SKA! The History, The Present, Prague’s Clubs
THE BEGINNING First of all in the 1920's and 30's the local band scene in Jamaica was Mento was mostly rural music because most of the bands were local. Typically a Mento band would play at weddings, local dances, fairs and concerts. They were even employed on a more personal level as bands for house parties. As time passed by, the popularity of Mento was on a steady decline. By the late 1950's Mento started the slow transition into Ska music. The so called "society" bands were playing only token Mento numbers, but the bands on the road were getting more daring in how they applied their Mento craft. They called it the Jamaican mobile Disco. The DJs would travel from town to town. Sometimes playing in dancehalls, and sometimes setting up right on the street. The people would flock to these shows hungry for the sound coming out of America. They would party from Friday night to early Monday morning in the dancehalls thanks to DJs such as Tom the Great Sebastian, V Rocket, and Sir Coxsone's Downbeat. Ska was an immediate hit with the Jamaicans. It was after all Jamaica's first indigenous original music sound. Many names started to pop up in the forefront of this musical wave. Name like Rolond Alphonso with his tenor sax, and Don Drummund and Rico Rodriguez on the trombone; Drumbago and Lloyd Knibbs on drums; Jah Jerry Haynes on guitar; Dizzy Moore and Raymond Harper on trumpet. Lloyd Brevett, Clue J on bass; Aubry Adams on the keyboard. Then there were the singers like Laurel Aiken, Clancy Eccles, Owen Grey, Lascelles Perkins, Higgs and Wilson, and last but not least , Bunny and Skitter. That was the beginning as I know it. The ska sound eventually evolved into rock steady, but not before great history was made.
THE GOLDEN ERA A funny thing happened in the UK around the year of 1978. Something happened to the underlying attitude of the angry youth. Back then most of the bands around were predominately white, didn't give a **** about the past, hated any sort of organized clothing style, and beat up anyone dancing anything but the pogo; but by 1979 everyone totally turned around and started skanking like crazy to the fun sounds of ska. They went to go see integrated bands who were wearing the now famous black and white suit of the rudeboys. Unfortunately, the fun did not last for to long. The bands’ songs were mostly geared towards non-racial themes, and unity; but the crowd that went to these shows was dancing to a different drum. See, the problem was the mix. On one hand you had the working class skin heads. They shaved their heads, wore big boots and braces, with jeans and white t-shirts. On the other were the richer rudeboys. They wore expensive two tone suits, shiny shoes, bought vespas to ride around. They had money to burn, and weren't afraid to show it off. These two elements in a crowd together, packed into a dancehall to listen to their favorite ska bands did not make a happy mix. Huge fights broke out on a regular basis. Dancehalls were wrecked, and therefore dancehalls did not want to book ska bands anymore. They did not want to take the risk. At one of the Madness shows it got so bad that Madness was literally blacklisted. They were not allowed to play anywhere. They were even stricken from the Dance Craze LP because of it. So that is why by 1981 ska had died down. Some bands kept going however, the specials split into two separate bands; Fun Boy Three was formed by Hall Staples, and Golding, while Jerry Dammers formed the Special AKA. The (English) Beat split in two also. . They re-formed into General Public and The Fine Young Cannibals. Madness came back for a few reunion tours, namely they played a show with Morrissy in the early 90's. Then they actually toured again a few years back. Bad Manners kept their nose to the grindstone and are still making albums today, but the only original member is the lead singer. So that brings us to the Current wave of ska bands.
SKA OF THE NINETIES Commonly referred to as the Third Wave of ska; the current incarnation of ska began where the second wave left off. We are talking about the late eighties through now. But what makes this wave different from the others. Well if someone asked me that question I would have to say the diversity between the proclaimed ska bands. Some bands these days lean toward the classic 1960's sound; some have incorporated different genre's of music with ska such as Latin, Hard. Core, House/Rave, Funk and alternative. Many bands have caught on to the ska craze these days. Bands like Skavoovie and the Epitones, Hepcat, and the Allstonians have recaptured the sounds of the root ska sound. The Mighty Bosstones and Mephiskaphalies have combined a hard-core sound into their ska music. Even though the Bosstones seem to have Bosstoned it down a little bit since they have been getting more air-time on the radio. Let's not forget the Funk/Ska sensation that is called Fishbone, they seem to be going back to playing a more solid ska/funk sound these days. I guess when they tried to become more mainstream, and changed their sound, they lost so many album sales that they figured they better get back to the root. Then there are bands like The Cherry Poppin Daddy's that go ever farther back into the annals of music and combine big band swing into their version of ska music. Then you have the bands like Really Big Fish, No Doubt and The Bosstones who are actually getting more and more time on the Radio Stations around the nation. Finally we have that weird House/Ska dance mix that was called The street sounds of Freestyle Ska. This compilation tried to combine Euroska/house fusion that kind of worked on some tracks. Whatever the band, ska has definitely entered the music scene with a bang…
PRAGUE’S CLUBS
PRAGUE’S CLUBS, PART 2
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