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.