And the videos keep on comin’! Here’s a video of English 2 Tone band Bad Manners at a June 2004 performance. Since forming in 1976, Buster Bloodvessel and his crew has done it all. Don’t their 4-piece horn section sound tight?
2009 marks somewhat of a British invasion of the East Coast as 2nd Wave British ska acts The English Beat and Bad Manners have announced their tour dates. Unfortunately, there are no midwest dates on the tour. Boston ska band Big D and the Kids Table will be joining the bands on some there February tour dates.
Check out the tour poster after the jump.
To many ska fans delight, Brandon Smith of Utah has created a new documentary, The Up Beat, which will premiere this Saturday in Salt Lake City. The documentary is more or less a straightforward history of ska music starting from its roots in Jamaican dance halls through the 2 Tone era in Britain. Smith has scored interviews with “Toots” Hibbert (The Maytals) and Buster Bloodvessel (Bad Manners) to provide a context of what these scenes were like and how ska music was spread to the United States. The documentary then focuses on the Utah ska scene, featuring bands like Swim Herschel Swim, Stretch Armstrong, and My Man Friday during the ska craze of the 1990′s. Also featured are interviews with Robert “Bucket” Hingley (The Toasters) and Dave Hillyard (The Slackers).
This looks like an interesting documentary piece and I hope it makes its way to the Midwest so that us MNSka kids can view it. I have posted the trailer after the jump.
