While bopping around like a loon to The Beat in a ballroom at Tramore Skafest last Friday, it was easy to forget that the music, which is such fun to dance to, has a serious lineage and often a deep significance.
Ska was born in the late 1950s, when Jamaican musicians tried to turn their hand to r’n’b and failed wonderfully. Their familiarity with traditional mento saw them putting the emphasis of the down beat in the wrong place – a happy accident that made the uptempo music jump and crowds of dancehall patrons respond in kind.
The dancehalls were hubs of social activity and massive crowds gathered to skank to the records spun by DJs/recording engineers/ producers/sound system operators, such as Coxsone Dodd, Prince Buster and regular visitor to Irish festivals Lee "Scratch" Perry. Legend has it that there was a particularly hot summer in Kingston when frenetic ska was too much to take for over-heated late- night revellers, so a new approach had to be taken to keep the floors full. The new choons had a slower groove but similar emphasis, and the associated dance was called The Reggay. Another Irish festival regular, Toots Hibbard, was first to cash in on the name change in 1968 when he releaed Do the Reggay with The Maytals.
In the late 1970s, ska enjoyed a revival in the UK, having infiltrated the alien culture through the luggage of Jamaican immigrants and their children. The second wave fused together the original rhythms and brass lines with a sharper punk ethos that lyrically reflected a combination of economic recession and racial tension.
The ska revival peaked in 1981 when The Specials' Ghost Town parked itself at No 1 in the UK charts for three weeks. The song told of disaffected youth wandering through dystopian streetscapes; in reality, on streets all around Britain violent riots driven by inner-city deprivation and racial tension erupted into vicious confrontation.
It's hard to imagine record sales, fashion, lyrical content and socio- economic realities ever repeating such an impassioned alignment, but who knows? One Direction to release the Fiscal Turpitude Twist as their next single?
BLACK AND WHITE
Jerry Dammers from The Specials set up the 2 Tone label, represented by simple black-and-white checkered imagery and a cartoon of a dapper rudeboy, based on a picture of Wailers guitarist and unicycle enthusiast Peter Tosh. The ethos of the 2 Tone movement was based on racial integration during tough times, and this was reflected in the music, attitude and personnel of bands who were signed to the label: The Specials, The Beat, The Selecter and Madness.
The influence from Kingston and 2 Tone can still be felt on the Irish festival trail. Lee "Scratch" Perry played Electric Picnic last year and Forbidden Fruit this year. Toots and the Maytals have played more Irish fields than Christy Moore. Madness play DayTripper in June, The Specials played Live at the Marquee last year, and The Beat were here at Skafest last week. Relics that should be condemned to Larry's Golden Hour are popping up not just as a nostalgic fix, but also for consumption by the bespectacled, deck-shoed carefully tousled slim slow sliders.
Wrapping something worthwhile in an enjoyable package is a tactic also found on the Irish festival circuit. Clonakilty Random Acts of Kindness Festival and Belly Bang in Clonmel make a welcome return this year, and they’re both all about upping the good vibes. First Fortnight and Haiti Fest have already done their thing, but you can be sure Knockanstockan and even Booleigh Ska Festival in Kildare will keep the flag flying.
I don’t think I’ll ever know what defines an event as being a “real” festival, but being fun and a celebration while also managing to achieve something worthwhile has to count for something. It’s not all Buckfast and disco biscuits you know.
Safe travels, don't die.
