Roots Archives Forum

Received news today that the great Roy Shirley has passed away. We had the privilege of backing him only weeks ago at SNWMF for what it turns out would be his last Earthly performance. The hours we spent with him rehearsing and performing that weekend showed Mr. Shirley to be an extremely kind and humble man. He was the headliner that night, chosen over Pat Kelly and Stranger Cole to close out the festival. It seemed an odd choice at the time, but now it makes sense.

On stage he was awesome to watch; he left the stage with the mic and for about 3 full minutes walked through the dense crowd of people, singing all the while. Then he got back up and started rolling around the stage!

After the show he was all smiles and laughs, and kept telling me how much fun he was having. As we were saying good bye at the end of the night, the last thing he said was "I hope we can do this again sometime".

I will try to upload the video from the set this week.

Thanks for everything Mr. Shirley.

a true original, RIP Roy

im glad he had such a good gig before, its a beautiful thing for all those who witnessed this last act

I only heard of his name..is there anything you can recommend me to hear...???

of course R.I.P.

one of my favourite vocalist and showman

roy shirley - I'm the winner
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check also the aquarius documentary about reggae in the uk and you'll see him performing an infectious rocksteady tune... rolling on the floor

Check out the songs "Good Ambition" and "Keep Your Eyes On The Road" on the Trojan Anthology Roy Shirley collection. Those are some of my favorites. Of course his big hits "Hold Them" and "Get On The Ball" are some of his best also.

I got the news from the managers of SNWMF. Great artist, a leader in many rocksteady era music. He will be sorely missed. Another King crosses to ZION!