Billy Ocean

When: 28th April 2023
Location: SEC Armadillo

Billy Ocean, the British-Caribbean R&B singer with a career spanning five decades is back! Coming to Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo on 28th April 2023.

Before he was Billy Ocean, the influential R&B singer was born in Trinidad and Tobago as Leslie Charles. Moving to England with his parents at ten. He quickly became immersed in London’s music scene, and flirted with a future as a recording artist from his early teen years. It wasn’t until 1971, however, that a twenty-one-year-old Ocean released his first single, ‘Nashville Rain’, under the name Les Charles. He continued to use the name for several years.

It wasn’t until it came time for him to release his debut album that ‘Les’ decided to change his moniker. Lifting ‘Ocean’ from the name of a local football team back home in Trinidad and Tobago. The album and artist debuted under the same name, Billy Ocean. With his label GTO, Ocean released four further albums. It was his shift to Jive Records gave him his biggest break yet.

His fifth studio album, Suddenly, was released in 1984, yielding his first number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100. With lead track ‘Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)’. The song went on to win Ocean a Grammy Award. As well as that Suddenly made the top ten in the US and UK album charts. Ocean saw similar success with albums Love Zone and Tear Down These Walls, released in 1986 and 1988 respectively. He is considered on of the most successful British R&B artists of the 80s.

To date, Ocean has released eleven studio albums, with his latest, One World, arriving in September 2020. In October 2010, Ocean was honoured at the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020 Ocean was further honoured with an MBE for services to music.