Bangkok Post : Jamaica Conquers the World

WORLD Beat

It's not often we get to see and hear real music legends here in Thailand but on Saturday at the Smiley Fest Ska & Reggae International Music Festival, a whole galaxy of ska and reggae stars descended onto the beach at Ban Amphoe for a night of Caribbean music that I certainly won't forget for a long time.

Cuba meets Jamaica: Ska Cubano.

The festival was headlined by the pioneering Jamaican ska band The Skatalites and London-based Ska Cubano, with support from Prince Fatty's band featuring rocksteady veteran Little Roy and singer Winston Francis, UK's Babyhead and Korea's Windy City. Local favourites T-Bone led the home contingent that included Ga-Pi (an off-shoot from T-Bone), Skalaxy, Srirajah Rockers, The Superglasses Ska Ensemble, Teddy Ska Band and the Kai-Jo Brothers.

Musical Director Nakarin Teerapenun said that he had dreamed of bringing his favourite ska band to the kingdom, the Skatalites, when he saw them during T-Bone's stint at Glastonbury a few years ago; at the same time, he also made contact with Ska Cubano. He had to wait for last year's economic crisis to ease but with interest in the lively local ska scene building up, the time was right.

Winston Francis

At a press conference before the festival, the Skatalites' drummer Lloyd Knibb and saxophonist Lester Stirling explained in their lilting Jamaican accents how ska developed. "We used to play jazz tunes with a Rasta drummer and then Coxsone [producer at Studio One] asked us to record and we play blues, boogie woogie, then we heat up the beat ... Don Drummond [the late trombonist] wrote Eastern Standard Time and that became very popular," Stirling said. By now fans of this new music were calling him "Ska' Stirling". "The name ska came from the people," he added. "From the um cha um cha sound of the guitar." Later, he said that people wanted the rhythm slowed so rocksteady emerged and after that, with an even slower rhythm, came reggae. "I invented them all," said drummer Knibb.

Both men readily admitted that they had no idea the music would leave Jamaica and conquer the world. Both were very pleased to note that many countries now have reggae and ska bands, and they reckoned that there have been at least five waves of ska surging around the planet.

After what amounted to a seminar on Jamaican music, I headed off to the festival site, which featured the stage on the beach - palm trees on one side, the ocean on the other. Perfect from some tropical music. Flags in the Rasta colours of red, green and yellow dotted the beach, while vendors sold reggae paraphernalia and albums from the band. There was plenty of space at the front of the stage to dance or just to chill further down the beach and watch on monitors. Or take a dip. Skalaxy, Srirajah Rockers and Ga-Pi were the first bands on stage. Skalaxy were loud but I liked the classic era roots reggae of Srirajah Rockers and the more dub-oriented Ga-Pi which featured the excellent guest appearance of a khaen player.

Lloyd Knibb

Windy City, led by drummer and vocalist Akim, were the first international band on stage. Akim told me that there are only two active reggae bands in Korea and only a couple of reggae bars, so the band jumped at the chance to perform in Thailand. Their set was fun, and they played a hard-edged style that showed their roots in funk.

The Superglasses Ska Ensemble were up next and they should have been given an award for the best dressed horn section - they all looked the part and gave an enthusiastic performance that really went down well with the audience. I realised watching the band and the reaction of people dancing in front of the stage that it is the faster rhythms of ska that appeal to young Thais and not the slower, cooler rhythms of reggae.

Prince Fatty's band then performed a split set that included Winston Francis in the first part and Little Roy in the second. Francis, powered on by Fatty's band's fantastic drum and bass rhythm machine, ended his set with Bob Marley's Redemption Song which everyone sang along to, while Little Roy, after showing us all the coolest dance moves on the night, included a stirring version of his classic Tribal War.

Little Roy

The stage was then set for Ska Cubano. Cubano's showman and leader Natty Bo, surely the most sartorially elegant on the evening, began by saying: "In 1959 was the revolution in Cuba ... a little while later [there] was another revolution: ska ..." And the band blasted off into a new world where Cuba meets Jamaica. We all danced to Mambo Ska and a song about tequila, and the wonderful Istanbul from the band's last album. The band also introduced the bubbling rhythms of Columbian cumbia, which, as Natty explained to me later, always go down well with ska fans. Maybe we'll hear local bands trying out this funky style of music in the future.

Natty even got the audience to sing the Spanish chorus in Ay Caramba and by this time the whole place was going nuts. It was a wonderful set.

T-Bone kept the mood going with a set that featured local hits that the audience really enjoyed before the Skatalites took to the stage. Lloyd Knibb cracked his drumsticks and off they went, a well-oiled rhythm machine rolling through classic and timeless hits - the James Bond Theme and Guns of Navarone were my favourites. Another thrilling performance.

I could only manage half of Babyhead's very energetic set and missed both Teddy Ska and Kai-Jo Rockers as fatigue set in. I crawled back to the minivan to return to my hotel dead-tired but with a head full of great sounds.

This was one of the best music festivals I've been to in Thailand and I've seen a lot in 25 years: Great bands, good organisation and low-key security, plenty of food and beverages and lots of space to either dance with the crowd or to just lie on the beach and listen to the music. Let's hope the Smiley Fest becomes a permanent fixture on the international festival circuit.

This column can be contacted at: clewley.john@gmail.com

Kid having a good time at Smiley Fest.

Bob Marley T-shirts among the Smiley Fest’s stalls.

The Superglasses Ska Ensemble

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