Showing posts with label 2Tone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2Tone. Show all posts
Monday, 18 January 2010
New material on The Specials in Neville Staple biography
The paperback of Original Rude Boy is out in May and Neville Staple is promising a whole load of new material on the Specials tour - with photos never seen before from the UK, Japan and Australia. Some behind the scenes gossip. And a new intro from Amy Winehouse.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Paperback of Original Rude Boy out soon
The paperback of Original Rude Boy will be published in the spring of 2010. My mole tells me that there will be plenty of tales from the recent Specials tour while Jerry Dammers will be faded out earlier in the story.
When the hardback came out in March 2009, it seemed that Dammers' row with the band might overshadow the tour. The air was thick with talk of legal action and so on. But with the huge success of the tour, it seems we can all now move on from that episode.
The front cover of the paperback will be white in contrast to the black cover of the hardback. And rumour has it....Amy Winehouse will be writing a new intro.
When the hardback came out in March 2009, it seemed that Dammers' row with the band might overshadow the tour. The air was thick with talk of legal action and so on. But with the huge success of the tour, it seems we can all now move on from that episode.
The front cover of the paperback will be white in contrast to the black cover of the hardback. And rumour has it....Amy Winehouse will be writing a new intro.
Friday, 4 December 2009
Notting Hill Waterstone's - books run out at signing
Neville signed so many books at the Notting Hill Waterstone's - they ran out. I was there to see shop staff phoning the Piccadilly store to see if they could get some more copies sent over. In the end, Neville got in a cab, went down to Piccadilly and signed some more copies there. There was a huge turnout for a Nottingham signing with fans queueing round the block. The original rude boy has never been so popular!
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Mojo review of Original Rude Boy
Mojo has given Original Rude Boy a big thumbs up calling the book "fascinating but harrowing". It praises the author for giving an honest insight in to a life that was tough, uncompromsing and including a spell behind bars. Let's hope that bumps up the sales further. My mole in publishing tells me the hardbacks have outsold another ska tome I won't mention here.
Monday, 1 June 2009
Are American 'Third Wave' bands really ska?
Chapter ten in Neville Staple's book 'Original Rude Boy' talks about the so-called Third Wave of ska - bands like Rancid and No Doubt that came out of the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. But I've heard plenty of 2Tone purists say to me that...well...are these bands REALLY ska outfits? They don't look like it. They don't sound like it. So they can't be ska bands at all.
But then you can say - well, The Specials and The Beat developed the sound of earlier Jamaican ska combos - and music should never fossilize. All musical genres need to develop and grow. The US Third Wave bands are just as ska as the 2Tone groups that influenced them a quarter of a century ago.
On balance - I think the 'Third Wave' is a legitimate extension of ska. That many of those who sneer at it are stuck in a nostalgic time warp. And it alienates many American ska fans to discover that fans in the UK look down their noses at them. After all, Neville produced and played with Rancid, No Doubt and Unwritten Law - was he mistaken to do so?
But then you can say - well, The Specials and The Beat developed the sound of earlier Jamaican ska combos - and music should never fossilize. All musical genres need to develop and grow. The US Third Wave bands are just as ska as the 2Tone groups that influenced them a quarter of a century ago.
On balance - I think the 'Third Wave' is a legitimate extension of ska. That many of those who sneer at it are stuck in a nostalgic time warp. And it alienates many American ska fans to discover that fans in the UK look down their noses at them. After all, Neville produced and played with Rancid, No Doubt and Unwritten Law - was he mistaken to do so?
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Oh dear, somebody doesn't like Original Rude Boy
There's a review of Neville Staple's biography on the 2Tone website (written by somebody who obviously loved Horace Panter's drier tome on The Specials) which makes the most bizarre critique you can imagine of Nev.
Nothing to do with his music, voice or role in 2Tone. No - there's a long moan about the fact that Nev admits that when he was five years old, he used to torture animals. Now - I'm not condoning that. But he was five. This was the late 1950s in Jamaica. And he's making a point about his rough upbringing. But this guy decides that on the basis of that and later in his teens working in a slaughterhouse (well, there were three million unemployed at the time and you took what jobs you could get), Nev is a very bad man and his book is not to be read lest you become an animal torturer yourself!
Then we have a moan about Neville admitting that he was a burglar. And he did time in borstal. But because he says burglaries were "exhilarating" - that drives our reviewer on 2Tone nuts. Again, Neville was a rude boy - what do you expect? He says Nev is glorifying burglary. That's like saying - don't watch the Godfather in case you end up supporting the mafia.
Original Rude Boy finally shows the black British influence on 2Tone and some white folk don't like it. They don't take the sound system scene that Nev came from seriously because sound system DJs didn't pluck guitars. But I for one am glad Mr Staple has finally put pen to paper and upset the right people.
Nothing to do with his music, voice or role in 2Tone. No - there's a long moan about the fact that Nev admits that when he was five years old, he used to torture animals. Now - I'm not condoning that. But he was five. This was the late 1950s in Jamaica. And he's making a point about his rough upbringing. But this guy decides that on the basis of that and later in his teens working in a slaughterhouse (well, there were three million unemployed at the time and you took what jobs you could get), Nev is a very bad man and his book is not to be read lest you become an animal torturer yourself!
Then we have a moan about Neville admitting that he was a burglar. And he did time in borstal. But because he says burglaries were "exhilarating" - that drives our reviewer on 2Tone nuts. Again, Neville was a rude boy - what do you expect? He says Nev is glorifying burglary. That's like saying - don't watch the Godfather in case you end up supporting the mafia.
Original Rude Boy finally shows the black British influence on 2Tone and some white folk don't like it. They don't take the sound system scene that Nev came from seriously because sound system DJs didn't pluck guitars. But I for one am glad Mr Staple has finally put pen to paper and upset the right people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
