BIOGRAPHY
Claudius Afolabi 'Labi' Siffre was born 25 June 1945 in Hammersmith, London, to a Barbadian-Belgian British mother and Nigerian father. Raised in Bayswater and Hampstead and educated at St Benedict's School in Ealing, he was largely self-taught, absorbing jazz, blues, and early R&B through an older brother's record collection before studying at the Eric Gilder School of Music. He played clubs and bands around London in his teens and twenties, then moved to Amsterdam with his partner, trading electric guitar for acoustic and playing folk clubs. His 1970 self-titled debut began a run of nine albums through 1998, with 1972's Crying Laughing Loving Lying bringing UK chart success via 'It Must Be Love.' His 1984 anti-apartheid song '(Something Inside) So Strong' won an Ivor Novello Award.