Tony Tribe | |
|---|---|
| Born | Anthony Mossop |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Labels | Decca,Trojan, Marathon |
Anthony Mossop (died 1970s), known professionally asTony Tribe andTony Kingston, was a Jamaican vocalist. After moving to Great Britain in 1956, he joined The Soul Seekers, a gospel outfit from Calvary Apostolic Church inCamberwell. He subsequently charted at No. 46 on theUK Singles Chart with a solo reggae version ofNeil Diamond's "Red Red Wine", which becameTrojan Records's first UK chart entry and inspired aUB40 cover version that charted at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart and theBillboard Hot 100. He also performed at the 1969 Caribbean Reggae Festival. He then moved toCanada and released several singles there including "I Am the Preacher", which charted at No. 65 on theRPM charts, and then an album. Several sources mistakenly state that he died in the early 1970s, though he was still alive in 1974 and was still releasing music in 1978.
Tribe was born Anthony Mossop[1] inKingston, Jamaica; his first performances were at that city's Ward Theatre aged nine.[2] He moved toGreat Britain in 1956,[3] taking a full time job in the post room of theHigh Commission of Jamaica, London. In the mid-1960s, he joined the gospel outfit The Soul Seekers, from Calvary Apostolic Church inCamberwell. Steve Alexander Smith used his 2009 bookBritish Black Gospel to note that "Mossop was a charismatic figure admired by hordes of female fans", and that a 1966Gravesend show had "resulted in the group being mobbed by teenage girls, some of whom took their blouses off in order to throw them at Mossop". He left in August 1966, and released a number of singles under the names Tony Kingston and Tony Tribe.[1] In April 1967, he released "Mama Come On Home" onDecca Records, which became popular on theNorthern soul circuit.[4]
Before UB40’s 1983 rendition brought the song mainstream fame, Tony Tribe introduced Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine” to the reggae world in 1969. Tribe’s rocksteady version transformed the track with a laid-back groove that gave it a distinctly reggae feel. His smooth, emotive vocals pair perfectly with the rhythm, bringing out the song’s themes of heartbreak and solace found in a glass of wine. Tribe’s version became a reggae classic, celebrated for its unique blend of melancholy and groove. Even today, his interpretation stands out as a quintessential example of reggae’s ability to reinvent and breathe new life into songs from other genres.
In 1969, using the stage name Tony Tribe, Mossop released a reggae version ofNeil Diamond's "Red Red Wine",[6] a song that had previously been a hit forJimmy James and the Vagabonds.[7] The song's record label, Trojan Records, managed to misspell his stage name as "Tony Tripe".[8] Produced byDandy Livingstone[9] and backed withthe Rudies' "Blues",[10] Mossop's version charted at No. 46 on theUK Singles Chart,[7] becoming the then-fledglingTrojan Records' first UK chart hit.[11] The song's success can be attributed to its popularity among Britishskinheads,[12] though Ian McCann of theFinancial Times suggested in 2017 that the song had made the charts in spite of its "jerky ska rhythm" being "anachronistic even then".[8] In January 2025, Samuel Moore of Singersroom.com described Tribe's version as the third best reggae song of all time.[5] Mossop later performed onTop of the Pops,[13] before releasing a second single, a cover of "Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got" under the name "I’m Gonna Give You All The Love I’ve Got".[14]
On 21 September 1969,[15] Mossop,Johnny Nash,Desmond Dekker,Max Romeo, the Rudies,Derrick Morgan,Jackie Edwards,Jimmy Cliff, Jimmy James,the Skatalites, the Mohawks, Root and Jenny Jackson, and Black Velvet performed atWembley Arena[12] for the first Caribbean Music Festival,[15] the first major reggae event to be held in Britain.[16] For this performance, he dressed in braces as a nod to the support he had received from skinheads.Charlie Gillett ofRecord Mirror wrote that Tribe's set had been "spoiled because of trouble with his group's amplification system", but that this did not "hide his beautiful soaring voice on "Speak Her Name" and his hit "Red Red Wine"". He also noted that the "thudding reggae beat which pounds through most discotheques and clubs was wisely restricted" during the festival, and this had enabled Mossop, Romeo, and Dekker "to prove themselves to be much better singers than their records suggest".[12] Mossop later filmed for aHorace Ové documentaryReggae,[1] which was released in 1971.[17]
Multiple sources, including McCann (2017)[8] andTom Breihan of Stereogum (2021), claim that Mossop died in a car crash around this time,[6] with Smith (2009) further suggesting that it had happened inCanada in 1970 and had also killed members of Mossop's family;[1] however, a Tony Kingston, who according to a 2019Louder Than War article by Ian Canty "seemed to match Tribe in voice and looks"[18] and according to a June 1974 edition ofBillboard had "recently" worked with producer Harry Hinde,[19] released several singles in Canada,[18] including "I Am the Preacher", a cover ofDeep Purple's "Hallelujah",[20] which charted at No. 65 on theRPM charts in March 1972[21] and No. 15 on theCHUM Chart. Additionally, Kingston released an album in 1973,Tongue Tied,[4] the blurb for which claims that he had moved to Canada "a little more than a year ago" from England, that he had travelled there from Jamaica to further his education, and that he had shared a stage with Nash, Cliff, and Dekker.[22] In September 2018, Howard Campbell of theJamaica Observer wrote that Mossop had died in a car accident in Canada in the 1970s.[23]
In 1983,UB40 covered Mossop's version of "Red Red Wine", under the impression that the "N Diamond" who wrote the track was a Jamaican artist called Negus Diamond, and having never heard Neil's version.[8] Breihan (2021) described their take as "somewhere between the Tony Tribe version that the band members knew and the Neil Diamond original".[6] The song later topped the UK Singles Chart, and appeared onLabour of Love, an album of cover versions;[8] writing in their 2006 autobiographyBlood and Fire,Ali andRobin Campbell noted that they had known "all of those tracks as smash hits in [Balsall Heath]" and were taken aback to discover that reggae was not as popular in their subsequent neighbourhoodKings Heath. They also noted that they had only found out that Neil Diamond owned the song's publishing rights when they cleared them for their version, and alleged that Mossop's version was "obviously a cover of the version by Jimmy James & the Vagabonds".[24] UB40's version would top theBillboard Hot 100 five years later[6] after J.J. Morgan played it onKKFR.[25] Additionally,Elan Atias would cover the song in 2001.[8]