History of UK Ska
Marcus
thanks
History of Ska in the UK
Since the End of World War II England was very liberal in letting people from
their colonies, and former colonies emigrate to the country. Up until the 60s
they allowed unlimited immigration from Jamaica, so there was a very large
Jamaican population in the Country. Naturally there was then an outlet for
Jamaican music and in 1960, Melodisc created a subsidiary called "bluebeat" to
focus in Jamaican music. Also, several Jamaican recording stars like Rico
Rodriguez, Laurel Aitken, Jackie Edwards, and Owen Grey settled in the UK. The
music was very successful and labels like ska beat, Island, R&B, blue cat and
others formed to specialize in the music, and often recorded their own songs,
in addition to liscencing tracks from Jamaican producers. The music continued
to gain popularity and before long, the mods, a very big primarily white youth
cult, began listening to ska.
In 1967 though ska was on the way out; albums like "Club Ska 67" as well as
Prince Buster’s Al Capone; and the Skatalites Guns of Navarone were big hits.
Prince Buster even appeared on Ready Steady Go. But rocksteady, like in
Jamaica began to get popular with Desmond Dekker’s 007 making top 20 and The
Ethiopians "Train to Skaville" making #35. At this point Island Records, was
sick of being known as just a ska and soul record label so it sold the rights
to most of it’s stock to the Beat and Commercial company to form Trojan
Records(which had existed before). Trojan Records became the most dominant
record label in the UK to release Jamaican Music, and as reggae became the next
thing on the scene it scored several hits like Bob and Marcia’s Young Gifted
and Black, The Harry J Allstar’s "Liquidator", The Pioneers’ "Let your yeah
be yeah" and "Long shot Kick De Bucket"; even a #1 hit with Dave and Ansel
Collin’s "Double Barrel". Desmond Dekker also had a #1 with "the
Israelites". The success was in part because many of these crossed over to the
pop market, and also the Skinhead youth cult accpeted reggae as it’s main
music. By the early 70s most reggae went either very rootsy or very poppy and
lost it’s appeal. I won’t go into mid 70s reggae, so let’s skip to 1977.
Punk Rock is the biggest buzzword, and bands like the Ruts and the Clash are
combining reggae and punk. Bands like Steel Pulse and Aswad are very popular
among the Punks too. In the next year or so several bands such as the
automatics(who later became the special AKA), the equators, the invaders(Who
later became madness) Authur K and The originals, Stoop Solo and the Sheet
Starchers(who later became Bad Manners) all formed and played a more modern
type of ska. I’m not going to go into the details of every band, but for all
intensive purposes the band that started the movement was The Specials. The
Specials started as a reggae punk punk band called the automatics, Their
Leader, keyboard player Jerry Dammers sent a tape to Johnny Rotten hoping
he’d join the band and it somehow ended up in the hands of Clash Manager
Bernie Rhodes. Rhodes set the band up to tour with The Clash and they changed
the name to The Special AKA for legal reasons. They were a failure on the tour
and ended up starting over and decided to mix ska with punk as opposed to
reggae with punk. They adopted a ska style as rude boys(originally Jamaican
Gangsters) dressed in skinny black ties, loafers, sta press, three piece black
suits and pork pie hats. The band released their first single Gangsters on a
label called 2 tone and had distribution by big Punk indie Rough Trade. It
eventually got picked up by Chrysalis and became a big hit. Before long, Jerry
Dammers signed bands like the Selecter, The Beat, and Madness to the two tone
label and almost every song was a gaurenteed hit. They didn’t just start a
musical revolution, they also started a cultural revolution. Thousands of new
mods, skinheads, and rudeboys joined the cause, but like all fads, it had to
end. One problem was violence, the NF was at it’s peak and tons of NF skins
would show up to the shows and cause trouble. In addition the press was
getting wary of the music and bands like the Bodysnatchers records were
dismissed along with all the other ska bands like The Ska’dows, The
Originals, and The Gangsters. By 1980 all the major 2 tone bands were turning
away from ska. Specials to musak(a cocktail or lounge, rockabilly, jazz and
other forms), Madness went more to pure nutty music as opposed to nutty ska,
and the beat to more pure new wave pop and reggae. The only major band to keep
playing ska was Bad Manners. Also all of the other bands besides the
Bodysnatchers and the Specials had left 2 tone. With Violence and Unemployment
high, the specials released a single called "Ghost Town" which captured the
state of the nation well, with it at #1 the band broke up.
Many of the rudeboys and skinheads turned to Oi!(well most of the rudeboys
became skinheads or just left the scene completely), and ska was a thing of the
past. Until 1985 when bands like the Potato 5 and the Deltones formed. They
played a more authentic sounding ska than the 2 tone bands, but the 2 tone feel
was still there. Before long more rudeboys, skins, mods, and whatever began
getting back into the sound, spearheaded by a new wave of fanzines like Zoot,
and Back against the Wall. The Major Oi Labels, Oi Records and Link both
launched Ska Subsidiaries(skank and Ska records) and the Mod Label Unicorn went
100% ska By 1988 there were over a dozen bands playing ska, some like the
Trojans and Maroon town played more in the 60s vein while other like the
Hotknives and The Loafers played a poppy 2 tone sounding brand of ska. All the
papers were predicting ska to be the next big thing, but it was not to be. In
fact the only ska to make it into the charts was a mix of Acid and Ska by bands
like Children of the Corn and Longsy D. And ska didn’t make it big. Most of
the ska bands(Deltones, Potato 5, Loafers etc.) broke up or moved away from
ska(maroon town etc.) in part because some of them expected to become more
successful than they ended up being and ska was again all but forgotten. But
new bands like Intensified and 100 men formed and the older bands like the
Hotknives tried to keep it going. Now in the UK there are plenty of ska bands
just like in the USA some play more 2 toney, some more punky, and some more
traditional. The scene now is divided into the ska punkers, those who listen
to the old stuff, neotraditional and more 2 tone oriented bands, and those who
will just go to dances which spin original 45s and the odd gig with the
original jamaican stars. A major problem with UK ska is that it’s still too
reliant on 2 tone and there are a ridiculous amount of 2 tone cover bands, and
a good percentage of the fans now were fans since 2 tone and so there is a bit
of a lack of innovation and young blood in the scene.
For more information on 2 tone check out the Book "The 2 tone Story" on ST
publishing. For info of Jamaican Music in the UK check out Boss Sounds: Classic
Skinhead Reggae also on ST.
Marcus
Pounding the Pavement
Fanzine and Small Mailorder
Soul-Ska-Reggae
http://www.zyworld.com/ptpzine/index.htm
Guava Baby
> Same as before. Mention what should be corrected or added
>
> thanks
I think you should add more about the Beat. They were easily as big as the Specials
and I think they were very musicially influential - at least in Britain. They merged
ska and pop and other influences well, and I think their gradual reduction in
reliance on ska parellels the general movement away from ska.
Also, the part after 1985 is pretty confusing. You mention a few times when ska died
and was revived, but don't give any dates, so it's hard to know what period you're
referring to.
Leigh