“I can remember how I wanted to leave high school after I finished fifth form and go straight into music, but Sugar Minott advised me to go to six form instead, because he believed that I should have a solid foundation, in terms of a good education, before entering the music business full time,” said Andy Livingston.
After leaving high school Andy went to work in the corporate world, luckily for him there was a staff band at the company where he worked and he joined the band and became its lead singer. “After completing high school I got a job at Cable & Wireless, fortunately we had a company band and I was the lead singer. We performed on a lot of company events this helped to keep me sharp musically, although I had put my thoughts of being a professional singer on hold,” said the artiste.
In 1995 Andy Livingston gave up the corporate world for music and decided to launch out in the music business full time, this lead to the creation and the launch of his own record label Fan Club Music. From that point on he spent a great deal of his time producing and promoting his music. He also produced and released songs for several other artistes including Capleton, Franky Paul, Tanya Stevens, Junior Kelly, Jack Radics, Natural Blacks, Monster Shack Crew, Papa San, Lady G and Daddy Rings.
Andy Livingston got his first real taste of success as an artiste in 1996 with a single called Pumping which was done in tandem with Lady G. This song got a lot of airplay and made its way onto several reggae charts around the world. The success of Pumping landed him a deal with California based independent record label, Big time Records in 1997. He followed up this success with the radio hit Searching For Love, which was eventually licensed to Jet Star Records and was included on several of the England based company’s top reggae compilations.
Although nothing much came out of his record deal with Big Time Records, Andy Livingston was so engrossed in the music business that decided to set up his own recording studio in 1998. He did so with the help of his long time friend and associate, Third World group member Herbie Harris. While this seemed like a good move at the time, it hampered the progress of his singing career somewhat because he ended up spending a lot of time producing other artistes.
In 2003 Andy Livingston released a single titled Good People which made some amount of impact in the dancehall. That same year he went to Japan for a one off performance at an event in the city of Himeji, along with Dean Frazer.
The following year he did a US East Coast tour along with reggae stalwarts Gregory Issacs and Justin Hinds and the Dominoes. During the tour he did shows in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Philadelphia. Before the end the year he also did a tour of California which saw him doing a number of shows alongside Junior Reid, Franky Paul and Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus.
However in 2005 Andy closed down the studio in order to fully concentrate on his own career. He found more success in 2007 with a cover of One Republic’s Too Late. The popularity of this song abroad earned him several appearances on events in the UK, the US and Europe.
This year has been his best year by far as a recording artiste, as he has scored his first number one with My Promise, which is the second single off his debut album which was released last year. The song was produced by him and Carl Morrison and released on the Black Dutch label earlier this year. It spent several weeks at the top of the Jamaica Music Countdown Reggae Charts, it also featured on the HYPE TV Top 20 Chart where it peaked at number four and the Reggae Holland reggae Chart.
My Promise was recently selected by New York based VP Records for their prestigious, Strictly the Best compilation Volume 42.