The desk’s one and only favourite has done it again. Hilarious interview with Lee Perry in yesterday’s Guardian.

Q: You’re in your 70s. What keeps you performing?

A: My wife needs money, and she has a lot of bills to get paid, and I will have to help her pay the bills. [...] …it’s all like machine, robot affair. Monster robots, yeah?

Interesting, but not yet released book by Paolo Hewitt, Mark Baxter and Martin Freeman: The A to Z of Mod. Via Modculture.

For some Mod means a way of life: London clubs and Lambrettas, cigarettes and speed. For others it’s clothes: trim suits, sunglasses and loafers. Combining style savvy with cultural anthropology, this guide to the many aspects of Mods takes an alphabetical approach to the most enduring of youth cults. Beginning with A bout de souffle and ending with Zoot Money, authors and Mod experts Paolo Hewitt and Mark Baxter touch on every facet of the fad. Entries such as Eel Pie Island, Otis Redding, Mary Quant, and Ready Steady Go give intriguing background information, history and facts, while colourful illustrations bring Mod style to life. Style hounds, pop music fans, and Anglophiles of all ages will be entertained and inspired by this book that proves that, while ‘mod’-ernism has gone through several phases, it’s never gone out of style.

The complete legendary documentary by Horace Ove about the Reggae festival in Wembley in 1970.
Read more…

Recently passed away Winston Riley is remembered in yesterday’s Jamaica Gleaner.

“When you work hard and there’s no respect, yuh feel it because you are human. You want to be recognised while you are still alive”.

Great article on the ska war in yesterday’s Jamaica Gleaner!

Derrick, obviously upset, warned Buster that if he released the song, he (Derrick) would compose and release one with the words “Buster while you were at sea, I was along with B (Blossom – his wife) and all your children have the mark of this blackhead Chineyman”. On hearing this, Buster relented. Both sides came to a settlement and the musical war ended.

das waren die zwei prägensten momente meiner noch jungen trad.-skin zeit. und diese führten dazu, daß ich fortan den deutschsprachigen „skinheads gegen rassismus“-aufnäher trug, den es damals nur exklusiv per katalog bei edition no-name zu bestellen gab. und ab diesem zeitpunkt wurde ich der offensivste verfechter des s.h.a.r.p.-gedankens in unserer region.
wir wurden nur zwei und das spricht bände.

An everyday normal skin bloggt über die eigene Szenevergangenheit, ihre Peinlichkeiten und die darob angestaute “gedankengefühlskotze” und würde sich über “lob, eigene peinlichkeiten, kommentare und massive 5-stellige geldgeschenke sehr freuen”. Ist hiermit von mir gelobt mit der Auflage, weiterzumachen.

After a horrible last year for him (he was both shot and stabbed within two months), Winston Riley has passed away on January 19th. Just like all those other murdered Reggae legends, he won’t be forgotten.

Kurt Riley told the Observer this morning that his father’s grieving relatives could not figure out a motive behind the attempts on his father’s life. “Unfortunately Daddy didn’t wake up so we could talk to him to find out if there was something he was not telling us. He was a straightforward man, who was allergic to hypocrisy,” he said.