As we begin to look ahead towards what 2010 will offer in terms of ska and reggae, I thought I'd take a moment to look back at 2009, particularly in the Australian context, because it was a fairly significant period. I suppose The Specials heading down under for the first time was the biggest story. While Neville Staple and Roddy Byers had been to Australia before to perform songs from The Specials' catalogue, there was definitely much more hype this time around, with much larger venues booked and a sense of excitement evident not only amongst the die-hard fans, but also the more popular music press. Jerry Dammer's absence was unfortunate, but it was a good performance by the remaining members. I wouldn't go so far to say great because of the fairly poor sound and the amount of dickheads in the crowd, but Terry Hall was at his wonderfully aloof best.
Before The Specials arrived, Madness had wowed crowds with a performance of both old material and material from their newest album The Liberty of Norton Folgate. They were seamlessly interwoven, and the crowd at Luna Park's Big Top in Sydney responded very positively. We'd seen them the year before in London, but this experience was even better, perhaps because of the people we were able to share it with.
Neither Madness nor The Specials were my highlight for the year, however. Pauline Black, whose voice is as strong and stage presence as mesmerising as ever, tied with a little known band from Montreal, Canada known as The One Night Band for the award of well and truly exceeding expectations. The One Night Band are everything I want in a contemporary reggae band - lots of energy, organ driven, good song-writing and a nice bunch of people. While they suffered a little from underexposure on many of their dates - even Sydney was poorly attended, they always put on a great show and were rewarded with an excellent response in Melbourne at Ska Nation, a great event run by The Resignator's Francis Harrison.
Melbourne continues to be the city to buck the downward trend of ska and reggae in this country. While some bands from the Victorian capital broke up or played fewer shows, new groups emerged such as The Melbournians, The King Cannons, The High Tides and a returning Loonee Tunes. Sydney continues to suffer from too small a pool of musicians, so that the few bands still entertaining us - Backy Skank, Trenchtown and Steppin' Razor, share many of the same personnel. Club nights are more prominent in Sydney, with Take It or Leave It having completed three years and still very well attended, Sunday Dub Club continuing to give Sydney Park a reggae injection, Uptown Top Ranking making an occasional appearance and our own Garageland once on a month on a Thursday night at UTS offering up some variety. While not ska and reggae, The Rumjacks, with their Irish folk-punk, are probably the band I most enjoyed following in Sydney this year, and I look forward to seeing how their year unfolds.
In 2010 I'm not sure we can expect the same amount or quality of international acts as we had last year, although there are rumours Chris Murray might make an appearance, and if you can manage to sit through Shaggy, Steel Pulse would be good when they play the crudely named Raggamuffin series of gigs. Backy Skank are launching a new album on March 13 at the Sando and there's a Ska-B-Q in Melbourne on February 5 and 6 that looks as though it will be quite big. So by no means a barren wasteland in Sydney and Melbourne, but here's hoping for a few new bands to pop up too.
