This is their only real ska song that I know of besides their cover of Symarip's "Skinhead Girl".
I just saw that the YouTube channel UK PUNK DEMOS had posted this demo in 2022 and even though I'm a regular attendee of that blog I overlooked this one.
The YouTube channel I'm posting here disordertaf includes other tracks not on the demo that's on UK PUNK DEMOS including "Skinhead Girl".
They performed with Neville Staples and The Selecter and had offers to open for Bad Manners, The Beat, and The Skatalites. They might have actually opened for those bands but there's little to go on to know for sure.
The band played a mix of covers and originals. This 4-track recording demonstrates a bit of both.
The band was (in order on the photo):
Lee Shepherd - guitar
Steve Thorne - vocals
Giles Isaac - bass
Mark Robinson - drums
and the band even played with trumpet player Major Chris Willis from the band Too Hot but this recording has no horns.
This incredible post is thanks to Rikard who recently sent this to me. I haven't posted anything in the last couple of weeks due to an excessive work schedule but this was so good I had to find time to get back to the blog for a few minutes.
Thank you Rikard!
1 Rude Boys Bar
2 Gangsters
3 I can't Sleep
4 Liquid Dance
...
Male and female vocals sung in English and French.
1 Sally Brown
2 Les Milchiens
3 Destroy Fascism
4 Mister Pile
5 Riot
...
The song "Don't Let Me Down" is a Beatles cover and it's awesome.
1 Welcome
2 Midnight Train
3 Lost in Paradise
4 Rhythm of Your Body
5 Moonlight
6 Blue By You
7 Little Token
8 Cali Breeze
9 Good Times
10 Revolution
11 Don't Let Me Down
12 All the Girls
13 Dance with Me
...
It's rare that I can listen to a ska compilation all the way through without having to skip a track but this is one of those rarities. There are only nine songs here. There could have been 20 but then we might have had to skip a few. This way there is only the best songs from great bands with no filler.
In my opinion the song by Zwit is the top track.
Zwit has been playing since 1984 but it's really hard to find their music anywhere. I have a small collection of songs by them, most of which are live. If this band ever did any studio recordings please let me know. I would love to hear more of them.
1 Stenchtown - Sail On
2 Ska-D-Lite - Skaramanga
3 Skapiche?! - Ska D-H-D
4 De Groeten van Henk en Bep - Lone Ranger
5 Ollie Q. & The Deep Six - Waking Up Dead
6 Splendid - Straight Up
7 2nd Hand Sneakers - One Night Stand
8 Zwit - Lock You Up
9 Mensergerjen!et - Laat Maar
...
REPOSTED BY REQUEST
This is a re-post deluxe. I got a request to re-post the two demo tapes so, instead of just posting the two demo tapes, I also included a live recording and a collection of songs recorded at practice sessions that were never recorded in a studio.
...
They did have one other release that they put out in 1998 - a year before they put this out - and that release was a live recording that showed they were not an instrumental band. There were vocals in some songs. That recording can be heard HERE.
1 Mike the Reindeer
2 La Cocina
3 The Day the Catfish Died
4 El Cid
5 Ghengis Kkan
6 Tilingo Lingo
7 Dance of the Maniacal Fan Blades
8 Mike the Reindeer (alternate take)
9 untitled
...
(Posted by request)
1 Man on the Scene
2 The Upsetter
3 Jimmy Hate
4 Waiting Game
5 From Cairo with Love
6 Sally Brown
A - Hey Baby
B - Ice Cream
...
This was a ska band from Bavaria, Germany. Very little is known about them and the only reason I know they were from Bavaria is thanks to Burn Heart from In Search of the Ska.
This image has nothing to do with the band itself, just a sticker I found on eBay.
There are four tracks I'm assuming I must have gotten from MySpace many years ago but I don't remember exactly. Sadly the quality sucks but that's all I got. Here they are in incredible 52 kbps.
1 Gobwithchilli
2 Right Now Finish
3 Silency
4 Your Town
1 Go Out Anymore
2 Do the Dog
3 Qu'est-ce Qui ne Tourne pas Rond Chez Moi?
4 Give Her
5 Time Hard
6 Get Crazy
7 A Message to You Rudy
8 Cure the Redeem
Esperanza - Permanent Ska (2011)
1 Screwface
2 Be Brave
3 No Zion I
4 Pontiac Skank
5 The Lesson
6 Headliner
7 Talk About It
8 Mr. Rude
9 T3
10 Allergy
11 Troubled Lands
12 Where You Gonna Go?
1 Glimmer
2 2-Tone Ain't Dead
3 One Man Down
4 Between the Sheets
5 Forget It
6 Inevitable
7 Naysayers Delight
8 Sunday Morning
9 Always Gonna Wonder
10 All You Wanted
11 As Day Turns Into Night
12 Weirdo
1 Better Late Than Never
2 Welcome to the Shite Show
3 Waiting for Billie
4 Trouble
5 Jean
6 Nobody's Friend
7 PRW
8 Bored
9 G12
10 Safe
11 At Large
12 Skallabye
1 Summer Ska
2 Live Dabei
3 Nase Im Wind
4 Hardcore
5 Zieh ab
6 On ne Veut pas Arreter
7 Proberaum
8 Sandra
9 Babayaga
10 Rosen fĂŒr Dich
11 Sweet
Babayaga - Funky Drop (2010)
1 I am a Train
2 Mellow Mood
3 Funky Drop
4 Life Hustle
5 Mafia
6 You Better Go
7 Yesterday Night
8 Hippie
9 Sweet
10 Motherless Child
11 Dos Alemanes Muertos
12 Der Traurige Clown
13 Sommawaso
1 Night Owl
2 Being a Bum
3 Mad Man
4 Fool's Gold
5 Do it Again
6 Trouble
7 Two Two Tango
8 Batman
9 Reggae Got Soul
10 Red Headed Woman
11 High and Low
...
I'm pretty sure they had other recordings besides this and a 5-song demo tape from 1997 called "Rebel Music" (which I do not, and never have, had a copy of). but I'm not willing to bet money on it. There are a few live shows on YouTube:
Live at Bogart's Battle of the Bands - July 8th, 1997
Live at Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio - July 2nd, 1998
They were the headliners of their own "festival" 'Crookhamstock' in 1999
1 Cincinnati, Here We Come
2 Can't Get Enough
3 Fear of a Vegan Planet
4 Alan Greenspan
5 Poolside
6 Princess
7 Russians at the Rodeo
8 R. K. G.
9 Rebellion Alter Ska: Solar System Remix
10 Lactose Intolerant
11 Ace of Ska
12 My Butler is a Rude Boy
13 Rockfort Ska
14 Power Station
...
1 One Night Stand
2 Nica's Dream
3 I'd Rather Stay In
4 Youth
2nd Hand Sneakers was formed immediately after Son Of Blob broke up in 2003. This is possibly their only recording.
Let's take this back a bit. Son Of Blob was a Dutch ska band that formed in the mid 90s. They played De Melkweg in Amsterdam alongside bands like Catchup Squad, Venus Hill and De Hardheid and shared the stage with The Slackers, The Toasters and The Selecter.
The known Son Of Blob line-up was:
Skippy - vocals
Michiel Leeuwenburgh - bass
Maurice Bierhuizen - guitar
Kris van der Heyden - drums
Hessel van der Flier - keyboard
Jeroen Mullié - trombone, trumpet
Lodewijk Reijs - alto sax, baritone sax
Son Of Blob had a music video for their most well-known song Rode Fiets (Red Bicycle) but the drummer in the video was called Ron and he was one of the founding members of The Upsessions.
Some of you may remember a post I did in September 2023 about a blank cassette I had and I didn't know who the band was.
I don't know what happened to their iconic lead man Skippy but it seems like people were used to the original lineup with Skippy at the helm and Nina was a hard sell. I don't know for sure that's what the situation was but that's my observations as an American 20 years after the fact.
Nina was the vocalist for the demo tape as well as for their only full-length.
The band didn't break up after that, they just changed their name to 2nd Hand Sneakers with the intention of changing their sound to incorporate more mellow reggae sounds as well as aiming for a pop sound.
This post includes the 2nd Hand Sneakers demo as well as everything I have by Son Of Blob which is not complete.
I do not have their full length The Hippest Cats in Skaville (2001)
I also don't have their "Venus" 7"
Here's what I do have:
1 Rode Fiets
2 Lady Marianne
3 Mighty Spliff
4 Tweedle Kans
1 Rode Fiets
2 Make Me Feel
3 Penetration*
4 Fantast
Son Of Blob - Skagiddyboogiddy (1999)
1 Britishlessness
2 Er Uit
3 Mr. PC
4 A-Team
Also included is a live song called "Het Strand" (The Beach) which was recorded on the same night that the first demo tape was recorded but it was not included on the tape.
DOWNLOAD the three Son Of Blob recordings and the 2ndHand Sneakers tape
* The song Penetration is a cover of "Penetration" by the first American skinhead band The Pyramids.
They were skinheads before skinheads were a thing.
1 Skank it Up
2 The Snake
3 Tom Hark
