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Morecambe Ska Fest Diary.

Back in June I travelled up to Morecambe for the three day ska fest and er, well this is what happened!

For Andy from UK ska band the Riffs opinion of the Festival click here.

Friday 16/6/00.

After changing trains at Manchester and Lancaster, finally four hours after setting off I arrived at Morecambe.
Not many people around, I only saw about 20 people
Who looked like they were going to the fest early on. Its typical a festival for mainly under 40's is held in a holiday resort for the elderly - how punk is that! (At least Ian Taylor and Joe Behan felt at home!)

Everyone who's attending stands out like a sore thumb anyway before going into the dome I spoke to a couple of American ska fans who've come over from the States (well they would've being American?!!) just to see some bands they don't often get to see, plus they don't have any 3 day festivals in the US only 1 dayers.

Anyway on the way down to the dome to see Capdown open, I find out the guy dj-ing in the bar area is staying in the room next door. Get down to the venue just before 5pm it looks pretty small but the US fans said sat and sun had sold out.
The band on stage are not capdown but 4ft fingers who run through some punk/oi! Tunes of which some have a skank section. The crowd looks fairly small although at first it looks like there's a lot of people in the seats at the back, but at the end of the set for band with long fingers the lights come on and it appears not to be the case. That a: the band don't not have 4 foot fingers and b: there aren't many people in the seats.

17:30 Capdown come on and were pretty impressive, unfortunately no one is skanking up front but they knock out some explosive tunes and were better that at the King Prawn gig, even though they played less sax / ska tunes or there cover of Terrorgrouppe's ACAB.

18:15 The Chinkees come on and Mike Park throws himself around the stage, Miya picks at the bass, Greg pounds around on guitar and Steve bounces around behind the keys.
"You don't know", "hana" and "Asian Prodigy" are all pretty good as Mike fly's around the stage looking like he's in a wrestling bout with the invisible man. Luckily the band slow it down with "Human Race" before Mike

does himself an injury!
"Edumoya", "Justice" and "Japanese exchange student" are all equally good but the band sign off in style with Operation Ivy's "Bankshot" as more kids pile forward to skank along.
Bankshot, Hana and Asian prodigy are the highlights.

19:00  Link 80 are the dope shit! They storm on stage with there hardcore style and sprint through some tracks of their recent album "The struggle continues".
"Termination" rocks, loads better than the studio version. They also play a couple of new songs that are pretty hardcore explosive stuff.
The highlights are "Nowhere fast" and the finale "Verbal Kint" these two were wicked as the brass duo moss around through the set.

19:50 I missed the first Mu330 song, they were supposed to be the after show band, but both The Chinkees and Link 80 mentioned they were coming up, so I thought they'd be playing earlier. The set was quite short only around forty minutes.
"Johnny Dumbjokes", "Favourite show", "Rocket Fuel", "32 cents" and "San Francisco" were really good. Dan got the crowd signing on  "La".
Jerry then comes to the mic to talk about some wrestling coming to the Dome, the bushwackers are in it and Jerry talks about how the WWF told him to be harder and stronger,. Then Jerry rips of his top Hulk Hogan style and takes lead vocals on a cover of the Carpenters "close to you" its hard to decide whether the slow skanking cover is embarrassing or funny. "You stole our stuff" rocks and brings the band back to there best. The band end with "Hoosier love" which was absolutely brilliant and the highlight of the fest.

21:05 I think I see  Ian Taylor from Mad Not Mad just before Spunge come on, but I leave it until after the UK bands set to catch up with him. Spunge were fairly good but not brilliant. They play a few new tunes which are ok. There's also "Lyrical content", "ego", "No woman, no cry", "Roving eye", "ode to slimey bassless", do a cover of a sublime song then end with "kicking pigeons".
"lyrical content", "ego" and "roving eye" are the best tacks. Marley's cover of "No woman, no cry" isn't up too much and overall I was a bit disappointed with the band.

"Bolton Wanderers are crap" Ian looks round "no there not" and I now know it the editor of Mad Not Mad and he realises its me and then gives me the  bad news.
I knew the Busters weren't playing, but no Dr Ring Ding, Intensified, Mark foggo, 2-tone revue or Toasters. What's happened?
Well apparently some bands couldn't be bothered to turn up, has no-one heard of contracts?, the 2-tone revue was a joke, the agent led the festival organisers up the path about the people they'd got to play and Intensified had an injured member.

22:30 Met up with Ian and Lisa as well as Joe Behan (ska-patrol) and Leo Clayton, before The Selecter came on. The Selecter were good but not as good as a 2-Tone Revue and they didn't make up for the loss of the bands from the bill. Saturdays line up now looked depleted and as good as Sundays.

Anyway the Selecter knocked out the old fans favourites as well as a couple of new tunes and Dave Barker came on for the 2nd half of the set.
Pauline Black was on fine form for "Celebrate the bullet", "3 minute hero" and "Carrie go bring come".
"The Selecter" was up to its usual high standard and then Dave Barker came on for covers of "Double Barrel", "Monkey Spanner" as well as one or two of the new Dave Barker and Nick Welsh penned tunes. "Train to Skaville" was a skanking spectacular and after that Dave Barker departed leaving The Selecter to finish the set with  "on my radio". The only slight problem I can't remember the band playing "Too much pressure" or "Missing words".
Dave Barker really got the crowd going the charismatic vocalist worked everyone up to sing along and get on the dance floor.

00:30 There was a long break before Spunge and The selecter but it was an even longer gap before Ex Cathedra came on, but by this time most people had left for the night.
I didn't really catch much of Ex-Cathedra's set but they were mainly punk with a girl on sax. "truth in flight" was probably the highlight a more ska/punky number. But they didn't really sound like a Moon Ska band.
On the way out a sign was displayed saying The organisers were led up the path by the agent involved in the 2-Tone revue, Intensified had an injured member but the rest of the other bands couldn't be bothered to turn up.
Quite a few punters were disappointed with the 2-Tone revue falling through and were trying to demand some of their money back.

Overall the bands that played on Friday were good but it was overshadowed by the amount of bands pulling out. Also the big screen promised wasn't that big and was poor quality. There were only 2 record stalls selling mainly punk stuff. Only the Selecter and Spunge had any merchandise with them. Surely Pulped or the other bands could of set up stalls to sell stuff, I mean there was enough room!
The lack of people was also disappointing I reckon between 250 to 300 were there on Friday.

Saturday.

There was only one record stall set up for the 2nd day and the crowd was a similar size until later when Too Hot came on.
12:45 Sebestian Fry only got asked to play at Morecambe four days before the festival but were quite good. Punky/pop/ska from the 8 piece, with two girls one on sax and one on keys all the members were fairly young and dressed in black suits and ties.

13:40 Shootin Goon were quite impressive with blasting ska/punk the 7 piece from Wales had a few catchy skacore numbers and a couple of punk songs. "plain to see" was a cool song that incorporates ska an punk with a superman horn riff. The band finished with "YMCA" which surprisingly worked as it was fun and amusing rather than embarrassing.

14:35 Lightyear rocked! The derby crew were one of the highlights of the weekend and impressive set with lots of ska/punk and some of it punkier than the stuff on there split mini album with Evil Macaroni. They seem to be leaning more to Link 80 than Mu330. It was "spot check" and "old acquaintance" were brilliant although there was no "JSA" but "second to new one". Was good though.

15:40 Zen Baseball bat seemed to be more ska/pop/rock that hard ska/punk but at least it made a change, I only caught the end of there set so couldn't really remember or comment on whether they were good or not.

16:35 Too Hot got a good response and the third largest crowd of the festival so far after the selecter and spunge.
The band covered "Guns of Navarone", "Gangsters". But it was there own stuff "Its a shame" and the closer "Big Time" that were my personal highlights. Good fun 2-tone stuff.

17:35 Rough Kutz were OK. The Stoke band kept the crowd on the dance floor with covers of "Murder" by the Selecter and "rough Rider". "Gob Iron" and their finale which was a skinhead/ska/oi! Song similar to the skoidats punkier tunes, was quite good.

18:50 The Riffs entertained the crowd as the third consecutive 2-tone type band played mostly covers. "rat race" and a ska medley were ok. "Soul limbo" and a couple of their own tunes sounded like quite good. It was obvious that most people had come for the 2-Tones style bands as most of the ska/punk kids weren't on the dance floor. Although quite a lot of the ska/punk fans were actually in bands ie: Sebestian Fry, Uncle Bob, Shootin Goon and Lightyear.

There were still only around 300 in and about the arena. I didn't see Propagumbis because I was watching England Vs Germany in Euro 2000. I got back to see about half an hour of the Mistakes set, they had a couple of numbers which I wouldn't mind hearing again but ruined their set with too many covers.
Really there was no need for a 2-Tone revue as Too Hot / Riffs / Mistakes had covered most of the stuff. Mistakes did "concrete Jungle", "Little Bitch" and then did 2 back to back Beat covers.
 22:45 Thankfully the Hotknives kept it original. A lot of people had come to see the band and weren't disappointing as they showed there the best 2-tone style band currently in the UK. The 4 piece went down extremely well. "WLN" and "in my dreams" were really good and the band finished with "Brain and Mary" which went down a storm. Good stuff.

00:50 Bad Manners came on late after about an hour break and did about a 60 minute set. Most of the favourites were here. "Can-can", "Sally Brown", "this is ska", "special brew" and "fatty fatty" which they played twice. Also about 4 times they did the England medley of The Great escape / Tom Hark / Come on Eileen (renamed come on England). It was lucky England won. Although everyone (well the English) were in good spirits after the win. Buster and the boys went over the top and obviously had downed to many shandy's and it affected the bands performance especially Busters. "Walking in the sunshine" and "Just a felling" were alright but there was no "Skinhead girl" and the plug was pulled at 2am so they didn't get time for "lip up fatty". Although the fans and band protested it was really down to the band playing the England medley that caused the fans to miss out on one of B.M.'s best songs.
Overall Buster and the boys were disappointing and not as good as we've come to expect over the last few years. The performance was spoilt really by the bands pre set habits. That left The Hotknives and Lightyear as the main highlights of the day.

Sunday.

Silent Bob were added late to the bill which explained why they didn't play much ska. In fact even there ska songs only had a bit of skanking and sax. Mainly punk/Oi nothing really stood out by the Carlisle band, but it was a tough job opening on Sunday afternoon.

Rebelation were next up and were different to a lot of groups that had preceded them. With a male / female vocal line up. The girl also played the bongo's!
They knocked out some decent poppy ska with hints of Trad ska and soul. The Kings Lynn outfit could be worth checking out again.

The Splitters were the third band of the day and got a few people skanking. (including myself)   Kicking off with "Smugglers", you knew the band were on good form as ever as they knocked out "Guns of Navarone" and followed it with a couple of new tunes. "Crime time" was brilliant especially when it dropped into "Pressure drop". "Last bus to Barwell" was next up and was excellent a real treat. "Freeze up" was good as well. Pity they didn't play "power play" or the dubby "direct drive".
The set ended with a long version of "the girl with the golden gun" which was pretty good. Drew and Steve the brass duo who later backed up Laurel Aitken were on top
form and the whole band sounded good.

I missed nearly all of Citizen fish as I was interviewing the Splitters for Joe Behan's Ska Patrol radio show / zine.
Dins form the G-Men also popped up and he seemed to be enjoying himself although still couldn't give a date for the album out on North sea recordings!

I was a bit disappointed with complete Madness, without a drummer and a bass player they played Specials. Madness / Bad Manners covers to a backing tape - it got a lot of the crowd skankin but I felt it was unfair that a total covers group were higher up the bill than more original bands.
Too many crooks were a late pull out from the bill as the bands bus broke down and although they hoped to come on later they never made it up north.

I quite enjoyed the Trojans although I probably wouldn't buy any of there stuff, their take on ska/reggae with a bit of the traditional style and Gaelic flair they had some good tunes and the crowd seemed to be impressed with Gaz Mayall and the bands set.

So it was left to the Godfather of ska to end the first (and possibly the only) Ska Festival at Morecambe. Laurel Aitken united the ska/punksters and Skins on the dance floor with some rocksteady ska favourites to see out the night. Backed up by the Splitters brass duo they laid down some top tunes for all the Rudies and skins.
Early stuff like "Boogie in my bones" and favourites such as "Sally Brown" and "Skinhead" went down as well as a the Skatalites "confucious" and "Its too late" and "I love you" which all very good especially considering the age of ol' Laurel.
Anyway the set finished with the brilliant "Rudi Got Married" The 2000 festival finishing with one of the earliest ska hits by the man himself Laurel Aitken.

And Basically that was it. A few of us, Ian & Lisa Taylor, Leo, Joe Behan and Jim Neill spent the late hours debating the festivals merits and downsides before heading off home. Till next year, hopefully!

Top 10 performances.
1. MU330.  2. Laurel Aitken.
3. Splitters. 4. Lightyear.
5. Link 80.  6. Chinkees.
7. Capdown. 8. Hotknives.
9. Selecter.  10. Spunge.

Ten best songs.
1. Hoosier Love - MU330.
2. Verbal Kint - Link 80.
3. You stole our stuff - MU330.
4. Rudi got Married - Laurel Aitken.
5. Bankshot - Chinkees.
6.Spot check - Lightyear.
7. Last Bus To Barwell - Splitters.
8. YMCA - Shootin Goon.
9. Roving Eye - Spunge.
10. Big Time - Too Hot.
 

Morecambe - the downside.

1. Dr Ring Ding not playing
2. Intensified not making it.
3. The 2-Tone revue fiasco.
4. Jeffries fan Club not appearing.
5. Not enough merchandise available.
6. The turnout only 400 at max.
7. Bad Manners.

Unofficial Morecambe stats.
 There were around 400 people at the fest from as far away as USA, Australia and Germany.
 There was 29 hours of ska.
 25 bands appeared.
 95% of ska/punksters were actually in bands that appeared at the festival.
 It didn't rain for the festival, although it was indoors!
 8 of the bands scheduled to play didn't!