Friday
We kick off the festival with Rocksteady On The River, a matinee river cruise on the Thames in the company of
Christopher Ellis and
Bitty McLean. The Dixie Queen, a mockup paddle steamer as you might encounter in large numbers on the Mississippi River, is all but sold out and deejay
Lucky Cat Zoe livens things up with a selection of well-known and lesser known ska and rocksteady tunes.
We're immediately struck by the fact the festival mainly seemed to be attended by a more mature Caucasian audience, albeit from all corners of the world; something that would remain unchanged throughout the rest of the weekend.With the presence of
Johan Tackx (Reggae Geel) and
Youri Van Driessche (on Thursday featured on the program himself) there's even a nice Belgian delegation.
Around two o'clock we finally see some movement on stage. First up are
The Magic Touch, a Berlin based band, after their own set also backing Christopher and Bitty. We hear a cover of The Clash's 'Safe European Home' and recognize 'Teardrops' from the band's debut album 'Love & Hate & Politricks'. Musically the Germans can convince, but vocally front man
Käptn comes a bit short.
Forty-five minutes later it's Christoper Ellis' turn. Alton Ellis' youngest son pays tribute to his father with a fine selection of Alton's hits. We enjoy renditions of classics like 'Girl I've Got A Date', 'Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)', 'Let Him Try', 'Breakin Up' and more. The highlight of Christopher's set is his version of 'I'm Still In Love With You', for the occasion ending in Althea & Donna's 'Uptown Top Ranking'. Party time!
Still to follow are 'You Make Me So Very Happy' and 'Weeping Willow' after which Ellis leaves the stage. Fortunately there's still time for an encore in the form of the up-tempo ska tune 'Dance Crasher'.
For those among you wondering what else a river cruise on the/The Thames has to offer, we can add that you start by passing underneath the iconic Tower Bridge to continue along the docklands, London's former harbor area which has been transformed into a trendy residential and business area. Among other things we pass the Millennium Dome and Greenwich, where this same weekend the Tall Ships Regatta is taking place with various old sailing boats going up and down the river. However all that niceness can't prevent the swell of the boat from causing nausea.
Back to the music though, still the main reason for our trip to London. In the meantime Bitty McLean has appeared on stage and he jumps right in with 'In And Out Of Love/Taxi To Paris' from his 'The Taxi Sessions' album, swiftly followed by the up-tempo ska tune 'Your Heart'. With 'Cruising' Bitty captures the whole experience in one song, continuing with the great 'To Fall In Love' from 'On Bond Street', the now classic album he performed in its entirety at The Jazz Café the night before. This time he dedicates the song to veterans like The Pioneers, Prince Buster and Jackie Mittoo. You can recognize a true superstar by/from the fact he or she is still able to capture the high notes you hear on record live on stage as well, and that he's still on top of his game Bitty proves with a sublime rendition of 'Walk Away From Love' Then it's time for a cover version of Desmond Dekker's 'Fu Manchu' and Bitty also concludes in the same vein with his famous 'Dedicated To The One I Love', originally done by The "5" Royales, but also known from the versions by The Shirelles and The Mamas & The Papas.
Of course there's still time for an encore and once again Bitty opts for a cover, this time Justin Hinds' 'Here I Stand'. Feeling a bit nauseated, but at the same time entirely satisfied, we debark.
For us the day ends here, but for those longing for more there's still a Roy Ellis show or the Axis vs Sounds & Pressure all-valve sound system sound clash. Saturday here we come!
Saturday
Around noon we once again gather at the Tower Millennium Pier, this time for a Trojan Thames Cruise featuring lovers rock queen
Carroll Thompson bringing homage to the late Phyllis Dillon.
Today's event seems to have attracted slightly fewer patrons then yesterdays, but it makes for a more relaxed vibe aboard, so we don't really mind.
As soon as the band gets on stage, we recognize the first notes of 'Perfidia', undoubtedly Phyllis Dillon's most well-known hit. Carroll declares herself a longtime fan of the singer and has even completed a tribute album full of Dillon-covers.
The show continues with 'Picture On The Wall', 'Stay Away' and 'Love The One You're With', the latter of course originally recorded by Stephen Stills, but also famous from the version recorded by The Isley Brothers. 'Why Did You Leave Me' is a song Phyllis recorded together with Alton Ellis, and before delving into 'Rocking Time', Carroll quickly inquires how we are coping with the rocking of the boat. We still get 'The Love A Woman Should Give', 'Boys And Girls Reggae', ending in a great dub version, and then it's time for an old-fashioned break.
When Thompson reappears on stage she tells us that during the intermission she got the request to do a rendition of her own 'Hopelessly In Love', apparently to accompany a wedding proposal on board the Dixie Queen!
'Midnight Confessions', the next song, is one of Thompson's personal favorites from Phyllis Dillon's catalogue, and for ska tune 'Tulips And Heather', originally recorded in combination with Boris Gardiner, Carroll delves into Dillon's early years. Highlight in the set is 'On The Right Track' and after 'Living In Love (One Life To Live)' the singer once again leaves the stage. Even though we've already docked again, apparently we're still entitled to an encore in the form of 'Eddie Oh Baby', Dillon's answer to Eric Donaldson's 'Cherry Oh Baby'.
For the next event, Trojan Reggae Chartbusters, we need to be in an entirely different area of London, but before heading to the Islington Assembly Hall, we first take the time to eat. As far as yours truly is concerned, you haven't been to London without having tried and Indian curry at least once and in Islington Massala Zone comes highly recommended.
When we arrive at the Assembly Hall, a concert hall from the nineteen thirties, the party is already in full swing. We seem to have missed opening act
Mighty Cosmics, but quickly realize we wouldn't have minded skipping the set of French band
65 Mines Street, performing a mix of ska, rock and even a hint of disco, either.
MC and deejay for the evening is
Dapper Dan: half pirate, half town crier, only in the UK! We've really come to the Assembly Hall to see some true veterans perform and first up is
Owen Gray, maybe a bit lesser known with the general public, but with a career spanning nearly six (!) decades! The band is a hotchpotch of musicians from different countries and bands - we spot Soothsayers trumpeter
Robin Hopcraft, Basque Dub Foundation bass player
Iñaki, guitarist
Stephen 'Marley' Wright and drummer
Barry Prince (Twinkle Brothers, Misty In Roots...) - and opens with an instrumental version of the Take Five riddim.
In all honesty we have to admit not being all too familiar with Owen's repertoire either, and the first song we recognize is 'Patricia', written as an homage to his wife and back in the day also the first single to be released on Chris Blackwell's now famous Island Records label. Gray still mentored Millie Small for a while and also recorded 'Millie Girl', an ode to the 'My Boy Lollipop' singer. We're still offered 'Where Were You On My Wedding Day', followed by 'On The Beach', a song about Sir Coxsone's Downbeat that went down in music history as being the first ever "special". Gray ends his set with the great roots tune 'Natty Bongo' and then it's
Dave & Ansel Collins turn.
The duo opens with 'Just My Imagination', a cover of the hit by The Temptations, and 'Too Proud To Beg' was also originally done by that same Motown band. With 'Monkey Spanner' Dave and Ansel provide a first highlight, but then Dave leaves the stage and Ansel takes over. He first hits us with a version of Prince Buster's 'My Heart Is Gone', followed by a truly unflattering version of Jimmy Cliff's 'The Harder They Come'. Ansel would better stay away from that one in future! With 'Sunday, Monday' he still presents us one of his most recent productions, but then Dave Barker reappears on stage and everyone knows it's time for the big guns. As expected we're still offered the great 'Shocks Of Mighty' and the inevitable but superb 'Double Barrel'. And then it's time for the duo to make room for the headliners of the evening:
The Pioneers!
As soon as
Jackie Robinson and
George Dekker hit the stage, we notice the show has switched into higher gear. What follows is a score of Pioneers hits like: 'Let Your Yeah Be Yeah', 'Starvation', 'Time Hard' and 'Give A Little, Take A Little', the cover of 'Papa Was a Rolling Stones' - there are those Temptations again - all performed with the same flair and with as an absolute highlight of course Pioneers super hit 'Longshot Kick The Bucket'.
As an encore we're still offered the somewhat similar sounding 'Jackpot', but this didn't add much to the overall experience.
For us our first edition of the London International Ska Festival has come to an end - next year the festival will be celebrating its 30th jubilee year - but we've intensely enjoyed the experience and can't praise organizer and driving force
Sean Flowerdew enough. Top event featuring top entertainment at top locations!
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