Winston McAnuff, also known under the stage name Electric Dread, (Mandeville

Mandeville, Jamaica

Mandeville is the capital and largest town in the parish of Manchester in the county of Middlesex, Jamaica. In 2005, the town had an estimated population of 50,000, and including the immediate suburbs within a radius of the total population is about 72,000. It is located on an inland plateau at an...

, 1957) is a 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...

n singer and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of 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...

- and dub music

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

.

Biography

McAnuff was born in 1957 in a family of preacher

Preacher

Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...

s. He started his musical career, singing gospel

Gospel

A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...

s in the church choir. He recorded his first album Pick hits to click in 1978. Two years later his second album What the man "a" deal wid was released. His best known song from this time is the 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...

 Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...

, which he recorded as a duet with Earl Sixteen

Earl Sixteen

Earl Sixteen is a reggae singer whose career began in the mid-1970s.-Biography:Daley grew up in Waltham Park Road, Kingston, and, influenced by American soul and Jamaican artists such as Dennis Brown, began his singing career by entering local talent shows...

. A third studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

, Electric dread, was released in 1986, after which McAnuff disappeared from the spotlight.

Although McAnuff had reasonable fame in Jamaica, none of his work was released elsewhere. It took til 2002 that his work was released in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. In 2002 the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 Makasound released the first two albums and a compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 Diary of the silent years. The release of the albums revived McAnuff's career, notably in France.

In 2005 McAnuff released the album A drop, which he recorded with the French keyboard player Camille Bazbaz

Camille Bazbaz

Camille Bazbaz is an French author-composer-interpreter with French-Lebanese roots, born in 1967 in Suresnes.-Biography:French pop-reggae-soul artist Camille Bazbaz's career began during his college years as a member of the politically charged, rebellious punk rock group Cri de la Mouche . Bazbaz...

. This record displays a mix of rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

 and punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

. A year later, in 2006, a new album Paris' rocking, which he recorded with Java

Java (band)

Java is a French rap group, formed in 1997 and currently composed of François Xavier Bossard , Erwan Seguillon , Jérôme Boivin and Alexis Bossard ....

 and other French session musician

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

s, was released. His last album, Nostradamus, was released in 2008. The album was a concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 about the predictions of Nostradamus

Nostradamus

Michel de Nostredame , usually Latinised to Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties , the first edition of which appeared in 1555...

.

In 2011, he took part in Les Échos Du Temps the latest album of Danakil, a French roots reggae band, on the track Media where both he and his son Matthew did a featuring.

Discography

• Pick hits to click (1978)
• What the man "a" deal wid (1980) re-released in 1995 under the name One love
• Electric dread (1986)
• Diary of the silent years (2002) - compilation
• A drop (2005) with Camille Bazbaz
  Camille Bazbaz
  Camille Bazbaz is an French author-composer-interpreter with French-Lebanese roots, born in 1967 in Suresnes.-Biography:French pop-reggae-soul artist Camille Bazbaz's career began during his college years as a member of the politically charged, rebellious punk rock group Cri de la Mouche . Bazbaz...
  
  
• Paris' rockin (2006) with Java
  Java (band)
  Java is a French rap group, formed in 1997 and currently composed of François Xavier Bossard , Erwan Seguillon , Jérôme Boivin and Alexis Bossard ....
  
  
• Nostradamus (2008)
• A bang (2011) with The Bazbaz Orchestra