Staring At The Rude Boys

This is the third post this week by a band or artist which I can't quite believe I've never featured here before (Junior Murvin and Meat Puppets being the other two). The Ruts were a key punk band, bringing reggae influences into their music in a way which didn't seem cackhanded or overcooked. Singer Malcolm Owen and guitarist Paul Fox lived on a commune in Anglesey in the early 70s, gravitating into the punk world via record shops, a Ramones t-shirt and the Pistols on the telly. They pinned their colours to the mast politically, playing several Rock Against Racism gigs and being involved in Misty In Roots' Southall anti-racist collective. They made several belting singles and one album. Staring At The Rude Boys, from 1980, was a comment on the newly arrived 2 Tone bands. And if you're going to stare, it may as well be at rude boys- they're often the best dressed people in the room.

Staring At The Rude Boys (Peel Session)

Malcolm Owen died of a heroin overdose in July 1980 at the age of twenty six, despite recording and singing on several anti-heroin songs with the band. Heroin really was the scourge of the London punk scene wasn't it? According to many of those involved we can thank Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers for that.

Sent To Coventry

We are in Coventry this weekend, at a Conference/family weekend held by the charity that works to help families affected by the set of genetic diseases that our eldest I.T. is affected by. I am doing a short presentation in today's meeting about I.T.'s transition from children's services to adult services. Speaking to several hundred people. Gulp. If I still smoked, I'd be smoking right before that.

Coventry brings four things to mind for me, not necessarily in this order- a) the modernist concrete Cathedral and city centre due to bombing raids during World War Two b) Coventry City's chocolate brown away kit from the late 1970s c) Lady Godiva's naked protest and d) The Specials and The Special AKA. Jerry Dammers soldiered on after the departure of the Fun Boy Three to make the In The Studio album. Popular wisdom usually holds that the first two Specials albums, with Terry, Lynval and Neville, are the cream of the crop. But What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend is absolutely as good as anything the first line up produced and the video is a blast too. I have posted this before but it's good enough to do twice.

Bodysnatcher Ska

One of the definitive aspects of the ska revival. and this was as obvious to twelve year olds as anyone, was the line ups consisted of black and white and men and women. Smartly dressed, short hair, accessible, fom the street- these were not hoary old, long haired, male rock stars. Dig the new breed.

The Bodysnatchers were formed in the wake of seeing The Specials, an all female group. Many of the band were novices and, unable to play ska at the speed required, slowed it down to a rocksteady tempo. They released two singles on 2 Tone. Singer Rhoda Dakar later sang with The Special AKA and still tours today, playing ska. Let's Do Rocksteady was their first single, a cover of a Dandy Livingstone tune.

Let's Do Rocksteady

Please note- I do  not own this signed photo, I found it on the internet.
Also, I've just realised I posted this song back in 2012. Ska revival revival.

Special Ska

No-one needs me to tell them how great The Specials were, the spearhead of the 2 Tone and ska revival, led by Jerry Dammers vision and organ playing, Terry hall's downcast vocals and presence, Neville Staples energy... in fact they seemed like a band with anything up to seven leaders. Which maybe is they they burned so brightly but so briefly.

Too Hot (live in Chicago 1980)

Ska Selection

More ska revival today this time with Coventry's other 2 Tone band The Selector. Pauline Black still tours a version of the band (again like with The Beat for a while there were two reformed Selectors were on the road, the other led by songwriter Neol Davies. Pauline won the right to the name). Pauline wrote a very well received autobiography recently but I haven't read it. This song is the only one on the hard drive currently, all the way from 1979.

Too Much Pressure

On My Radio is my favourite of theirs, three minutes of utter delight with a ton of hooks and totally infectious. There are so many great TV appearances and videos of all these bands from this time. They understood the power of image and audience identification with it.

'I bought my baby a red radio...'

Let's Do Rocksteady

Saturday morning- and wasn't that was a long week, especially as it was only four working days long. The drive to work has been grim; pitch black, blowing a gale and sheeting down. No one wanting to be back at work. Decorations and trees disappearing. As Davy has noted we need reasons to be cheerful. Thankfully few things can lift the January gloom quite like the life affirming blast of a Two Tone single, in this case from The Bodysnatchers. The three Mod girls in the picture, photographed in 1980 probably scaring the shit out of younger kids like me, agree.

Let's Do Rocksteady

Cruising

One of the most visually interesting things about The Specials was the brass section, who looked like two old men compared to the frantic collection of rude boys, ex-mods, rockers (and Terry Hall), charging around at the front (or moping around at the front). Rico Rodriguez and Dick Cuthall looked older but just as cool looking back at them now, and on vinyl (or cd or mp3) they sound great. Rico had his own band and in 1980 recorded this single, which came out on Two Tone but failed to chart. The Specials often covered this themselves, and I think recorded it for a Peel Session. Anyway, time to skank about for a bit, in the privacy of your bedroom, frontroom, kitchen or wherever it is you listen to music. Not in the car though, especially if you're driving...

10 Sea Cruise.wma

The Selecter 'On My Radio'

I think I've mentioned this before round here- some records are inexplicably good, but when you break them down in words it really doesn't do them justice. I could describe this infectious piece of ska-pop and try to explain what makes it great, but it won't be adequate and will fail to get the joy of the song across. The Selecter's On My Radio is just stupidly good. What's really stunning is that in 1979 this single sold a quarter of a million copies in one format, enough sales that today it would be number one from now until Christmas. Equally, in this song Pauline Black complains about the way all the radio stations sounded the same. If that was the state of radio in 1979 it must be moreso now. So here's to the news last week that Radio 6 has been saved. Hallelujah.

On my radio.mp3