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.

For fans of: Laid-back reggae with some hip-hop and soul mixed in.

I don’t know that I’ve ever received such a comprehensive press pack from an independent band before, but such effort must be commended. Kapakahi successfully attempts to present a strong message of the benefits of diversity, not only through their music, but their image and rhetoric. The band hail from San Francisco, although one could easily mistake the West Coast act as Hawaiian, with their laid back grooves and the assorted genres they draw from.

The opening title track Light Up is the best of the seven on this short album. It is an up-tempo number with a positive loving message and a memorable hornline. Download it free from the Kapakahi website. It’s love song after love song on this record and I’m afraid lyrically no song particularly stands out. Apart from Light Up, the other pick off this CD is Closer. Again it is the saxophone that lifts the song above mediocrity through its complementing of the vocal melody. The songs are as laid back as one could get with the tracks Miss Irie and Lonely, which is good if you love your Sunday afternoon reggae, but after Light Up I was just left wanting something with a bit more life. Put it down to my own taste perhaps.

Favourite tracks: Light Up, Closer

Overall: It’s a little bit too easy listening for me, but I genuinely believe the purpose of the band’s direction is achieved. I can see this record appealing to an eclectic musical taste, but for me I wanted more tracks with the life of Light Up.

Available from: http://www.kapakahimusic.com

Six of the seven core members of The Specials came together in 2008 to play at the festival “Bestival” on the Isle of Wight. Their 2009 tour of the UK sold out in minutes and they promptly announced some Australian dates, which were equally as popular. As we close in on their Sydney gig, Roddy Byers aka Roddy Radiation, Specials and Skabilly Rebels guitarist, has been kind enough to answer some questions for dizzybeat.com. Please forgive the the odd in-joke!

Photos by and copyright Joe Kerrigan.

Can you offer a highlight/s from the UK shows you’ve played so far with the reformed Specials? Also, how do these current shows sit with your reflections on the past, or even your gigs with the Skabilly Rebels?

WELL NEWCASTLE THE FIRST NIGHT WAS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES I'VE FELT NERVOUS IN MY 40 + YEAR CAREER!
BUT IT WAS A GREAT NIGHT AND WE WERE ALL A LITTLE TEARFUL AFTERWARDS.
SO FAR ITS BEEN A LOT OF FUN COMPARED TO HOW STRAINED THINGS WERE TOWARDS THE END OF THE ORIGINAL BAND BACK IN 1981.
I STILL PREFER PLAYING WITH MY GROUP THE SKABILLY REBELS AS I SING ALL THE SONGS AND GET TO PICK THEM, WHILE IN THE NEW SPECIALS I'M ALLOWED TO SING ONLY ONE OF MINE "CONCRETE JUNGLE". I WANTED TO SING MY THREE SONGS "HEY LITTLE RICH GIRL" "RAT RACE" AS WELL AS JUNGLE BUT I WAS OUT VOTED.

How did the tour to Australia come about? Having been here before, did you and Neville have to get in the ears of the others and convince them to come down?

ME AND NEV BOTH KEPT GOING ON ABOUT PLAYING OZ AS WE HAD A GREAT TIME THERE AND THE ORIGINAL BAND NEVER TOURED AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.
EVERYONE'S REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IT*

I notice a New Zealand date has been added to your tour. Does this suggest other parts of the world can expect a visit from The Specials? I know the yanks are hoping they get a visit.

THERE ARE A FEW PLACES IN THE WORLD WE HAVEN'T PLAYED! NEW ZEALAND WILL BE INTERESTING*
AMERICA IS CALLING AND WE MAY TRY AND FIT A FEW DATES IN AT THE END OF THE YEAR IF WE ARE STILL STANDING!

In 2008 four of us Australians saw you play with the Skabilly Rebels at a ska festival in Skegness. How does Sydney compare to a town such as Skegness?

SKEGNESS AND SYDNEY? ...YES THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME... LOL.

Madness has had some recent success with the release of new material. Are there any plans for The Specials to do some new songs?

I HAVE PLENTY OF NEW SONGS AND I KNOW SOME OF THE OTHER GUYS HAVE TOO, BUT WE WILL HAVE TO DO SOME DEMOS AND DISCUSS WHAT IS RIGHT FOR THE BAND NEXT YEAR WHICH COULD BE PROBLEMATIC.

Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. I don't know many people who haven't bought tickets, so not only will the shows be packed, but they'll be full of people right into the sound.

CHEERS
Roddy Byers
11th June 2009.

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Thanks must also go to Dan Chin from The Wall for organising the Q and A. Dan runs an arts + music weekly club night on Wednesday nights at The World Bar in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
Check it out: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=19071840928

The following interview first appeared in the print zine Everything Crash from March 2009.

Pama International were a favourite of ours during our time in the UK in 2008. They are perhaps the most prolific reggae band in the UK. In addition, keyboardist Sean Flowerdew has a rich ska and reggae history and presently runs the record label Rockers Revolt. Pama International will release a new album, titled Pama Outernational, towards the end of 2009. To read the full interview, click Read More.

You’re not new to the record label game. How is Rockers Revolt different from Jamdown, which released the first of Pama International’s records?

I started my first label in 1988, Staccato Records which released albums and 12”s by; The Loafers, Maroon Town, a live comp featuring The Trojans, Potato 5, Hotknives, The Deltones, Judge Dread, and a few others. I ran Jamdown Records from 1996 to 2004, but by that time it had purely become a vehicle for Pama Intl. Rockers Revolt launched at the end of 2007, again primarily as a vehicle for Pama Intl.

There’s no major differences between Jamdown and Rockers Revolt. They’re both born out of love for ska/reggae. I suppose Jamdown released more bands leaning towards punk (4ft Fingers, Rudebones from Japan and Identity No 1, which was a fantastic record, they should of been huge). Under Jamdown we also released some more trad.ska sounds: Topcats and Stubborn All-stars (one of the best records we issued), some US ska (Bim Skala Bim), some 2 Tone sounding stuff (Capone & The Bullets), a couple of decent comps and three Pama Intl releases. Nothing sold though apart from Pama, Stubborn All-stars and 4ft Fingers a bit. Well not enough to justify running a label. It was more of a hobby I guess!

Rockers Revolt is a much serious affair for all the right reasons. Throughout 2008 we tried to put out hot sounds from both sides of the Atlantic and also get label tours going. Some have worked. Some have failed in fine style, which has been a bit of a shock. 2008 was not a good year financially to try and establish a label! But we battle on and I think we’ve got the RR name out there quite well, in a short space of time. The response to the Pama Intl love Filled Dub Band has been tremendous. It’s in a few “Best of 2008 albums” round-ups; Total Music mag had it in their Top 10 of the year and Record Collector had it in their Top 10 Reggae albums of the year. So that’s was a huge buzz. Ed Rome’s debut ‘A Life In Minutes’ is doing very well as well. Steve Lamacq included Ed in his best albums of 2008 on his BBC Radio 2 show. Again, a huge buzz.

Megalith Records

For fans of: Ska and reggae with more polish than grit.

Channel One only recently made it on to the Dizzybeat radar thanks to some coverage on Musicaloccupation.com. Hailing from San Antonio, USA they have a new record out on The Toasters’ label, Megalith. I had to scrounge around for some context to the release and the band, and I am glad I bothered, because context is everything, after all. In other reviews, the alt country label gets thrown into the description of their sound, something I’m not sure the band would be too happy about, having made it clear that they’d prefer that no distinct labels be attached to their sound (apart from ska and reggae I guess). However, the polish I would associate with alt country is definitely evident with Channel One, and while a gritty sound is very common in the world of contemporary ska and reggae, such polish is a welcome change.

Pose & Posture is a fairly brief album with ten songs, though it makes sense given the time associated with recording and the need for a band to build recognition with listeners. After a short introduction from Rob “Bucket” Hingley, the upbeat Please makes a great start to the album. I Let My Guard Down is a more conventional sounding ska track, and is my way into this album. It sits well with the track Hum in that it is more what I expect to hear from a ska album. It’s on other tracks such as Let Her Run and Til It’s Too Late (which has an excellent guitar effect through the verse), where I am forced to open my mind.

Favourite track: Over the course of a dozen listens, Jah became my favourite song. It’s a comment on the variety of religions and their relationships, but it is handled in a very clever and paradoxically positive way. It, more than the other songs steeped in personal rhetoric, speaks to me as someone who is generally very cynical.

Overall: This is an album I’ve been happy to have stuck in the CD player. Personally, I would prefer other band members to pick up some more of the vocal harmonies, but instead they tend to have the horns doing the job, which I’m not so keen on. Also, for a band wanting to be taken seriously for their strength of song writing, I’d move away from generic cover art, but that aside, it is a very considered album with the potential for broad interest. The musicianship is excellent and in many respects quite conventionally ska. The very personal lyrical style of Gerald Hooper is quite endearing and while his voice isn’t something you’ll hear regularly in a ska band, it will be a key element in their success.

Thursday, March 26
Words: Glen Smyth
Photos: Gen Murray
Scroll to bottom for photos

I read an article written in the eighties where Madness apportioned some blame for their breakup to their 1986 tour of Australia. It wasn’t their first Australian tour, but as a 17 year old discovering Madness I never imagined they’d be back to our shores again. In 2008 we saw them in London performing two sets: one of classics and one of their concept album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate. It was great – the whole package, and while it was an expensive $90 to see them this time in Sydney, we weren’t going to miss it.

As a sideshow for V Festival we were treated to some shitty indie band as the support, but most weren’t too concerned and spent the time catching up with the usual suspects and getting the beer in. I suspect most of the crowd weren’t accustomed to going to Luna Park’s Big Top for the gig, being on the north side of the harbour, but the theme park was a rather fitting place for Madness to play. The venue was a good size too and with the price having kept some away, we weren’t packed in like sardines.

The band were quite punctual in beginning, a rare thing in this day and age, and the very positive atmosphere was set with the first number, One Step Beyond. For the next hour and a half, the band mixed old and classic songs to great effect. Following Madness’s contemporary releases, I was quite pleased they selected a few less obvious songs including Lovestruck from their 1998 Wonderful album, NW5, Dust Devil, On the Town and Clerkenwell Polka from The Liberty of Norton Folgate and Max Romeo’s Iron Shirt from the Dangermen Sessions record. Although the crowd were quieter during these tracks, they responded well, which is a positive sign for future tours.

Rudeboy Corner Records
http://www.rudeboycorner.com

For fans of: Soulful swinging ska and reggae

Rarely does an entire album grab my interest. It isn’t surprising, as we all have different tastes and favour different styles of Jamaican music. Bands have the difficult job of trying to cater to different predilections and rarely are they completely successful. The better road to take may be to do what you do best and hope that people like it, and that is the option one feels Mr T-bone and the Young Lions have taken with their album, Heroes. And they hit the spot.

If you had to make comparisons, I suppose The Pietasters or Spearhead could get a mention, but there is a European flavour and a quirkiness that gives the band their very own identity. Take a track like, The president of the republic of bananas. It is a song about the attitude of rogue heads of state, not a new topic, but done in a different way and with a great catchy up-beat number. I’ve backed calls by others that some ska bands aren’t forthright enough in their positions, but Mr T-bone can’t be accused of that. Alongside Republic of bananas, we have a series of songs, such as Money and Excuse me that send a strong message in a frank, but not oversimplified fashion, while maintaining music that provides for dancing.

The more upbeat numbers are my favourite, but the slower songs such as the minor key Somewhere or dubbed out Me and my soul provide a variety that is welcome and sophisticated in its musicianship. It’s worth mentioning here that Mr T-bone himself has written, arranged and produced the entire album, and done so very successfully. Some of the English is a little amiss, but it doesn’t affect the enjoyment I gain from listening to this great record.

Favourite Tracks: The president of the republic of bananas, Excuse me, Let ‘em go.

Overall: It was with great pleasure that I reviewed this album. You won’t find a more soulful swinging contemporary ska album this year. Buy it for someone for Christmas and then borrow it.

Album available from: http://www.rudeboycorner.com
Mr T-bone on the web: http://www.mrtbone.com