Bad Manners were the fun side of British Ska music. In some ways maybe their music and its impact was slightly over shadowed by bands such as Madness and The Specials, but they had a hugely successful chart career in the early 1980s. My favourite song by them has always been "Special Brew", and I remember buying this as a teenage school boy in picture disc format from HMV in Oxford Street. This was back in the days when record shops were king, and the very occasionally treat was to save up pocket money and head into London as this was long before HMV and Virgin Megastore had stores in every major town.
What other band could have had a hit with "Can Can" selling bucket loads of copies. Just great fun pop music, and maybe a lesson here for bands of today when the fun element seems to have gone from music...
Fortunately the band in its various guises always with Buster Bloodvessel at the helm have continued to tour over the years. I used to enjoy their Christmas gigs especially. They would play at my favourite late night drinking haunt in Reading, The After Dark Club, and my biggest claim to fame was having a pee with Buster in the toilet just before he went on stage. He said "Alright mate!"
that IS a claim to fame!!
ReplyDeleteOh yes I think it is too :)
ReplyDeleteThis is great.. I used to know Dougie years ago. My claim to fame is sharing a spliff with him outside the Brownswood Park Tavern in Stoke Newington. Also, tracking him down to a hotel in Dortmund in 1980 when I was working in Germany; he took me into the gig for free.....great bloke. That gig in Dortmund was the last time I ever saw him.
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