42 years after initial release, Eddy Grant album now available digitally

Feb 27, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Over four decades after it was first released, to touch the hearts of millions, Eddy Grant’s album “Killer On The Rampage” is now available on digital platforms, the singer said in a press release Monday.

Additionally, the other albums the singer has released will follow suit as he gradually rolls them out. His debut album from 1975, ‘Hello Africa’ will be available digitally later this year. Grant who is an artist, activist, band leader and label owner is celebrating his 76^th birthday and a nearly 60-year career with the release of his most seminal and globally acclaimed multi-platinum selling album ‘Killer On The Rampage’.

According to the press release, the album in its entirety is now officially available to the legend’s fans and also the new generation of listeners worldwide on digital services and streaming platforms with a rare alternative cover art, exactly 42 years after it was originally released. The multitalented Grant has released 15 albums, achieving five UK Top 10 Singles. Playing most of the instruments on his records, the artist is set apart by his unapologetic and uncompromising artistry. Physical copies of his music are rare, however cover versions and bootlegs are extremely common across the internet.

Up until now, none of the artist’s work from his massive catalogue was made digitally available on streaming services. The digital release of the sixth, and most commercial successful album of his career is a milestone achievement. In its release year 1982 ‘Killer On The Rampage’ hit the Top 10 in the US and the UK, and featured the international hits ‘Electric Avenue’, a No.2 hit in UK and US, and ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’, which reached No.1 in the UK, firmly establishing Eddy as a trans-Atlantic pop star.

‘Killer On The Rampage’ is also an album that musically adventurous, with a dangerous combination on reggae, rock, pop, disco, funk and new wave across 10 tracks which the musician plays the instruments on. “Electric Avenue” was written as a protest song after the street in Brixton where the riots took place, and ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ expresses Eddy’s farewell to Britain being a land of class and colour divisions. Eddy Grant said “Following the worldwide success of the single ‘Do You Feel My Love’ and album ‘Can’t Get Enough’, I made the decision to leave the UK. That one decision sparked a chain of events that lead to the creation of the album we know today as ‘Killer On The Rampage.”

He explained that, “In the 8 hours it took to travel from London to Barbados, my luggage containing songs for my next album were lost and never to be found. So not only did we have to build a recording studio, renovate a historic house, but I had to also create a whole new album, as the record company was losing patience. Who knows what the lost songs would have ended up being called, or what fruit they would have borne?

“The fact that ‘Killer On The Rampage’ was grown under such harsh conditions, like the grapes grown in tough terrain, it’s said they make the finest wine, 42 years later, I am forced to agree. With every remix, cover version, commercial, film, TV show, stage play, video game, and now digital outlet that uses the songs, new life is breathed into my creations. I give thanks,” Grant added.

‘Killer On The Rampage’ is released via ICE RECORDS and distribution/rights management partner! K7 Music. Later this year, grant will also be reissuing his debut album from 1975, ‘Hello Africa’, as he gradually rolls out his entire 15 album catalogue for fans to enjoy on streaming services for the very first time. The musical legend was born in Plaisance on the East Coast of Demerara in Guyana and he moved to London in 1960 at age 12. At age 17, he cofounded pop group, The Equals in 1965 and it was the first multi-racial band to achieve international acclaim with hits like UK No. 1 ‘Baby, Come Back’, ‘Police On My Back’ and ‘Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys’.

The bands hits have achieved global success with covers by artists like UB40, The Clash, Green Day, Bonnie Raitt, The Specials and even Lethal Bizzle. Grant founded his own label Torpedo by 1970 and released a solo debut album ‘Hello Africa’. 1979 saw the release of ‘Walking On Sunshine’, one of the most pivotal yet over-looked albums of that decade, which included the dancefloor classic ‘Living On The Frontline’. ‘Walking On Sunshine’ was later covered by Arthur Baker’s Rockers Revenge and got to No.1 in the US and No.4 in the UK in 1982.

His single ‘Do You Feel My Love’, reached No.3 in the UK, giving Grant his first UK Top 10 single and was taken from ‘Can’t Get Enough’ the album. Following the success of ‘Killer On The Rampage’ in 1982 came the album ‘Going For Broke’, which featured in the soundtrack of the Michael Douglas movie ‘Romancing The Stone’.

The mid-80’s saw him at the forefront of Caribbean music with him recording with Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow from his Blue Wave Studios. By the early 90’s, Grant debuted a new genre and philosophy that he named Ringbang, which he distinguished apart from Soca and Calypso. ‘Gimme Hope Jo’anna’ in 1988 was a UK Top 10 single and a soulful plea to South African’s white ruling elite to dismantle apartheid.

Grant’s ‘Ringbang’ remix of ‘Electric Avenue’ secured number five in the UK, giving him his fifth UK Top 10 single. In 2023, he was inducted into the Camden Music Walk Of Fame. His music continues to connect with intergenerational audiences around the world.

‘Killer On The Rampage’ Tracklisting:

1. Electric Avenue
2. I Don’t Wanna Dance
3. It’s All In You
4. War Party
5. Funk Rock ‘N’ Roll
6. Killer On The Rampage
7. Too Young To Fall
8. Latin Love Affair
9. Another Revolutionary
10. Drop, Baby, Drop

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• Eddy Grant’s album “Killer On The Rampage”, generation, listeners, platinum, UK Top

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