The Specials were on Jools Holland the other day, so I’ve got into them (Again!). I do have a penchant for a likkle bitta Ska, but I need some new (or old) stuff I’ve not heard before….

Suggestions? 🙂

What do you know?

Spunge are pretty good…

The Planet Smashers

some newer stuff,

The slackers
Tim Armstrong
Hepcat
Pie Tasters
Aggrolites
sublime

also loads of ska punk stuff from the last decade,

try
Less than jake
NOFX
Streetlight manifesto
Goldfinger
etc etc

HTH

(Edit: I own both a pork pie hat and a fred perry polo shirt, and regularly enjoy some old moon stomping!)

Prince Buster

Desmond Dekker

What do you know?

Oh, the old stuff like The Specials, The Selecta and a lot of the more modern punky stuff – Snuff, Save Ferris that sort of thing. I was also given a CD of old ska instrumentals, which is fantastic, but FFS don’t ask me to remember any of the tracks!

The original ska of the 60s?

Skalites – Guns of navarone
Roland Alphonso – Phoenix city
Baba Brooks – Guns Fever
Delroy wilson – Dancing mood
Edit – Anton Ellis

More recently the bluebeats – somewhere between roots reggae and ska

TJ – nice choices. Esp Delroy “Cool Operator” Wilson.

Don’t forget Toots and the Maytals.

PP – check out the Trojan records boxsets of all the original styles. I like Ska (and I do like the whole TwoTone take on it), but prefer Rocksteady.

I’m liking the Planet Smashers 🙂 (Preview on iTunes)

Skalites – Guns of navarone

That’s on that sampler CD I’ve got actually. Very good. 🙂

PP – check out the Trojan records boxsets of all the original styles. I like Ska (and I do like the whole TwoTone take on it), but prefer Rocksteady

Right. Dumb question. Rocksteady is another style not a band, yes? 😳

Saw them a few years back at Nexus in Southampton really sound guys, bought a couple of albums Unstopable and No Self Control off them. Great for roadtrips.

Rich – Spunge – Bang on! Love it! 🙂

try some Trojan Records compilations.. Trojan Ska is a damn fine place to start as it will zip you straight back to 50’s Jamaica and the birth of Ska with a few of the earlier Calypso tunes that influenced the Ska sound..

what you won’t find on this particular compilation is the very British two tone sound made popular by t
the likes of the Specials..

but it’s a nice bit of education

EDIT: DOH! someone has already said it..

Check out spunge – Kicking pigeons. Love that track 🙂

Toots and the Maytals and the Specials live from their recent tour are 2 CD’s that never leave my car.

PP – yes – rocksteady was another step on the way from calypso to reggae

Alton Ellis that I mentioned is rocksteady really – see his song “rocksteady”

have a look for ‘A Pack of Dogs’ by Lightyear.

DJ Zinc – SKA. Brilliant!

Random Hand are one of my favourites at the moment

podcasts.
ska and reggaeshirts, old stuff i like
skacast uk, i don’t get on with this but you might

try Los Albertos and Melosa if you can find any of their stuff..
also The Simmertones.. the Ratfinks are worth a try for something a bit more unusual

If anyone would run me off a compilation etc on disc I’d pay/send pressies 🙂

I’ve always admired/liked Ska but have no idea where to start etc properly.

blaggers guide to ska

that should get you started

Another vote for the Slackers. Check out – Redlight.

And Rancid – Life Won’t Wait is an underrated classic.

Oh, and the Clash!

Oh, go on then, <shameless plug>I played Saxophone on this album</shameless plug>

But don’t listen to the lyrics because they’re not great.

Some good stuff here, thanks chaps! 🙂

Love a bit of Ska. Went to see this lot a couple of years ago. They played loads of classics, and some of this sort of stuff. T’was mental.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1-7TIZOeEA[/video]

Have you seen me skanking? Y’know, really skanking?!?

That is weird Elf

Sonic boom six are well worth a listen!

Owter zeds

Saw a band called Bombscare at a festival during the summer who were excellent – no idea what they sound like on a recording mind…

If you like Bombskare then you should check out The Amphetameanies

Another fine Scottish Ska band.

Here’s a funny story for you PP…

I was in a bar in Leamington Spa (where I used to live) one night with a mate. This drunk girl in her 20’s was making a bit of a racket, not harming anyone or anything, but just a bit loud. Me and my mate thought nothing of it, but then a woman who was with her, 40’s, dark hair, still very attractive, came over to us… She began to apologise for her friend’s drunken ramblings and began chatting to me and my mate.

A few minutes had passed when we started talking about music. Now my mate is an accomplished producer and songwriter, and also an incredible bassist, and I’ve been a DJ for a long time by this point too, so music is a subject we both had a lot to talk about. She started saying about how much she loved all sorts of different music, but the bar we were in was playing a lot of House music and she said she had really got into that over the past few years (que me being able to talk to her about house music for about the next hour!)… It was at this point she says to me “have you ever heard of a band called The Specials?”… To be fair to her, I’d gotta be 20 years younger, but I replied “Yeah of course I have, Ska band, from Coventry, just down the road”… So she replied “Yeah well, the lead singer, Terry Hall, he’s my ex husband!” 😯

Now oddly enough, my mate has done a few random remixes in the past, one of which was a Drum & Bass remix of the Specials “Ghost Town” which actually got aired on Radio 1 some time back… Quite funny that…

Ended up chatting to her for what must have been the best part of 2 1/2 hours, she gave me her number too! Moved out of Leamington shortly after though…

the olive branch ska punk reggae facebook group daily interesting musical links delivered to your facebook page

Hora just go into kingbee records and ask them

Massive streetlight manifesto and cat empire fan here. Reel big fish have had a few moments, but not comparable to streetlight IMO. NOFX have some cool songs too.

Streetlight manifesto are the ska band to listen to though.

Trojan do a load of box sets with good info sheets if you want a handy intro to some proper ska

punk and disorderly podcast

90 mins packed full of good grass roots ska