The Skamonics

“The Skatalites embodied the ska era”

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:30:45 +0000

There’s a great new article in Jamaica’s The Gleaner about the Skatalites, the original ska band.

They are certainly our biggest influence. We do a lot of their tunes, many of us have a similar background in jazz and, just as they did, like to take tunes from other kinds of music and give them a ska beat.

Your can read it here – and it also has this great photo.

the Skatalites

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Skamonics on Scooter Forum Radio

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:27:45 +0000

Thanks to Rich for including Tainted Love from our cd in his online Scooter Forum Radio show last night.

You can still listen to it here. Ir you can download a podcast from iTunes.

There are a lot of other fab tunes too for your enjoyment.

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Frank’s sideline

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:58:21 +0000

When Frank is not playing guitar with the Skamonics he runs his own amplifier business, both repairing and manufacturing his own line of amps.

They are terrific.

And it’s not just us who say so. His Sir Charles 15 amp has had a fantastic review in Guitar and Bass Magazine – and earned a very coveted highly recommended in their 2011 review of the year.

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99 Red Balloons – live from the Ritzy

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:37:51 +0000

Here’s our version of 99 Red Balloons in one of our series of dodgy live recordings.

There’s the usual warning. There’s a single recorder at the side of the stage – and it’s consequently rather unbalanced, a strange mix of direct and sound via the PA, and comes complete with audience noise.

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Our Ritzy gig

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:50:07 +0000

We enjoyed ourselves at our gig at Brixton’s Ritzy last night. And we did debut a Jessie J song, doing Price Tag somewhere in a cross between ska and reggae, with our horn section sight reading the arrangement.

This is what we played:

Chinatown

Guns Of Navarone

Latin Goes Ska

Mood For Love

You’re Wondering Now

Eastern Standard Time

Alley Cat Ska

Man In The Street

Can’t Get You Out of My Head

Enola Gay

Price Tag

Second Set

James Bond

Dr Who

Skaravan

Tiptoe

99 Red Balloons

Tainted Love

Rudy A Message To You

My Boy Lollipop

Monkey Man

Last Song

Night Boat To Cairo

Encore

Gangsters

We didn’t take any pictures as it was all a bit of a rush, but we did record some of the second set (before our batteries ran out), so there may be another entry in our dodgy live recording series.

That however won’t be the fault of the Ritzy’s sound system as we had some of the best live sound we’ve ever had, thanks to Roger their sound engineer. (hope we’ve remembered the name right!)

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Don’t forget we are Upstairs at the Ritzy tomorrow night

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:08:16 +0000

And we may well try out a ska’d up Jessie J track.

Here are the details.

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And how not to dance the ska

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:11:43 +0000

In this extraordinary clip Bob Hope shows us how not to dance the ska with a band that doesn’t quite get the rhythm. (They think it’s latin.)

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Get your dancing shoes on

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:26:25 +0000

Here’s a fab 60s documentary about how to dance the ska. We will be testing you at our next gig.

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Just over a week to go to our Brixton gig

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:14:57 +0000

Don’t forget we are playing on Sunday, February 12th, Upstairs at the Ritzy, in Brixton.

Here’s a link to the Ritzy website.

And, of course, there’s a Facebook event here.

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GIG: Upstairs at the Ritzy February 12th

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:11:45 +0000

The headline says it all.

We have a new gig upstairs at the Ritzy on Sunday February 12th.

Here’s a link to the Facebook event, so you can invite your friends.

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