Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Blogs | Writers | Paid | My Orble | Login

Reggae - A daily blog

Reggae - January 2007

Having a suit made

January 31st 2007 04:55
There are few things I enjoy more than going to my tailor and having a garment made. It isn't just the finished product, but the whole process that I enjoy. It is the ultimate sense of luxury for me.

How does this fit with reggae you ask? Well for many years subcultures who have listened to reggae and ska music (skinheads, mods) have seen a trip to the tailor as an essential part of their lives.

I think the experience of going to a tailor for the first time can be a little daunting. I remember my first trip - I was overly confident I would come out with what was in my head. Once you find the right tailor, it is no longer daunting, but relaxing and exciting at the same time.


Mario Conte on King St is my man, and I had my first suit made there. It came out perfectly - exactly how I imagined it. Today, I picked up a new jacket - a dark grey and it was even better than my first suit.

Of course it doesn't just start at the collection stage. There is going to choose the fabric - you can go through the man himself, but I prefer to head to another fabric shop in Camperdown. There is the measuring up, just to check I hadn't put on any weight. There is the first fitting, where the jacket looks nearly like a suit, bar an arm and some finishing touches. Then of course you try it on for the final time, and it is beautiful with its skinny lapels, 3 buttons, side vents and slanted kerchief pocket.

I was a happy man today. Now I just need the money for my next one!
56
Vote
   


Some big acts coming down under. Here are the dates:

Fishbone

05/04/2007 The Arena, Fortitude Valley (Brisbane)
07/04/2007 BluesFest 2007, Byron Bay
08/04/2007 The Great Escape Festival, Sydney
09/04/2007 Metro Theatre, Sydney
11/04/2007 The Billboard, Melbourne

Lee Perry

31/03/2007 West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Frenantle WA
05/04/2007 East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Byron Bay NSW
08/04/2007 Great Escape Festival, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW

Mad Professor

03/03/2007 Metro Theatre, Sydney

09/03/2007 Playground Weekender, Sydney
10/03/2007 Golden Plains Festival, Melbourne
11/03/2007 Womad Festival, Adelaide
71
Vote
   


On Thursday night we (The Signals) played with the Currency from Melbourne. It was a good turnout and the Currency played a fantastic energetic set. They have some really good songs in their set and the band are excellent musicians - Travis from the Living End on drums being the most notable. Expect big things from them.

The Currency
The Currency


On Friday night (Australia Day) we headed into spectrum for reggae and ska night, Dynamite. It was slow to start, but by about 11 pm it was getting pretty packed. I went on the decks about 1130 and what was meant to be a 45 minute set turned into almost double that. I was pretty stoked to DJ in front of such a large crowd - and all early Jamaican stuff at that! What a blast. Thanks must go to my friends for coming out and to the Dynamite boys for letting me have a spin.

Saturday saw some low key birthday drinks and then yesterday saw a nice Vespa ride to the Royal National Park for some sun and sand. A relaxing way to finish off the weekend.
64
Vote
   


Firehouse - last time at the Marquee

January 25th 2007 05:54
The Marquee in Camperdown Sydney, a mid-sized venue that has been open for a number of years, is about to close down. It is being bought by developers and turned into some bullshit. I didn't think the Marquee was ever run very effectively, but I went to a few good gigs there. I even played with The Signals at one of our first really good gigs.

Anyway, it is going, which means no more Firehouse at the Marquee. That is, after the next one. Check out the flyer below for full details.

Firehouse website: http://www.firecorner.com

61
Vote
   


I was checking the very excellent Dancing Mood forum when I came across this video, linked to below. It is from Roots Rock Reggae, a doco from the 1970s, which I am yet to see, but will look into.

Anyway, this particular clip from that doco is of Lee Perry in his Black Ark Studio. First up, he is recording with Junior Murvin, The Heptones and The Upsetters. They are recording a most beautiful song in Play on Mr Music. It is fantastic to see the Heptones and Murvin singing - swapping between hearing the backing music and just the vocals as they listen to the music through the cans


[ Click here to read more ]
57
Vote
   


We (The Signals) are playing with a fantastic celtic punk band from Melbourne called The Currency on Thursday night. The venue is the Sando, on King St, Newtown as you head towards St Peters.

I first saw this band late last year in Melbourne. They are fantastic - their energy is quite something and comparisons to Flogging Molly aren't so off the mark. They include former members of The Living End and Mutiny and have a mandolin and fiddle as well as your normal punk rock lineup


[ Click here to read more ]
62
Vote
   


I am posting this rather early, but as I am one of the crew organising this night, I thought I would plug it, and then probably plug it again closer to the day.

The name of the night is Take It or Leave It, inspired mostly by the great film Madness made about themselves and their early beginnings as a band


[ Click here to read more ]
62
Vote
   


Despite there being a weekend in between now and Australia Day, I thought I would give everyone plenty of time to prepare for what is set to be the biggest original reggae and ska dance of the year in Sydney so far.

The date, being Australia Day and all, is January 26th, which is next Friday. It will kick off at 9 pm and will be at Spectrum. Spectrum is on the city end of Oxford St, Darlinghurst (or Surry Hills) really


[ Click here to read more ]
74
Vote
   


I have a few of the Pop-A-Top Records releases and while the first two are good, I thought this CD, the second volume of tracks from the Erin Bardwell Collective, was significantly improved.

There is an obvious attempt to make this record sound authentic, both through the production and through the sound, which is influenced by that whole Hippy Boys, Harry J etc period of reggae music. We hear predominantly heavy keyboard driven sounds, which are being favoured by many of the bands today


[ Click here to read more ]
67
Vote
   


So who is this Luciano character?

January 17th 2007 08:28
I am seeing a number of posters for reggae artist Luciano around Sydney and got to wondering who is this bloke? I am not going to pretend I am familiar with many roots artists, because that isn't my thing. But I thought I would do a bit of research and it turns out I am probably the only person who doesn't know his stuff.

He has a series of records on big reggae label VP and is about to perform as part of the Big Day Out shows in Australia. His music is focussed strongly on rastifarian beliefs, making it clear other artists who sing about sex and violence are well removed from his own ideas


[ Click here to read more ]
58
Vote
   


Books with reggae references

January 16th 2007 06:43
I didn't really have a clear idea what I would blog today, I am listening to the cricket rather than reggae, so I have struggled a little with what to come up with.

I got to thinking about what I have been reading lately though and how they include references to reggae. They are English books, so of course it isn't so unusual that they contain references to reggae, but because I do really like Jamaican music, when I come across these references my interest in what I am reading tends to pick up


[ Click here to read more ]
65
Vote
   


Current reggae listenings

January 15th 2007 05:56
I'm listening to a bunch of stuff at the moment, but two particularly CDs are on the Soul Jazz and Trojan labels.

The first is Studio One Groups, on Soul Jazz and features some of the excellent vocal groups of reggae. Vocal groups are my thing, as I have expressed before, so I am loving this CD. Featured are bands such The Maytals, The Viceroys and the Heptones. I was happy to see The Silvertones on here, doing a song called Cheating and Lying. I haven't come across a lot of them, though they do one of my favourite songs, True Confession. I also love Bob Marley & the Wailers doing Love and Affection. A great CD in all


[ Click here to read more ]
65
Vote
   


Maximum Ska - Sydney gig this Saturday

January 12th 2007 02:32
Tomorrow night will see the first big Sydney ska gig of the year. We'll be returning to ska's home stadium The Empire Hotel for 5 bands of ska, reggae, rocksteady and in places, punk rock.

Backy Skank are in the headline spot playing their mix of 2-tone ska and reggae. The fourth band to play during the night will be punk/ska band Chas H. Scally for one of their rarer city performances. We (The Signals) will be on before that doing the rocksteady/skinhead reggae thing, while before us are punk/reggae act Steppin' Razor (great cover of Chase the Devil) and first up are a band called The Gays. This band includes a couple of members from now defunct band The Lyrical Madmen. Get down nice and early to see what sort of sound they are throwing out, I sure will be


[ Click here to read more ]
65
Vote
   


So I have finally started doing something with all the footage I have from gigs in Sydney. It took me a while to get it up, but I have put my first video on youtube.

The track was recorded at the 2004 Sydney Skabq @ the Harp Hotel in Tempe. Melbourne band Jimmy Spliff and the Weedkillers (H-Block 101) are doing the Keith and Tex song Draw Your Brakes aka Stop That Train. No longer together, it was the only time the H-Block 101 side-project ever played in Sydney under that name. A little bit of history really


[ Click here to read more ]
83
Vote
   


Legends of ska movie trailer

January 10th 2007 05:57
This youtube video got me pretty excited. It is the trailer for a movie soon to be released based on two gigs a few years back in Toronto with one of the best ska and reggae lineups you are ever likely to see. Add to this heaps of interviews with close to what must be 30 other Jamaican music greats and you have what will possibly be the most thorough piece of film documenting JA music ever. Check it out.

They won't let you embed the film, but check it out over one youtube


[ Click here to read more ]
69
Vote
   


MATURE CONTENT
   


Reggae, rocksteady and ska vocal groups are my main love, and The Pioneers are definitely up there as far as my favourite of these JA vocal groups go. I was ecstatic then, to come across this Pioneers video where they performed Easy Come, Easy Go. It's from 1970 and by then they had to moved to England. You can see why, the crowd loved them. Not a small venue either, showing how successful these guys really were. The synchronised dancing of these guys is fantastic and the clothes! This is what the reggae is all about. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I have.


[ Click here to read more ]
62
Vote
   


The Currency - Melbourne folk

January 5th 2007 05:16
So it isn’t exactly reggae, but I have to mention this awesome band from Melbourne known as The Currency. While I was down there over New Years Eve I caught them at the Espy and they impressed me no end. They play a great Aussie styled folk-punk ala Flogging Molly (USA)/Mutiny/SC Trash. It’s energetic, it’s tight and it has a great sound with mandolin and fiddle in there, as it should do. They played in front of a pretty full Gershwin Room at the Espy and went down a storm.

I got chatting to one of the members, and the good news is they are playing Sydney this month. Add to that the fact we (The Signals) are opening for them and it makes me a very happy man


[ Click here to read more ]
65
Vote
   


It's definitely the summer of reggae in Sydney at the moment and to open the new year we see the return of the great Dynamite nights. This one is on Saturday January 6th @ the Brighton Up Bar on Oxford St in Surry Hills. Captain Franco and Count Doyle will be on the wheels of steel playing some great reggae, ska, soul, funk and dub. All the good stuff.

This month's starts at 930 pm and will no doubt go until the wee hours of the morning. They are launching the Studio One, Groups album, so you may well get yourself a copy if you get there and have a dance


[ Click here to read more ]
63
Vote
   


A look back at 2006

January 3rd 2007 05:52
2006 was an interesting year for reggae and ska, particularly in Sydney. The early part of the year was very quiet and until Neville Staple, then The Beat and finally The Strange Tenants, there really was very little on in terms of what I wanted to go to. 45 RPM was a new club that was much enjoyed, but at once a month it just wasn’t enough.

Luckily though, it did pick up. One of the highlights for me was supporting The Beat and playing to roughly 500 people as first support. Another was of course The Skorcher Weekender, which culminated in the sold out harbour cruise with our friends Complete Madness and the Ska Vendors from Melbourne


[ Click here to read more ]
66
Vote
   


A reggae new years eve

January 2nd 2007 07:35
I was lucky enough to head down to Melbourne (from Sydney) for New Years Eve to DJ "A Night at the Hop". The venue was The British Crown and saw a select number gather for a night of reggae, ska, soul and mod.

Although I think Sydney has just as strong a scene in terms of punters heading to these sort of nights (perhaps even stronger) in Melbourne there is an excellent turnout of people, many as young as sixteen and seventeen embracing the lifestyle too. So you get a good filtering of Fred Perrys, Ben Shermans and suits


[ Click here to read more ]
62
Vote
   


More Posts
1 Posts
8 Posts
14 Posts
283 Posts dating from April 2006
Email Subscription
Receive e-mail notifications of new posts on this blog:
Moderated by Glen
Copyright © 2012 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]