What is Ska?

This is a re-write of a blog I had published last year on the Peoples Republic Of South Devon website. I was writing Simmertones related stuff at the time but I still love a bit of ska dn reggae...

I'm often asked, "You played in a ska band....er.... what's ska then?".

You can give a potted history of the music, from the its roots in the soundsystems of Jamaica in the 60s and maybe talk about how it evolved into rocksteady and then reggae but people want a popular reference point. What I mean is, everyone knows reggae don't they? Easy - Bob Marley!

Well, I  used to think it was easy with ska too; I would say, "Remember The Specials or Madness? They did ska. They didn't invent it but they played their version of it; the original ska was Desmond Dekker, him off the Vitalite margarine advert ......" etc, etc.

That Vitalite Advert

But now it doesn't work, I met people at gigs who didn't remember Madness or that margarine advert. It's easy to forget that Madness and The Specials on Top of the Pops was 30 odd years ago and that some people asking about the band and the music weren't around for Nirvana in the early 90s, let alone the 70s and 80s 2-Tone heyday.

Does it matter? No, not really because good music is good music and we listen to the stuff we do because it's still (too our ears at least) good music, regardless of when it was recorded. The Simmertones crowd was varied, being made up of guys that got into the music in the 60s, when it was imported by a few specialist record shops; Birmingham Blue Beat was one of the labels it got. We also attracted fans who were swept along on the 2-Tone wave in the late 70s and early 80s and a lot of the band were of that age group . It was the reason that we played this music even though we didn't play it in a 2-Tone style, preferring instead to go back to the early 60s. 

In the late 80s and 90s ska mixed with other styles of music, picking up a punkier, rockier edge. Fishbone and then Reel Big Fish and the Bosstones got a whole new generation into the music and now......Paulo Ntini had a hit with a ska style tune, Lily Allen mixed in reggae elements, countless ads on the TV have a ska soundtrack - it's still around and people still want to listen!

Fishbone - an awesome band that your ears deserve to hear

So that's ska. Don't worry about what it is exactly, just tap your feat and if you like it, buy a copy rather than stealing it ;)