We played five new songs at our first gig of the year at the always great Dumplins Live Ska last night at the Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden.<\/p>\n
That is almost half the set.<\/p>\n
Brave, foolish or what?<\/p>\n
This is what we played.<\/p>\n
Our first new song was The Harder they Come, first sung by Jimmy Cliff for the film of the same name. And while it is absolutely of Jamaica of the 1960s, its rhythm cannot easily be described as ska or rocksteady.<\/p>\n
The Tide is High is probably best known today through the Blondie cover (or even that by Atomic Kitten), but was first sung by the Paragons – a fine rocksteady group.<\/p>\n
Johnny Too Bad has also been covered by very many people. The John Martyn version is good, but very far from the original by the Slickers – also on the soundtrack of The Harder they Come.<\/p>\n
Paranoid comes from our bonkers covers book. We think we may be the first band to give this a ska treatment.<\/p>\n
Pata Pata is of course from the great Miriam Makeba. The reformed Skatalites did an instrumental version of this, which gave us the idea. It is likely to be the only song we do in Xhosa.<\/p>\n
Here are some photos from the gig. (thanks John!)<\/p>\n
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