I guess this an addendum to my last blog about two tone.


So I got to see the Specials in Leeds this may 24th.  It was definitely a trip.  I was sitting on a corner of the stage watching the band (minus Jerry Dammers).  They came on the stage suddenly.  John Bradbury did the opening drum fill of "Do the Dog" and they were off.  They were launched into it like it was 1979.  They seemed a little bit older but surprising well preserved.  They mostly played the first album and the first half of the 2nd album.  Plus a couple songs off their eps.


I got to say it was impressed.  I had seen some of the half reunions in the 90s and been underwhelmed.   This time they seemed like they had something to prove.
Hearing Terry Hall do "Friday Night Saturday Morning" made me think about being 16 yrs old again.  It made me think about nights driving around San Diego looking for booze and a party in the 1980s.

Their energy was profound.  It was like seeing the dance craze movie unfold in front of you.  All those songs.  "Too Much Too Young."  "It Doesnt Make it allright."  "Concrete Jungle."


Two tone had provided me with most of the anthems of my life when I was 15-17 yrs old. 


I was talking with Ara a couple of weeks afterwards and we were laughing how the different southern california youth cults of the 80s were centered around acting like we were living in London or Leeds or Birmingham or Coventry in the late 1970s/early 1980s.  The adherence to uniforms and the underground fanaticism of it all.   To be into anything "different" in California during the mid-late 80s was to be part of an underground network of mixtapes and samizat fanzines.

The Specials had been my heroes.  Running into Roddy on the stairs backstage.  I suddenly became tongue tied and spouted out some gibberish.  Probably scared the guy.

Lynval and Neville looked so happy on stage.  They had big shit eating grins as they chased each other around in circles.

Seeing the Specials made me think about all the other musicians I had idolized and met over the years.  The Beat, Bad Manners, The Skatalites, Illinois Jacquet, Ray Barretto, Joe Cuba, Glen Adams (the Upsetters), Cornell Campbell, and Fathead Newman.


At the hotel bar after the show, me and Glen tried again to talk to Roddy.  He wisely smiled and nodded but seemed more fixated on his drink than on talking too much.  We were probably heading towards incoherence anyways.

Its funny for me to see the Specials because part of me had written them off a while ago.  In the mid-late 80s, many of the members of the two tone acts had run as far away from two tone as they could.  Terry Hall had said he was 'embarrassed' by Message to you Rudi and said that the Colour Field was much more satisfying for him.  He also wondered whether two tone had made the racial situation in the UK better or worse.

They basically left the ska scene to develop on its own in the states.  It was only after the scene got some legs in the early 90s that bands like the Selecter, International Beat, and Special Beat began to try to do tours to capitalize on the nostalgia.


Maybe its that hurt 17 year old inside me who loved two tone and was surprised and then saddened that many of the creators loved it less than me. 


But y'know sometimes what people say in the press is a distortion of what they feel.  Interviews can be annoying.  I can only imagine how sick Terry Hall was of talking about 2 tone in 1986.  When people ask me about "moon records", something I only had slight involvement with, I want to gag myself.


And I understand how you want to focus on the new music that is much more exciting for you than the song you recorded 10 years ago and dont relate to as much.

I guess my 39 yr old musician self and my 16 yr old devoted 2 tone fan have to reconcile on that one.


I already mentioned in another blog what Roland and Tommy meant to me.  They were mentors in ways I cant even describe.  Everything I thought they could be and more.

 Let me write a little bit more about some other incidents and maybe this will help me figure some stuff out.


Some of my other heroes I got to meet. 


Illinois Jacquet.  I got to shake his hand on the side of the stage at one of the 'midsummer nights swing" series that he was playing with his big band.  I couldnt let go of it.  I told him, "Mr. Jacquet, I love your music" and almost started crying I was so excited to see him in person.  He said, "uh....thank you very much" and one of his handlers quickly separated us and hustled him off.


Ray Barretto.  I checked out a set of his band in a basement bar off of Union Square.  I called out for "soul drummers", his boogaloo classic from the late 60s.  He rolled his eyes.  Hehehe. I guess I didnt really meet him.


I got to see Joe Cuba play in Brooklyn at a small place called 200 5th ave.  He was playing mostly salsa stuff and not too much of the old boogaloo like "bang bang" and "el pito."  He was competing against the Knicks who were in the finals that year.  There were big tv sets and people were cheering everytime the knicks did well and ignoring the band.  Joe was drinking.  "How about those knickerbockers!" he slurred.  After the show, I told him he should play one of the Giant Step sponsored soul jazz shows at SOBS.  That a lot of people liked his music and would come. He looked at me like I was an idiot.  "Yeah right" he said.


I saw Fathead Newman just a couple of years ago at Smoke on the Upper West Side.  He was playing standards like "green dolphin street."  He seemed so mellow and gentle. Very unlike the depiction in the "ray" movies of a down on the heels scuffling drug fiend.


 This douchebag sitting next to me was a friend of the drummer who was doing an especially wanky job backing up Fathead.   The douchebag kept going..."yeah...check out the patterns he's doing on hi hat."  Im thinking to myself, has this motherfucking drummer or his idiot friend ever listened to a single fathead tune?  Do they know why Fathead is distinct from Dexter Gordon or Joe Henderson or any other jazz standards guy.  Fathead has amazing blues feeling.  He played with Ray Charles for fucks sake.  And "clever patterns" tend to undermine that.  He needs solid unpretentious groove first, cleverness second.


But Fathead was really nice. I talked to him for a minute and gave him one of my cds.  He just seemed happy to get some compliments and be on his way.  Happy to be there.


Happy to be there.  That has never been my strong suit.  hehehe.


I got to meet Rashied Ali, coltrane's last drummer, at a jam session in Harlem.  I got to play Afro Blue with him.  His playing was so supportive.  So welcoming.  He made me sound so much better than I am.  His playing was the musical version of a hug.


And dont we all need more hugs?


To come back to the Specials.  I got to meet Jerry Dammers in London.  He was djaying at an after hours that the Slackers were doing an impromtu session at.  It was a secret after show after we had done our main show. 


So we were playing and Jerry Dammers shambled up to the stage.  He sat down at my feet and looked up at me.  Literally, with drool forming on the side of his mouth.


He was like a ska zombie.


At the bar later, I told him,  "hey...I just want to thank you...cause two tone changed my life."  He turned to me and replied,  "do you know where the promoter is?"


So should I think less of my heroes when I find out that they are thinking about their paycheck and the catering?  Shit.  I guess that is what musicians usually think about.  Where's my money and where's my booze.  Where's dinner.  Oh...and do I have a show to do?  shit, I forgot.  No one reminded me.  hehehe.


They probably enjoy the shows too.  I know I do.  Being in the moment is a beautiful thing.  Making music on stage or on record is something that people cant take away from you.  You made your statement, you gotta live with it, and other people, they either like it or they dont.