BruceRuffin

Bruce Ruffin was born on 17 February 1952 in the parish of St Catherine, Jamaica. He was writing songs by the age of ten, and it was a Ward Theatre talent show that carried him – still a schoolboy – into the Techniques, one of the great rocksteady vocal groups, where he sang and wrote alongside Winston Riley and Pat Kelly.

Going solo in 1969 with “Long About Now”, he recorded for Jamaica’s finest producers – Lloyd Charmers, Leslie Kong at Beverley’s, Herman Chin Loy – cutting classics like “Dry Up Your Tears” and “Bitterness of Life”. In 1971 his soaring take on José Feliciano’s “Rain” reached Nº 19 in the UK; a year later “Mad About You” went to Nº 9 in Britain and Nº 6 in Australia, fixing his place among reggae’s great crossover voices.

Through the seventies his polished, string-laced reggae-pop won audiences across Europe. In 1975, back in London, he reunited with fellow Techniques alumni Bobby Davis and Dave Collins – of the “Double Barrel” duo Dave & Ansel Collins – to form Chain Reaction, a harmony soul trio cut loose from reggae altogether. Their sole album, Indebted to You, appeared on Gull Records in 1977: sweet three-part harmony, funk-inflected grooves and Motownesque arrangements. Overlooked at the time, it became one of the most sought-after British rare-groove LPs, its heavy funk cut “Hogtied” a collectors’ staple, alongside their reading of Lamont Dozier’s “Why Can’t We Be Lovers”.

By the eighties he had moved behind the scenes into songwriting, publishing and management in London. Bruce passed away in December 2025. His records still sound like the sun coming out.