By Howard Campbell—
The last time Robert Williams visited Jamaica, it was 1995. PJ Patterson was prime minister, Shaggy had a massive album in Boombastic and Jamaica’s football team were named Best Mover of the Year by FIFA.
Williams, known in music circles as singer Junior Frost, was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/emphysema shortly after his return to the United Kingdom, where he has lived for 30 years.
Since 2000, he has used a Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BPAP) machine to help him breathe.
Despite his illness, Williams still records and produces music. He plans to visit Jamaica soon to promote some of those songs as well as film footage for a documentary on his life.
“My documentary is about the journey with my condition and music. I have started working on it and have lots of clips/recordings and a script,” Williams, 49, told the Jamaica Observer from his London home.
Though smoking accounts for most persons getting emphysema, Williams said that was not the case with him. He declined to disclose the cause.
Doctors have advised him against traveling in the past but he said his condition has improved considerably to make the nine-hour trip to Jamaica.
He added that doctors did not have a positive prognosis for his career when he began using an oxygen machine to remove carbon dioxide from his body.
“This has not stopped me from recording. In fact, I have done most of my recording since my illness began. I have managed to complete four albums (of songs) since then,” he said.
Williams is preparing to release those songs on compilation albums for his Blessable Music company. Freddie McGregor, Luciano and Sugar Minott are some of the artists who ‘voiced’ for him in the past 10 years.
Some of his latest songs, including Nobody Else (with General Trees), Can’t Stop us Now and May He be Your Glory, will also be part of those albums.
Robert Williams is from the Gregory Park area of St Catherine. He began recording as Junior Frost at 14, with Lyrics Degree and Under Pressure his best known songs in Jamaica.
The former was produced by deejay Horace ‘Dignitary Stylish’ Samuels, another Gregory Park artist.
In the UK, Williams developed an underground following and also produced a number of songs, catering mainly to the reggae market in that country. He rates Sharing the Night by singer Lloyd Brown as his most successful production.
Williams hopes to release his albums and documentary late this year and in 2016, respectively.
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