Owen Knibbs finds his voice after long-lost song revives career

Roots reggae singer Owen Knibbs’ story is a classic example of what one song can do.

It was in 1987 that the then 19-year-old recorded his first single, Juggler, which was produced by his friend Leon Virgo. The producer gave the song to a distributor, who wasn’t really gungho about it, and that was the last he heard of the song, until he joined Facebook in 2015 and somebody reached out asking “Is this the Owen Knibbs who did the song Juggler?”

“My response was, ‘Yes, but that song was never released.’ You see, because the distributor acted like the song wasn’t really any good, there was no encouragement for us to do any follow-up. My friend quit the music business and migrated to the States and I still dabbled in the music a bit, but by 1994 I also migrated. The person then told me that the song was a hit in Europe and that they have been looking for me for 30 years,” Knibbs recalled.

He alternated between disbelief and anger, one part of him convinced that it was a prank, and the other side of him being incensed at the distributor who didn’t give him and his friend any feedback about Juggler. Subsequent conversations made Knibb realise that the song did well across Europe, where is was a sound system hit, and that copies of the vinyl had become a collector’s item and was being sold for up to 250 pounds.

NO INTEREST

Knibbs shared the information with his producer friend Virgo, who was a preacher by then and who expressed absolutely no interest in the song. Virgo instead gave him his blessings and told him to make the best use of this opportunity. Bursting with enthusiasm and ready for a new phase in his life, the 50-something year-old Knibbs made contact with Eric Black-Catalogue in Europe and took his first trip to France in 2016.

“They threw a welcome party for me in Paris and then I spent two months in Germany and performed Juggler live for the first time. I was a little nervous at first, but when I realised that the people knew the song and were singing along with me, it was just overwhelming. After 32 years I found my song and my voice. It’s a really respectable song; I even found out that a sound system in Germany named itself Juggler off the song,” shared Knibbs.

Juggler, which encourages the spirit of enterprise and creativity, was written while Knibbs was a 15-year-old student at Montego Bay Secondary School (now St James High). Since his big break, he has written more than 45 songs and has released two albums. He has also been doing a lot of dubplates for sound systems in Europe, Brazil and Peru.

Knibbs, who was in Jamaica last month, made an appearance at the popular Original Dancehall Thursdays held weekly at Rebel T HQ on Dumbarton Avenue. He performed a few songs from his growing catalogue.

“It was a good response seeing that the crowd here don’t really know me like that. I did songs from my new album If You Don’t Have Love, which was released last August. I am very involved in the process and make sure that all my work is registered. That would be my advice to all artistes,” Knibbs said.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com