We enjoyed ourselves playing Dumplins Live Ska last night.
Dumplins is probably London’s best regular ska gig, and we were very happy to be asked back after our first gig there in August. Marcello, who runs it, is a great guy who makes sure the bands get treated well and have excellent sound.
Last night we were supporting the excellent nine piece Skamasters from Bedford.
We had to do a bit of negotiating as we play a lot of the same tunes, which meant that we concentrated on our ‘ska-ed up’ 80s songs. This must have been the first time we haven’t played Guns of Navarone for many years, though we still managed to drop in some 60s instrumentals and My Boy Lollipop as our closing number.
Here are some pictures – thanks to Michelle for sharing her iPhone pix.
We also had a great gig at the Dublin Castle just over a week ago but did not have the opportunity to write it up at the time – nor did anyone take any pictures but we were on particularly good form that night.
Our next gig (unless we get a new offer) is back at Dumplins on January 4th where we will be topping the bill and with a full three horn line up, after a couple of gigs with trombone and just one sax.
Support is from the intriguing sounding Destination Mars “Raved up electro infused indie hip hop, but with a radio ready pop sensibility, there’s some pretty neat hooks here and the boy-rapping-girl-singing combo works really well. It’s dance music for the post bloc party indie generation.”
We’re looking forward to finding out what that means.
We had a great time playing Dumplins Live Ska on Saturday night at the Fiddler’s Elbow near Chalk Farm in Camden.
It was good to be able to play lots of our more obscure 60s ska tunes as we this was an audience that had definitely come to hear proper ska, and not the old chestnuts that every ska band can play (much as we love them).
And as the Skatalites were capable of turning any tune that caught their fancy into a ska number, we were happy to play a few of our more modern covers too.
So this is what we played.
Chinatown
Latin Goes Ska
I’m in the Mood For Love
You’re Wondering Now
Alley Cat Ska
Man In The Street
Enola Gay
Price Tag
Work Song
99 Red Balloons
Tainted Love
My Boy Lollipop
As it’s the summer and not all the band were available we had two guests.
Rachel Musson on alto sax has played with us once before, but it was a good few years ago. A seriously good jazz player, she has had a four star review in the Guardian.
Phil Short played guitar with us for the first time. We doubt that many in the audience would have guessed that this was the first time most of the band had ever met him, let alone played with him. He is clearly a rising star.
We didn’t take any photos or videos so have nothing to share. but if anyone took any and wants to share, our Facebook page is a good place to put them.
UPDATE:
A couple of pictures of the audience have emerged. They seem to be having a good time.
Dumplins takes place at the Fiddler’s Elbow, 1 Malden Road, NW5 3HS. The nearest tube is Chalk Farm, or use the 24 bus. Kentish Town West on the Overground is nearby too. Here’s a map.
As it’s the summer we will be playing with special guests on alto sax (Rachel Musson) and guitar (Phil Short) – both are hugely talented musicians. Adding Rachel means that we will have an all female horn section and majority female band – which is the first time we can say that about a Skamonics gig. The band will undoubtedly debate how significant that is.
As this is a ska club we are going to avoid some of the more obvious tunes in our usual set – the two-tone covers that almost every ska band has in their repertoire. So we will go back to our 60s roots and play a good smattering of Skatalites tunes, and feature some of the more modern covers that do not usually get a ska or rock-steady treatment.
This is probably London’s premier ska night, and we are really looking forward to it.
Dumplins takes place at the Fiddler’s Elbow, 1 Malden Road, NW5 3HS. The nearest tube is Chalk Farm, or use the 24 bus. Kentish Town West on the Overground is nearby too. Here’s a map.
As it’s the summer we will be playing with special guests on alto sax (Rachel Musson) and guitar (Phil Short) – both are hugely talented musicians. Adding Rachel means that we will have an all female horn section and majority female band – which is the first time we can say that about a Skamonics gig. The band will undoubtedly debate how significant that is.
As this is a ska club we are going to avoid some of the more obvious tunes in our usual set – the two-tone covers that almost every ska band has in their repertoire. So we will go back to our 60s roots and play a good smattering of Skatalites tunes, and feature some of the more modern covers that do not usually get a ska or rock-steady treatment.
This is probably London’s premier ska night, and we are really looking forward to it.
We are playing at Dumplins Live Ska Club on Saturday August 3rd.
This is at the Fiddler’s Elbow,
1 Malden Road, Camden, NW5 3HS. Chalk Farm tube or the 24 bus. Here’s a map.
This is how they describe the gig on their Facebook event page.. We don’t know where they got that M from.
August sees a sound-clash at Dumplins Live Ska which will feature a special night with DJIng by DJ Cello (Coast To Coast) which accompanies the bands, selected by The Dumplins crew: The Comunicators and The SkaMonics
Rampaging out of the West Country critically acclaimed BRITSKA band The Communicators perform to sell out audiences all over the UK playing their own blend of harmonious, but stomping brass drenched SKA tunes http://www.the-communicators.com/
The Skamonics are a London based ska band, playing a unique mix of authentic 60s ska, rock steady, two-tone and completely unexpected covers.
A driving rhythm section provides a firm foundation for three blazing horns and a top female vocalist, blasting out a wide repertoire of not just ska, two-tone and rock steady favourites but tunes given a ska treatment for the very first time.
Made up of musicians with roots in ska, jazz, blues and soul, the Skamonics have been together since 2004 http://skamonics.co.uk/
We are playing at Dumplins Live Ska Club on Saturday August 3rd.
This is at the Fiddler’s Elbow,
1 Malden Road, Camden, NW5 3HS. Chalk Farm tube or the 24 bus. Here’s a map.
This is how they describe the gig on their Facebook event page.. We don’t know where they got that M from.
August sees a sound-clash at Dumplins Live Ska which will feature a special night with DJIng by DJ Cello (Coast To Coast) which accompanies the bands, selected by The Dumplins crew: The Comunicators and The SkaMonics
Rampaging out of the West Country critically acclaimed BRITSKA band The Communicators perform to sell out audiences all over the UK playing their own blend of harmonious, but stomping brass drenched SKA tunes http://www.the-communicators.com/
The Skamonics are a London based ska band, playing a unique mix of authentic 60s ska, rock steady, two-tone and completely unexpected covers.
A driving rhythm section provides a firm foundation for three blazing horns and a top female vocalist, blasting out a wide repertoire of not just ska, two-tone and rock steady favourites but tunes given a ska treatment for the very first time.
Made up of musicians with roots in ska, jazz, blues and soul, the Skamonics have been together since 2004 http://skamonics.co.uk/
We had a lot of fun playing the Cray community festival yesterday. The sun had got his hat on, there was a good sound system and an appreciative audience. If we did cliches, this is where we would say ‘what’s not to like?’.
Well, perhaps we would have liked to play for a little longer as we only had time for a relatively short set:
Guns of Navarone
My Boy Lollipop
Price Tag
99 Red Balloons
Tainted Love
Rudy, A message to you
Gangsters
Leah enjoys an ice cream before our set
We’ve got hold of some very lofi video of our performance. The quality is pretty poor, and the camera gets jolted a few times.
But you can see that we were having a good time, and even through the rubbish sound quality, you can tell it was a tight performance. It’s not going in our official video collection though.
[tube]6gwfNcJq750[/tube]
[tube]EDWmYbeprvI[/tube]
This was one of our two horn gigs – something we do when there are short sets and someone can’t make it. But there will definitialy be three horns at our next gig.
Don’t forget that we are playing the Cray festival this Saturday at 4:15 pm.
There are more details about the line up at the Festival website – and it is clearly a varied set of acts. We follow the the UK’s hip-hop dance champions.
As well as the music stage, there is a lot more going on across the site in what looks like a great community event. We are looking forward to it – it’s a long time since we have played on a festival stage.
St Mary Cray is to the south east of London – and the festival site is ten minutes walk from Orpington High Street.
The Cray Festival is a “Community Festival” of Live Music & Arts on Sat July 6th at the recreation ground St Mary Cray , with the emphasis on social cohesion and inclusion where people of all ages and walks of life are invited to take part. Artists, Live Bands,performers,Volunteers,Sponsors,Local business and the many amazing Community Groups in the area will be taking part.
We are not sure how much social cohesion we can deliver, but watch out for some skanking and top ska.
