| volume 3 * issue 10 * August 1999 |
this month's features: |
wailing news * new releases * wailers shorts wailers net * wailers survey * wailers reporter * back issues |
TAKING OFF WITH THE SKATALITES- It's been nearly 40 years since The Skatalites, the creators of ska music, worked with The Wailers, and while The Wailers no longer make music together, The Skatalites continue to do so as strong as ever. On July 22nd, we had the great privilege to witness The Skatalites live on stage in Boulder, Colorado. The band is now led by bassist Lloyd Brevett and includes original members Lloyd Knibbs on drums and Lester Sterling on alto sax, as well as Jamaican music great Cedric IM Brooks.
The night began with Colorado's finest ska band, Judge Roughneck, opening the show, performing their greatest hits from their debut album "Rude One's Money Making Scheme." as well as new material from their forthcoming "Skankin' Naked" album.
After a short break, the 7-piece Skatalites took the stage with Lloyd Brevett introducing the band, saying they were going to blast the crowd off in their musical space craft, and that's just what they did. It's amazing to think that these musicians were in on Jamaican music (including ska, rocksteady and reggae) from the very beginning and that after all these years, they still play their hearts out each and every night. Their setlist was comprised of some of their all-time classics, such as "Man In The Street," "Swing Easy," "El Pussy Cat," "Guns Of Navarone," "Rockfort Rock," "Eastern Standard Time" and their theme song "Freedom Sounds." On this night, The Skatalites played well past their contracted time, further showing their true love for the music and their fans. The solos were outstanding, occasionally seeping out such familiar tunes as "On Broadway" and "Pop Goes The Weasel."
It was a truly amazing night and hopefully everyone reading this will have the pleasure at least once in their life to see The Skatalites live in person. In the current time we live in, it's not uncommon to pay at least $30 for one concert ticket to see a group like the Melody Makers, while with The Skatalites for close to $10 you're not only paying for a band of virtouso musicians but also experiencing a part of Jamaican history - past and present.
THE MYSTICAL BUNNY TOUR- Get ready! Bunny Wailer is set to tour a handful of select cities in the United States, bringing his message of liberation, unity and forwarding the name of The Wailers, along with him.
There are seven dates so far, with the possibility of several more showing up. He's doing stops in California, Colorado, New York, and Louisiana as well as a few other cities, so be sure to follow the "1999 tour dates" link at the left to find out all of the latest dates.Bunny's shows in Washington D.C. and New York will also feature Toots & The Maytals and Luciano. If you're anywhere in the vicinity of any of Bunny Wailer's shows, it's best avised that you try to attend one.
If anyone is planning on attending any of these shows and would be willing to pass along a setlist or review (of any length) please get in touch with us, as we and many other readers of The Wailers News would greatly appreciate it. If we do receive any we'll certainly post them on the site.
JUNIOR MARVIN UPDATE- Mark Miller, Junior Marvin's manager, passed along some exciting information regarding Junior's recent tour dates in Europe. While in Belgium, Junior Marvin & Friends played in front of 6,000 people and the other dates were successful as well. Junior is slated for a September tour of the US and in all his free time he's been finishing up his first solo album, which is due out shortly.
For more information on Junior Marvin & Friends, visit the official site, which is due for a major update very soon, so keep watching it. If you are, or know of, a promoter or concert booker, please follow the contact information on the site to bring Junior to a town near you. If you're a fan and would like to see Junior Marvin & Friends live, pass along the contact information to your local clubs and promoters. Junior Marvin's talent as a singer/songwriter/guitarist deserves to be recognized and hopefully with his touring, new album and with his website, he'll gain the exposure he deserves.
I'LL TAKE BOB MARLEY FOR $200 PLEASE!-
It seems that there is a recent phenomenon with television game shows referring to reggae questions and especially those dealing with Bob Marley. On a recent episode of Comedy Central's "VS" game show, we witnessed a group of Rastafarian contestants competing against Capitalist contestants in a battle for what else but money. Half of the questions dealt with "Rastafarian" topics such as reggae music including Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, ganja and others. The Rastafarians ended up winning, but failed to correctly answer the final question regarding what group was the first to use the word reggae in a title of a song. The Rastafarians answered with The Skatalites, but the correct answer was Toots & The Maytals in "Do The Reggay."Yet another game show dealing with Bob Marley took place south of the Equator in Uruguay. Wailers/Bob Marley fan, Dr. Alvaro Gaynicotche, from Uruguay, who has helped us out with stories in the past, was actually a contestant on the "Antel y Martini Preguntan" quiz show on July 29th. He told us that he's waited six years to become a contestant and all of the questions he had to answer fell under the category "Bob Marley: Life and Discography."
Dr. Gaynicotche was asked and answerd correctly the first two questions on July 29th which won him a total of $500, with 10 more questions to follow in future episodes with a chance to win him $20,000! Alvaro is emphatic that the money doesn't matter, but the opportunity to spread Bob Marley's message is the true gift for him. He also told us that people are coming up to him and cheering him on and added that, "It made me happy that there was a lot of old people, that I think they don't know anything about Marley, reggae, etc. that now will be paying attention to his music and life!"
Congratulations to him and best of luck on future questions! If you can't pick up Uruguayan TV where you live, you can watch the entire episode every Thursday via RealAudio from the Teledoce website.
(return to this month's features)
"HIT ME WITH MUSIC - NEW RELEASES"- Another Bob Marley tribute album is scheduled for release in October on Beloved Records, entitled "Easy Skankin'." Thanks to Ras Adam Felleman for sending us the info about this release which will feature ska acts covering Bob Marley & The Wailers songs. Some of the bands paying tribute on this album include The Skatalites, Fishbone, The Pietasters, and Bim Skala Bim, with liner notes written by Rita Marley.
Following up on a story we did last month regarding the new Peter Tosh "Scrolls Of The Prophet" CD, more information was sent to us by fan David Maki. We havn't picked up the disc yet and David was able to send us a short review about the disc, including the point that "Mystery Babylon" is an updated version of Peter Tosh's "Babylon Queendom." This was the only unreleased track on this disc, but all tracks have been digitally remastered and the disc contains previously unpublished photos. The other two Peter Tosh re-releases, "Legalize It" and "Equal Rights" have full cover art along with some nice unpublished photographs and finally after all these years, some insight about the tracks is included, written by Roger Steffens.
(return to this month's features)
WAILERS SURVEY- The Wailers Survey is a brand new portion of this page, and will allow all readers of The Wailers News to respond to a monthly one question survey. Just read this month's question below and respond, that's all there is to it! Next month we'll have a new question with the results of this month's question.
(return to this month's features)
GOT THE NEWS FROM A WHISPERING TREE- Have you joined The Wailers Reporter yet? If not, you've already missed 30 e-mailings, packed full with reggae news, new reggae web pages, tour dates, and much more! But it's never too late to join, so fill in your name and e-mail address below to become one of an irie list of people! It's 100% free, and we won't give/sell/trade your name to anyone else!