Sunday, July 26, 2015

Ex-Hole - Private Boyscout 7" (1980)


A - Private Boyscout

B - Flying Thing


Ex-Hole was a Belgian new wave band who released a few singles between 1978 and 1982 and one album called Only for the Fun in 1981. I don't know if this is their only ska-inspired song because I have never heard the album yet. Everything I have heard by them I have liked so I intend to collect all of their stuff but I think this is a great record so I had to post it without having much more to go on.


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Boss - When the Chips are Down and Rude Boys are Back in Town 7"s (1980)

A - When the Chips are Down
B - War, War, War




A - Rude Boys are Back in Town
B - Live Fast, Die Laughing

Classic UK ska with that great 2 Tone sound.


Thanks to Bruce for submitting both of these!


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Sunday, July 19, 2015

The Juniors - Do You Love Me/ 7" (1980)

Very rare UK record. The A-side is a ska cover of the 1962 Contours' classic. The B-side is an original slow punk-reggae song.

A - Do You Love Me

B - Babylon



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Bette Bright and the Illuminations [REPOST from May 2009]

Bette Bright is married to Suggs from Madness. She was formerly in a band called Deaf School before she teamed up with Glen Matlock of Sex Pistols and members of Clive Langer and the Boxes to form The Illuminations. Clive Langer produced Madness' early albums, and the Illuminations keyboardist Ben Barson is brother of Madness' keyboardist Mike Barson.



Bette was also sang for the Dutch post-punk/pop band Gruppo Sportivo and she appeared in The Great Rock and Roll Swindle as well as Madness' video for "One Better Day"





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Here are all 5 of her singles:



My Boyfriend's Back (1978)

A - My Boyfriend's Back

B - Hold on, I'm Coming



The Captain of Your Ship (1979)

A - The Captain of Your Ship

B - Those Greedy Eyes



Hello, I am Your Heart (1980)

A - Hello, I am Your Heart

B - All Girls Lie



Some Girls Have All the Luck (1981)

A - Some Girls Have All the Luck

B - Tender Touch



When You Were Mine (1981)

A - When You Were Mine

B - Soulful Dress





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"Rhythm Breaks the Ice" (1981) - her only album.



1 When You Were Mine

2 On a Night Like This

3 Hello, I Am Your Heart

4 All Girls Lie

5 Take What You Find

6 Talking Whispers

7 Thunder and Lightning

8 Shoorah Shoorah

9 Some Girls Have All the Luck

10 Tender Touch

11 Hold On



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Yeah, the 2 singles "Hello, I am Your Heart" and "Some Girls Have All the Luck"
are on the full-length - both A and B sides...same versions, but damnit, I'm a collector so I have the singles and therefore I feel more 'complete'. I trust you understand.

There is a bit of a ska influence in the later recordings, but she was not exactly a ska artist. Even still, her version of "Hold on, I'm Coming" is sexy and worth the listen.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Pave - Aye Aye Aye 7" (1980)

Pave Maijanen is a well known Finnish pop star with countless records released over the years. His song Ai Ai Ai was a pretty big hit and the record is not very hard to find - but this one is. This is the rare English version.

A - Aye Aye Aye

B - Black Mercedes -62

He has sang in English in the past. One album he put out with his band Pave's Mistakes called Pida Huolta   had 12 tracks and half were in English. The re-issue of that album had another ska song called Think What You Think. He did do a few other ska songs in Finnish including a cover of the Little Willie John song Fever (called Kuume) that was made famous by Peggy Lee.

Pave did record another one of his Finnish hits in English. It's called Yamma Yamma. The English version of Yamma Yamma isn't as hard to find as Aye Aye Aye and Yamma Yamma is not a ska song but I have included the Finnish and English versions in this download with every other song I mentioned in this post. In fact, Aye Aye Aye isn't really ska either. It's more ska-influenced but another Finnish pop star called Mona Carita covered it a couple years later and her version was more ska than this version so I included hers in this download as well. (Here's her version.)

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Sunday, July 5, 2015

Steaming Toward Oslo - Off the Hook 7" (1983)

I love this record but I have never been able to find myself a copy. Thankfully Bristolboy was able to provide us with sounds and scans.

A - Off the Hook
B - Rough Justice


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Cobalt - Summer D D 7" (1984)

A - Summer D D (Summer Dried Drain)

B - Big Boy


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The Notables - Quite Notable (1997) [REPOST]



These guys were from Seattle Washington. This is 13 tracks of pure instrumental ska in the style of the Skatalites.
 
1 Escobar
2 Knuckles
3 Teen Party
4 Who Knows
5 Rude Mood
6 Misfit
7 Godfather Ska
8 Palladin
9 Vital Organ
10 The Beachcomber
11 Perdido
12 Night Watch
13 Freak Shuffle



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