Christmas Carroll Thompson

Like many truly great vocalists, Carroll Thompson began singing in school and church choirs as a girl. However, music stardom wasn’t top of her list as she initially studied for a career in pharmacy. In the mid-1970s, she began working as a backing singer at several recording studios after auditioning for Frank Farian’s Sugar Cane group.

With a fast growing reputation in the industry, Thompson embarked on a solo career, with early successes in the shape of Lovers Rock singles “I’m So Sorry” (produced by the now London-based Leonard Chin) and “Simply In Love”, which both topped the reggae chart in 1981, that same year seeing the release of her debut album. She won two GLR Reggae Awards in 1982, for Best Female Performer and Best Song (for “Hopelessly In Love”). In 1983, she won further awards, again winning Best Female Performer at the GLR awards. She also recorded duets with Sugar Minott (“Make It With You”) and Trevor Walters (“Love Won’t Let Us Wait”), as well as continuing with regular solo reggae chart hits.

Thompson chose to join the Sheffield-based jazz-funk band Floy Joy in 1984 where she featured on one album and scored two minor hits with the soul ballad “Until You Come Back to Me” and “Operator”. In 1987 she duetted with Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame on the song “One and One” from the album Love.

In 1990, she provided lead vocals on a version of Diana Ross’s “I’m Still Waiting”, recorded with Aswad and Courtney Pine, which was a minor UK singles chart hit and enjoyed further chart success that year with Movement 98’s “Joy & Heartbreak” and “Sunrise”. In 1992, her “Let the Music Play” was included on the soundtrack to the film The Crying Game, and in 1993, she worked with Neil “Mad Professor” Fraser on the album The Other Side Of Love.

Always a voice in demand, Carroll has worked with Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Boy George, Maxi Priest, Sting, Billy Ocean, Chaka Khan, Aswad and M People.