Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Why isn't Jerry Dammers playing on The Specials' sell-out reunion tour next month?

Interesting stuff, both the Independent article and the Dammers blog.

The earlier Guardian Specials article to which he is responding is here

I'd be in the 'I want to hear all the old tunes' camp, but I do think Jerry Dammers is being criticised a little over harshly by some in this thread. Frinstance I think objecting to Simon Jordan's involvement is perfectly fair enough ;)

The times I saw him DJ he was playing fantastic tunes (mostly original ska from the old days), the best of those times was at the Redstar back in early 2007 I think. I spoke with him briefly, he didn't seem egotistical at all, then!

As for the reformed Specials, my main hope is that they will show up at Glastonbury, because we haven't been able to get tickets for the tour ....
 
Simon Jordan got them back together for his birthday do on a boat in the Thames a few years back and paid them shedloads of money for the event. Kid Creole and the Coconuts were the opening act so there's hope that they may reform too.
 
Am I right in thinking that Neville Staple is not involved in the reunion either?? :confused:

He wasn't very complementary of the project when his version of the Specials came to Swansea in January anyway! :D

(That gig was cheap and cheerful, and fun if you weren't too fussy or purist ;) :p )
 
William of Walworth said:
Am I right in thinking that Neville Staple is not involved in the reunion either?? :confused:

He wasn't very complementary of the project when his version of the Specials came to Swansea in January anyway! :D

(That gig was cheap and cheerful, and fun if you weren't too fussy or purist ;) :p )
Click to expand...

Nev's in for sure!
 
belboid said:
well, there's the fact that one of the main members isn't there.

And then there's reducing everything to a 'knees up' - Specials on 45


tho hopefully you'll get something better than that, and nankers description will be quite wrong.


(the Pistols reunion - that was just cabaret knees up n all)
Click to expand...

I go and watch Neville Staple often and it's anything but cabaret. The songs maintain energy and remain relevant and passionate...But he does also aim to give the audience a good time.

I don't doubt that the Specials reunion will be the same.

Through covering old ska classics they were already indulging in the past and giving the fans a knees up back in 79, and creating a party vibe was key to their original shows, so my hope is that this element remains.

You only have to watch 30 seconds of the Specials Rock goes to college to see that FUN was very much on the agenda and that Dancing was part of the event.

My view of Dammers as killjoy stems from the fact that even he seems to have forgotten that while politic may have been a motivator in his lyrics, pleasure and excitement was the driver behind the music, and he's got himself all knotted up about which musical direction the band should take when they've already got one. As much as you hear that 'In the Studio' is an underated classic, who actually ever plays it? If you're gonna play the Specials it's gonna be the two first albums, not the musically grown up 3rd one.

I want the fun and the dancing and the politics.....I don't want noodling versions of Gangsters and Concrete Jungle and a bloated 15 minute version of Ghost Town as seen in Victoria Park last summer. There is room for Jerry Dammers to do that and he is with the S-AKA-O. Good luck to him, I may even go and see it.

Whichever way it plays nostalgia will be a part of it all simply because there's gonna be a load of overweight 40+ blokes banging about in clothes they don't fit into anymore....but that's ok, I can cope with that because they tire quickly and then I can get down the front and bounce about in peace.

Once again...I would love to see JD involved, It's a rotten shame he is not, and it will not be the same without him, but that does not mean it will be shit.

Enjoy yourself it's later than you think!
 
While i would love to be back in the UK for the 2tone nostalgia fest....really i think....no Jerry, no Specials.
I see the re union for what it is....a good old knees up to the old tunes, and why not...but...i would love
to see the Specials reform and write new songs about what is occurring today. OK a lot of their stuff could
well be appropriate in today's political climate, but i would love to see the Specials writing new songs.
This tour is just a cash-in....and i understand why Jerry is pissed off about it.
 
fair play nanker, and I hope its grand. 'a good old knees up' (when they always used to be much more than that) just sounds a bit 'Friday Night, Saturday Morning'
 
belboid said:
fair play nanker, and I hope its grand. 'a good old knees up' (when they always used to be much more than that) just sounds a bit 'Friday Night, Saturday Morning'
Click to expand...

...and if it turns out to be so, I'll be first to report it here...

But, fuck, I hope it's not, I'm going 3 nights in a row!!!! :D
 
albionism said:
While i would love to be back in the UK for the 2tone nostalgia fest....really i think....no Jerry, no Specials.
I see the re union for what it is....a good old knees up to the old tunes, and why not...but...i would love
to see the Specials reform and write new songs about what is occurring today. OK a lot of their stuff could
well be appropriate in today's political climate, but i would love to see the Specials writing new songs.
This tour is just a cash-in....and i understand why Jerry is pissed off about it.
Click to expand...

Well they didn't make any money first time round.

...and who was holding the purse strings then? ;)
 
sod it, lets hope for the best and have a bloody good 'knees up' ;)

i'm all excited about it again now :cool:
 
Nanker knows the score :cool:

Rollem, thanks lovely. i've got others on the look too.... how badly did i balls that up?!! :rolleyes: :D :(
 
"I was anxious to preserve the status, political effectiveness and legacy of the band for the long term, including recording, rather than risk the diminishing returns of setting out as a flawed nostalgia act in small venues."

sounds fair enuf to me
 
belboid said:
"I was anxious to preserve the status, political effectiveness and legacy of the band for the long term, including recording, rather than risk the diminishing returns of setting out as a flawed nostalgia act in small venues."

sounds fair enuf to me
Click to expand...

They were flawed the first time around, they were nostalgic, they played small venues, their politics was not always clear, and certainly misunderstood by the skinheads who turned up at the shows.

Horace Painter's book gives a very sober, honest and non-judgemental insight in to the rise and fall of that band and it's well worth reading (even if he does come across a bit snobby at times).

JD's personality and behaviour is most often attributed to the band's original collapse and his recent take on history and current events highlight how little his controlling behaviour has changed in 30 years.

They were still fucking great.
 
Fedayn said:
No, you, like Dammers, seem unable to see the irony in what he was saying, but no surprise there.

Again you haven't a clkue, skinheads took their music and fashion from mixing with Jamaican rudies, and yet no-one would deny their British genesis. The same with 2Tone, it didn't happen elsewhere, why is that if it's not a British phenomena. It came from, a city in the Midlands undergoing massive change which was allied to the music that Dammers loved and that Golding and Staples grew up with. It's birthplace was and is Britain.
Click to expand...

I had my hair cropped skinhead in 1971, so I do have some clue.

The birthplace of both Neville Staple and Lynval Golding was and is Jamaica.

However, I will accept that 2-tone was a music genre created in England.
 
MC5 said:
I had my hair cropped skinhead in 1971, so I do have some clue.

The birthplace of both Neville Staple and Lynval Golding was and is Jamaica.

However, I will accept that 2-tone was a music genre created in England.
Click to expand...

I had my hair short in 1971 too. Cos I was born!

Dave and Ansell Collins - Double Barrel was number one in the hit parade and I was skanking out of the womb!
 
MC5 said:
I had my hair cropped skinhead in 1971, so I do have some clue.

The birthplace of both Neville Staple and Lynval Golding was and is Jamaica.

However, I will accept that 2-tone was a music genre created in England.
Click to expand...


Given I NEVER said Golding and Staple weren't born in Jamaica i'm at a loss as to your point. 2 Tone was and is a British phenomenon, just like skinhead. Doesn't mean it's inward looking though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

editor
Musicians and DJs who film themselves playing and then share it on social media
Replies
6
Views
476
blairsh
blairsh
Humberto
Willie Nelson isn't dead thread
Replies
0
Views
124
Humberto
Humberto
Orang Utan
Songs that fade out
Replies
21
Views
580
PTK
PTK
U
What exactly is 'music' and why does nobody ever seem to ask that question?
2
Replies
46
Views
1K
mojo pixy
mojo pixy
Humberto
A muslim just stopped me ruling the wafers
Replies
4
Views
295
Humberto
Humberto
Back
Top Bottom