Junior Giscombe

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.

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.

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

‘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.

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.

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.