Nicky Thomas
Artist. Reggae
- Active
- 1969-1980s
- Sunrise
- 1944 or 1949, Portland
- Sunset
- 1990, London
- Also known as
- Mr. Nigel, Cecil Thomas, Cecil Nicholas Thomas
Nicky Thomas, born Cecil Thomas in Portland, was a singer whose "Love of the Common People," produced by Joe Gibbs, gave Gibbs his first British pop hit and made Thomas one of the reggae artists who settled in England on the strength of their success.
He was working as a laborer in Kingston when Derrick Harriott recorded him on "Run Mr. Nigel Run," a Jamaican hit that left him known for a while as Mr. Nigel. He then joined Joe Gibbs, whose roster at the turn of the decade also took in the Pioneers, the Versatiles and the Hippy Boys.
"Love of the Common People," a cover of an American song first recorded by the Four Preps in 1967, was recorded in Kingston but, as Bradley points out, "blatantly began life with one eye on England": its lyric is about keeping warm and losing your bus fare in the snow. Released on Trojan, it entered the British chart in June 1970 and reached number 9, one of the run of Trojan hits that took reggae into the national chart. Derrick Harriott counted Thomas among the few artists who could carry the music into the British charts for everyone else.
He stayed in England. The same year he wrote and recorded "BBC," a song about the Corporation's treatment of reggae on and off the air; it was not playlisted. By Dandy Livingstone's account, when Livingstone's "Suzanne Beware of the Devil" took off in the clubs as a B side, Lee Gopthal had Thomas cut it in search of another hit, but club audiences preferred Livingstone's rawer version, which became the hit. He continued to record into the 1970s (John Barlass calls him "a pretty effective R&B singer"), and departed in London in 1990.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Joe Gibbs (producer)
- Derrick Harriott (producer)
- Lee Gopthal (collaborator)
- The Pioneers (labelmate)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 100; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 249.
- "Nicky Thomas (Singer)," Wikipedia, accessed October 6, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Thomas_(singer). Wikipedia cites Carl Gayle's 1974 interview in Black Music magazine.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 226.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 248, where Bradley calls it "a cover of an original by the Winstons." The Four Preps' version appeared on Capitol in 1967. "The Four Preps: Love of the Common People," Discogs, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4124709-The-Four-Preps-Love-Of-The-Common-People.
- "Nicky Thomas," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/14070/nicky-thomas/. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 242.
- Derrick Harriott, speaking of Bob and Marcia and "Nicky Thomas, particularly," in Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 246.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 243, 249.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 257.
- Livingstone's account to Augustyn: "they put a lot of brass and thing over the track which didn't work." Heather Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!," SkaBook (blog), January 8, 2016, https://skabook.com/2016/01/08/a-message-to-you-from-dandy-livingstone/.
- John Barlass, "Nicky Thomas: Love of the Common People: Album Review," At the Barrier, January 13, 2022, https://atthebarrier.com/2022/01/13/nicky-thomas-love-of-the-common-people-album-review/.
- "Nicky Thomas (Singer)," Wikipedia, accessed October 6, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Thomas_(singer). Discogs gives his birth date as May 30, 1949; Wikipedia, citing Trojan Records, gives May 30, 1944. "Nicky Thomas," Discogs, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/113432-Nicky-Thomas.
