As Guyanese international superstar Eddy Grant prepares to mark his 65th birth anniversary on Tuesday, we publish a short pictorial of him through the years.
Eddy Grant and Diego Maradona at the Argentine football legend’s private football arena at his home in Argentina after Eddy’s team—members of his band and his brother Alpine—played against Diego’s team, which included his brothers and some friends. At the end of their encounter the stars exchanged gifts with Eddy giving his original famous black leather jacket to Maradona and Maradona giving his full Argentina International kit as well as his Boca Juniors football kit to Eddy. That evening at Eddy’s concert, Maradona was called up on stage to share an unforgettable moment with Eddy and his Argentine fans.
Having at that time sold more records in Argentina than any other artist, Eddy went on to dedicate “Latin Love Affair”, on his next album, ‘Killer On The Rampage’, to Maradona and his then girlfriend Claudia, who subsequently became his wife.
Norman Beaton, Eddy Grant and Marcia Barrett (of Boney-M)
The event was the Caribbean Times Award at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London honouring outstanding Caribbean talent. The year was 1979. Eddy was being honoured for “Living On The Frontline”, which had scaled reggae charts around the world. Boney-M which featured Marcia Barrett had a top-ten hit called “Hooray-Hooray It’s a Holi-Holiday” and Guyanese Norman Beaton whose stage, film and television appearances were legendary in the UK but would soon be catapulted to international star status with his starring role in the sitcom “Desmond’s”.
HRH Princess Margaret, Eddy Grant and Lou Christie (“Lightnin’ Strikes”)
The year was 1969 and Eddy Grant was a member of the Equals. The song, “Viva Bobby Joe”, written, arranged and produced by Eddy had only recently achieved top five in the UK and Europe. The event was “Save Rave”, for which Princess Margaret was the patron and the venue was the world-famous London Palladium. She was being introduced to all the world famous pop stars of the time. This photo shows Eddy with his bleached white hair for which he was well known at the time.
PJ Patterson (ex PM of Jamaica) and Eddy Grant
The occasion was a visit to Barbados by Patterson and the duo discussed matters relating to Caribbean culture.
