Imagination

Imagination is an English soul and funk group from London, active from 1981 to the present. The group is made up of Leee John, Ashley Ingram and Errol Kennedy, and is associated with contemporary R&B, disco, funk, pop soul and synth funk.

Background

The band is a three-piece soul act from the early 1980s and is sometimes described as Britain’s first black supergroup. Its core members are Leee John, Ashley Ingram and Errol Kennedy. John is born John Lesley McGregor in Hackney, London, and has St Lucian heritage. He is educated in New York and later studies drama at the Anna Scher Theatre School. Before the group forms, he works as a backing singer for The Delfonics, Chairmen of the Board, The Velvelettes and The Elgins.

Ashley Ingram is a guitarist and bassist from Northampton. He and John form a songwriting partnership and decide to create their own group, first working together in a short-lived band called Fizzz. While auditioning for another short-lived act, Midnight Express, they meet Errol Kennedy. Kennedy is a drummer born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, who learns to drum in the Boys’ Brigade and Air Training Corps.

Career

Imagination achieves chart success in 28 countries and earns four platinum discs, nine gold discs and more than a dozen silver discs between 1981 and 1983. Leee John’s drama training also leads to screen work, including an appearance in the Doctor Who story Enlightenment in 1983.

The group’s success declines after 1983 as its sound shifts away from its earlier style towards a more mainstream direction. Its fifth album, Triology, includes the moderate hits “Thank You My Love”, “Found My Girl” and “Last Days Of Summer”. The sixth album, Closer, is made with producers associated with the British group Loose Ends and includes “Instinctual”, which reaches No. 62 in the UK and No. 1 on the US Dance chart, along with “The Last Time” and “Love’s Taking Over”. By the time the final album, Fascination Of The Physical, appears, John is the only original member seen in the video for the lead single “I Like It”. The album does not achieve significant sales, and the group later disbands in 1995. John then continues with a solo career in dance and jazz.