Andy Livingston finds 'Promise'

Reggae crooner Andy Livingston has been in the music business professionally over a decade now.

It was his good friend, veteran artiste U U Madoo who officially introduced him to the music world, when he took him to Sugar Minott's Youth Man Promotion studio.

During his time at Youthman Promotion, he learned a lot about the music business from the late dancehall pioneer Lincoln 'Sugar' Minott.

"I can remember how I wanted to leave high school after I finished fifth form and go straight into music, but Sugar Minott advised me to go to six form instead, because he believed that I should have a solid foundation, in terms of a good education, before entering the music business full time," said Livingston.

"After completing high school, I got a job at Cable and Wireless. Fortunately we had a company band and I was the lead singer. We performed on a lot of company events which helped to keep me sharp musically, although I had put my thoughts of being a professional singer on hold," he said.

Romoting his music

In 1995, Livingston gave up the corporate world for music and decided to launch out in the music business full-time. This led to the creation and the launch of his own record label, Fan Club Music. From that point on, he spent a great deal of his time producing and promoting his music. He also produced and released songs for several other artistes including Capleton, Frankie Paul, Tanya Stephens, Junior Kelly, Jack Radics, Natural Blacks, Monster Shack Crew, Papa San, Lady G and Daddy Rings.

Livingston, however, got his first real taste of success as an artiste in 1996 with a single called Pumping, which was done with Lady G. This song got a lot of airplay and made its way onto several reggae charts around the world. The success of Pumping landed him a deal with California-based independent record label, Big Time Records in 1997. He followed up this success with the radio hit Searching For Love, which was eventually licensed to Jet Star Records and was included on several England-based companies' top reggae compilations.

Although nothing much came out of his record deal with Big Time Records, Livingston was so engrossed in the music business that he decided to set up his own recording studio in 1998. He did so with the help of his long-time friend and associate, Third World group member Herbie Harris.

While this seemed like a good move at the time, it hampered the progress of his singing career somewhat, because he ended up spending a lot of time producing other artistes.

However, in 2005, Andy closed down the studio in order to fully concentrate on his own career. He found more success in 2007 with a cover of One Republic's Too Late. The popularity of this song abroad earned him several appearances on events in the UK and the US.

This year has been his best year by far as a recording artiste, as he has scored his first number one with My Promise, which is the second single off his debut album which was released last year. The song was produced by him and Carl Morrison and released on the Black Dutch label earlier this year. It spent several weeks at the top of the Jamaica Music Countdown Reggae Charts and the Reggae Holland music chart.

My Promise was recently selected by New York-based VP Records for their prestigious, Strictly the Best compilation, Volume 42.