Played a new (to us) song with the band last night "A Message to You Rudy" from the Specials and it really clicked. Wondered whether the musical knowledge on STW would be able to suggest similar tracks - we're a 7 piece band, guitars, keyboard, drums, vocal, and a brass section of trumpet and sax so I'm thinking of upbeat dance floor fillers with horns/brass in them. We already play a variety of funk and Northern Soul, but personally I'd like to play some slightly more modern stuff. Having a browse today, "House of Fun" and "Our House" by Madness might work (yes, 80s is modern for us!) so any similar suggestions?
For reference:
Well I suppose the obvious one is "Ghost Town".
Oh, I was going to go with House of Fun and Ghost Town.
Cool, thanks for the suggestions so far - you're thinking in the right direction, I'd also wondered about Ghost Town.
Some more 'modern' stuff is actually old stuff.Trawl a few ska compilations, theres a few remakes that might be good to take back closer to originals.
Check out for example the original version of Blondie / Tide is High .
Tainted love
Maybe not a floor filler in the purist sense.
You sound a bit like Big Vern and the Shootahs.....
I've seen them at quite a few functions in Glasgow and they always get the place jumping.
Maybe you should check out some of their set lists of covers for inspiration?
How about some Fela Kuti
Or Rocket From The Crypt
X-ray spex? Too punk?
I'm a dumpling and still can't post vids on here...
Rancid - Time Bomb
Was gonna say On a Rope as well, such a great song.
I'd have thought that the eighties offer endless possibilities.
okay, i will read your actual requirement now ' a bit more modern'. Well how about a classic but with a modern twist?
dude, we need feedback. Do you know all these songs or are they all new to you and are any of them any good (to you, they are all great to me. This is my youth). are we heading in the right direction?
The last one, possibly...
Upbeat dance floor fillers? With horns/brass in them you say?
And if this doesn't fill the floor then you're doing something wrong. Good luck hitting those notes though lol
Dave Lee Travis lol
People always love this one
If you were to stick with Madness, "On the beat Pete" is one of my favourite, more obscure tracks. Or "Deceives the eye"
And of course:
funny how my mind works, I just saw your post and thought of this
EDIT: less fuzzy version. The drummer appears to think he is in a different band
BTW OP, worst "oh by the way,i'm in a band" post eva!
😆
Similar to some of the above, but the first track to come to mind was - The Beat: Mirror in the bathroom.
Or, The Upsetters: Return of Django.
rudie can't fail - clash
[quote=MTB-Idle ]dude, we need feedback. Do you know all these songs or are they all new to you and are any of them any good (to you, they are all great to me. This is my youth).
No, quite a lot I don't know! But then whilst I can play I'm a bit of a musical ignoramus, hence asking for suggestions. Some good, some not so good, but I thought you lot would enjoy playing the game anyway. Interesting to see a few Amy Winehouse - that's definitely the sort of feel, we currently play Hey Little Rich Girl, and we did Valerie, but now only have a male vocalist, so that didn't work for his range, so that version up there is really interesting - no I didn't know that was the original! (though I think I prefer the horns on the Ronson/Winehouse version, so we'll probably do a mash of the two if we put that back in). Probably should have mentioned our singer doesn't go too high which rules some of those without a lot of rework.
[quote=eemy ]If you were to stick with Madness, "On the beat Pete" is one of my favourite, more obscure tracks. Or "Deceives the eye"
TBH my idea of floor fillers is less obscure tracks - I should have known I could rely on you lot to come out with more niche music! But I'm thinking more of songs most people will have heard of (which doesn't necessarily mean I have).
shermer wins the prize for suggesting Geno which we already play - another new track which I think works really well for us.
For info, our last gig playlist was the following mixture of all sorts of different stuff:
Papas Got a Brand New Band
Why Did You Do It
Vehicle
Got To Get You Into My Life
Reward
Tin Soldier
I Feel Good
Dancing In The Moonlight
I'm A Man
Hey Little Rich Girl
Play That Funky Music
Higher and Higher
Brown Sugar
The Snake
Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy
Superstition
Dance To The Music
Satisfaction
Can't Turn You Loose
Hold Back The Night
Mercy
Seven Days Is Too Long
Do I Love You
Sweet Home Chicago
New tunes:
Geno
Hard To Handle
Funky Nassau
A Message To You Rudy
not necessarily looking for stuff like some on the current playlist though - the new stuff I think is more the way we want to head
[quote=maxtorque ]BTW OP, worst "oh by the way,i'm in a band" post eva!
😆 I have mentioned it on here before when discussing Northern Soul - though I guess this is a bit less subtle 😆
Probably should have mentioned our singer doesn't go too high
Singer can't sing you say? How about:
James Brown - 'Get On The Good Foot '(irresistible groove but a tough one)
Funny that Ska came up because the other night I was flicking through Afrobeat orchestras on the Tube and accidentally discovered this - (which made me think, you could rearrange almost [i]any[/i] song in a ska flavour)
Melbourne Ska Orchestra - Get Smart
If you're not already playing it this one should be 100% spot on
Big party song...
Papa Was a Rolling Stone?
(Presented here in the - 'You think you can dance? Watch this. Now let's ask again, you think you can dance?' format:
I'm paying attention - so also including the Pioneer's version, more up yr band's alley so to speak?
Anyone else think that last Bosstones one sounds like 'Friends' sitcom theme-music with ska sprinkles! Ah, the 90s.
Young Americans by David Bowie would probably fit well. Bit of Bruce Springsteen, maybe Dancing in the Dark.
