The singer, musician and producer Lloyd "Charmers" Tyrell died on Thursday 27 December in London, of a heart attack, reports the Jamaica Observer.
Born in 1938, Lloyd Tyrell grew up in Trench Town. In the duo The Charmers, formed in 1961 with Roy Willis, they recorded mainly for Prince Buster and Coxsone Dodd.
Although he can be found in the line-up of the Uniques or Alton Ellis's Flames, Lloyd Charmers, as he called himself after the end of the duo in 1971, stood out as a seasoned pianist and organist, often accompanied by the Hippy Boys. Superb instrumental tracks (In the spirit, African Zulu for Herman Chin Loy, Confidential, Reggae is tight), whose fiery style was so popular with skinheads in England that it came to be called "skinhead reggae".
Lloyd Charmers combined a superb voice with undeniable talent as an arranger. In the early 70s, he moved into production at the head of his labels Splash, Charmers and Wild Flower. He produced himself, but also Marcia Griffiths, Delroy Wilson and above all Ken Boothe, whose 1975 cover of Everything I own was to be his greatest success as a producer.
Lloyd Charmers had also created his alter ego, Lloydie, accompanied by the Lowbites, with whom he developed a hilarious slackness repertoire. Of course, there is the famous Birth control, Shitting on the dock of the bay, his take on the Otis Redding classic, and the explicit White rum and pum pum and Lost in a hole.