GIG REVIEW: Neville Staple, Boiler Shop, Newcastle,
Saturday 15 October 2022
Is it really 40 years since The Specials topped the charts with Ghost Town, one of the most powerful No 1 singles ever?
This gig was part of a tour dubbed ‘40 Years of Ghost Town‘, so I guess it must be. Wow, that makes me feel old.
Like the majority of tonight’s audience, I can remember when the haunting song soundtracked the riots which scarred British cities in the summer of 1981.
Sadly, it’s lyrics and sentiment are as relevant today as they were then, with the country lurching into recession after a decade of Tory austerity, and the fat cats growing ever fatter. The most remarkable thing is there haven’t been more riots…
Maybe the disaffected youth have been listening to Neville Staple and his band – a tonic for any feelings of insurrection, which would make anyone want to dance, not riot.
Backed by a six-piece band, and with his wife Christine ‘Sugary’ Staple joining him on vocals, the self-appointed Original Rude Boy leads his band through a glorious set of ska and reggae classics.
Taking the stage slowly, he looks every day of his 77 years, but when he gets to the mic the years seem to fade away, and a broad grin breaks across his face at the rapturous reception he and the band are afforded.
There’s an even bigger cheer as he utters ‘Bernie Rhodes knows, don’t argue’ and they launch into their opening song, with enthusiastic skanking accompanying Gangsters from first note to last.
An exultant cover of The Slickers’ Johnny Too Bad raises excitement levels even higher, with Sugary leading the crowd in huge ‘whoa, ho ho ho’ choruses. Two songs in, and the audience are eating out of their hand.
Another Specials number, Little Bitch, is next, with no let-up for the older heads who might have fancied a breather. Specials songs feature heavily in tonight’s setlist: we get Do The Dog, Concrete Jungle and Nite Klub all greeted like the classics they are.
The Specials were fond of a cover of classic ska and reggae songs, and there’s room for a few of these too: Toots & The Maytals’ Pressure Drop and Monkey Man, Dandy Livingstone’s Message To You, Rudy and Prince Buster’s Too Hot all go down a storm.
There’s a nod to Neville’s post-Specials band Fun Boy Three with a reimagined Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum and The Farmyard Connection, while Sugary takes centre stage for her self-penned Original Rudegirl Sound, showing she’s much more than a cheerleader.
A huge audience singalong accompanies Ghost Town, the song we’re all here to celebrate (even it is a year late) and as we enter the closing run you realise what the founders of 2-Tone knew all along; that music should bring people together, not drive them apart into different tribes, and there’s certainly a feeling of unity here tonight.
Skinhead Symphony injects fresh life into tiring limbs as the skanking picks up pace again, and Neville and his tight-as-a-gnat’s-chuff band take us on a rollercoaster finale with the gentle Do Nothing, the lively Guns Of Navarone and feelgood closer You’re Wondering Now.
When they finally leave the stage to huge applause you know this is an occasion you’ve been privilieged to be part of, and immediately want to do it all over again.
A word, too, for the opening acts tonight. Opening proceedings are local band The Panic Report, who treat early arrivals to an enjoyable set of their own extremely danceable ska.
I’ve seen them before doing punk and reggae covers before, but it’s originals all the way here, and I’m so impressed I head to the merch stand to snap up a copy of their album Land Of Tribes.
Next up are a young band who have been making waves of their own in the last few years, Buster Shuffle. The Londoners have been building a following for about 15 years now, and although they’re a bit ‘Chas & Dave’ for some, they’re an ideal warm-up for the main event.
Their set seems to be cut short tonight, but with a new album of their own, Go Steady!, recently released, they do enough to suggest they’re ready to take the torch when the time inevitably comes for the scene’s elders to pass it on. Let’s hope it’s a while before that happens, as nights like this live long in the memory.
