‘A full-force trinity’: the glory and tragedy of reggae group the Mighty Diamonds
The death of Donald “Tabby Diamond” Shaw aged 67 in a drive-by shooting brings a terribly tragic end to one of reggae’s most enduring and revered harmony trios. No word has yet emerged about who was behind the attack that killed Shaw and another man on the night of 29 March on McKinley Crescent, Waterhouse, an area of Jamaica’s capital, Kingston, long riven by factional violence.
Equally adept at songs of social commentary and odes of brokenhearted romance, the Mighty Diamonds’ exceptional command of vocal harmony made their sound stand out during the mid-1970s, yielding a contract with Virgin Records and numerous international tours. Tabby’s powerful tenor was always given pride of place, a guiding beacon answered by the choruses of Fitzroy “Bunny” Simpson and Lloyd “Judge” Ferguson, the latter the group’s chief lyricist.
On a visit to London in 1997, Shaw said the group came together when its members were working as welders and carpenters; Simpson was running a sound system called Soul Pack, having previously sung in the Meditators with Jah Lloyd.
“We start out late 1969, come together in a full force trinity in mid-December,” said Shaw. “Bunny Diamond used to sing with Jah Lloyd’s group named Meditators, and he used to check me, cause we used to live in the same street. We say we want a next man, and it takes about two years; we buck up on some different youths, but they weren’t ready yet, until we buck up on Judge and the vibes start.”
Under the name the Dymonds, the group cut their debut single for producer Rupie Edwards, a languorous, bittersweet romance titled Girl You Are Too Young, and although it made only a fleeting impact, the emotive power of Shaw’s tenor was already in evidence. Then, after recording a reggae cover of the Stylistics’ Betcha By Golly Wow, they landed at Lee “Scratch” Perry’s recently-opened Black Ark in 1974, where they recorded the ballad Talk About It. The following year, their riveting harmony on Susan Cadogan’s Hurt So Good helped it reach the UK Top Five.
The Rastafari-oriented Jah Jah Bless the Dreadlocks and broken-hearted Carefree Girl followed for hitmaking producer, Bunny “Striker” Lee, but the true breakthrough came through their ongoing affiliation with Jah Lloyd.
Lloyd first independently released their hit Shame and Pride on his Teem label; “the song that give them the go,” he told me shortly before his death from a lung condition in 1999. He couldn’t achieve the sales the single deserved because he lacked a proper
distribution network, so “this is when I have to carry them to Jo Jo HooKim, who tell them it’s time fi do them album.”
Jo Jo Hoo-Kim and his brother Ernest ran the Channel One studio on Maxfield Avenue in west Kingston, where Jamaica’s most noteworthy hits were recorded in the mid-to-late 70s, thanks in part to the complex rhythms that drummer Sly Dunbar was crafting at the premises, as leader of the Revolutionaries house band. Now renamed the Mighty Diamonds, the group led a pack of artists at Channel One who included Dillinger, the Wailing Souls, John Holt and Leroy Smart, all of whom made a strong impact on both sides of the Atlantic atop the studio’s forwardfacing rhythms.
“My best experience was Channel One, because it’s the first cut, the foundation,” said Shaw. “Channel One have a time when it used to run things.”
The Stylistics cover Country Living was the first of their songs to do well in Britain; the local popularity of Back Weh, I Need A Roof and Have Mercy ultimately brought them on to Virgin, who issued the acclaimed Right Time LP in a gatefold sleeve. The title track was a sizeable hit that related Marcus Garvey’s prophetic vision of Black retribution, becoming a favourite of Black audiences in Britain, as well as sympathetic punks.
A Mighty Diamonds concert held at London’s Lyceum in August 1976 is said to be the first to feature a live dub mix, but the bland Ice on Fire, recorded in 1977 with New Orleans-based producer Allen Toussaint, did not live up to its dynamic potential, and the crossover format of Planet Earth similarly missed the mark. During the 1980s, the Mighty Diamonds cut a series of competent albums for producer Gussie Clarke, followed by albums of various quality for myriad others; their acoustic 2008 release for the Inna De Yard project helped keep them in demand on the festival circuit.
Throughout, it was Shaw’s voice that kept the Diamonds shining: an unbeatable frontman in live performance who maintained the tone of his tenor right to the end, he will be greatly missed on the Kingston music scene,