I've just finished reading Horace Panter's book Ska'd For Life. The subtitle is 'A Personal Journey With The Specials', and a bloody good read it is too. It gives a great insight into how it felt to be part of one of the greatest bands of all time; the band that led the 2 Tone revolution - the best thing to happen to British music since The Beatles split & stopped inflicting their pretentious pap pop on the world.
Ok, I know I'm biased. I also know some folks will think I'm blaspheming by slagging off the Beatles. I'm forever hearing & reading how influential they were, how important they were, how revolutionary they were and so on, and on, and on ad infinitum. I can conceded all those things but the fact is I just don't like them. No need for me to justify that; music is subjective - get over it!
Sorry, I digress. Back to The Specials & Mr Panter's fine book. As well as his take on the 'bigger picture' of the band's all-too-brief career, there's some cracking little anecdotes. My favourite has to be him & The Beat's Dave Steele swapping places to mime their way through performances of Do Nothing & Too Nice To Talk To on Top of the Pops. I was going to copy out the text from the book & put it here but I've just read the copyright bit at the front & thought better of it - I'd hate to be sued by a Special! Anyway, grab a copy of the book if you fancy a decent read & here's the clips from TOTP with the Horace & Dave Cultural Exchange Scheme in full effect!
Footnote: Horace Panter is now an artist. Now I'm a complete Luddite when it comes to paintings & art but I really like his paintings. Check out the Horace Panter Art website. You can also follow @horacepanterart on Twitter.
Nice one Rich, first time I've read your blog (but won't be the last :))....ironic then that Sir Horace later became a semi-permanent fixture behind Dave/Roger in General Public...
ReplyDeleteCheers for the comment Graham. Very kind of you.
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