NEWS
December
4: Shocks of Mighty! The Specials [30th Anniversary] UK reunion tour tickets fully sell in under 5 minutes. Cult! No Jerry though
15: Kevin Avery NEVER WILL CHANGE
November
4: R.I.P. Byron Lee, age 73
10: Prince Buster featured in SOUNDS November 3, 1979 alongside Dead Kennedys
October
6: 2Tone CEO has the front of Melody Maker back December 15, 1979
10: Cry Tough - R.I.P. Alton Ellis, age 70
28: Unicorn PHZA-31 and PHZA-74 arrive on the turntable! Only been seeking 'em 14 years
September
16: Laurel Aitken featured in SOUNDS July 26, 1980
26: ZOOT! #11 & #13 (89, 90) provide a splash of color, and detail the rise of King Hammond myth! An impeccable ska / street publication for the ages.
August
UNCUT July '98 issue (whole) because Jerry Dammers only gives interviews every 10 years. Also innards on Lee Marvin, The Prisoner w/ Patrick Magoohan, and the movie Wild Style at 15.
24 - Our local "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" grocery sponsors a reggae Fest at CMAC ampitheater featuring Maxi priest, Culture, UB40 and Matisyahu. WOW! IT'S DYNAMITE!!
July
TR-7849A The Maytals' "Johnny Cool Man" in Trojan company sleeve. First in UK 1971, a rework kicks off his latest Mike Cacia-produced CD, Light Your Light (2007)
Record Collector #182 – Oct 1994 talks not only of The Beatles' scandalous butcher sleeve, but Terry Hall, Paul Weller, and vintage Ska / Reggae 45s
Monday 7/7/08: Vintage Italian ska band Strange Fruit's "Over The Border" was recorded 13 Feb 1990 [Unicorn Records] in Rome. The opening lyrics are swiped from a T.S. Eliot poem about April lilacs. I only bring it up now because this was the final Jeopardy! answer tonight, Trebek!
June
Great new site up over at ROCKERSREVOLT.COM –– Also at some point GAZ got a redesign. –– The Notables (lost instrumental trad ska Pacific NW, 1997) had a track on Season 2 of The Sopranos. Ten years passed and they re-emerged with a Christmas 45 featuring Specials guitarist Lynval Golding. Who knew? –– MOJO #175 has an interview with Voice of the People himself, Prince Buster + a Paul Weller-selected compilation disc. –– Wild Style is now 25 years old and BOMBIT is quite the international documentary. –– JAVA JUNKIE? Dance Hall Crashers always did need a skinhead BBQ in the month of June: Starbucks now sells a 1981-lookin' ska sampler? "One Step Beyond" is along the same lines as their Trojan Reggae compilation they did last year. Except that there's very little ska / 2Tone proper on it.
May 2008
1st. Heavy Manners also is an Eighties (2Tone era) band from the midwest. SuperDutyToughWork is a blog comprised of graphic design projects, clothing, reggae/ Jamaican culture, graffiti, politricks, skinhead/ punk culture, and photography. No small wonder I'm interested. Check the Davida typeface at heavy-manners.com

<< This month's issue of MOJO [#174] features a large story on The Specials and 2Tone, a current interview with Dammers + a free CD of songs which inspired the band 1979 and contemporaries. Its USA version has grungy Neil Young on the cover 'cos we don't know who they are... Most bookstores will have it, and while you're there pick up Sir Horace Gentleman's hardcover autobiography if you 'aven't already. Has there ever even been a hardbound Ska text? What are you buying gas for?
"Walt Jabsco, I owe you" Nigel Ball

Adrian Frutiger turns 80 on May 24 this year. Among his many other crucial typefaces, he gave us the Univers.
Prince Buster turns 70 on May 28th.
April
5: I went to the new huge Record Archive location for about 15 minutes – and in under 60 seconds located a beat-up Dance Craze LP for $2. Tracklist varies significantly compared to UK press and my USA compact disc, due to Madness' subtraction + Specials' Too Much Too Young EP additives. Melting groceries in the car made me leave.
- TWO LLOYDS SOON COME! Rochester International Jazz Fest lineup announced and '60s Jamaican originators SKATALITES will perform in our neighborhood like Toots did last summer. Hear street corner classics at East & Alexander June 20, 7pm! IT'S FREE. (This same intersection had been adorned with our prophetic sticker around 1999-2K)
- 21: Helveticafilm screening at the Dryden Theatre. It is its second showing in under a year, and I already have the DVD, but wanna see the lecture by RIT guy Charles Bigelow.
March
24: Unicorn PHZA-30 arrives! Only been looking for it 15 years
read Gabe's website/ ska blog with freshest interviews & news at musicaloccupation.com
February
The Face Issue 1 Gerald Dankey 1980.
The Ska Men - Jamaica Ska Newest Dance Craze 196? on Diplomat label
5 January 2008 - Rude Awakening fanzine NYC SKA 10/87 issue.
Choice weblogs to check out include Marco On The Bass and The Duff Guide to Ska, both from the same NYC/NJ area.
December 2007 - Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten at Little Theatre. Clash DJ Mikey Dread is ill and suspiciously absent from it.
'Monkey Business' is a 1969 compilation Django recommended 8/23/97.
November - The Vulcans played sci-fi reggae inna UK 1972 and used a Bob Moog brand synthesizer. NME 1980.

We found a Solotype Catalog of 4,147 Display Typefaces specimen book

FANZINE FEVER '85!
October - The New Music is a softcover New Wave/ Punk/ Mod encyclopedia from Australia ©1982. Not unlike that English Beat Twist & Crawl biography by Malu Halasa.
30: Unicorn's elusive Super Ska compilation shows up.
5: This Is England opens at The Little Theatre, and runs a week. Do the reggae popcorn!
September - There's a new Pietasters CD out now on Indication Records. All Day sounds lo-fi like an AM radio!
Adults Only + Reggae for Kids compilations on Trojan Creole budget line conflict
August - THE LOCOMOTIVE "Rudi's in Love" 45 on Parlophone 1968? isn't even a ska/reggae track. But the Tropical Bird 7" by UTs is.
Alert Don Bruno! The Aggrolites perform the Ed Kassner Bunch (Pyramids) "Banana" on Yo Gabba Gabba Nickelodeon television.
A Backyardigans toy has a pirate SKA button you can press.
July - Set of 3 Bobby Jay & The Hawks records. "The Ska". "The Monkey" & "The Watusi". High in the mid-sixties. This is where The Scofflaws got the logotype for their 1994 "In Hi -Fi' cover, and Victor Rice's tshirt mood, fall '96.

July 28 - Aggrolites live in Buffalo 40 years to the day Trojan Records founded. The Specials entered the UK charts this day in 1979!
June 15 - 9pm Toots is Roots - East & Alexander stage – Good to catch up with many people!

May
1: Prince Buster – The Prophet (Lagoon France 1994) has been scarce for far too long – ever since Doc Awkward found it inna Borders cutout bin & Noah Wildman paid alot for it, both circa '96. This week brought 2 under $20, It's Pure Soul!
April
27, 2007 - Passage: Dave Cross, local musician & onetime contributor
14, 2007 - Lily Allen has one L. Polloi has 2
letterman amy winehouse rehab live 3/12/07 seems a bit too retro for usa
February 2007
6: World's oldest paper ditches newsprint
factoid

January 9, 2006 - Current site uploaded to URL... I hope I see you ten years later.

CNN anchor Jack Cafferty has been caught misusing the term. On December 9, 2004 he offered this retraction: "And hoi polloi refers to common people, not those rich morons that are evicting those two red-tail hawks from that Fifth Avenue co-op. I misused the word hoi polloi, and for that I humbly apologize."

So here you are. There's been a ton of ska/reggae goings on since last issue – deaths, births, and compilations. We're sifiting through it all to make it a bit more managable. thanks for waiting.

Also shirts are available again. $9 limited quantities


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