Hop on your scooter for Midlands' biggest Mod and Ska weekender says The Birmingham Mail

Suited & Booted 2014 at Alvechurch FC to feature The Selecter, The Small Fakers, Badness, The Southmartins, DC Fontana, The Jam DRC, Tempting Rosie, Little Liam and The Coopers Samuel Rogers Band

Parkas ready! Baggy trousers ready! Boots ready! Scooters ready!

Suited & Booted 2014 kicks off on Saturday (May 24) at Alvechurch FC where the West Midlands’ largest independent musical event will have the twin goal of raising money for both Help For Heroes and Birmingham Autism.

The UK’s leading Mod and Ska weekender will be headlined on Sunday night by The Selecter bringing their 35th anniversary Too Much Pressure tour to a close.

Promoter Kris Gozra says: “We’ve already had 1,500 advance sales online with people coming from as far afield as the south east and Angus in Scotland.

“Who knows, if the weather is good we could even get up towards our capacity of 5,000.

“Both the Mod and Ska culture prevail in the West Midlands, which is home to more than 50 scooter clubs.

“The sight of several hundred vintage scooters coming up the road during one of the numerous scooter runs is a sight to behold – the region is literally the epicentre of UK Mod.

“Some have hundreds of members and host Mod and Northern Soul nights every week throughout the year.

“They also organise many charity events such as the recent March of the Mods.”

Kris says Ska history dates back to the 1960s and the Don Christie record shop – the UK’s first reggae, ska and blue beat importer on Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook.

“The scene was ignited with Two Tone, the last significant Midlands’ based musical movement,” he says.

“And it continues with club nights like Pressure Drop (Barcelona, Birmingham and Middlesbrough) and Scorcher.

“Both scenes have great colour and vibrancy and Suited & Booted 2014 will bring together the best of both Ska and Mod.”

The event features a mixture of national names including The Selecter, The Small Fakers, Badness, The Southmartins etc) as well as local acts DC Fontana, The Jam DRC, Tempting Rosie, Little Liam and The Coopers Samuel Rogers Band).

There will also be covers bands like The Iconics, Heavy Sol, Ordinary Affair and original artists The Universal and The Get Go.

DJ Sunflower will host the event and there will be food outlets on site as well as several bars and stalls including vintage clothes and records.

Accompanied children under 12 admitted free. An adult day pass is £20 or it’s £35 for the whole event which is being staged at Alvechurch FC, 53 Redditch Road, Alvechurch B48 7RS.

The stage has been built by Birmingham rehearsal studio Robannas and will be behind one goal, with fans given half the pitch.

The other half of the pitch has space for 150 tents, with farmer’s fields on standby nearby for more tents.

Tickets available on the door.

Mods, Rockers and Bank Holiday Mayhem on BBC 4 tomorrow at 9pm

Timeshift, Series 14 Episode 1 of 7

Duration: 1 hour

A trip back to the days when 'style wars' were just that - violent confrontations about the clothes you wore. Spring 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the bank holiday 'battles of the beaches', when hundreds of mods and rockers flocked to seaside resorts on scooters and motorbikes in search of thrills and spills.

Timeshift tells the story of how this led to violence, arrests and widespread concern about the state of British youth. But mods and rockers had more in common than was first obvious - they were the first generation of baby boomers to reach their teenage years at a time when greater prosperity and wider freedoms were transforming what it meant to be young.

You really got me! Timeless hits and magnetic stars - QUENTIN LETTS of the Mail Online is wowed by the quirky Kinks musical

Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre)

Verdict: Ray of sunshine

Rating: 5 Star Rating

After an indifferent year for new musical shows in London, here is a belter.

Hampstead Theatre, run by Sir Peter Hall’s son Edward, has come up with a Joe Penhall bio-musical about The Kinks.

Funny, stylish, well-performed, quirky — it has everything The Kinks had.

Younger readers (and maybe one or two ancients) will say: the who? To which the answer is, not The Who, silly, The Kinks!

Led by Ray Davies, they were the Sixties London group that came up with songs such as You Really Got Me, Waterloo Sunset, Lola and the closing, title song of this production, Sunny Afternoon.

When I moved to Kentucky in 1980, The Kinks were bigger than The Beatles. Yet for some reason — management rip-offs, a lack of nous, a refusal to compromise artistically — they were never as commercially successful as the Fab Four in the Sixties.

They also fell out with the trade unions in the U.S. Much of America, therefore, did not discover them until the late Seventies.

This show is far better than a mere tribute evening, though it includes lots of Kinks hits. It gives you a strong sense of period — some terrific short hemlines on the girls — yet also well-drawn characters that evolve with the band.

John Dagleish is exceptionally good in the central role. That is not to say that he is exceptionally like the real Ray Davies. His singing voice is not quite the same and he looks different. His achievement is to make us buy the idea of Davies as an unusual, brooding creator, the off-beat, stammering Muswell Hill lad who found he was best able to express himself on a guitar.

Mr Dagleish is tall with a long brow and a low head of curls. He cuts a peculiarly English figure and has stage magnetism which outweighs any vocal shortcomings he might have.

George Maguire is suitably manic as Ray’s brother and bandmate Dave. Ned Derrington plays shy bass guitarist Pete, and Adam Sopp wears an heroically bad wig to play drummer Mick. A live band at the back of the stage helps the cast perform the songs. Mr Sopp is ace with the sticks, it has to be said.

We follow the boys from the brink of their discovery in 1964 through various travails for the next 15 years or so. In the first half, the stage backdrop is covered in amplifiers — it is like being in a vast recording studio. Then comes their first visit to America and the back wall is covered in the Stars and Stripes. I almost wrote that the acting is much better than it needs to be, but that perhaps says it all about many recent tribute shows.

One reason this evening works so well is that writer Penhall takes care to slow things down, insert quips and spend time on Ray’s marriage to Rasa (Lillie Flynn). A transatlantic telephone-call love duet between them is a lovely moment.

The pride of Ray’s father (Philip Bird) in his sons is  also touchingly done. We  see agents ripping off the band terribly. Dominic Tighe and Tam Williams are perfectly cast as the band’s original, genial, English-toff representatives. Less savoury fixers follow. Eventually, the English gents decently resign from managing the band. Cue an acapella version of Days.

I sloped off just as the auditorium’s numerous 60-year-olds were starting to dance to Lola. What a great show.

Kinks frontman Ray Davies on his band's infamous US ban

Legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies was interviewed by Tom Dunne on Thursday, in advance of his appearance at the Dublin Writers Festival next week.

At the National Concert Hall on Monday, Davies will be giving a special talk in which he explores his difficult relationship with the United States. With the Kinks in the ‘60s Davies played a major role in igniting the so-called ‘British Invasion’ with hits such as ‘You Really Got Me’. However, the group was banned from touring the US for 4 years due to their on stage antics. Many years later, in 2004, he was shot by a mugger in New Orleans. These experiences have informed his new book, Americana: the Kinks, the Road and the Perfect Riff.

During the interview Tom asked Davies if American culture had been an influence on the music of the Kinks. “Well it was originally, because of R ‘n’ B music, Blues, Cajun music, country music...Americana became a quest because we were a band cut off in our prime without fulfilling our potential. It became more of a cause than a music style,” he explained.

What effect did the American ban have on the group’s career?

“It was a big pot of honey…an opportunity to take our careers further and we had that denied to us,” he told Tom.

Davies gave a succinct explanation for the Kink’s American ban…”Bad luck, bad management, bad behaviour”.

“It made me root myself more in Europe, the folk tradition in Britain,” he told Tom.

Perhaps, on the flip side, if that ban hadn’t been implemented, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ would never have been written.

Ray Davies is in interview with Joseph O’Connor at the National Concert Hall, as part of the Dublin Writers Festival, on Monday, May 19th, at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased at www.nch.ie

Pinball wizards meet up again 40 years after ‘Tommy’

IT’S been 40 years since some of the world’s biggest stars descended on Portsmouth to film the musical Tommy.

Now, some of those who stood behind the likes of Elton John, Eric Clapton and The Who, have reunited at the Kings Theatre in Southsea.

About 30 extras on the film came together to share their stories with the cast of a stage production of Tommy, to be at the theatre next month.

And with them was the very pinball machine used in the Pinball Wizard sequence in the film.

CCADS theatre group director John-Paul McCrohon said he was thrilled to meet the extras, most of whom were children or teenagers when Tommy was filmed.

He said: ‘It was four decades ago but the people who were involved in the film have such vivid memories of it. To have the extras mingle with the cast of our show made for a very special evening.’

Locations used in Tommy included the Hilsea Lido, the Eastney beach huts and South Parade Pier, which partly burnt down during filming.

Melanie Wells, 55, of Waterlooville, was an extra in scenes filmed at the beach on Hayling Island.

She said stars including Oliver Reed signed a pair of jeans she was wearing.

‘He was quite cheeky. He said “bend over” and wrote “Olly was here” on my backside.’

Ms Wells said her mum later embroidered over the autographs so they would last, and she then made the jeans into a skirt.

She said Tommy inspired her to later do another film.

‘I walked around in sunglasses and a satin jacket for a while afterwards.

‘My friends nicknamed me “the film star” – it was all good fun.’

Joanna Hall, of Shedfield, was in her final year of school when she worked as an extra in scenes filmed inside the Kings.

Now 55, Ms Hall, said: ‘Being a teenager, it was exciting to be up close to stars like Elton John.

‘They smashed loads of instruments on stage that night to get the right shot, but that’s rock ‘n’ roll.’

Ms Hall said the filming inspired her to later sing in a rock band, which she did until she was 26.

The production of Tommy will be at the Kings on June 19 to June 21.

Mr McCrohon said visitors could read the extras’ stories at the Kings in an exhibition called Tommy Past and Present.

Former Oasis and Paul Weller guitarist forms new Welsh-language band

Guitarist Matthew Deighton talks about the Welsh band Pobl y Bryn he has formed with his wife and the refreshing musical change its brought

Going from Oasis and Paul Weller to a Welsh-speaking band is quite the career swerve but Matthew Deighton has no regrets.

The guitarist, who formed Welsh band Pobl y Bryn with his wife Clêr, is loving the change that performing in Welsh brings.

The band, who release a self-titled EP on June 30, will play at the International Eisteddfod in July.

Matt said: “I live nearby so I heard some good music coming over the hill last year.

“It’s exciting this year to be a part of it, and for such a young band.

“We’ve actually got a pretty tasty warm up lined up the day before (July 12). We’ll be performing a special show at Llanfyllin Workhouse 2014 festival.”

The four piece are supporting Status Quo on the closing night of the festival.

Matt explained: “They hand out a lot of awards and then we come on and get the crowd going for the Quo.

“We’ve only really been going since February so things are happening pretty fast with recording and performing.

“We’re setting up our own record label called Clên, it’s one of those Welsh only words, it means cool or kind.”

Matt is quick to point to his wife as inspiration.

He said: “Clêr is the key to the whole thing, she’s the songwriter, she keeps coming up with terrific songs.”

And Matt, who also performs backing vocals on a number of tracks, is slowly picking up the language.

Matt said: “I’m learning Welsh, it’s coming slow but singing it does help.

“The majority of the lyrics, I’m singing backing vocals, so I’m picking out words in Welsh already.

“It’s not easy but I’m really interested in it and I want it to be my second language.

“The rest of the band are all Wrexham-born but I’ve got Welsh on my mother’s side, they’re from Cardigan.”

And what’s it like going from Oasis to Pobl y Bryn?

“It’s a breath of Welsh fresh air, we moved here a while ago and we were doing a band for a while with this line up, just being English.  But one day Clêr came in with a Welsh song and it changed everything.”

Pobl Y Bryn perform at Llangollen Eisteddfod on July 13.

Specials songwriter Jerry Dammers wins Ivor Novello inspiration award

Legendary Specials songwriter Jerry Dammers has been named a music industry inspiration at a major awards ceremony.

The founding member of the Coventry 2-Tone group picked up the inspiration award at the 59th Ivor Novello Awards in London.

It came three decades after his song, Nelson Mandela, stormed the charts calling for the release of the anti-apartheid campaigner.

Dammers scored a top 10 hit with the track performed by Special AKA.

The song became an anti-apartheid anthem and Mr Mandela, who died in December, was eventually released in 1990.

The annual awards, known as The Ivors, are presented by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and are highly prized because they are voted for by songwriters and composers.

Dammers was presented with his award by former Clash guitarist Mick Jones, who described him as “the Tsar of Ska”.

Dammers - who no longer performs with the reformed Specials - revealed that he had almost missed the ceremony because his mother is ill, and dedicated his win to her.

Speaking backstage, the Ghost Town songwriter said he thought the idea of protest music was still thriving.

“I don’t think protest music necessarily has to have lyrics even,” he said. “You can have instrumental protest music, you know - jungle, dub-step, all of those are kind of abstract but still protest music like jazz was before.”

Paul Weller plays surprise encore at London show

Paul Weller thrilled fans with a surprise encore of 'In The City' at his London show on Wednesday night (21.05.14).

The Modfather performed at Dingwalls in Camden and after sending fans wild with a rendition of 'The Changingman' he left the stage, but as people started filing out of the intimate venue he rushed back on stage with his band to play the track, which was his former group The Jam's debut single.

Weller has performed three small shows across the UK capital this week to promote his upcoming greatest hits album 'More Modern Classsics', which features the highlights of the last 15 years of his solo career.

The 55-year-old musician's set was heavily comprised of songs from the LP, including 'Come On Let's Go', 'Wake Up The Nation' and 'The Attic' - from his most recent studio release, 2012's 'Sonik Kicks'.

Weller - backed by his usual band, including Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Cradock - didn't speak much to the crowd other thanking them for their applause between songs, preferring to power through his 90-minute show instead.

Weller did also play older solo hits and got a big cheer when he introduced 'Above The Clouds', taken from his self-titled 1992 debut solo album.

Speaking about 'More Modern Classics' - which is released on June 2 - Weller said: ''This is just another few chapters of my life's work, a journey which I would hope you would come with me on ... The music on this compilation is over 15 years but for me it feels like it could be five or six years. I'm rushing through, like, I can't slow it down. I'll cling on tight and see where it ends up.''

Q Magazine Gallery – ‘Mods: The New Religion’

Paul ‘Smiler’ Anderson’s recently publish book ‘Mods: The New Religion’ takes a look at the movement’s 1960s beginnings through a series of vintage and previously unpublished photos.

Q has a preview gallery from the book (URL below) which also features interviews and stories from those on the scene examining how mod influenced music, fashion and society.

http://www.qthemusic.com/2845/gallery-mods-the-new-religion/

The Purple Hearts to play special tribute performance on Tuesday to celebrate the life of Tony Class, Mod Legend

The Moment - tickets for their Leeds gig on 24th July on sale now!!!

 

https://www.lunatickets.co.uk/event_page.php?eventID=2884