Winston McAnuff

Winston McAnuff
Winston McAnuff on stage in Rudolstadt (Germany), July 2014
Background information
Born	1957 Jamaica
Genres	Reggae, dub, funk
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, percussion
Years active	1978–1986, 2005-
Labels	Chrystal Records, Makasound
Associated acts	Java, Camille Bazbaz
Website	www.myspace.com/winstonmcanuff

Winston McAnuff, also known under the stage name Electric Dread (born 1957 in Manchester, Jamaica) is a Jamaican singer and composer of reggae- and dub music.

McAnuff was born in Manchester Parish, Jamaica into a family of preachers. One of his great-grandfathers was Scottish. He started his musical career singing gospels in the church choir. He recorded his first album Pick hits to click in 1978. Two years later his second album What the man "a" deal wid was released. His best known song from this time is the single "Malcolm X", which was also recorded by Earl Sixteen, and most successfully by Dennis Brown. It was originally recorded by McAnuff for Joe Gibbs but the producer decided not to release it, and he got Earl Sixteen to record it before the song was given to Dennis Brown who recorded it for his Visions of Dennis Brown album. The song was the subject of a legal dispute in 2013 between McAnuff and Greensleeves Records after the record label allegedly registered the song as co-written by Brown. A third studio album, Electric Dread, was released in 1986.

Although McAnuff had reasonable fame in Jamaica, none of his work was released elsewhere. It wasn't until 2002 that his work was released in Europe. In 2002 the French record label Makasound released the first two albums and a compilation album Diary of the Silent Years. The release of the albums revived McAnuff's career, notably in France.