Tag: D’Ska Assassins

There was an assassination in Pewsey last night … a ska assassination; pick it up, pick it up, Pewsey!

Like buses, ska bands are around these backwaters, which put me in a dilemma. Safe in the knowledge those Killertones will skank up the Southgate in Devizes, I sought to head east to the vale of Pewsey where Eddie Prestidge’s Wiltshire Music Events hosted a new one on me, at the Bouverie Hall, south west’s own D’Ska Assassins.

Salisbury based Wiltshire Music Events have fast become renowned for putting on events of the highest quality, here they gave us CrownFest, a Devizes Corn Exchange sellout with The Marley Experience and countless pub gigs. In the spire city their Tunnel Rat studio is bringing the best out of upcoming artists, but they also love gigging out in the sticks!

The sum of these parts equates to a gig with my name all over it. You know, or should do by now, how much I love my ska. You’ve got to have eclectic tastes to do a thang like Devizine, but influenced by the pop of my childhood and discovering my dad’s old Bluebeat and Trojan records, my penchant for the offbeat remains paramount.

House-duo Illingworth kicked off the proceedings of this Motor Neurone Disease Association fundraiser, which though may sound unlikely, being mature skinheads mingled with Pewsey’s curious or retrospective aficionados, their unique brand of pop-rock classics mounted to a massive appreciation from the audience. End of the day, most skinheads are aware musical links between reggae and rock are close-knit, and hey, they just love music, period.

Therefore the warm up was complete and refined, John and Joylon did their thing exquisitely as ever, to encourage skinheads to dance to Dolly Parton is one thing, but they pulled great Bowie and Boomtown Rats covers out of their bag of tricks, and everyone loves a finale of Hey Jude no matter how much hair is on their heads.

It was a quick changeover for a seven-piece ska band, which backfired somewhat, as the engineering hadn’t the opportunity to soundcheck. I sighed as adjustments were quickly made, the enthusiasm of the band seemed to wane too, and on the grounds amateurish ska cover bands we get aplenty here, often murdering the sound I love, I feared this could go Pete Tong. They slammed straight into fifth gear with archetypal upbeat Bad Manners and Madness covers and the crowds were aptly enthused. But picky me felt it wasn’t the greatest of its kind I’ve bore witness to, fortunately I was proved wrong rather abruptly.

Seems the name D’Ska Assassins doesn’t include the assassination of the sound at all, and it felt like the band were merely warming up. All my fears were quashed, three or four songs in, like someone stuck a rocket up their butts. D’Ska Assassins suddenly came alive. Rock steadying the pace a smidgen, here’s my surprise; for a ska cover band to come booming out to such an upbeat intro is unusual, normally they build up and Madness and Bad Manners classics are savoured for a finale. Now concerned they’d played their trump cards too soon, despite a renovated faith D’Ska Assassins had something special; they proved me wrong a second time!

There’s always plenty of upbeat classics in a repertoire of Two-Tone, and D’Ska Assassins, after slowing the pace in the middle of the set, laid down those Specials and The Beat covers thick, fast and accomplished; the latter D’Ska Assassins frontman expressed their joy at supporting at the Cheese and Grain. It was a fairytale ending, with moonstomping in boots and braces, as the crowd didn’t really stop dancing throughout the proceedings. Equating to a brilliant and memorable night. D’Ska Assassins came, saw, and shone like proper job Bobby Dazzlers. 

All the typical elements of a decent ska cover band they pulled out of the hat, astutely handling stage banter, especially when the keyboardist nipped out for cigarette halfway through the set, else covered Ranking Roger’s vocal contribution to Stop! But the true magic was their ability to sustain the pace and enjoyment, slipping in a few original pieces, which is rare, and rarer still, sound at best with the slower reggae tunes. Other unusual elements to the D’Ska Assassins show compared to the archetypal Two-Tone cover bands was the strength of the brass with only one, rather sublime female trumpeter, and lead guitar solos akin to Junior Marvin accompanying Bob Marley and the Wailers.

They perfectly balanced all the elements they broke the moulds of, together with those you’d expect from a ska gig, covering those versed classics, encouraging audience participation and wearing Fred Perry shirts, and they produced a frenzied and highly entertaining trouble-free show at the rather welcoming community venue Bouverie Hall.

As for Wiltshire Music Events, you only need to stay tuned here as we’ll blow their trumpets for them, they’re going from strength to strength. Finalise carnival night in Devizes with a trip to the Corn Exchange where they’ll show off their link to Kinisha Morgan-Williams from Manchester, the finest Tina Turner tribute you’re ever likely to see.

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