The Skatalites

[London Boy]

Off to see the grandfathers of ska tomorrow -The Skatalites.

In a town about a 3 hour drive away. My mate Gary at 40 is the youngest of our ageing skinhead crew, I'm 46, Klaus is 52, Henry is 42........

As Judge Dread said "with your boots and yer braces and yer smiling faces..." Yea, that's us!

It's going to be a good laugh! And I'm looking forward to some good live music, I haven't been to any gigs since February.

[jm745]

Nice one, can't beat a bit of ska, never seen a ska band that didn't put on a proper good show.

But we probably have different views on what ska is, as I'm only 17.

Joe

[harry hackedoff]

Skear ya nar me say dat
Ragamuffin

[London Boy]

Well I got home at 4 o'clock this morning, having left the gig at 1.

Dorren's voice keeps getting better with age.
The original members are looking well old now and well cool in their grey beards and dreads.

Every skinhead crew and every rasta crew within reasonable distance of the gig turned up. A small venue with 300 sweating skinheads and rastas jumping about having a great time.

And of course they ended on the highest of high notes with Guns of Navarone! And that lifted the roof.

Funniest comment of the evening, 16-17 year old skinhead girl standing in the bar front of my mob says "I feel really young here, you lot are old and there's so many old people here" To which Gary replied "Have you
looked at the members of the band recently?"

The support was a roots reggae band from that town, manned soley by young white guys with dreads, excellent roots-rock-reggae with a samttering of dub thrown in. And one fella who waved a huge Bob Marley flag on stage non-stop during their set.

All in all well worth the six hours of drviing.

So I got into work today at 11 instead of 8. And my head is still buzzing with Dorreen's excellent verison of Bob's "Simmer Down"

Ire!

[London Boy]

Nice one, can't beat a bit of ska, never seen a ska band that didn't put on a proper good show.

But we probably have different views on what ska is, as I'm only 17.

Joe

I listen to all types of 60s ska mate, early ska-boogie ( US R & B influences), blue beat, and early 60s true ska (Skatalites etc.) Then the late 60s rocksteady, reggae and skinhead ska.

The late 70s & 80s Two Tone ska of The Specials, Madness, The Selector, The Beat and others like Judge Dread, Arthur Kay etc.

And the ska of the 80s, 90s, 00s from bands like The Toasters, The Loafers, Hot Knives, The Riffs, The Liptones, The Bustups, Ska-P, Escalators, etc.

HOWEVER, I don't consider No Doubt, Might Mighty Bossotnes, Rancid etc and US ska-punk to be ska. They for me are simply bands that occasionally borrow the ska backbeat.

Anyway, ska is always party music & you can't go wrong!

[harry hackedoff]

Same shit with ub 40.
They grip me
Jimmy C, naw me say dat And even Desmonde Dekker, but deffo not ub 40

[London Boy]

You're preaching to the choir Aitch. I could never stick them either. I mean how can a band possibly create such an awful cover version & think it's better than the original i.e. Tony Tribe's Red Red wine.

[Sully]

Sounds liker a great evening. I saw Bad Manners at the local working mens club just a few years back and they were fantastic... tight rhythm section, great brass and fatty buster bloodvessel bopped for an hour or two - ee dun arf shift f'rer fat lad. I don't remember them doing many of the comedy/novelty hits but I do remember the last half hour having buckets of water thrown over the crowd to cool everyone down.

Not sure whether they'd win any roots or authenticity awards but they had everyone bopping that night.

Anybody remember Northern Soul in The Castle on Onion Street in Guz? Another great night out.

[London Boy]

Yea, it was a great night out Sully.

I saw Bad Manners at a punk/skinhead festival here in Sweden last year. After the gig I spoke to Buster a bit about London and living in Sweden. He has lost some serious weight now. He said he'd lost 90 lbs- that's just over 6 stone.

And I agree he can't half move for a big lad. Full of energy he was.

[harry hackedoff]

Billy Whizzzzz
Common myth has Neil Diamond writing RRW. He didn`t. He bought the copywright is all.
Wigan Casino, Home of Northern Soul