Finley Quaye

Scottish reggae may initially sound like a punch line, but that’s an assumption that was completely and utterly rubbished with the arrival of Finley Quaye. With him, Edinburgh gave us one of the best and definitely one of the most successful reggae artists to have ever come out of the United Kingdom.

However while Quaye may have been born in the Scots capital, he was bought up in Manchester and London as well as the city of his birth. However, despite being educated all over the country he left school without any qualifications, working a variety of odd jobs to make ends meet.

However, music was in his blood. His father was famed bebop pianist Cab Kaye, who made none other than Duke Ellington Quaye’s Godfather. His half-brother, Caleb, was a session guitarist for the likes of Elton John, and Hall & Oates. So it was no surprise that he’d find music to be his calling eventually.

Drawing inspiration equally from the jazz records of his childhood and the expanded musical horizons that his adolescence bought, Quaye signed his first record contract with Epic Records in 1996. By the following year, his debut album “Maverick A Strike” was released, which was an instant success, being certified Gold three weeks after its release.

While the late 90s and early 2000s were very kind to Quaye commercially, his debut album eventually went platinum, and he had a massive hit single in the form of “Sunday Shining”. However, trouble would follow him in one way or another. Both his parents passed away while he was a major celebrity, and a high profile descent into drug addiction and rehab soon followed.

However, 2012 saw the release of his first album in four years “28 February Road”, and he’s since been on the best form of his life, performing concerts all over the world and working on new music constantly. Where he goes next is a truly exciting prospect for the first time in a while, and he’s only going to get better with time.