40 Fun Facts About Eddy Grant

Eddy Grant wrote Electric Avenue in anger at 1981 riots in which London district?

Brixton is home to the real Electric Avenue, the first market street to be lit by electricity, which Grant knew from a spell acting at a local Black theatre.

Eddy Grant wrote Electric Avenue in a hurry in 1982 after what happened to his newest songs?

Lost in airline baggage as Grant moved to the Caribbean, the songs never turned up, so he had to write a whole new album from scratch.

Which politician did Eddy Grant sue in 2020 for using Electric Avenue in a campaign video?

Donald Trump had posted the animated clip online, where it drew more than 13 million views; a court rejected his fair-use defence in 2024 and the two sides then settled.

In Eddy Grant's anti-apartheid hit Gimme Hope Jo'anna, the name Jo'anna stands for which city?

Johannesburg stood in for the whole apartheid government, which banned the single on release, though it was widely played in South Africa all the same.

Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue lost the Best R&B Song Grammy to which 1983 smash?

Billie Jean, by Michael Jackson, had months earlier pushed MTV to play Black artists, and once the channel aired Grant's video his single climbed quickly up the American chart.

In which country was Eddy Grant born in 1948, twelve years before he joined his parents in London?

Guyana was still the colony of British Guiana at the time; Grant's parents worked in England and sent money home for his schooling until the family reunited in 1960.

Which Eddy Grant single topped the UK chart in 1982, his first No. 1 since the Equals?

I Don't Wanna Dance came to Grant in a dressing room as he waited to go on stage during a tour, and he has described it as a protest about refusing to go along with an idea.

Pato Banton took Eddy Grant's Baby, Come Back to No. 1 in 1994 with two singers from which British band?

UB40 brothers Robin and Ali Campbell sang the chorus while Banton added verses of his own, and the remake held the top spot for four weeks, one more than the 1968 original.

Eddy Grant wrote the title song for which 1980s adventure film, only for the movie to use it briefly?

Romancing the Stone was announced on American Top 40 as the film's title song, yet the finished picture barely used it; the single still reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which punk band covered Eddy Grant's song Police on My Back on the 1980 album Sandinista!?

The Clash turned the Equals' mid-paced 1967 soul-pop tune into a full-powered rocker sung by guitarist Mick Jones, and issued it as a single only in Australia.

To which Caribbean island did Eddy Grant move in 1982, building a recording studio there?

Barbados became Grant's base for producing local stars as well as his own records, and in 2024 the island awarded him its Honorary Order of Freedom.

Eddy Grant sang Gimme Hope Jo'anna in Hyde Park in 2008 at a 90th birthday tribute to which leader?

Nelson Mandela walked on stage himself that night to make a short speech, twenty years after a Wembley concert marked his 70th birthday while he was still in prison.

Eddy Grant wrote the Equals' biggest hits, but which role did he play while Derv Gordon sang?

Lead guitar was Grant's job in a line-up that began with three guitarists and no bassist, an arrangement that lasted until Lincoln Gordon switched to bass in 1969.

Eddy Grant chose a music career after seeing which American rocker play in Finsbury Park?

Chuck Berry was the idol of the teenage Grant, who by then had learned to read and write music at his secondary school in Tufnell Park.

Until 2024, Eddy Grant kept his music off which kind of outlet in protest at how artists are paid?

Streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music went without his catalogue until February 2024, when he relented so that his songs could reach a wider audience.

On 1960s television with the Equals, Eddy Grant stood out by sometimes dyeing his hair which colour?

Blonde hair, and at times a woman's blonde wig, went with the band's colourful clothes, a look later seen as a forerunner of glam rock.

Eddy Grant took part in The Grand Knockout Tournament, a 1987 charity show run by which royal?

Prince Edward staged the televised games at Alton Towers with royal team captains and celebrity players, then stormed out of the press conference when reporters only laughed nervously.

Eddy Grant called a 1988 album File Under Rock after years of being wrongly filed as which kind of artist?

Reggae was the tag writers kept pinning on Grant, although the album is mostly pop rock; it also carried his protest hit Gimme Hope Jo'anna.

Eddy Grant's album Reparation is named for his call for restitution over which historical wrong?

The transatlantic slave trade is the wrong the title addresses, and after making that statement Grant released no new studio album for eleven years.

Eddy Grant's only live album captures his 1981 performance at which annual British event?

Notting Hill Carnival crowds heard the set, and a song from the resulting live record was later paired with one of Grant's 1984 singles.

Which name did Eddy Grant coin in the 1990s for his fusion of every Caribbean rhythm into one style?

Ringbang was meant as a musical common language that no single country could claim, and Grant trademarked the word and asked other artists to put it on their records.

Which 1982 album, Eddy Grant's most successful, reached the top ten in both Britain and America?

Killer on the Rampage carried Electric Avenue and was close to a one-man record, with Grant credited on vocals, guitars, synthesizers and drums as well as producing.

Eddy Grant's album Walking on Sunshine was a hit in which African country before Britain noticed it?

Nigeria's government then blocked the shipments at the height of demand, leaving Grant with thousands of copies that he and his brother sold to London shops and discos instead.

Eddy Grant left the Equals after which medical emergency struck him in January 1971, aged just 22?

A collapsed lung, together with a heart problem, ended Grant's time on the road; he had already been the worst hurt when all five members were injured in a 1969 motorway crash in Germany.

While away from the stage in the 1970s, Eddy Grant learned which style of dance and briefly tried acting?

Tap was one of Grant's sidelines while he built up his studio and record company, and he took the acting work at the urging of the actor Norman Beaton.

Eddy Grant's 2008 return to the British stage included a set at which major summer festival?

Glastonbury was one of several UK dates Grant played that summer, after what he has described as twenty years away from the stage.

Football crowds reworked the Equals' 1969 hit Viva Bobby Joe to salute the England captain from which club?

West Ham United captain Bobby Moore had his name swapped into the chorus of the Eddy Grant composition, which reached No. 6 and spent 14 weeks on the UK chart.

Which 2 Tone band opened their 2019 album Encore with a cover of the Equals' Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys?

The Specials called the Equals their spiritual ancestors, and Lynval Golding said recording Eddy Grant's 1970 song was their way of thanking the band.

The Equals' chart-topper Baby, Come Back, written by Eddy Grant, was first released in 1967 in which form?

As a B-side to Hold Me Closer it went unnoticed in Britain until it sold well on the Continent, and a 1968 reissue then took it to No. 1 at home.

Which name did Eddy Grant give the Caribbean studio he opened in 1982, later used by the Rolling Stones?

Blue Wave also drew Sting, Cliff Richard and Elvis Costello to record there, and Grant reused the name for the closing track of his 1984 album Going for Broke.

Which Eddy Grant single, championed by London disco DJs, gave him a solo breakthrough at UK No. 11?

Living on the Frontline was built around a tape loop at Grant's own London studio, and its popularity in clubs won it a one-off release deal with Ensign Records.

Which Jamaican star said Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue inspired his own line-dance tune Electric Boogie?

Bunny Wailer wrote it for Marcia Griffiths, whose recording became the soundtrack to the Electric Slide at weddings and parties across North America.

Which label did Eddy Grant found in 1974, later claiming the world's largest catalogue of Caribbean music?

Ice Records was first distributed by Pye and later by Virgin, and its roster grew to include Caribbean greats such as Mighty Sparrow and Black Stalin.

Eddy Grant's 1977 track Hello Africa is counted among the very first recordings in which Caribbean genre?

Soca was only just taking shape when Grant cut the track, which runs to almost twelve minutes on Message Man, an album where he played nearly every instrument himself.

Which Arthur Baker studio project took Eddy Grant's song Walking on Sunshine to UK No. 4 in 1982?

Rockers Revenge, fronted by singer Donnie Calvin, also topped the American dance chart with a song that had flopped as Grant's own single three years earlier.

Which Trinidadian legend made his last stage appearance at Eddy Grant's New Year's Eve 1999 concert in Tobago?

Lord Kitchener appeared only briefly before a crowd of about 11,000, having retired through illness earlier that year, and he died the following February.

Which Jamaican ska pioneer received the song Rough Rider from Eddy Grant during his years in the Equals?

Prince Buster's recording was later covered by the Beat on their album I Just Can't Stop It, and Grant was already producing records for other acts by then.

Eddy Grant's younger brother Rudy scored the deejay hit Move Up Starsky under which stage name?

The Mexicano made some of his early recordings with Eddy producing, and later reached the UK chart under his own name with a cover of Stevie Wonder's Lately.

Which famous British fashion photographer shot the cover of Eddy Grant's 1981 album Can't Get Enough?

David Bailey photographed Grant for the record that gave him his first entry in the UK Albums Chart, an album that opens with the top-ten single Do You Feel My Love.

Which Canadian province's premier declared Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue its new theme song in 2023?

Ontario premier Doug Ford then danced to the track in Oshawa, having just announced new electric buses for the GO Transit network around Toronto.