Pluto Shervington, also known as Pluto (born Leighton Shervington, 13 August 1950, Kingston

Kingston, Jamaica

Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...

, Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

), is a reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, singer, engineer

Audio engineering

An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...

 and producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

.

Career

Shervington began his career in the early 1970s as a member of the showband Tomorrow's Children. Inspired by the success of Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith (singer)

Ernie Smith is a reggae singer, with a deep baritone voice, who had his greatest success in the late 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:Smith was born in Kingston and raised in St. Ann...

's "Duppy or a Gunman" and Tinga Stewart

Tinga Stewart

Tinga Stewart is a reggae singer. Stewart won the Festival Song Contest three times, twice as a singer and once as a songwriter.-Biography:...

's "Play de Music", both delivered in heavy patois, he recorded "Ram Goat Liver" in a similar style. The follow-up, single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 "Dat" - about a Rastafarian

Rastafari movement

The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...

 with a secret liking for pork

Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....

, contrary to his faith

Faith

Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...

 - achieved considerable chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 success internationally in 1976, reaching the number 6 in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. Trojan Records

Trojan Records

Trojan Records is a British record label founded in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. The name Trojan comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck that was used as Duke Reid's sound system in Jamaica...

 capitalized on this success by reissuing his first single, which peaked just outside the top 40 in the UK.

Shervington moved to Miami

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 in the early 1980s, and continued recording, enjoying another big hit in 1982 with "Your Honour", which reached the UK top 20. This song dealt with a prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

er's courtroom

Courtroom

A courtroom is the actual enclosed space in which a judge regularly holds court.The schedule of official court proceedings is called a docket; the term is also synonymous with a court's caseload as a whole.-Courtroom design:-United States:...

 pleas of innocence

Innocence

Innocence is a term used to indicate a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, sin, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence refers to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime.-Symbolism:...

, in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary. The song's somewhat racy nature, and comical

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 styling is in the best traditions of calypso

Calypso music

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

, and many elements of reggae. Shervington often performs live in Miami, and periodically returns to his homeland for performances. he plays solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 at Bahama Breeze in Kendall, Florida

Kendall, Florida

Kendall is a suburban neighborhood of metropolitan Miami, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the area had a total population of 75,226....

; and every other Sunday at Black Point Marina in Cutler Bay

Cutler Bay, Florida

Cutler Bay, historically called Cutler Ridge, is an incorporated town in Miami-Dade County, Florida from SW 184th Street east of US-1 to the coast, and north of Black Point Marina, at...

 with a five piece band. Pluto appeared at the St. Kitts Music Festival

St. Kitts Music Festival

The St. Kitts Music Festival is a festival of popular music held annually in June on the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts. The Festival was originally called the Shak Shak Festival, and was first held in 1996...

 on Friday 22 June 2007, sharing the bill with Steel Pulse

Steel Pulse

Steel Pulse is a roots reggae musical band. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, in Birmingham, England, composed of David Hinds , Basil Gabbidon , and Ronald McQueen .-History:...

 and Sean Paul

Sean Paul

Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques , who performs under stage name Sean Paul, is a Jamaican pop rap and reggae singer.-1973–1996: Early life:...

, amongst others.

In addition to his work as a singer, Shervington gained a reputation as a talented bass guitarist, and as a recording engineer, notably engineering Little Roy

Little Roy

Little Roy is a Jamaican reggae artist.-Biography:Little Roy launched his career in the rocksteady age, recording a few singles for Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster, none of which made much headway. As reggae itself unfolded, Roy switched to Lloyd Daley's recording studio...

's 1974 album, Tafari Earth Uprising.

Albums

• Ram Goat - (1974)
• Pluto - (1976)
• Ire Mas Rockers Carnival - (1981)
• Pluto Again - (1982)
• Dat: The Best of Pluto Shervington - (2004)
• Second Wind - (2009)

Singles

• "Dat" - (1975) - UK Number 6
• "Ram Goat Liver" - (1976) - UK Number 43
• "Your Honour" - (1982) - UK Number 19

External links

• Discography and photograph