No ‘Red Rose’ For Gregory Isaacs This Year, But UK Fans Can Relive The Reggae Legend On Stage
There will be no ‘Red Rose for Gregory’ concert this year.
Instead, the late great reggae superstar Gregory Isaacs will pull off a reincarnation of sorts with the staging of ‘Cool Ruler: A Musical Tribute to Gregory Isaacs’, a stage production based on his career.
The theatre-style show is slated to open on May 25 at Hackney Empire in the British capital.
“We’re not having Red Rose in Jamaica this year, we’re having the musical, we’re going on the road with it,” June Isaacs, the wife of the late singer, told DancehallMag.
Isaacs is presently in the UK to attend the funeral of her mother which was held on Thursday. Since 2017, ‘Red Rose For Gregory’ – an annual concert held in his honor and organized by his wife, has helped raise funds for the Patricia House drug rehabilitation center in Kingston, Jamaica.
After its opening at the Hackney Empire, other stagings will take place at Fairfield Halls in Croydon on May 31 and on June 1 at O2 Academy in Birmingham.
Terence Wallen, a British artist of Jamaican heritage, will be the lead singer in the stage production.
Isaacs and Copeland Forbes, Isaacs’s former manager, will select songs for the production.
“When Gregory passed, we got a top 100 songs from all the producers with the day it was produced and so on. I sent that list to them, and they will pick out 20, but we don’t know which 20 yet. I haven’t seen the script, but June is meeting with them this weekend,” Forbes said.
The five-time Grammy nominee, popularly known in his heyday as the Cool Ruler owing to his exceptionally smooth vocals and laidback delivery, amassed a massive, devoted fanbase with a rash of hits songs such as Tune In, Night Nurse, and Love Me With Feeling.
The iconic Night Nurse, the hit single from the Reggae icon’s 1982 album of the same name, crossed the 100-million-plays mark on Spotify in April last year. The single, which was certified Silver in the UK, was first released by Island Records under the label’s Mango Imprint in 1982.
During his lifetime, Isaacs faced life-derailing cocaine addiction which made for a hellish lifestyle replete with manic episodes, crippling insomnia, and drug-fuelled confrontations. By 2007, he had reportedly lost his teeth due to crack cocaine addiction.
As defiant as he was debonair, the Cool Rule overcame his addiction and regained his sound with orthodontically repaired teeth, announcing his return with the appropriately titled Brand New Me, a marvelous abuse-free set released in 2008.
In October 2010, at the age of 59, Isaacs passed away in London from lung cancer.
Cementing Isaacs’ legacy, the Jamaican government officially recognized the singer’s contributions in 2016, posthumously awarding him the Order of Distinction (Officer Class).