Donkey Show?
becca
class this semester. Much to my surprise, we had a unit on ska. The book
mentioned, after the Specials, "Influential ska bands such as the
Toasters from New York and Donkey Show from L.A."
Now, I've been listening to ska for about seven years now. And I have
never heard of the Donkey Show. Have I been living under a rock, or is
the author of the book an idiot (I'm inclined to say idiot...she
includes Courtney Love and Alanis Morrisette in the section on Riot
Grrl)?
Becca
--
"you dumb fucking idealist." -NavyKurt
Jon
from San Diego formed by Dave Hillyard (Hepcat, Slackers) when he was 16.
They had a slightly traditional slant (which is what set them apart) At
the time (mid/late 80s). The push by certain members (Dave in particular)
to move to an even more traditional sound against other members push
towards a sound which eventually would eventually be termed "3rd Wave"
hastened their demise (around 1990 I think). The Donkey Show were mostly
set apart by their dual lead vocals, particular the female lead Kym
Clift. After the break up the members of the group would pop up in some
more popular bands across the country, Matt Parker landed in Chicago
playing with the Adjusters and in San Diego a few stayed together to
form Unsteady. At the time they were together they had two released, the
Mr. Brown 7" and the "Bali Island" EP on Unicorn. In the mid 90s Tazy
Phillips released his Ska Parade video which included interviews and
live footage with the Donkey Show, a few years later he also released a
CD of all their material. Dave Hillyard is embarrassed about it, but
it's really not that bad. Some real good pop-ska on their, their biggest
hit was "Mr. Brown" which to me is one of the great songs of the era.
In <Skafan101-1D2B6...@news6.west.earthlink.net> becca
wrote:
becca
Jon <no.spam....@excite.com> wrote:
> The Donkey Show were somewhat influential, they were a Ska/Reggae group
> from San Diego formed by Dave Hillyard (Hepcat, Slackers) when he was 16.
> They had a slightly traditional slant (which is what set them apart) At
> the time (mid/late 80s). The push by certain members (Dave in particular)
> to move to an even more traditional sound against other members push
> towards a sound which eventually would eventually be termed "3rd Wave"
> hastened their demise (around 1990 I think). The Donkey Show were mostly
> set apart by their dual lead vocals, particular the female lead Kym
> Clift. After the break up the members of the group would pop up in some
> more popular bands across the country, Matt Parker landed in Chicago
> playing with the Adjusters and in San Diego a few stayed together to
> form Unsteady. At the time they were together they had two released, the
> Mr. Brown 7" and the "Bali Island" EP on Unicorn. In the mid 90s Tazy
> Phillips released his Ska Parade video which included interviews and
> live footage with the Donkey Show, a few years later he also released a
> CD of all their material. Dave Hillyard is embarrassed about it, but
> it's really not that bad. Some real good pop-ska on their, their biggest
> hit was "Mr. Brown" which to me is one of the great songs of the era.
interesting. just when i thought i knew just about everything about ska.
has dave been consciously suppressing this information? because now i'm
curious.
becca
Jon
wrote:
> interesting. just when i thought i knew just about everything about
> ska. has dave been consciously suppressing this information? because
> now i'm curious.
>
> becca
I wouldn't say he "suppressing" it. He just doesn't bring it up. When
other people ask him about it he'll talk about it. Usually not much good,
but he'll talk. With that era (mid/late 80s, very early 90s) it seems
that if you weren't around at the time it has kind of slipped out of
notice.
Jon
The DE Rude Boy
influential,
and to me it seems like the writer just didn't know that much about ska from
that era, so wrote about what she did know.
maybe.
Manley
the DE Rude Boy
joshuatatman
ska was a branch of british punk. it was actually kinda cool, because
my teacher let me take a minute to straighten out the class. & i gave
him some cd's too.
SP radio1
Nice to see chatter about this band!
The Donkey Show has always been one of my favorite
3rd Wave Ska bands! Songs like "Mr. Brown," "Bali Island,"
"Selling Toes" were always staples of my radio shows and
my releases!
In the late 80's, The Donkey Show's and No Doubt
had similar lineups and they used to play together
with ND opening! It's pretty cool to see the past video footage!
Also, you may want to check out The Equators cd,
which includes ex-members of The Donkey Show!
Hope all of you are doing well!
Musically yours - Tazy
SP Radio One / Tazy's New Music Spotlight on 97 The Rogue!
BP
sings for a band called the "Swinging Deacons"
Matt Parker was the keyboardist. I knew him in Chicago...Really good guy.
Mod Rob
"The DE Rude Boy" <theder...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:20040307093619...@mb-m26.news.cs.com...
SP radio1
The main singers of The Donkey Show
were Ray Campbell and Kim Clift.
Who you met was Bronco Farwell
- And he was the leader / trombone / singer
for The Donkey Show
- he now leads The Swinging Deacons too!
BP
that I was with a Sharky and a Bronco.
ModRob
"SP radio1" <spra...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040810052434...@mb-m04.aol.com...
fattm...@gmail.com
Jon is pretty much right about everything here.
We didn't record a lot, but I do think we were pretty influential otherwise. We were at the top of the California ska scene for about two years, and we were part of a push back toward proper Jamaican ska and reggae, which was carried on by Hepcat, Jump With Joey, and many others. But at the same time we were adventurous, and played a lot of fast stuff, and, hey, it was the 80s.
Hi Rob.
Matt
