Leroy Sibbles

Sibbles moved into production in 2009, and set up the Bright Beam record label. He has produced records by singer Sagitar and deejay Chapter, as well as his own recordings, including a successful cover version of "Harry Hippy".

Sibbles continued to visit Jamaica, and performed at Reggae Sunsplash in 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, and 1990. He returned to the Heptones in 1991. In 1996 he recorded "Original Full Up" with Beenie Man. Sibbles is featured in the 2009 documentary Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae. He continued to perform and record into 2010.

As a solo artist, Sibbles worked with Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes, Lloyd Parks, Sly & Robbie, Augustus Pablo, Bruce Cockburn, and Lee Perry, but primarily produced himself. Sibbles moved to Canada in 1973, where he married and remained for twenty years, and won a U-Know Award for best male vocalist in 1983, and a Juno Award for best reggae album in 1987. He left the Heptones in 1976, midway through a US tour. Also in Canada, he recorded an album for A&M and licensed several albums to Pete Weston's Micron label, including Now and Strictly Roots. In 1990 he collaborated on the one-off single "Can't Repress the Cause", a plea for greater inclusion of hip hop music in the Canadian music scene, with Dance Appeal, a supergroup of Toronto-area musicians that included Devon, Maestro Fresh Wes, Dream Warriors, B-Kool, Michie Mee, Lillian Allen, Eria Fachin, HDV, Dionne, Thando Hyman, Carla Marshall, Messenjah, Jillian Mendez, Lorraine Scott, Lorraine Segato, Self Defense, Zama and Thyron Lee White.

Other Heptones releases from the early 1970s were Book of Rules (Trojan Records) and the Harry Johnson-produced album Cool Rasta (Trojan), recorded just before the group benefited from the internationalisation of reggae via Island Records. Danny Holloway produced Night Food and Lee "Scratch" Perry-produced Party Time were the fruit of the association with Island.

The trio made their first recordings for Ken Lack in 1966 with "School Girls" and "Gun Man Coming to Town", the latter the A-side of their début single. Though the songs did not achieve hit status, the latter composition made the playlists at Radio Jamaica Rediffusion (RJR). They moved on to Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One where they stayed until 1971.

In addition to his work with The Heptones, Sibbles was a session bassist and arranger at Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Jamaica Recording and Publishing Studio and the associated Studio One label during the prolific late 1960s. He was described as "the greatest all-round talent in reggae history" by Kevin O'Brien Chang and Wayne Chen in their 1998 book Reggae Routes.

Beyond his work as a singer-songwriter, Sibbles contributed to the collective output of Studio One as a bass player during the late 1960s. Keyboardist and arranger Jackie Mittoo encouraged Sibbles to play the bass when he needed a bassist for his Jazz trio.

The son of a grocer, Sibbles began singing in the 1950s and also played guitar, having been taught by Trench Town Rastas Brother Huntley and "Carrot". Barry Llewellyn and Earl Morgan had formed The Heptones in 1958, and Sibbles was in a rival group along with two friends. Sibbles joined The Heptones in 1965 after the two groups competed in a street-corner contest.

Leroy Sibbles (born Leroy Sibblies, 29 January 1949) is a Jamaican reggae musician and producer. He was the lead singer for The Heptones in the 1960s and 1970s.