Ska Drummer Al Fletcher Passes Away at 45

Al Fletcher

Al Fletcher, drummer for ska and reggae artists like The Selecter, Skaville UK, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and the bands Die So Fluid (punk/metal) and Gigantic (alternative), passed away yesterday at age 45.

The following is a statement from Die So Fluid in response to Fletcher's passing:

"Al contracted double pneumonia followed by sepsis in a rare reaction to an infection. This caused his immune system to wage a war on his body that he was unable to survive, despite the fight he put up and the best efforts of the doctors and nursing staff at Ealing Hospital. Kept sedated throughout this sudden and vicious affliction, we can only be grateful that he suffered no pain and passed peacefully. Al’s passing leaves a gaping hole in all our lives as we struggle to come to terms with the fact he has gone. No one plays the drums or can tell a joke quite like you Al, you will be missed so very much. You will live on in our hearts and in all the amazing music you made. We love you."

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We offer our deepest condolences to Fletcher's family, friends, and fans.

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Duff Review: "Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers"

Pledge Music
2014
CD/LP/digital download
(The CD is also available to purchase through the London International Ska Festival website.)

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Of all the 2 Tone-era bands, The Bodysnatchers (2 Tone's only all-female act--and the only women in the late 70s UK ska scene apart from Pauline Black) were the ones who were criminally under-documented on vinyl during their relatively brief--but brilliant--existence, from late 1979 to 1981. Apart from two fantastic singles (a cover of Dandy Livingstone's "Let's Do Rocksteady" b/w "Ruder Than You," co-written by The Bodysnatchers and the band's friend Gaz Mayall in 1980; and the band's "Easy Life" b/w a cover of Bob Andy's "Too Experienced," also released in 1980) and an amazing live version of "Easy Life" included on the Dance Craze soundtrack (1981), The Bodysnatchers weren't able to keep it together long enough to record their debut album before fragmenting over how to move forward. One faction of The Bodysnatchers wanted to go pop (the majority of the band): Sarah Jane Owen, Stella Barker, Penny Leyton, and Miranda Joyce formed The Belle Stars, releasing a pop version of The Bodysnatchers' original "Hiawatha" as their first single (later, they had a massive hit with their cover of The Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko"--the song was originally written by James "Sugar Boy Crawford"--when it was featured on the 1988 "Rain Man" film soundtrack); after The Belle Stars' demise, Owen and Layton then joined The Deltones, another amazing all female UK ska act, in 1984. The remainder of The Bodysnatchers wanted to be more political--Ms. Dakar and Nicky Summers went on to work with The Special AKA, releasing the first Bodysnatcher song the band ever wrote, "The Boiler" (an extremely disturbing story of date rape, only meant to be listened to once, according to Jerry Dammers); Dakar then joined The Special AKA, singing and co-writing songs on their sole studio album (read my thoughts on that record here).

After two long, challenging, and apparently very unpleasant years recording The Special AKA's extraordinary In the Studio (in a recent interview with Reggae Steady Ska, Ms. Dakar stated that she's never listened to the finished album), Ms. Dakar took a long break from the ska scene (though she did occasionally sing and record in the 80s and 90s with non-ska acts like Happy House, Palm Skin Productions, Dr. Robert of the Blow Monkeys, and Apollo 440). However, according to Paul Williams' book "You're Wondering Now: The Specials from Conception to Reunion," in 2002 Jennie Matthias (Belle Stars/Big 5) contacted Dakar to see if she was interested in touring with her and Pauline Black of The Selecter as part of a "Ska Divas" supergroup, performing Bodysnatchers, Selecter, and Belle Stars songs--all backed by a band that included Nick Welsh (who, at the time, was the songwriter and bassist of that iteration of The Selecter, and had been a member of Bad Manners, as well as the man behind King Hammond).

These shows rekindled Dakar's love of ska music and later led to a series of fruitful collaborations between her and Welsh (that apparently had been initiated at the suggestion of Ms. Black). In 2006, Welsh left The Selecter and formed Skaville UK--and arranged for Dakar to sing vocals on several tracks on each of that act's two albums (1973 in 2006 and Decadent! in 2008) and she performed gigs with them, as well. Welsh also co-wrote several songs and played all of the instruments on Dakar's 2007 solo record, Cleaning in Another Woman's Kitchen, and the two released the more rock-oriented Back to the Garage in 2009. Dakar also was a featured guest vocalist on Madness' "On the Town," from their stunningly good 2009 album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate (read my thoughts on that record here).

After having been approached by a seemingly never-ending stream of Bodysnatchers and 2 Tone fans over the span of several decades about the possibility of her releasing an album of unrecorded Bodysnatchers' tunes (a full-on reunion was never in the cards; the split in 1981 wasn't amicable)--coupled with the 35th anniversary of the band's formation and an opportunity to perform Bodysnatchers' songs on Halloween at the Jazz Cafe in Camden--led Dakar to get in touch with Sean Flowerdew (Pama Intl/Phoenix City All-stars/London International Ska Festival) to see if he thought it was feasible to put together some sort of recording. Of course, he did--and with Dakar's suggestion that they crowd fund the album through PledgeMusic (full disclosure: I financially supported this project in exchange for a CD and LP!), they assembled an all-star ska backing band (featuring two Specials, Lynval Golding on guitar and Horace Panter on bass; Sean Flowerdew on keys and co-producing; Mark Claydon of The Get Up on drums; Lenny Bignell of the Sidewalk Doctors and Phoenix City All-stars on guitar and co-producing; and Karl Wirrmann from Intensified on sax) and recorded 10 tracks live in the studio in one day (including five original and unrecorded Bodysnatchers songs).

While some DGTS readers of a certain age may have been fortunate enough to have seen The Bodysnatchers perform many of these tracks live, this record will be the very first opportunity for many a 2 Tone/Bodysnatchers fan to experience much of this music (it was mine!) and they won't be disappointed, as the songs and performances are nothing short of stellar (Ms. Dakar is in extremely fine form)!

[Some may grouse about the inclusion of the three previously recorded cuts here, plus another cover that was captured in Dance Craze--"Easy Life," Too Experienced," "Let's Do Rocksteady," and Desmond Dekker's "007"--but they likely would have appeared on The Bodysnatchers album, had that come to pass back in 1981. The versions here compare very favorably with the original arrangements (these aren't radical updates--they're true to The Bodysnatchers' 2 Tone sound--and they're terrific) and they deserve inclusion on Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers, since they are the band's signature tunes.]

Much like The Slits' "Typical Girls" (and keeping with 2 Tone's mission to address social, political, and economic injustice within undeniably catchy songs that make one want to dance), The Bodysnatchers' "Easy Life"--the first track on Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers and certainly one of the band's finest moments--challenged 1970 British society's prevailing and very much entrenched attitude regarding the role of women (something we're still grappling with today) and acknowledged how difficult it was/is to defy these imposed expectations and fight for real equality--particularly for young women just reaching adulthood. It was also revolutionary in that they were women singing ska songs--in a scene dominated by young men--from a woman's point of view:

"I've been waiting so long
For this here time to come
I've been waiting ever so long
For this here time to come
But now it's here, do I want it?
Now it's here, I'm not sure if I want it
Why don't I plump for the easy option?
Yes, I could go for the easy option

It could be so easy
Life could be so easy
It could be so easy
Life could be so easy

We are near to our equality
Girls and boys with pay parity
We are near to our equality
The law says there is equal opportunity
But still it's a struggle
Yes, life is still a struggle
I could stay home and play houses
Care for my man and press his trousers

It could be so easy...

Hey girls, it's not too late
To stay home and vegetate
Just like mamma says you should do
Life society says you should do
Is this our natural fate?
I wasn't born to procreate
If I didn't have to use my brain
I know that I would go insane
I refuse, I want to say no
I don't care if it's hard, if it's slow

It could be so easy..."

(One much appreciated bonus to picking up this CD is that it contains song lyrics in the insert; before it arrived, I had been listening to the digital download tracks over and over in my attempt to discern the lyrics to the previously unreleased tracks! Note to bands: Please take the time, effort, and expense to print/post your lyrics somewhere so that fans can easily discern your songs' messages...)

"The Ghost of the Vox Continental" (the Vox Continental is a transistor-based combo organ that was used by Jerry Dammers and Madness' Mike Barson, amongst many other 2 Tone and new wave musicians) is an amusing ghost story about a keyboardist who is crushed by his organ during a load-in, but, even in death, is so devoted to the band that he continues to perform at gigs ("The ghostly keyboard player/Returned to haunt the band/The untouched keyboard moved to/The touch of a ghostly hand...They tried hard for a replacement/But no one stayed for very long/No need for them to learn the set/Vox Continental knew each song"). Of course, the song features a very prominent organ line that has slight echoes of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" (which has been associated with horror movies since its use in films like "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in 1931 and the 1962 Hammer Production of "The Phantom of the Opera"; many ska fans will recognize that The Toasters used its opening measures as the introduction to "Frankenska," on their 1988 Thrill Me Up album).

The carousel-like organ line that opens "Happy Time Tune" belies the suffering and want contained within its lyrics. While enduring the cold and wet London morning, Ms. Dakar recalls a seemingly idyllic family holiday to visit relatives in Jamaica ("We played cricket on the soft grass/Picked Julie mango from the trees"). But these pleasant memories are tempered by the grinding poverty in Jamaica and the song suggests that one should always be aware and appreciate that some people don't have it as good as you do and will never have the chance to go on holiday from the day-to-day lives: "There is another side to Jamaica/Far away from your Orange Street/Where poor people live in iron shacks/No work, no shoes on them feet/For them, there is no happy time/For them, no sun a shine/For them, no bird a sing/You should know everything."

The brilliantly evocative and cinematic "Private Eye"--think Humphrey Bogart as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in "The Big Sleep"--so deftly captures the essence and spirit of film noir. For portions of the song, Ms. Dakar is a femme fatale ("Said he liked my bleach job, used to be a brunette/I looked at him sideways, he lit my cigarette") who has a history with Marlowe ("He saved my life a few years back/Some crazy meathead was on my track"). One of the great things about this song is how its point of view shifts--at first, Ms. Dakar is the omniscient narrator describing Marlowe on a stakeout on Sunset Boulevard in LA ("Check the drugstore across the street/Saw his suspect come out to meet/Tall man in black, fedora hat/Hailed a cab/That was that"), then she's the femme fatale, followed by the aforementioned, stalking "meathead" encountering the PI ("Marlowe smashed through the door/Stuck a Lugar in my face!"), and finally she's Marlowe, with his lament about his destiny to live on the seamier side of life, but how his profession (and ingrained moral code) keeps him from succumbing to the plethora of sin around him.

"I don't know why I'm a PI, it just doesn't make sense
Every day's a parking lot, the crowd of losers is dense
Wheeling with wasters, dealing with drunks
Whiskey for breakfast, coffee for lunch
High-class fluff, low-class hotels
Drugstore cowboys, nights spent in cells
Got no family, I got no home
All my romance takes place on the phone
Don't work too much, it don't really matter
If I didn't exist like this
I'd be with the rest, in the gutter"

The immensely catchy "The Loser" finds the singer giving dating and sartorial advice to an uncool guy whose approach toward women is painfully wrong. He heeds all of it and transforms himself into a popular ladies' man. To the dismay of the singer, she finds herself falling for him, too, even though she knows his front is more of a put-on than real:

"Time when by and I noticed the change
Acting still, but the role was new
You tried less, achieved and enigmatic pose
Taken in, girls surrounded you
Suddenly, when next we met
I realized I'd fallen for this drip
On each arm clung adoring girls
"By the way, thank you for the tip""

The take-away of the incredible, but sorrowful, rocksteady-ish "Mixed Feelings" is that one shouldn't settle for relationships that are conflicted, compromised, or fake: "So many people spend their days/Wondering if they like or hate/Too many people waste their time/Telling, telling the truth and wish they were lying/They are laughing, but crying/Just crying inside/Knowing their heart was broken..."

Apart from the strange notion that had the native peoples of North America only shared their lands with the white European invaders and not fought "with national pride," they wouldn't have been almost completely wiped out, "Hiawatha" is a welcome plea for rejecting nationalism and embracing multiculturalism (two prominent issues that England was beginning to grapple with in the late 70s/early 80s), as well as keeping in mind that we're all descended from common ancestors, if you go back far enough: "Integration, social changes/Different customs, faces/Stops us from getting in a rut." (It should be noted that in the Belle Stars' music video for "Hiawatha," the awful "native" costume touches and set--with totem poles!--trade on stereotypes and almost negate the positive message of the song!)

Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers is The Duff Guide to Ska's pick for album of the year. It's a superb album in its own right and an incredibly momentous development for the global ska scene--a "lost" 2 Tone record has been recovered, finally rendering the 2 Tone label discography complete. Get Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers now!

"Clash of the Ska Legends" Tour w/Bim Skala Bim and King Hammond!

If you're in or near New England in mid-to-late August, you MUST make sure to catch the "Clash of Ska Legends" tour featuring Bim Skala Bim and King Hammond!

For the past several summers, members of Bim have come together from their far-flung homes to play some always-popular gigs in and around Boston and Cape Cod (and for this tour, they're supporting their excellent new album Chet's Last Call--read The Duff Guide to Ska review of it here). But this year, Bim is accompanied by the truly great King Hammond (AKA Nick Welsh, ex-Bad Manners, The Selecter, Big 5, Skaville UK, and more), who has released a slew of amazing early 70s-inspired skinhead reggae releases recently, including 22 Bullets from a Rude Boy Gun, the reissue of his classic albums Revolution '70 and Tank Tops and Hot Pants, the 7" single "Skaville Ole," and a series of very limited-edition CDs.

Needless to say, both acts are phenomenally good and have been creating and playing some of the best ska and reggae around since the 1980s! See these legends while you still can!

Bim Skala Bim and King Hammond "Clash of the Ska Legends Tour"

August 14th: Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA (w/Mr. Kowalsky, Malabar, and The New Limits)
August 15th: The Wellfleet Beachcomber, Wellfleet/Cape Cod, MA
August 16th: Hookfest, Portsmouth, NH (w/Lettuce, The Nth Power, Michael Bernier and the Freevolt, and The Spittin' Vinnies)
August 17th: Manchester 65, Warwick RI (w/The Copacetics, Panoramic View, Sweet Babylon)
August 21st: Pelham East, Newport RI
August 22nd: Grumpy, Falmouth, MA
August 23rd: Port City Music Hall, Portland, ME (w/The Beat Horizon, El Grande, Roots Rhythm and Dub)
August 24th: Mine Oysters, Boothbay Harbor, ME

New Album from Nick Welsh: "The Life and Times of a Ska Man!"

Fans of King Hammond--and we proudly count ourselves amongst that crowd--will want to be in on the pre-order of the new album from Nick Welsh, titled The Life and Times of a Ska Man, which contains new acoustic versions of Nick's songs from his vast catalogue of stellar songs from the past 20 plus years.

Here are all of the details from the man himself:

"My album The Life and Times of a Ska Man is now finished and I am now taking pre-orders for it. The price is £10 (including p + p) in the UK or £12 for the rest of the universe. You can pay via the King Hammond webpage. The first 100 people who order will receive a free N.1. Records album and a lovely badge. All the money made from this release will go into funding the next N.1. album, which will be Hot Skin Music by King Hammond."

Nick has had an extraordinary musical career, spanning from the post-2 Tone days of the mid-80s to the present day (the cover of his new album is a collage of many of the fantastic records he's released over the years--some of which are my all time favorites). He's served as the bass player and songwriter for Bad Manners (Return of the Ugly), Buster's All Stars (Skinhead Luv-a-fair), The Selecter (The Happy Album, Hairspray, Cruel Britannia), and Big 5 (In Yer Face, Popskatic), as well as his own groups, Skaville UK (1973, Decadent, Devil Beat) and his skinhead reggae alter-ego King Hammond (Revolution '70, Blow Your Mind, The King and I, Jacuzzi, Showbiz!, Dancing in the Garden of Evil). Plus, he's worked with ska stars like Lee "Scratch" Perry (picking up a Grammy in the process), Dave Barker, Judge Dread, Prince Buster, and Laurel Aitken.

(In addition, Nick is in the midst of writing his autobiography with Paul "Willo" Williams, which is also titled "The Life and Times of a Ska Man"--read an exclusive excerpt here.)

We've pre-ordered our copy of The Life and Times of a Ska Man...now it's your turn!

Duff Review: King Hammond "Rude Boy Rock" b/w Sammy Buzz "Ruff Ride Ruff"

N.1. Records
2012
7" single

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Frustration over how illegal music file sharing has eaten away at the sales of his recent batch of really superb CDs (The King and I, Jacuzzi, Showbiz, and Dancing in the Garden of Evil), coupled with his deep rooted love of vinyl records, has led King Hammond (AKA Nick Welsh) to focus his next batch of releases on limited-edition, white label singles that are signed and personalized for each purchaser (mine reads, "To The King of New York! From your pal, King Hammond"). This release also happens to include a "Rude Boy Rock" badge designed by Paul Willo (which is a nice touch and something very much appreciated by those of us who grew up sporting band buttons on our overcoats, parkas, and flight jackets). While this approach definitely appeals to the old school ska fan, I hope that it helps shape the behaviors of the new ones (I buy CDs and LPs for my son as birthday/Xmas gifts, etc. and he has begun to like going with me to new and used record stores to make his own purchases). So if you don't already have one, it's probably time to go scour the thrift shops or eBay for a turntable, because it's looking more and more like ska musicians are going to be releasing a good portion of their recorded music exclusively on vinyl (for the latest example, see the two Dr. Ring Ding Ska-Vaganza singles on Jump Up Records).

As of late, Nick (with help from Paul "You're Wondering Now" Willo) has been working on penning his autobiography "The Life and Times of a Ska Man," chronicling his fascinating and oftentimes amusing experiences as a musician/songwriter/producer (with Bad Manners, The Selecter, Big 5, 3 Men and a Black, Skaville UK, King Hammond, Prince Buster, Lee Perry, and Laurel Aitken)--and it appears that this look back is probably the inspiration for this fantastic cut, "Rude Boy Rock." The track opens with a long spoken-word introduction over a wicked, funky skinhead reggae rhythm: "When I was a teenager growing up in North London in the early 70s, I loved my reggae. You know, a bit of Trojan, Island, all that gear. But at the same time, I was banging on what the media would call glam rock. Although to me, it was just pop music: T. Rex, Slade, Sweet. And even way back then, I thought one day I'll have a band of my own and I'd mix these two kinds of music together and call it "Rude Boy Rock." Well, it's taken a little bit longer than I'd thought, but here we go..." The music then shifts into glam/punk power chords for the "Rude Boy Rock" chorus and back to dirty reggae for the subsequent verses that recount his discovery of "that beautiful, amphetamine-fueled sound of punk rock," while simultaneously maintaining his all-out obsession with ska and reggae.

Having hit the mid-century mark, King Hammond is one of the few still active second generation of ska musicians producing high-quality new music. In this role, he seems to relish being a part Homer-like epic poet of ska (the keeper of ska history, which is retold for the benefit of younger fans) and part pub stool raconteur eager to give you the straight skinny behind all the myths. And that's what is so appealing about this track--KH is a stellar storyteller and in recounting/revealing his personal history directly for his most fervent fans, he forges an even closer relationship between himself and his supporters ("...did he just essentially tell us that he thought up ska-punk years before it actually came into being?!"). In this age when pop culture is increasingly decentralized and sliced up into millions of micro channels catering to tiny audiences, giving your people what they want is more vital than ever to a professional musician's survival.

On the flip side, King Hammond collaborator Sammy Buzz delivers the rude record "Ruff Ride Ruff," which expands upon the theme of--and appropriates some of the music from--Prince Buster's perennial favorite "Rough Rider." Sammy sings and toasts: "She's rough in the morning/She's rough in the evening...She rougher than the carpet in my room/Tougher than the bristles pon a broom/Rougher than the pet hedgehog/Rough like a flea bitten dog..." The painfully absurd imagery/humor here takes some of the bite out of the slack lyrics--but they're still kind of lewd! Yet, you get the feeling that this track is really about honoring the tradition of the rude sides by musicians like The Prince and Lloyd Charmers (AKA Lloydie and the Lowbites) than really titillating the dirty 14 year-old lurking inside all of us.

If you're a King Hammond fan, this record is a must--and for those of you who aren't on board the King Hammond train to Reggae City, what are waiting for? You're missing out on some of the best ska out there!

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King Hammond Storms NYC This Week (Thursday and Saturday)!

If you've been following The Duff Guide to Ska for any length of time, you'll know that I'm a ridiculously big fan of King Hammond, who is coming over from the UK to make two rare appearances in New York City this week, backed by early reggae masters The Hard Times. These days, it's not too often that we have out-of-country ska musicians performing here in NYC (a shame, really), so make sure to come out to these shows!

Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:00 pm

King Hammond and The Hard Times

Shrine
2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard (aka 7th Avenue between 133rd and 134th Streets)
New York, NY
Free!

The Hard Times go on at 9:00 pm; King Hammond hits the stage at 10:30 pm.

Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 9:00 pm

Dirty Reggae Party #14 at The Lake with King Hammond, The Hard Times, The Reggay Lords (plus Ticklah on the decks!)

The Lake
258 Johnson Avenue (between Bushwick Avenue and White Street)
Brooklyn, NY
$6

(Take the L train to Montrose, walk down Bushwick and make a left on Johnson--or take the J train to Flushing, walk towards Bushwick Avenue, make a left, and walk till you hit Johnson Avenue and make a right. Look for the metal door with '258' on it, open it, and go up the stairs...)

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You may ask yourself, who exactly is King Hammond and why should I care?

Inspired by the late ʻ60s/early ʻ70s reggae hits (like The Upsetters' "Return of Django," Harry J All Stars' "Liquidator," and Dave & Ansell Collins' "Double Barrel") that ruled the British airwaves when he was a youth, Nick Welsh launched his King Hammond project back in 1987 (initially claiming--and sometimes fooling people--that King Hammond was this lost gem of an artist from the skinhead reggae era that Nick had discovered), while he was the bassist and songwriter for Bad Manners (“Skaville UK,” “This is Ska,” “Return of the Ugly”).

After his first single “King Hammond Shuffle” appeared on several international compilations (including Ska for Ska's Sake in 1989 on Skank Records), King Hammond released two fantastic albums of skinhead reggae, Revolution ʻ70 (Bluebeat, 1989) and Blow Your Mind (Receiver/Trojan, 1992).

During the 1990s, Welsh joined Pauline Blackʼs Selecter as bassist and songwriter (plus he produced their four studio albums--my favorite of the lot was 1999's Cruel Britannia); was a member of 3 Men & a Black, with J.J. Burnell (The Stranglers), Jake Burns (Stiff Little Fingers), Roddy Radiation (The Specials), Dave Wakeling (The Beat), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), and Pauline Black; and collaborated with ex-Belle Stars singer Jennie Matthias in Big 5. Then, in the mid-2000s, Welsh fronted his own ska band, Skaville UK, which released three albums (1973, Decadent, and Devil Beat--click on the links for The Duff Guide to Ska reviews).



Welsh revived King Hammond in 2010 and since that time has released three albums (The King and I, Jacuzzi, and Showbiz--click on the links for The Duff Guide to Ska reviews) and two vinyl EPs ("Riot in London Town" and "Hey, Mr. DJ") on his own N.1 Records imprint. In June 2011, King Hammond was a featured performer at the Ink ʼn ʼIron Festival in Long Beach, CA (and played several gigs in Mexico afterwards), and is touring throughout the UK and Europe with this seven-piece band The Rude Boy Mafia.



During his four decades in ska and reggae, Welsh has played with and produced such legendary artists as Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken, Dave Barker, Rico Rodriguez, Judge Dread, and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Notably, Welsh worked with Perry as the musical director on the Grammy-Award winning album Jamaican E.T. (Sanctuary/Trojan, 2002)—winner of Best Reggae Album in 2003--and its follow-up, Alien Starman (Secret Records, 2004).



Welsh also has written music for television (“The Osbournes,” “Ugly Betty,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” and “LA Ink”), films (“Domino,” “The Magic Roundabout”), and videogames (“WWE Smackdown versus RAW,” “Day of Reckoning”)--so even if you don't know King Hammond, you've probably heard his music...

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You can read an interview I did with Nick last year here.

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If you're in the NYC area, hope to see you at one or both of these gigs!

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Duff Review: King Hammond Jacuzzi

N.1. Records
2010
CD

Who else but the great King Hammond (AKA Nick Welsh, songwriter-bassist-singer for Skaville UK, The Selecter, Big 5, and Bad Manners) would be audacious enough to release not one but two stellar albums (the other record in question is the killer The King and I; you can read our review of it here)--as well as a pair of spin-off vinyl EPs, Riot in London Town and Hey Mr. DJ--all within a six-month period?! Jacuzzi contains everything that one could ask of King Hammond and more: super catchy ska and skinhead reggae tunes; wonderfully cheeky lyrics; booty-shaking, groovin' grooves; and impeccable performances (which are all more impressive, as I think Nick played every instrument on the album--at one point in "Reggay Train" he shouts out, sounding a bit surprised himself, "King Hammond's on the fiddle!").

The hot tub of the shimmering title track (and you gotta love how the chorus goes "Jah, Jah, Jah-cuzzi") is a people soup metaphor for slumming it on the seamier, ethically-challenged, hedonistic side of life. You know in your heart and head that giving into temptation is wrong, but it feels so damn right: "Holy Mother, forgive me for my sins/I always fall from grace when the day begins/Look into my eyes and tell me what you see?/The grand illusion or cold reality?/Bad drugs and Englishmen are only a call away/For the Cowboys and the Indians, who want to come and play/in the jacuzzi?...Look back in wonder at Paradise missed/but I was in the deep end of a personal abyss/When luck was handed out, I guess I missed the queue/I couldn't get my jeans on in time to meet with you." It's the hell of being keenly self-aware (coupled with a working knowledge of right and wrong) and the heaven of getting off on one's vices (hey, everybody's got their own angel and devil whispering in each ear: "All men are equal...in the jacuzzi!")

"Riot in London Town" (which also appears on its eponymous EP) bemoans the fact that so much of London is being torn down and replaced with crap architecture. The hippie pop psychedelia of the late 1960s--the flip side of the mod/skinhead revolution--typically creeps in the edges of King Hammond's music as it, no doubt, influenced the skinhead reggae artists of the day. On "Hammond-edlic!," the King lets his freak flag fly, urging listeners to "drop in...drop out" on this throbbing, deeply-layered, incredibly trippy and funky reggay instrumental (did I hear tablas in there?). Without question, this is my favorite track on the album.

"Tattoo Girls" is a loping ode to ladies with ink ("Rude girls in Mexico, Rockabillies in the USA!"). "Reggay Train" builds on the proto-skinhead reggae rhythm of The Pioneers' "Long Shot Kick De Bucket" and/or Symarip's "Skinhead Moonstomp" (which is really Derrick Morgan's "Moon Hop") to deliver us in rude boy style to Rainbow City circa 1969. "Chicken and Chips" celebrates King Hammond's addiction to KFC's crispy (or extra-crispy?) product, though it's all presented/projected through a female protagonist (before Nick set me straight, I thought this was a song about lesbians--"That girl just eats chicken and chips/She won't put nothing else to her lips...She used to be finger lickin' good--better than the rest/Now the thing that turns her on is leg or a breast"--I'm always on the lookout for the subtext in everything, real or imagined!).

"They Will Rise" is a cheery, calypso-esque warning to all righteous souls not to surrender an inch to the many bad-minded people amongst us: "And if you feel like you've been taken/You're not the first, won't be the last/And if you let them rule your situation/They will rise..." While we're on the subject of people trying to do us in, the King kisses off an ex that specialized in head games in "Three Card Trick" ("I don't want to play that game no more!").

"Bongo Ska Fever" is an awesomely propulsive vintage ska stomper that Prince Buster never wrote (love how he pronounces 'ska' as 'skar'), while "From the Hip" smoothly visits Harry J's All Stars territory. "The Hanky Panky" ("King Hammond has ESP/Extra! Sexual! Perception!...Girls and boys/like the hanky panky/Have some fun/you know it's true/They like to kiss it up/they want to hug it up, too/they like to feel it up/and then they follow it through") and "Reggae Movement #2" (which alludes to a certain part of the body "moving" in every sense of the word) are knowing, slightly naughty dirty reggae instrumental cuts that would make it past the broadcast censors, but still have the inner-twelve-year-olds in us snickering away, 'cause we really know what they are all about.

As always, King Hammond manages to successfully embody the spirit and sound of late sixties skinhead reggae while creating thoroughly original and winning cuts. It really doesn't get much better than this--count me amongst the King's loyal musical subjects! Long live King Hammond!

The Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A

Duff Review: Mark Foggo - MAD

V2 Records
2010

Mark Foggo is one of the few, wonderfully obstinate batch of musicians--alongside Bucket of The Toasters, Nick Welsh (King Hammond, Skaville UK, Bad Manners, Selecter), King Django, and others--who have been consistently producing high-quality ska since the post-2 Tone days of the mid-80s. Like many acts with origins in that era, Mark Foggo's ska sound has always been flexible enough to incorporate a wildly eclectic mix of influences--new wave, punk, 50s rock, and rockabilly--reminding one of the kind of offbeat acts that used to be featured on Stiff Records. (Come to think of it, Stiff acts Madness + The Untouchables + Ian Dury = Mark Foggo! Of course, he covered "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" on his marvelous 1992 Couldn't Play Ska album.) No matter how you define or dissect his music, there is no doubt that he is an extraordinarily talented and versatile songwriter and musician.

Mark Foggo's eighth studio album, MAD, is stellar from start to finish--and crammed with instantly memorable, aggressively fast, minor-key tunes that create an unusual amount of claustrophobic tension for a ska record. His rhythm section is atomic-clock precise; the guitar and keyboard lines are gleefully frenetic; the horns deliver their goods like Muhammad Ali (landing their musical "blows" before your brain can process that they hit you); and his melodies are remarkably catchy. (The band seems to be always operating at maximum efficiency, so much so that you can practically hear the sweat dripping off the musicians.) All of this is topped off by the uninhibited, larger-than-life, and always entertaining antics of Mark Foggo himself.

The oftentimes surreal, comically absurd, and definitely twisted world of Mark Foggo is full of characters trying to make sense of senseless situations; survive in a system that, one way or another, appears to be dead-set on doing them in; or just flying their freak flags high and proud. MAD kicks off with "The Day I Met Muhammad Ali," written from the point of view of someone unwisely stepping into the ring to be pummeled (to death?) by Muhammad Ali in his prime ("With the help of rubber ropes/well, I'm running rings/I just hope if keep moving/he can hit other things/For sure, I've never seen anyone this tall/and I'm damn right certain I was never this small...") and uses one of Ali's signature taglines in the chorus. "Caravans" is a panoramic, Jam-like screed against RVs clogging up the roadways and gas stations in Europe ("See the snails with shells on their backs/running too fast with overloaded roof-racks"), while "Bang Me Head" is a terrifically upbeat tune about accepting that sometimes you just can't change the status quo ("Bang me head against an old brick wall, but it don't do nothing..."). "Rotten to the Core" is straight-on "Rumble in Brighton"-type rockabilly, delivering a warning to get out of town or suffer a beat down.

"Cybergirl" is about, well, um, looking at pictures of naked women on the web ("I could see her/She looked so good I could almost feel her!")--and its companion piece, "Sugarlover" has the singer on the prowl for "a girl with money/I'm looking round for a gal with looks." They're both done tongue-in-cheeky, but lust and greed motivate a good portion of the world's population, right? "Jump That Gate" is a loping reggae skank that in its verses has the singer pledging to amend his bad ways contrasting with the (Greek) chorus insisting that "nothing you can do can ever change any part of it."

The power-pop/new wave-ish "Watch the Clock" is a bitter clockwatcher's hymn: "I go to work and I waste my time/I pay my wages and they rob me blind." "Punch" is aggro-ska that demands "if he gets up again, then you've got to knock him down!" "Rollin' and Ridin" (a reference to the original slang for rock'n'roll, if you get my drift) incorporates a great turn-on-a-dime shift between minor-key verses and major key choruses (that feature an earthy, kick-ass Bill Haley/Chuck Berry sax riff). Mark Foggo does his best Johnny Rotten on "EU"--wondering where his "punk rock subsidy" is (apparently there is one for every other trade group), and the album is (sweetly) capped off with him trying to put into words how it feels when a lover is absent on the calypso-tinged "What It Feels Like" ("It's like when someone hits you low/It's like the music's running slow/It's like a secret you don't know/That's what it's like").

MAD is already on The Duff Guide to Ska's "Top Ten Ska Albums of 2010"--and is absolutely one of the best written, performed, and sounding ska records we've heard in a long, long time. Buy MAD now!

Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A+

[After this review was posted, one of The Duff Guide to Ska readers pointed out that five of the songs on MAD ("Sugarlover," "Rollin' and Riding," "Cybergirl," "Punch," and "Rotten to the Core") had previously appeared on the album "Skake the Baby" (2000) by one of Mark Foggo's side projects, The Babyshakers. The versions of these tracks included on MAD appear to be new recordings of these tracks.]

+ + + +

Check out The Duff Guide to Ska interview with Mark Foggo here.

Duff Interview: Nick Welsh of King Hammond and Skaville UK

Editor's note: For a bit of a primer on Nick Welsh and King Hammond (where you can preview some tracks from the new King and I album), go here. Also, read Duff Guide to Ska reviews of Nick's recent albums here, here, and here.

The Duff Guide to Ska: You’re now releasing Skaville UK and King Hammond albums through your new N.1 Records. What led you to create the label, and do you intend to release records from other ska artists? In this day and age, can one even expect to make any money from recorded music?

Nick Welsh: I just wanted to start my own label in a recession! No, I just wanted to have a bit more say in my own destiny. It's small, small time--and you're right, impossible to make money. But I am one of those people who thinks you don't deserve a place in the marketplace unless you're making new music. Since leaving The Selecter, I have made three Skaville UK albums; two with Rhoda Dakar; a solo acoustic venture; and am now recording this new King Hammond one.

DGTS: In an interview last year, you put aside any suggestion of reviving King Hammond, yet here you are planning a new album to be released this May. What changed?

NW: At the start of the year, I went to a friend's 40th birthday. I could not think of what to get him for a present, so I knew he really liked my King Hammond records. So I recorded him a special track in the King Hammond style. I had so much fun doing it that I thought 'why not?'--as long as they are new tracks, it's cool and these songs are so much better than the ones I made in the 80s.

DGTS: King Hammond was created back in the late 80s, when the UK ska scene was comprised of bands like the Potato 5, Loafers, Deltones, Trojans, etc.—none of which (with the exception of Laurel Aitken) were playing skinhead reggae. What inspired you to take King Hammond in this musical direction?

NW: At that time, most bands were trying to play a 2 Tone kind of thing, or like the Potato 5, a Skatalites kind of thing. My love has always been the '69-'73 skinhead reggae thing, so I went in that direction--although when I listen to Revolution '70 now, it does not sound much like it at all, but the spirit is there.

DGTS: Growing up, one of your musical heroes was the great Marc Boland; you were in punk bands before joining Bad Manners in 1986 (I never knew until recently that you were schoolmates with Doug Trendle and the rest of the band back in the day…are you still in touch with Buster?). During your teen years, were you into Jamaican music, or did that come later? What record or experience converted you to ska?

NW: As a kid growing up I had two musical loves: T. Rex and skinhead reggae. I started playing gigs when I was 14. I was in a punk band called The Dead--we used to play clubs like The Roxy with bands like Eater and Cock Sparrer. The music that turned me on to skinhead reggae was "Double Barrel" by Dave & Ansell Collins. In fact, when I wrote the song "Skaville UK," I was trying to do a Dave Barker! I went to school with Buster, and no he has not spoken to me since 1991, when I joined The Selecter.

DGTS: I recently read Patti Smith’s autobiography “Just Kids” about being in NYC in the late 60s and early 70s and it blew my mind how many now famous people she ran into/became friends with/worked with—most of it due simply to having an incredible amount of luck (or it was destiny, if you believe in it), essentially being in the right place in the right time (and, of course, having an extraordinary amount of innate talent to run with it all!). Your life strikes me as being similar. Could you ever have imaging that when you were going to school with Buster and Louis et al would have led to you being in Bad Manners and Selecter and to work with people like Prince Buster, Rico Rodriquez, Dave Barker, Laurel Aitken, and Lee Perry?

NW: Good question. I can't believe how lucky I have been. These artists whose records I used to buy have become my friends--Prince Buster, Rico, Laurel. Getting woken up on a Sunday morning by Judge Dread with unprintable gossip. Sharing hotel rooms with Dave Barker, listening to him sing while he is in the shower with a voice so good it shames me! So it's been great.

DGTS: Speaking of “Scratch”, what was it like working with Lee Perry on his 'Jamaican ET' album? (How to put this…clearly he is a brilliant musician and producer, but is he really crazy or eccentric or is his public persona just for show?) What led to you becoming his producer? Did you ever imagine this album would win a Grammy?

NW: First of all, I was not the producer; that was Roger Lomas [sorry about the mistake!-ed.]. I just played bass on the Grammy album. I donated about 12 old King Hammond basslines to the cause! No, I don't think he is that strange at all. I like and got on well with him, and enjoyed playing live with him, too. Another person who I used to buy all his records and now I'm working with him. I got my Super Ape album signed, too!

DGTS: Is there any musician that you’re dying to work with that you haven’t already?

NW: Peter Frampton! To be honest, I have done enough of that. It's time for a bit of me time. But, of course, I'm always open to offers!

DGTS: How did you become involved in writing music for television shows (“Malcolm in the Middle,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Ugly Betty,” “Pimp My Ride,” etc.) and video games (“Smackdown versus Raw 2006,” “Day of Reckoning 2”)? Has being a musical gun for hire been a good way to pay the bills (and is it creatively satisfying)?

NW: It's the only way to pay the bills! I got the offer of doing stuff like that because, to cut a boring story short, I was recomended as the man who can write good melodies and knew his ska. My fave of that stuff is a track called "Hey You," which was used as WWE Brian Kendricks entrance music.

DGTS: You’ve spent a lot of your career as the songwriting powerhouse behind the “reboots” of Bad Manners in the late 80s and The Selecter in the 90s—with other larger-than-life singers in the spotlight, like Buster and Pauline Black. Now with Skaville UK, you’re front and center—which do you prefer?

NW: I like having my own band, writing on my own. Although, I really enjoyed writing with Pauline Black because I felt we got better at it all the time. But now I think I am writing the best songs I have ever done--though I still like it when people call out for "Skaville UK" and "Skinhead Love Affair."

DGTS: You’re a prolific songwriter with a considerable number of ska hits to your name—where does it all come from? Do you wake up in the morning with a new tune in your head? What was the first song that you wrote and when was it? Do you set out to write a ska song or simply a good melody?

NW: I'm a song and dance man: I wake up in the morning with a melody! I get titles first normally, melody next, and lyrics just before I sing them! The first song I ever wrote was in 1974 with a friend of mine; it was called "Tea Party."

DGTS: Your father was music producer in the 60s and 70s—did he ever take you to work with him? Did he pass along any music business advice that you found particularly useful? Did you have a particular moment that changed your life, when you knew that you were going to be a musician come hell or high water?

NW: See, I feel I was lucky there--my dad used to take me to studios, like Abbey Road and Pye in the 60s, where I used to sit and watch the most amazing sessions, and watch him in concert at places like the Palladium in London. That's enough to make a young boy think, "Wow, I want to do that." For the record, my favorite track my dad did was Don Fardon's "I'm Alive." Check it out on YouTube!

DGTS: You’ve been collaborating frequently with the incredible Rhoda Dakar with Skaville UK, your acoustic work, her solo album, and on the “Back to the Garage” album. What draws you to working with her—and what projects do you have lined up with her next?

NW: We just had a shared background--same gigs, records, etc. and I really enjoyed working with her. But like I said before, it's time for me to record and perform alone.

DGTS: What’s the strangest experience you’ve had on the road, the studio, or in dealing with a record label?

NW: Playing a gig with The Selecter in San Diego with The Monkees and The Village People!

DGTS: What are your plans for the next six months for King Hammond and/or Skaville UK (plug away…)?

NW: The next year is totally dedicated to the King Hammond project. He has been away for 20-odd years, so he deserves a bit of attention.

Thanks to Nick for taking the time to answer our questions!

The Resurrection of King Hammond!

The incredibly prolific Nick Welsh (ex-member of and songwriter for Bad Manners, Selecter, and Big 5; mastermind behind Skaville UK; and Grammy-winning musician working with ska stars like Lee Scratch Perry, Dave Barker, Prince Buster, and Laurel Aitken) has revived his brilliant late-80s/early 90s skinhead reggae alter-ego King Hammond (if you can find the Revolution 70 LP on Buster Bloodvessel's version of Blue Beat Records and and the Blow Your Mind CD on Trojan subsidiary Receiver Records, grab them, as are really, really good). In a surprising cool development, a new King Hammond album, The King and I, is due out this May on Nick's own label N.1 Records.

Below are some videos previewing several of the new tracks off of The King and I--including the groove-heavy "Mr. Easy Talk," which provides some relevant background on King Hammond and Nick, and check out the amazing 1970s footage of UK skinheads and mods in "Cool Down Your Temper!" Based on these cuts, I expect to find The King and I on heavy rotation in The Duff Guide to Ska's HQ this summer...

Duff Guide to Ska Best of 2009

Several Duff Guide to Ska readers have asked for me to come up with a summary of the "best ska releases for 2009," so please find my highly subjective list below. Please note that this is by no means comprehensive, as I'm sure there were ska albums and singles released last year that I never had a chance to hear. Having said that, everything on this list should be in your collection...

Duff Guide to Ska Fave New Releases in 2009

Across the Aisle: Change Nothing! EP (self-released)
The Amphetameanies: "Good One Go" b/w "Nothing's OK" 7" single (F&J Records/Rat Race Records)
The Bakesys: Return to the Planet of the Bakesys (Do the Dog)
Captain Black No Stars versus Rasta4Eyes: Boss Sounds of the Boom and Bust (Do the Dog)
Dendrites: Mountain Standard Time (Megalith Records)
The Drastics versus Michael Jackson: MJ A Rocker LP (bootleg)
The Forthrights/King Django: "Other People" b/w "Anywhere I Roam" 7" single (Stubborn Records)
Inspector: Inspector (Fonarte Latino)
Kid British: It Was This or Football (First Half) (Mercury Records)
Madness: The Liberty of Norton Folgate (Lucky Seven Records)
Rebelation: The Berlin Sessions (Do the Dog)
Resolution 242: Resolution 242 (Do the Dog)
Skaville UK: Devil Beat (N.1 Records)
The Stress: Muk! Muk! (Community Records)
Various Artists: 30 Years of Madness: A 30th Anniversary Tribute (Big 8 Records)


Duff Guide to Ska Fave 2009 Reissues

Jimmy Radway & The Fe Me Time All Stars: Dub I (Pressure Sounds)
King Tubby & The Clancy Eccles All Stars: Sound System International Dub (Pressure Sounds)
Laurel Aitken: The High Priest of Reggae (Cherry Red)
Laurel Aitken: Ska with Laurel (Cherry Red)
Laurel Aitken: Says Fire (Cherry Red)
Madness: One Step Beyond...(Salvo/Union Square Music)
Madness: Total Madness (Union Square Music)
Prince Buster: Sings His Hit Song "Ten Commandments" (Reel Music/Sony)
Various Artists: Every Mouth Must Be Fed, 1973 to 1976 (Pressure Sounds)


Duff Guide To Ska Fave 2009 Book

Terry Edwards: "One Step Beyond" (33 1/3 Series/Continuum Books)


Duff Guide to Ska Fave 2009 DVD

The Porkers: "Persistence is Futile" (Sound System)


Pick up all this stuff with your unused holiday gift cards!

Skaville UK: New Label, New Video, New Releases

The preternaturally prolific Nick Welsh of Skaville UK is a man of constant forward motion. Chief amongst the many new developments to report is the news that Nick is launching his own label, N.1. Records, which will release Back to the Garage, a rock'n'roll record cut with Rhoda Dakar, this May--to be followed by Skaville UK's 3 (their third album, naturally), which will feature horns (there are none on 1973 and Decadent), more Rhoda (yes!), and see the light of day in August; and yet another Skaville UK album of acoustic cuts titled Parallel Road, to be released in November. Lots of good stuff to look forward to here!

Here's a little taste of Nick and Rhoda's brand of rock...

Duff Review: Nick Welsh- The Soho Sessions

Moon Ska World
2008

In a genre that is typically populated by eight or nine member bands (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, singer, and horn section), it's still a relatively brave soul who bucks the prevailing conventions by performing his or her ska tunes accompanied solely by an acoustic guitar. Chris Murray (AKA Venice Shoreline Chris and previous front man for King Apparatus) was one of the first to successfully go this lo-fi, Woody Guthrie "have guitar, will travel" route back in 1996 with the excellent, vintage ska-sounding Four-Track Adventures of Venice Shoreline Chris.

While Chris Murray specifically wrote his ska tunes for the acoustic guitar, Nick Welsh, on The Soho Sessions, takes some of the best tracks from his career as a member of (and powerhouse songwriter behind) Bad Manners, Buster's All Stars, The Selecter, Big 5, and his current group Skaville UK--and distills these fully-realized productions down to their melodic essence. The results of this re-interpretation of his songbook--and this album is arguably his greatest hits collection--are uniformly good to great. Nick writes extraordinarily catchy ska melodies that stay with you for ages, but what is surprising here is how some of the stripped down acoustic versions of these tunes sometimes surpass the originals (see "Thank God I'm Not Like You" from Skaville UK's 1973 with its amazing cello riff).

I'm not sure if a familiarity with Nick's back catalogue is a prerequisite to fully appreciating The Soho Sessions (if you don't already own some of the albums mentioned below, you really should go out and buy them now), but it certainly can't hurt, and it's fascinating to compare the original recordings with the revamps to see what Nick deemed worth keeping and what he discarded.

"Return of the Ugly" (from Bad Manners' rollicking stompfest of the same name--one of my favorite ska albums ever--which re-launched a post-2 Tone era Buster & Co. into the 90s and beyond) kicks off the album and is perhaps the one song here that is most faithful to its original, losing none of its energy and aggressiveness (plus you can actually understand the lyrics, which wasn't the case with Buster singing: "Like a scratched 45 on an old dansette/this gonna be the best one yet!"). The glorious "Symphony of Love" (from The Selecter's Unplugged with the Rude Boy Generation) is a newly discovered gem for this reviewer. The light, almost satirical tone of Buster's All Stars' "Skinhead Love Affair" (from Skinhead Luv-A-ffair, naturally) is replaced here with sincerity and regret, making it more of a semi-pathetic scene from a misspent youth: "She said: 'Skinhead, can't you see/It's over, it's over'" (the subtle bass guitar overdub during the chorus is a nice touch).

"Memory Train" (also from Bad Manners' Return of the Ugly) now has more bite and anger in its emotional starkness--he can't live with or without her in the present, so it's time to escape to happier times in his head. Even "Since You've Gone Away" (also from Return of the Ugly) is more achingly despondent than the original. It seems in this setting, Nick's happy love songs (like "Stay with Me Baby," with its great, creepy mellotron organ, and originally from his extraordinary skinhead reggae alter-ego King Hammond and the Blow Your Mind album; and Bad Manners' "Rosemary") are slinkier, sexier, and more seductive, while the broken-hearted tracks are bleaker and cut deeper than ever.

"Bad Man" (from Skaville UK's second album, Decadent) is transformed into a rave-up cousin of T Rex.'s glam smash 'Bang a Gong." "Outrageous" (from In Yer Face by Big 5) ditches its rock 'n' roll grandiosity for a more direct plea for peace, love, and understanding. "Non Shrewd" (from Buster's All Stars' Skinhead Luv-A-ffair), which had a Western/Mexican tilt to it, is re-versioned with melodica and dubby effects. The album is capped with a fine new country-ish anti-violence/drug track, "Johny, Don't Take Your Gun to Town."

If the original recordings of Nick's songs are the soundtrack to one's brilliant Saturday night on the town, then The Soho Sessions is the perfect Sunday morning ska record to listen to while nursing your wounds. Highly recommended! (Plus, you have to love any album that credits the busses that delivered the artist to the recording studio!)

Grade: A

(Note: some of the Return of the Ugly and Skinhead Luv-A-ffair tracks first appeared on the Bad Manners fan club-only Eat the Beat LP in 1988, which has been re-released on CD by several labels; however, Eat the Beat is generally not considered to be a proper album in its own right.)

New Nick Welsh and Rhoda Dakar Album, plus Third Skaville UK Record in the Works!

Nick Welsh (Skaville UK, ex-Bad Manners, Selecter, etc.) was kind enough to send me a preview track from his upcoming album with Rhoda Dakar (ex-Bodysnatchers and Special AKA), Back to the Garage. As the title might suggest, this is an all out rock 'n' roll record and from the cut I heard, "New York Doll," it's going to be fantastic.

Yes, there will be no off-beats here, but Nick's got the knack for writing incredible songs and Rhoda's voice is richer than ever. I think I'd follow them if they took up some obsure form of Ukranian folk music--down the musical rabbit hole, so to speak--they're that talented and clearly collaborate so well. Check out their respective MySpace pages (linked above) for a few more samples of their kick-ass garage rock! And stay tuned for more details.

Nick also reports that work has begun on the third Skaville UK record, which will feature horns and include a bonus CD of acoustic tracks. If you haven't already picked up their other excellent records, 1973 and Decadent (which also include guest vocals from Rhoda), what are you waiting for?

Duff Review: Skaville UK "Decadent"

Moon Ska World
2008

When Skaville UK's terrific second album opens with a fake radio broadcast of the the band doing their best New Romantic imitation of Martin Fry and ABC (posing as the band Leather Arcade doing "The Policy of Love," natch), you probably wouldn't be too surprised to find that Decadent (a word play on the excesses, musical and otherwise, of the glorious 80s) revels in skinny tie power-pop, day-glo new wave, and jagged post-punk music. Having said all that, Decadent is most definitely a ska record--we're just not necessarily on Orange Street anymore (more like Bleeker and Bowery).

"The Alternate," hands down my favorite song on the album, features the incredible Rhoda Dakar on a cut that sounds like an awesome mash-up of Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army with Echo and the Bunnymen (you've just got to hear it to realize how well they pull this off--give "The Alternate" a listen on Rhoda's MySpace page). "It's a Me, Me, Me Society" is Missing Persons meets Rebel Yell-era Billy Idol and features the great line "You're laundromatic/you clean your past so well." On these tracks and few others, you can almost picture Nicky Welsh, all smiles, as he borrowed bits and pieces of the musical language of the new wave era--the handclaps and background vocal harmonizing of The Cars for this song or a synthesizer riff plucked from Heaven 17 there--when he went about writing this album, but the songs are so well constructed that they completely sidestep parody or imitation and stand solidly on their own as fun and catchy original tunes.

Other highlights on Decadent include the hard-rocking, I've just realized too late what an a-hole I am "Bad Man"; "She's Mad About the 80s" ("Once she heard the Thompson Twins/she never was the same"); "The Inappropriate One," a song for that "special" person in our lives who both thrills and appalls us with the outrageous things they do and say; and the sweet, laid-back ska gem "One Way Street," which is about pining after someone who probably won't reciprocate your feelings, and was co-written and sung beautifully by Jennie Matthias (ex-Bellestars, who has interesting new ska/latin/reggae group with Lee Thompson and Dave Barker called The Dance Brigade).

Having been a teenager in the early to mid 80--and as a huge fan of new wave music in all of its permutations--I really dig Decadent, but not for any cliched nostalgic reasons like new wave was the soundtrack of my youth or they just don't make 'em like they used to rubbish. It's more like the soul-pleasing satisfaction that comes from hearing musical sub-genres being recombined, reinvented, and rejuvenated by very talented musicians in a manner that seems so natural and simple that an Acme light bulb should click on over your head the moment you hear it (as in "why didn't I think of that?)--except that its not (you need crazy mad skills and inspiration, obviously).

But, perhaps the biggest reason the blending of new wave and ska works so well on Decadent is that the distance between 2-Tone and the host of other non-mainstream musical styles that were huddled under the new wave umbrella in the 80s (punk rock, synthpop, electropop, early hip hop, Mod, power pop, New Romantic, etc.) just isn't that far. All of these underground/alternative music scenes spawned some amazing acts and stunningly good music that made (and continues to make) one hell of a good mix tape (if you were in NYC in the 1980s when WLIR was in full force, you know what I mean). That's what it boils down to: good music is good music, no matter its sub-category or hyphenation, and Skaville UK know how to make it in spades.

Grade: A-/B+

Skaville UK: "1973"

Moon Ska World (www.moonskaworld.com)
2008

Despite the title track singer's nostalgia for the sounds of his youth—as a Brit of a certain age and class (“I wish it was 1973/I Roy, U Roy, Byron Lee, Al Capone, and Lee Perry on the stereo”)—the music found on this impressive disk is firmly rooted in late 70s, 2-Tone-era ska. And what else would you expect from these gifted musicians—most of whom were the musical muscle behind Bad Manners in the 80s (original Bad Manners guitarist and keyboardist Louis Alphonso and Martin Stewart, who co-wrote such hits as "Lip Up Fatty," "Special Brew," "Lorraine," and "Walking in the Sunshine") and early 90s (Nicky Welsh, composer of “Skinhead Love Affair,” “Since You’ve Gone Away,” and “Skaville UK,” plus he won a Grammy for his work on Lee Scratch Perry’s Jamaican ET record—who knew—and co-wrote many of the songs on the Selecter's quite good Cruel Britannia album)? As one might suspect, 1973 is Top of the Pops ska: catchy songs and spot-on professional performances, all produced with a high-gloss sheen. There is a lot to like here.

Stand-out tracks include “Outta My Head,” with (ex-Belle Stars) Jennie Matthais’ wonderfully husky guest vocals; the surf-ska instrumental “Third Floor Room Six”; the title track; the horn-driven “Devils Daughter”; and the dubby “Martin’s Magic Box." Skaville UK also turn in some terrific covers. Their version of Prince Buster’s “Hard Man Fe Dead” is one of the best I’ve ever heard—smoothing out the original’s choppy edges and injecting some Munsters-y surf-rock and ghoulish humor. Two Bad Manners (!) songs are reprised on 1973. “Memory Train,” one of my favorite cuts from Return of the Ugly (Bad Manners’ 1989 triumphant return to form, just in time for the kick-off of the third wave of ska), is less Buffalo Ska and more Nite Klub sofisticated here—and, dare I say, is better than the original (sorry, Fatty!). “Suicide” from Loonee Tunes is also given a fresh revival here (though don’t do it, kids!).

Sad to say that Rhoda Dakar (ex-Bodysnatchers)—who sounds better than ever—is on two of the lyrically dodgier tracks, “Brixton Cat” (chorus: “I’m a Brixton Cat/How about that?/How about that/I’m a Brixton Cat”) and “0900-LUV,” which is about—sigh—phone sex (and she co-wrote it!). (Note to self—must check out Dakar’s new album, Cleaning in Another Woman’s Kitchen, and hope that she treats herself better.)

While many of the songs on 1973 concern the past and some sort of loss—of love or youth (see “So Long Ago,” “When We Were Young,” “Memory Train,” and “1973”)—and are tinged with regret, you don’t have to be middle-aged to relate. If the lyrics don’t move you, the music certainly will. 1973 is a place you’ll wanna go. (B+/A-)

If you like 1973, do yourself a favor and check out:

Busters’ All Stars’ Skinhead Luv Affair
Bad Manners’ Return of the Ugly and Fat Sounds
King Hammond’s Blow Your Mind
The Selecter's Cruel Britannia