Lovers Rock returns to Kingston with Bitty McLean tribute, more music

The Lovers Rock series is coming back to Kingston with a second night at Pon Top Seafood Grill & Bar, and the follow-up already has the feel of something that could settle in as a regular date on the reggae calendar. After a well-received first staging in February at the same venue, the May 17 edition of Lovers Rock: A Night of British Reggae will widen the pace, give patrons more music, and deepen the link between Jamaican audiences and British reggae history.

Steve James, the main promoter, said the expanded format is designed to stretch the evening so the crowd can hear more music. “The thought has been lingering in my mind for a number of years now,” he said, underscoring how long the idea had been building before the Kingston launch began to gather momentum. The first show, held on February 15 at Pon Top, was a joint venture between James and Berty Grant, and the response was strong enough to bring the series back just a few months later.

This time, the spotlight will fall on two names that carry serious weight in lovers rock circles: Bitty McLean and Vivian Jones. McLean, born in Birmingham in 1972, built his name as a British reggae, lovers’ rock and ragga singer, while Jones was one of the defining voices of the form before his death on October 27, 2025, at age 68. Jones was honoured as Best Male Artist in the British Reggae Industry Awards in 1991, a reminder of how central his catalogue had become to the genre’s British development.

Lovers rock itself remains the story beneath the story. Born in the UK, especially London, in the 1970s, the sound grew out of sound-system culture and is widely described as the first indigenous Black British pop style. It also carried real social meaning for Caribbean-descended youth working through identity, belonging and racism in Britain. Janet Kay’s 1979 hit “Silly Games,” which reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, remains one of the clearest markers of how far the style travelled.

The Kingston crowd that embraced the first edition reflected that wider history. Among those drawn to the February event were Jamaicans who had spent years living in the UK, along with listeners already familiar with the work of figures such as Berty Grant, Blacka Dread and Tippa Irie. With its second run, Lovers Rock is shaping up as more than a tribute night. It is becoming a bridge, bringing British reggae heritage back into Kingston and giving the city a recurring stage for a chapter of the music that was never confined to one island alone.