In the two decades he lived in Canada, Leroy Sibbles helped energize the country\u2019s reggae scene by recording numerous songs and performing on countless shows.<\/p>\n
The former lead singer for The Heptones, who turns 73 in January, recently returned from Toronto where he visited family. He has great memories of his life there. \u201cIt was good. It was a different environment, new experience that challenged me and I was\u00a0successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While he won several awards and played bass on Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn\u2019s massive 1979 hit song, \u2018Wondering Where the Lions Are\u2019,<\/em><\/strong> a certain venue holds a special place in Sibbles\u2019 heart.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved playing at the TIT For TAT Club\u00a0at Queen and Spadina. We used to play that club, me and the Leroy Sibbles Band, Thursday to Saturday, packing that place tightly with every nation rocking to the sweet reggae music coming from a seasoned singer and his tight six-piece band. Pure magic,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n Born in Kingston, Sibbles made his name in the 1960s with The Heptones which also included Earl Morgan and Barry Llewellyn. They scored a flurry of hits including \u2018Book of Rules\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018I Shall be Released\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018Party Time\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018Sea of Love\u2019<\/em><\/strong> and \u2018Why did You Leave\u2019<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Sibbles also excelled as a bass guitarist, playing on songs like The Cables\u2019 \u2018Baby Why\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018Sata Masa Gana\u2019<\/em><\/strong> and \u2018Declaration of Rights\u2019<\/em><\/strong> by The Abyssinians, \u2018Skylarking\u2019<\/em><\/strong> and \u2018Mr. Bassie\u2019<\/em><\/strong> by Horace Andy and \u2018Queen of The Minstrel\u2019<\/em><\/strong> by Cornel Campbell.<\/p>\n Sibbles returned to Jamaica in the mid-1990s after living in Canada for over 20 years, helping to develop that country’s reggae scene. He has made it a duty to bring the dancehall generation up to speed on his legacy.\u00a0 “It is important to reach younger audiences as they represent the future and they should also understand the history,” said Sibbles, who was part of the 1990s rocksteady revival.<\/p>\n On November 26, Leroy Sibbles headlines the Stars R Us show at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre in Kingston. The show will also feature Derrick Morgan, Ken Boothe, Johnny Clarke, George Nooks, Gem Myers, Big Youth and Wesrok.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the two decades he lived in Canada, Leroy Sibbles helped energize the country\u2019s reggae scene by recording numerous songs and performing on countless shows. The former lead singer for The Heptones, who turns 73 in January, recently returned from Toronto where he visited family. He has great memories of his life there. \u201cIt was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240],"tags":[82],"class_list":["post-4779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadian-news","tag-featured"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4802,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions\/4802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}