This Is Ska Festival 2019

Of course everyone will find something for themselves. There’s a lot of bands you can easily catch live on many other occasions. Babylove & The Van Dangos, Yellow Umbrella, Johnny Reggae Rub Foundation, The Offenders, Distemper. Of this, let’s call it relatively easily available set, I guess I’m most interested in Masons Arms.  I’ve seen them live in Cologne and I liked it very much. They should have lots of fresh material right now due to new album released earlier this year. It looks like Dr. Ring Ding is also gonna perform on Saturday, althought you won’t find him anywhere on a poster other than being listed as a host.

Some diversion is introduced by Out Of Control Army from Mexico. As there’s a lot of things here telling me that I won’t necessary get to like their vocalist’s style, musically it sounds very good. I’ll gladly check out how it all works out live. If you like solid, fast ska with strong ska-punk influences, you should be satisfied.

I’ll also mention The Downsetters from UK. Their last year’s gig at Gdańsk Ska Jamboree left a very good impression on me and I’ll happily receive a portion of their original sound they call Skafusion or Mango Rock, this time in open air circumstances.

The Domingoes are actually quite a surprise. I honestly admit, that I haven’t heard this name before. After first vocal entrance in a randomly selected song, I’ve had no doubts whatsoever, who am I dealing with.  Obviously this is Angster from The Valkyrians. He’s accompanied by his band mates and members of another Finnish legend, The Capital Beat. Traditional ska and skinhead reggae – that’s what you can expect. It shoud be great.

If you’re hoping for a bit older sound, you can count on quite an overview of european 2tone-ish classics. The Hotknives played at This Is Ska so many times that I begin to suspect they simply live somewhere near Rosslau. No Sports are also not a surprise here, but if you want to see them you’ll have to arrive on Thursday. Dr. Rude from Mr. Review this time will sing with Los Placebos. You can treat the gig of Napoleon Solo as a certain variety. True, I’ haven’t been following them too closely, but I recall they’re playing rather rarely and mostly in Denmark. Great opportunity to check them out live. Los Fastidios’ performance might be quite interesting too. Despite strong ska influences these Italians are mostly famous as street punk veterans. For This Is Ska they’ve prepared a special set adequate to festival’s name. I feel it might be very entertaining.

Perhaps Jaya The Cat is not among my favourites, but I have to admit they are stars is this lineup not without a reason. Since more than twenty years they’ve kept on sharing their unique version of punky drunken reggae. This year they come back to Rosslau and I don’t have any doubts that fans of rough vocals and more rock attitude in Jamaican music will be satisfied.

There’s something for soul lovers too. You must have already heard about Dutchmen from The Originators. What you might have missed is that there’s been some changes in the band. During this concert season Renske De Boer is gonna be playing the main vocalist part. You can recognize her name from her other project called Mr. Wallace. Band promises to serve an explosive mix of northern soul, ska and rocksteady. I belive them when they say it’s gonna be great.

As with all that soul we’ve entered mod territory, I’ll add that on Saturday The Movement are gonna be playing on the small stage. This Danish trio are 100% mods who are going to serve you a strong dose of sounds inspired by The Who and The Jam. I’m strangely sure that no matter how hot it’s gonna be they’ll appear on stage wearing full suits.

We’ve already covered so many musicians, that it’s probably getting dark now. That means it’s time for the Jamaicans. I’ve seen Susan Cadogan last year at Freedom Sounds. You simply have to hear “Hurt So Good” live at least once in your life. For sure there’s gonna be a bunch of new songs. “The Girl Who Cried” and “Take Me Back” both released over last years are full of true hits. On this occasion I recommend you our interview with Susan. It should put you in an appropriate mood before the gig.

Roy Ellis or Mr. Symarip is not taking it easy and there are plenty occasions to see his shows, especially in Europe. Nevertheless it’s alway a fantastic experience. We all know his hits with “Skinhead Moonstomp” out front and it’s not a secret that this kind of songs bring greatest joy while sang out loud in front of the stage after few beers. Yeyeyeyeyeeee… in a short while.

I’ve been trying to hunt down Ken Boothe live for a very long time, so far without success. This time it will finally happen. All information I have leads to the conclusion that Mr. Rocksteady is in perfect shape. I expect nothing less than a top-notch show and I refuse to accept any dissapointment.

The Clarendonians’ gig bears the marks of a true sensation. This vocal duo responsible for countless hits from ska and rocksteady golden era doesn’t apper on stage too often. Even if only for them it’s worth to visit Rosslau this year. Personally I just can’t wait. Let’s hope they’ll live up to high expectations.

I think we can agree that this weekend in Rosslau looks delicious. It’s quite possible that almost full RudeMaker team is gonna be there. It will be a pleasure to meet you during the gigs and wherever around. See you soon.