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Reggae - A daily blog

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Reggae - June 2007

Delving into the depths of Jamaica's musical history

June 26th 2007 07:36

I can't claim to have stumbled on this great blog, Vintage Boss, but it must receive exposure, and I am happy to give it. For the record, I discovered it while browsing the Chatty Mouth forum, which also comes highly recommended.

Vintage Boss is the blog of Colby Graham, a publisher out of Jamaica who is determined to ensure the history of Jamaican music doesn't disappear. His production of a regular magazine and DVDs has grown to include this new project.

He explores the likes of Patricia Chin, Randy Chin's wife as well as even lesser known talents, such as Alphanso Castro who, rather than being a musician, was and is known for the other Jamaican love of dancing.

For me, I was taken by the site because of the reference to a 1960s group I have recently come across called The Royals. I was very pleased to see The Royals evolved into a group called The Jays and they are still performing today!

Bookmark the Vintage Boss Blog today, as I have.

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Posted By: Glen - Category: Reviews

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SkaBQ this weekend

June 25th 2007 06:38

Well I'm counting down the days until I have 8 young blokes from Melbourne staying on my floor. They are the Beefeaters, and this coming weekend they will be playing two shows in Sydney with a bunch of bands designed to enhance your dancing and listening pleasure.

Friday 29th June @ the Sando (King St, Newtown)
The Elephant Gods The Beefeaters The Signals
Doors open 8pm. $8

Saturday 30th June @ the Harp (Princes Hwy, Tempe)
SKABQ
Backy Skank The Beefeaters The Signals Jed Temple and the
Communists The Andy Mifsud Experience (members of The Signals, Backy

Skank, Steppin' Razor, The Get Set)
BBQ from 3 pm. Bands from 5 pm. DJs throughout the evening.

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Posted By: Glen - Category: News

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You & Me on a Jamboree! Music blog

June 22nd 2007 04:57

This "blog" doesn't really need any more plugs. It is very popular, for the reason that it provides downloads of a huge amount of music. Whether or not you believe in the downloading of music, there is no doubt this is a celebration of early Jamaican music.

Most people who download from this site would also purchase music of the same genre, but if you just can't get enough JA music, more than your budget allows for, then this is a good place to go.

Some of the albums are pretty token and easily available, but others are a little harder to track down. There is predominantly ska, reggae and rocksteady, but you will also find some northern soul, calypso, dub, roots and calypso. For instance who would have guessed the great Robert Mitchum would have liked Calypso enough to have his own album (see below).

Visit You & Me on a Jamboree

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Posted By: Glen - Category: Reviews

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Moon Ska World and South Africa’s The Rudimentals

June 20th 2007 10:56

What was formerly called Moon Ska Europe, has now officially become Moon Ska World. They have a few of the same bands and a few new bands on their roster, including The Upsessions from The Netherlands and perhaps most topically, The Rudimentals, from South Africa.

While South Africa hasn’t always been known as being a big ska country, this band is absolutely huge! Check out the photos on the Moon Ska World website. They are playing to some really big crowds. It really shows how ska can penetrate every corner of the globe.

I would love to see them live, though I must admit I have no immediate plans to travel to South Africa.

Check out the little doco on them at youtube here

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Posted By: Glen - Category: Artists

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Review: Earth Scorchers – Various Artists

June 19th 2007 08:49

Earth Scorchers – Various Artists
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Posted By: Glen - Category: Reviews

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Universal to buy Sanctuary and therefore Trojan

June 18th 2007 12:15

Just browsing the Trojan website forum and there's a thread about an article telling of the imminent sale of Sanctuary music group to Universal. Sanctuary acquired the famous UK reggae label Trojan some time ago.

Read the full story here
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Posted By: Glen - Category: News

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Bob Dylan is a reggae fan?

June 15th 2007 05:30

For many it may not be that surprising, but I heard this afternoon something to suggest Bob Dylan liked reggae music. As I often do, I had ABC local radio on and Friday James Valentine (of The Models fame) has David Kilby from ABC Canberra on his show (and vice verca). Anyway, David Kilby has a huge record collection of a wide variety of music styles. Today's theme was the music Bob Dylan has in his collection and one of those songs was Dandy Livingstone's Susan Beware of the Devil. This is a great song from the man who gave us the hugely popular Rudy, A Message To You before the Specials got a hold of it.

An interesting little bit of trivia then. Dylan is in Australia soon, but I won't be going, nor attempting to find out whether what I heard on the ABC was true

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Posted By: Glen - Category: History

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Daily ska videos on Myspace

June 14th 2007 05:51

There is an interesting myspace project just begun, which flows from my recernt posts on youtube videos. Ska Vids is the name of the page and each day they feature 5 videos based on a country. I will be interested to see how long they can keep this up, but if they do, which depends on how many ska videos there are I suppose, then it will be a good way of following what is going on in world ska.

As an example, today is Spain, and features videos from the likes of the Pepperpots and Dr. Calypso. The Pepperpots video is particularly good - check out the three female vocalists' synchronised dance moves

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Posted By: Glen - Category: News

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Big weekend of Sydney ska and reggae with the Beefeaters

June 13th 2007 05:08

Not since last December have we had two big nights of ska in Sydney, but the last weekend of June will bring it back to the fore.

Melbourne band The Beefeaters are the feature act of the weekend. They are a young bunch of guys playing a set of 2-tone and Australian ska with more enthusiasm than any other band I've seen in some time. They bring the freshest approach to the great music in Australian ska and I am sure they will entertain Sydney folk, as they have done Melbourne crowds

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Posted By: Glen - Category: News

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The Moonhops - It's Alright and more youtube

June 8th 2007 07:30

Continuing on from yesterday's blog about youtube videos, I have a few more to offer you.

The first is one I have put up on Youtube, and is from February when we were in Melbourne. We were playing some gigs, but we also caught The Moonhops (and The Beefeaters) on a Sunday at a small back street pub called The Royal Exchange in North Melbourne

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Posted By: Glen - Category: Artists

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The perfect weather for ska and reggae videos

June 7th 2007 03:33

With the rain we're getting today in Sydney town I thought it would be fitting to watch a few videos. Ska and reggae are well represented on youtube, with clips and live footage from all over the world. You can easily find something new and exciting just by browsing around a little.

Laurel Aitken
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Posted By: Glen - Category: Reviews

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Take It or Leave It June

June 6th 2007 01:34

On the back of yesterday's amusing little post, I'll take the opportunity to let every know Take It or Leave It is on again this Saturday.

The venue is the Sly Fox on Enmore Rd and DJs will be spinning from 9 pm til 3 am. If you are keen however you can get down to the Sly for 6 buck cocktails between 6 and 9

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Posted By: Glen - Category: News

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Those Crazy Slovakians - a reggae coincidence?

June 5th 2007 06:12

I am not sure whether this is purely coincidence, but I had the flier below posted on the 45 RPM website. Notice that the night is called Night at the Hop and it is presented by a mob called Take It or Leave It.

Now I realise neither of these names are original when we (folk from Melbourne and us in Sydney) use them, they were pinched from the Derrick Morgan tune and the Madness song and film respectively, but it seems strange that the two ska, reggae and 2-tone nights that are running in Australia at the moment would be combined to create a new night in Druzba

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Posted By: Glen - Category: News

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Backy Skank, The Elephant Gods and Steppin' Razor coming up

June 4th 2007 08:16

Just when I was thinking there wasn't anything interesting coming up for a while (apart from the Skabq weekend of course), this little gig pops up that definitely caught my eye.

Backy Skank haven't played in a while, but they will be headlining this gig at Hermann's at Sydney Uni in just under a couple of weeks. Hopefully they will pull out some new tunes. Joining them will be newcomers The Elephant Gods. I say newcomers, but this big lineup are being drawn from a number of current and former Sydney bands. Listen to their garage sounds on their Myspace
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Posted By: Glen - Category: News

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