Biography
Born Winston Patrick Rhoden around 1950 in Jamaica, West Indies, he departed the island in 1963 for a new life in the UK. His debut single, ‘Jezebel’, appeared four years later on Rita King’s R&B imprint. During that period he cut soul ballads and duets with an emerging vocalist under the Pat And Maureen billing. He next collaborated with Dandy Livingstone, another former Rita King artist, and secured a deal with Trojan Records. In 1969 Philips Records offered a contract that yielded the Pat And Brother Lloyd’s All Stars sides ‘Let The Red Wine Flow’ and ‘I Need Help’, though the arrangement proved brief. He returned in 1970 on Pama with his biggest success, ‘Maybe The Next Time’, coupled with ‘Do What You Wanna Do’. Three years later he rejoined Trojan, issuing ‘I’ve Got A Nose For Trouble’, a track that reflected his own music-business encounters, plus reggae renditions of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Boogie On Reggae Woman’ and ‘Living For The City’. By 1975 Rhoden had joined Tito Simon and B.B. Seaton in the independent Jama collective. His own ‘Sweet Sunshine’ and ‘Happiness’ kept him on the charts, while he produced the Meditations’ ‘Sympathy’ and ‘Johnny’ and oversaw additional releases for the label. Junior Byles’ ‘Fade Away’ and I. Roy’s ‘Welding’ emerged on Jama, gained major-label licences, yet stayed outside the pop mainstream. The imprint continued into the 1980s, reissuing Rhoden’s ‘Stop’ and ‘Sweet Sunshine’ for modest chart entries; the former had already reached the top of the reggae chart in 1976, where it originally backed ‘Let’s Move A Mountain’.
Albums
