If you are coming to our gig on Friday, it would be great if you could bring a video camera and catch some of our set.
We are going to try and record the sound as well as we can, so if we can get a range of videos we should be able to edit them together and sync them to the good sound.
Next Friday (June 29) we are playing the Sebright Arms in Bethnal Green. (more details of the gig are here and on Facebook here.)
Tonight the Vaccines are playing a special one off secret gig there.
So while there’s a week’s gap, we can now say that we have shared a stage with the Vaccines.
Not of course that we would ever mislead, sharing the stage is not the same as sharing the bill.
Indeed having played the 100 Club, incidentally on the same bill as Rico and Skaville UK, we can truthfully say that we have shared the bill with an enormous number of rock, pop and jazz greats.
We’re looking forward to our next gig at the Sebright Arms in Bethnal Green on June 29th.
This is a gig we are promoting ourselves as we have not had an outing in public for quite some time.
We are playing with our friends in the Electric Cucumbers – indeed we are so friendly that we let Frank, our guitarist, play the bass for them.
They are a very tight band, who play late 70s new wave covers. Think of bands like the Jam, Elvis Costello, the Stranglers, Ian Dury and the Undertones – in other words all the difficult stuff.
We think we can therefore say that between us we will be covering the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and whatever you want to call the first decade of this century.
But as there’s more from the 60s and 70s than anything else we think we right to call this ‘one night of retro goodness’.
We’re sharing the billing and will both do a set, but have agreed that the Skamonics will play first – at around 8:30 or so. This will give friends who complain that we always play too late to get home by public transport a chance to hear us.
There’s a Facebook event you can use to invite friends. We’ve also got some colour posters if anyone wants to help publicise it.
And if you can’t make this we will be at Round Midnight, near the Angel, on August 3rd. We’ll be playing two long sets there.
We learnt the sad news today that the original bass player in the Skatalites – Lloyd Brevett – has died.
There are not that many genres of music where you can precisely identify the inventors – and indeed the exact origins of ska have been contested by some – but few would disagree that the Skatalites were the ska pioneers. That means Lloyd can rightly be said to have invented ska bass.
He rejoined the Skatalites when the got together again in 1983 to play Jamaica’s Reggae Sunsplash, and stayed with them until 2005.
There’s a great interview with him on the Reggae-Vibes site here.
While ska has come on a long journey since its invention in Jamaica in 1964, but it should never be forgotten that the early ska musicians were all jazzers. Here is Lloyd – who always played an upright bass – speaking in that interview:
“Well in those days I listen to the great Leroy ‘Slam’ Stewart and all those type a bass player. Very good. I listened to jazz, and jazz I used to play. All the jazz band dem in Jamaica. From that I start work at the hotel dem every night. All type a music.”
That’s why the Skamonics are clear that we take our inspiration from ska’s earliest days. One of our best moments at a gig was when a Jamaican of mature years told us that he had not heard ska played like that since his youth.
Because Lloyd played with the reformed Skatalites there are many great records to complement the original 60s recordings. But while there is no known film of the original Skatalites, we do have video of Lloyd playing in the more recent line up. Here’s a 73 minute concert recording in which introduces all the songs.
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http://www.facebook.com/TheSkamonics
We’ve long had a Facebook group, but pages are better for bands.
To join a group you need to have your membership approved or be nominated by an existing member.
That’s not very friendly. All you need to do to with a page to keep in touch is ‘like’ it.
So gradually we will shift our atention to the page, so – even if you’re a group member, please take the time to click the like button below. It doesn’t mean that we’ll ignore the 140 group members of course. We love you all.
>We now know the details for our next gig.
This is one we are putting on ourselves – and are sharing the bill with our good friends the Electric Cucumbers.
Careful study may reveal one musician who will be playing all night.
It’s at the Sebright Arms – a great pub just off the Hackney Road. Here’s the poster.
The Skamonics will play first – though there’s equal billing and both bands will play sets of the same length.
We thought this would give a chance for fans who have to travel and say we are always on too late to come and see us play.
If you want a download an A4 pdf poster, you can find one here
It’s up as a Facebook event here – so use this to share and invite your friends.
There will be a special offer on our CD on the night.
If you like the Skamonics, then you have to like the Skatalites. They are the source of all the ska goodness in the world. Many of today’s ska bands look back to the two-tone era (and there’s nothing wrong with that), but we owe even more to the original 60s ska sounds, invented by the Skatalites.
And the current line-up are coming to the UK in May!
The tour dates are here.
And it gives us an excuse to show this video of the Skatalites doing one of the tunes we nicked off them.
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Some question the strange covers we do and tell us they are not proper ska, but this was just as unexpected a choice when the Skatalites first played it.
So if you like the Skamonics, you’ll certainly love the Skatalites, and we like to think that if you like the Skatalites you will enjoy the Skamonics too.
We are looking forward to this!
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We have a new gig. It’s on June 29th at the Sebright Arms in Hackney.
More details soon!
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Here’s a video we have put together for Enola Gay.
It uses lots of found video of dancing through the decades, including some great fottiage from Jamaica in the 1960s.
