SKA

Since 1961 Jamaican music has gone through several different phases. Ska was Jamaica's first independent national music, which fused several types of music, principally U.S. R' n B, Jamaican Mento, Swinging Jazz & Afro-Caribbean music. As it was in Jamaica, Ska was all the rage among the Jamaican community in England. In London these sounds could be heard in clubs such as Ram Jam, The Flamingo, Brixton Hall, Stoke Newington Hall, The Roaring Twenties and at blues dances every Saturday night, with sound system competitions between the likes of Duke Vin, Count Shelley and Count Suckle. But it was in 1965 when, for me, Ska was at it's prime best. At Coast to Coast you can expect to hear tunes from this era such as "Tribute to President Nehru" The Skatalites, "I want Justice" Delroy Wilson, "Chain Gang" The Jamaicans, "Babylon" Vernon Allen, "Send Me" The Enchanters, "Kings & Queens'"(The original of Kingston Town) Lord Creator, "Mouth A Massy "Alton Ellis and "Mughead Ska" Llans Thewell.

One of the best singers, in my opinion, was Jackie Opel. He had a strong, deep beautiful voice and did some great recordings produced by Coxone Dodd like "Old Rockin' Chair", "Sit Down Servant" and "The Mill Man" and recordings with Justin Yap (Top Deck Records),"Turn to the Almighty", "Pictures of Smoke" and my favourite of them all "Valley of Green". He also created the popular Barbadian style music, Spouge. It is primarily a fusion of Jamaican ska with TrinIdadian calypso, but is also influenced by a wide variety of musics from the British Isles, United States and Africa. Jackie is considered to be an absoloute legend in his country and rightly so, he was an incredible talent. Sadly when Jackie returned to his native country, the island of Barbados, he had an unfortunate automobile accident which took his life.

The Skatalites were the backbone of Ska. During their tenure, they gave Jamaica one of its richest legacies, embodying sterling musicianship and music that had even greater potential than its ultimate successor, reggae. They were the session musicians for a revolving group of producers such as Duke Reid, Clement Dodd and Prince Buster, sound system warlords, who earlier had popularized Rhythm and Blues and who later launched popular recorded music as producers. They did some great recordings such as, "Special Event", "The Last Call", "Dr Ring Ding", "Guns of Navarone"and also with the Chinese-Jamaican producer and proprietor of the Top Deck Label Justin Yap such as "South China Sea", "Ringo" and the monumental version of the theme from the Pink Panther movie "Shot in The Dark".

Prince Buster was not just a singer but producer too! A truly talented man, who still packed out the venues in his later years. As well as the obvious classics, he did some awesome tracks such as "Linger On", "The Hunter'", "Dance Cleopatra", "The Prophet", "Blood Pressure"and "Jet 707". In the late 70s and early 80s he was the inspiration to new generation of ska in this country, as were many other artists from around this time. The Two-Tone era was the British version of ska that took this country by storm on a pop level, the likes of The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The Beat, Bad Manners, The Bodysnatchers and UB40 covered many original tracks from their predecessors, in particular those of Prince Buster. Buster tracks such as "Alcapone", "One Step Beyond", "Enjoy Yourself", "Rough Rider" and "Madness'" were all covered by the Two-Tone mania. Madness even wrote a song about Buster, 'The Prince' which was a great tribute to the man, who's also known as the King of Ska.

Then the Ska beat slowed down to a cool Rocksteady sound in 1966/67.

ROCKSTEADY