in buying in to the major label signings they were subscribing to the economics of commercialism.  They wanted to champion a cause, and songs about the oppressed suited their needs, so if a song did not mention Babylon, Marcus Garvey or Haile Selassie it was deemed ‘pop reggae’.

The grassroots supporters watched with amusement as the new followers began to realise that Jamaica was not a third world backwater and that the African Diaspora were able to speak for themselves without the patronising support of new liberals. They were also unaware that the ‘pop reggae’ performer, Nicky Thomas had worked as a labourer on the same building site as the credible Gladiators and played no small part in launching their career in music.

Nicky, like many before him, had come from country and was employed as a labourer where the up-and-coming Gladiators were collectively employed as masons. During his working hours Nicky often sang the song, now recognised as the Gladiators Studio One classic, ‘Hello Carol’, which became their anthem as they re-recorded the song several times throughout their career.  Nicky told Carl Gayle of Black Music that he wrote and taught the lead singer, Albert Griffiths the lyrics to the song which, when he heard the Gladiators perform it on the radio, inspired him to pursue a career in music. 

Nicky wasborn Cecil Thomas on 30^th May 1944, in Fruitful Ville, Portland, Jamaica and lived up to the name of his birthplace having enjoyed a successful career until his mysterious and untimely demise in the 1990s. His break into music came when the one time Jiving Junior, Derrick Harriott produced his song, ‘Run Mr Nigel Run’, the popularity of which led to the singer being briefly known as Mr. Nigel and provided enough money to buy a flat in Kingston.

Another Crystal production from the same session was ‘Come Home’, sometimes known as ‘Gypsy’, but while his work with Derrick Harriott set Nicky on the road to stardom, he was to find greater success with his subsequent association with Joel Gibson a.k.a. Joe Gibbs.

With Gibbs he recorded the forlorn ‘Running Alone’ and ‘Lonesome Feeling’, issued as Cecil Thomas, as well as ‘Danzella’ and a version of the Beatles ‘Let It Be’, that credited were credited to the now familiar Nicky Thomas.  His collaborations with Gibbs resulted in a number of hits, including‘God Bless The Children’, ‘Don’t Touch Me’, ‘Mamas Song’ and the much-loved Jamaican chart topper,  ‘Have a Little Faith’. He also demonstrated his unique vocal style through the innovative ‘Red Eye’, with an attention grabbing intro: ‘hey listen, what’s going on, it is something new‘, before he performed a tale of gravalicious (envious) people.

Around this time, Nicky also recorded a series of soulful cover versions, including Tyrone Davis‘ ‘Turn Back The Hands Of Time’,Brook Benton‘s ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’ (celebrated as the foundation to Prince Buster‘s wicked hit, ‘Big Five’), Joe Simon‘s ‘Moonwalk’, the Guess Who’s‘No Sugar Tonight’ and the traditional folk song made famous by Peter, Paul & Mary, ‘If I Had A Hammer’.   His musical credibility was further enhanced when his songs with Joe Gibbs provided the foundation to classic DJ tunes such as Cat Campbell‘s brilliant echoed version of the latter, performed as ‘Hammering’ and Lizzy‘s take on ‘Turn Back The Hands Of Time’, renamed ‘The Gift Of God’.

In the summer of 1970, Nicky’s interpretation of the Everly Brothers’ ‘Love Of The Common People’ took him to number nine in the UK pop chart, leading to a European tour. While the Everly Brothers originally recorded the song in 1967, it was the Winstons‘ version that inspired Nicky, and his rendering in turn influenced Eric Donaldson to record the song and Lloyd Charmers to release a risqu?? adaptation as ‘Free Grind Ticket’.

In Jamaica the original mix of Nicky’s cut sold a staggering 50,000, while in the UK, the remix, featuring overdubbed strings sold 175,000 copies.  In a 1976, television interview for LWT’s documentary series ‘Aquarius’, he defended the use of overdubs and stated, ‘When I was a little boy they told us that our music was local music and I come to this country to make it international. Because every music can be international’.    

Following the success of his tour, Nicky decided to stay in the UK to promote his album debut, ‘Love Of The Common People’ (TBL 143), that featured tracks previously recorded with Joe Gibbs in Jamaica. The subsequent recording and release of a fine interpretation of Chris Andrews‘ ‘Yesterday Man’ almost took Nicky back into the UK chart having been lifted from his self-produced set, ‘Tell It Like It Is’ (TRL 25). The Cimarons provided the rhythm and re-used it for their version of the song when they performed as part of a studio group known as the Hot Shots, backing Trojan plugger-come-record producer, Clive Crawley.  Like Nicky, the Hot Shots released ‘Yesterday Man’ as a follow up to their pop chart success, (having previously scored with the novelty hit ‘Snoopy Vs The Red Baron’), and were equally unsuccessful in maintaining a pop profile. 

The title track of Nicky’s second album was released in 1971 with the controversial ‘BBC’ on the flip-side that demonstrated his frustration with the derision reggae suffered from Radio One DJs around this time. In the aforementioned interview with LWT he stated, ‘Reggae in this country ‘ as you call it ‘ has been used like a whore ‘ if you know what I mean.  Now the ponce send the whore out in the street ‘ they don’t look after the whores they just send them out and they get the money then bring it back. Nobody don’t put anything into it ‘ not even a good whore.  Because for instance – if I had a whore working for me I’d make sure she look good so she could demand more money. I’m not fussy about money but I come from Jamaica to let our little island music expand’.

His justified grievance was at a time when the only way to hear music of Caribbean origin was through the solitary black radio DJ, Steve Barnard whose ‘Reggae Time’ on Radio London was the sole programme catering for the West Indian community and proved equally popular with white youth.  As Nicky releated to Black Music journalist, Carl Gayle, ‘My Music is just music, there ain’t no black or white music.  You can enjoy whether you’re black, white, pink or blue’.

As we all know, reggae in the early ’70s was considered to be boring, monotonous, bland and a good source of mockery by certain DJs despite gaining healthy sales, even more if the songs made it to the play lists.  Undeterred by the media, Nicky continued to record in a commercial vein scoring minor hits with ‘Images Of You’ and the sublime ‘I’ll Be Waiting’.  He also released ‘Suzanne Beware Of The Devil’ produced by Dandy Livingstone under the guise of Shady Tree Productions.  Unfortunately for Nicky, it was the producer’s own vocal cut that notched a UK Top 20 hit when it was released in 1972.  

Nicky’s association with Dandy resulted in him releasing the first album on Trojan’s, Horse subsidiary named after and including his earlier hit, ‘Images Of You’(HRLP 701).  Also released around this time was the Joe Gibbs produced rarity, ‘Baby Can I Change My Mind’ and a sublime version of ‘Lonely For Your Love’, a song also recorded by an amalgam of the Pioneers and Greyhound, briefly called the Uniques.. 

In 1974, Nicky released a cover version of the Kinks ode to a transvestite ‘Lola’, along with a version of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Only A Child’, that he promoted in a highly acclaimed UK tour.  A group who were to later find fame as Misty In Roots supplied the backing; when he performed to ecstatic audiences and proved to be especially popular with the girls.  The Southall rockers went on to enjoy a high profile with the album, ‘Misty Live At The Counter Eurovision’ that demonstrated why Nicky had more than a little faith in them.  Following the Misty‘s grounding with Nicky, the group were ironically championed by the BBC and went on to record eight sessions for Radio One.

Meanwhile, Nicky maintained his grassroots support, which he confirmed in his interview with LWT, ‘I don’t like the word reggae ‘ I like Jamaican music ‘ my music is for ‘ nurses ‘ the black nurses ‘ the bus conductors ‘ they ‘ after a hard week ‘ they need some sort of entertainment ‘ they just want something to enjoy themselves and that’s what I’m about’.

He was still active at the height of the punk phenomenon and released a tale of his adopted city, ‘London’ along with a chilled version of, ‘What Love Is’ the latter of which he performed at Chalk Farm studios in the ‘Aquarius’ documentary.  Nicky was frequent visitor to the studio and featured at the now abandoned North London landmark on the cover of Trojan’s ‘Reggae Party’ LP (TBL 172), having performed soulful versions of ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’ and ‘Midnight Hour’ (following an animated introduction from the legendary off the wall MC, Count Prince Miller) on Trojan’s first ever live album.

In 1983 the pop singer Paul Young was inspired by Nicky‘s rendition of ‘Love Of The Common People’ to record a version of the song.  Like Nicky the singer had shared a billing with Bob Marley, which may have exposed him to this performer’s Jamaican classic.  In a supporting role to Desmond Dekker, Nicky shared the same stage as Bob at the Sundown Club, Edmonton in 1973 while Young, as part of the band, the Q Tips supported the legend in 1980 at the Crystal Palace Bowl.

Following the revived success of the song, public demand for the original led Trojan to re-release the ‘maxi single’ that also featured ‘Yesterday Man’ and the most requested tune at his live shows, ‘Have A Little Faith’, the track that originally sold in excess of 50,000 copies without being registered on the national chart. The usual tale of specialist outlet sales not being counted resulted in feelings of partiality and led Nicky to record specifically for hardcore reggae fans only.

In his interview with Carl Gayle he stated, ‘I’m not interested if the BBC want to play my songs or not. I lost ??3000.00 (A not insignificant sum of money by today’s standards let alone thirty years ago) trying to make a song to please the BBC. I could have made down to earth reggae and the black people would have bought it. In future I’ll make songs for the black market only’.

But tragically, in 1990, just as interest in his music was gathering momentum, Nicky‘s life came to an abrupt end. The precise circumstances surrounding his death seem confused to this day – the most common account tells of the singer suffering a broken heart and subsequently taking his own life, but whatever the truth, his passing left a gaping hole in the UK reggae scene that remains to be filled.

Although almost 3 decades have passed since his tragic and premature death, his legacy as one of the finest, and best loved singers from the golden age of reggae, will long be remembered.

Stephen Nye