This is just a quick post because I didn't have time this week to do anything else. I haven't even started making a list of the things I'm getting rid of. I'm sorry. Stay tuned...
A - Life Could be Better
B - Life Could be Better (Instrumental)
Don't take this as fact but I think Joe Salvo was a blues/rock musician from the US who made this one-off new wave/reggae song in the UK.
I don't know anything more about it except that this song makes me happy. It sounds like it would be perfect playing over the credits at the end of an 80s movie. You can almost picture Emilio Estevez roller skating in shorts and striped socks into the sunset...
Hondo was a British punk/reggae band from Cambridge with more emphasis on the 'reggae' than on the 'punk'. The band was lead by Paul "Ching" Hue who is still active in music today. You might know him from THIS. He is currently in the Wya band.
Hondo - What Do We Want? 7'' (1981)
A - What Do We Want? (We Don't Want No War)
B - Jah-Jah's Children
After their first release they contributed the song "Party" to the "Honey for Tea" compilation which featured new wave, post punk, and rock bands from Cambridge.
I previously posted their 7" "Rico's Lament" but both of the songs on the single are on this EP - the same versions - so there's no need to repost the single again but I did include their unreleased single with this download.
I have a copy of this record but I cannot get a decent rip of it so the one posted here - the music and the cover scans - was contributed by Rikard.
The Fabulous Titans 12"
1 Rico's Lament
2 Hold Me
3 Don't Ever Leave Me
4 Johnny Rocker
5 Hold Me Dub (California Style)
The unreleased single:
A - I'm Lookin' for Love
B - I'm Lookin' for Dub
One of many bands called the Regulators. These guys were from Essex UK and they played punk/reggae and this is probably their only release.
This download is not my own rip but was respectfully stolen from Short Sharp Kick in the Teeth.
1 Westcliff Girls
2 Short and Curlies
3 Telephone Ringing
4 Officers & Gentlemen
This band was from London and I don't know if they released anything else aside from this cassette. I don't know what year this was released but I'm guessing early 90s.
There are 6 songs - three of which are covers, and three are originals.
1 Longshot Kickee Bucket
2 Tyrone
3 Who is That Speaker?
4 5446 (Was My Number)
5 Spanish Ska
6 Monkey Man
Beatles cover by this UK act (I don't know if this is a person or a band). I can't find anything else about this artist so I'm assuming this is their only release.
Rare LP by this California ska/reggae/calypso band. They are still active to this day but I don't know that they ever released anything else. The internet is stingy with the details.
1 Sing This Song
2 Dangerous
3 Looking Glass
4 Batucada
5 (I am) In the Mood
6 Paradise
7 No Exceptions
8 The Music Still There
1 Downward Spiral 2 Bastard Restart 3 One Hand 4 Spirit Of Resistance 5 Tiocfaidh Ar La 6 Chillin' 7 God's Man 8 Cop Cars 9 Tottenham Three
10 Tottenham Three (dub) DOWNLOAD
This is the first reggae album recorded and released in California.
I have posted before about California's first ska record but this is California's first reggae full length. The Shakers were the first American reggae band to be signed to a major record label - Warner-Elektra. This is the only thing the Shakers released - with the exception of the "Funny Girl" single with the b-side "Baby Come Back" which, as you know, is a cover of the Eddy Grant...I mean Equals hit.
Both of the songs on the single are on the album so this is all that they've recorded.
Members of the band later went on to form The Fabulous Titan's who released one single and an EP.
The single has been posted on Tone and Wave several years back (HERE) but I've never posted the EP yet. I have it and, if anybody gives a damn, I'll post it. Leave a comment.
1 Wonder Girl
2 Some Guys Have All the Luck
3 Easy Come, Easy Go
4 Missing You
5 Baby Come Back
6 Second Chance
7 Girl You Rock My Soul
8 Emergency Call
9 Funny Girl
10 There's Something About You
11 Feel Good All Over
"Girl You Rock My Soul" (a Rad Bryan cover - HERE's the original. It was later covered by Eddie Money on his 1980 album Playing for Keeps but it was titled Running Back. The guitar at the beginning shows that Eddie Money's cover was of the Shaker's version - not the original)
I put this record up for sale on eBay several times for $1.00 Buy It Now and nobody ever bought it. Your loss.
Also, I was wrong about California's first ska record. There was at least one other one that was recorded a few years before the Skyliters' record. Anyone know what it is? I'll give you some clues
* It was a b-side
*It had the word 'ska' in the title
*It was an instrumental
*The band is a well-known surf band
Jon commented:
"As far as I know the first band in California to release a "ska"
record was the Marketts, "Come See, Come Ska". If I recall my research
correctly that one came out at the tail end of the summer '64 ska craze,
August I think."
Jon is correct - over a decade before the Skyliters released "Bumpin Onn Down" the Marketts released their "Look for a Star" single with the b-side "Come See, Come Ska"
UK reggae/rock. As rare as this record is (500 pressed) it's not hard to find a copy. There's not really any information online about it except THIS.
It's a forum where somebody asked if anybody has ever made a record. Someone with the user name Harry Lime responded "One single in 1983 for The Applicators on DTA records, "You are the
One". Sold 500, spent the money on beer. We used to give kids cigarettes
to go in the record shops and ask for the record, then we used to go in
and sell them some and then bugger off!"
