Ska Boom - An American Ska & Reggae Podcast

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

I recently attended the three-day, Supernova International Ska Festival in Hampton, Virginia which featured 30 plus ska bands from all over world that was headlined by The Selecter. I was invited to be part of the festival’s very first literary tent which featured authors like Pauline Black and Daniel Rachel who have focused on writing about ska and 2 Tone
 
This week’s episode features musician and author Charles Benoit interviewing me about the genesis of writing "Soul Salvation" and some interesting stories and anecdotes about the band and some of my personal story that is woven throughout the book.

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available from DiWulf.com and from Amazon globally. 

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

This week’s episode is about the dueling solo albums that both Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger released during the time between their two stints in General Public in the 80s and then again in the 90s.

After the second General Public album "Hand To Mouth" failed to meet record company expectations, both Roger and Dave Wakeling dissolved their musical partnership in 1987.  Wakeling recorded and released his solo record "No Warning" and Roger decided to do the same with his record “Radical Depature”.
 
My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available from DiWulf.com and from Amazon globally. 

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

This week’s episode is about the vibrant musical partnership that grew between Ranking Roger and The Clash and later more specifically with Mick Jones who was a member of General Public briefly and Ranking Roger who was a member of Big Audio Dynamite.

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available from DiWulf.com and from Amazon globally. 

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

This week’s episode is all about Special Beat, the 2 Tone ska super group formed in the early 90s to tap into the growing popularity of ska in America.  The genesis of Special Beat was a one-off show by a band called The International Beat featuring Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger that electrified an audience of 10,000 ska crazy kids at an Earth Day celebration in Berkeley, CA in the Spring of 1990.  It's my opinion that the band was responsible for kicking off the explosion of 3rd wave American ska of the 90s.

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available from DiWulf.com and from Amazon globally. 

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

This week I’m changing gears to focus on how the band signed with Arista Records and how they were able to create their own boutique label Go Feet Records which released their albums and singles as well as those of several artists they signed directly to the label.

 Much of the detail from the behind-the-scenes machinations of how the band ended up signing and creating Go Feet comes from Malu Halasa’s band bio book “The Beat: Twist & Crawl” that was published in 1981.  

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available from DiWulf.com and from Amazon globally. 

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

This week I’m focusing on the band’s keyboardist David “Blockhead” Wright whose melodic contributions added so much to the songs on Special Beat Service and have been overlooked and under appreciated.    

I interviewed Wright for my book and his perspective was invaluable in giving me an insider’s view on the band and the songs on the album.  The audio from that interview is part of this episode.  

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available from DiWulf.com and from Amazon globally. 

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

I love the sound of horns but I really love the sound of the saxophone.  Indeed, if I had had more musical talent and technical skill my nickname might have been 'Marco On The Sax!'  I did take a few sax lessons in elementary school and dabbled again as a teen but sadly it was not meant to be.  However, I owe my love of all things saxophone to one man in particular -- Lionel Augustus Martin -- better known as Saxa!

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available for pre-sale from DiWulf.com and will be published on August 12th.

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

It's my humble opinion that the band's drummer Everett Morton may be one of the best drummers you’ve either never heard of or just don’t know a lot about. And it's always been my mission to change that.  Sadly he passed in late 2021 and has never received the credit he deserves. I think it's fair to say that the English Beat’s identifiable sound has much to do with his drumming style.  

 So what was Morton’s style? It was clearly reggae but initially it was reggae drums that mixed with David Steele’s punky bass lines. So in effect they along with John Bardburry and Horace Panter of The Specials created something completely new and fresh.  It was neither reggae nor punk but a brand-new sound: punky reggae

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available for pre-sale from DiWulf.com and will be published on August 12th.

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. 

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

The focus of this episode is on the origins of General Public, the post-English Beat band formed by original guitarist/vocalist Dave Wakeling and vocalist Ranking Roger.

General Public picked up almost seamlessly from where the English Beat had ended. Taking the approach that they'd started on Special Beat Service Wakeling, Ranking Roger and company wrote glossy new wave pop songs with hints of reggae who took to Wakeling and Ranking Roger like a new wave Hall & Oates. And their American label IRS Records hoped to capitalize on the pent up affection so many Americans had for the English Beat.  

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available for pre-sale from DiWulf.com and will be published on August 12th.

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, and news reporting.

Welcome back to the Ska Boom podcast!  This season is called Soul Salvation and its the companion to my new book “Soul Salvation – A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat."

Through the book and this podcast I’m telling the story of the Special Beat Service album which embodies both the brilliance and the bittersweet end of the English Beat whose songs served as a soundtrack for thousands of Gen Xers like me.  

The book and this podcast is my tribute to the band’s final, triumphant act – which initially was largely overlooked – and how their music and the love of a young woman changed me forever.

The focus of this episode is on the origins of the Fine Young Cannibals, the post-English Beat band formed by original guitarist Andy Cox and bassist David Steele with singer Roland Gift.

What many casual fans of the English Beat may not know is that Cox and Steele were the original creative engine of the band, at least across the first two albums. Wakeling referred to Steele as the “Mozart of the bass” and his unique and unorthodox approach to playing his instrument was responsible of many of the band’s most remarkable songs. So its no surprise that the Cox and Steele's combined efforts led to great success with their new project.

My new book Soul Salvation : A Gen X Love Letter To The English Beat is now available for pre-sale from DiWulf.com and will be published on August 12th.

The music clips included in this podcast fall under the “Fair Use Doctrine” as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, and news reporting.