[02
MAR 99] THE BLACKROOM
The
Story So Far...
... a series of interviews with past luminaries of the Coventry
music scene.
Charley Anderson
 In the mid seventies, Charley Anderson was an
unforgettable sight around Coventry, with his long flowing Marleyesque
rasta locks.
Back then he led his roots reggae band Hardtop 22. When this group
disbanded in 1979, Charley and other members of Hardtop 22, teamed up with Neol
Davies and myself to form The Selecter. Charley stayed with the
band for almost a year, before leaving due to musical differences.
During the intervening years, Charley has led an adventurous and varied life and is now
married and living in Rome with his wife and two year old son. Here’s what he’s
been up to:
[Despatched from Rome, 1 March 1999]
Q How long have The Skalatones been together?
A The Skalatones
were formed in 1995 in Landskrona, Sweden.
Q How
did you yourself, Charley, get involved?
A
It all happened after my trip to Africa / Southern Sudan. I
was involved with producing a film for the CBC Quebec and UNICEF for the 50th anniversary
of the United Nations. We were filming what effect the war was having on the people of the
region.
After returning to Kenya where I was living at the time I was so
moved by what I saw and heard that I began writing songs. I produced 11 songs on a
cassette and I was promoting the idea to try and raise some funds to help these people. I
was in Copenhagen where I met up with a student I met earlier in Africa, Camila, who ran
the field hospital in Lokichoggio, Kenya.
She is actually from Landskrona and
I went over there to the Landskrona Music Festival where I met the Silver Surfer, who had
done a cover version of Too Much Pressure back in 1980. I joined them on stage and
afterwards we went down to see a local band called The Skalatones. We
ended up jamming on stage with them too that night.
It was such a good feeling it
reminded me of when the Selecter was starting out, doing the small gigs where the crowd
was right in your face. The rest is history.
Q What
is the current line-up of the band?
A
The current lineup of The
Skalatones includes myself on vocals, Niklas Anderberg on bass, Suzy Sholtz on keyboards
and vocals, Micke Salonen on guitar and vocals, Michael Swegbrandt on guitar, Hansi
Josefsson on sax, Karl Johan on trombone, and Peter Ortberg on drums.
Q How
would you describe the music of The Skalatones?
A
The music of the Skalatones is a
mixture of ska, reggae, punk, rock and jazz. There is a wide variety of sounds to be found
on each CD due to all the influences of the individual band members.
Q You
contribute to the writing of the music on the album 'By Public Demand' and on the 5 track
CD, 'Mr Probation Officer'. The track 'Gold' uses the intro to the Selecter track 'Too
Much Pressure' ( NB that intro also being used on an old ska song, even before that!!).
Was this a conscious decision?
A
Including the intro on
'Gold' was a conscious decision because I was the one who brought it to the
Selecter’s 'Too Much Pressure'. Before that, I’d been listening to this intro
for years on 'Beat Down Babylon' by Lee Perry and the Upsetters. I felt the force of the
intro was right on 'Too Much Pressure' and I had the same feeling when I used it with
'Gold'; it means you have to stand up and listen straight away.
Q The
lyrics are also overtly political, is this a current theme in your writing?
A
As far as I’m concerned I‘ve always been
politically conscious in my writing. Over the last couple years I’ve written about a
lot of issues, some of them still unpublished, dealing with the war in Sudan, land mines,
children soldiers, human rights, the Guilford Four, etc.
Q '4
Of Them Outa Jail' is also a collaboration with you and The Skalatones, can you tell me a
bit about this song?
A
'Four of Them Out of Jail' was
written four months before the Guilford Four were released. I was touring Ireland at the
time and was following the story closely. Looking at the evidence at the time, I predicted
that they would be out within a few months, so I wrote the song to coincide with their
release.
I did the song and released it in Ireland
on cassette for Amnesty International. Only a few stations were interested in playing the
song. The national stations, RTE, did not play it until the day of their release. I was
driving along and I heard DJ Dave Fanning of RTE playing the song and he said "This
is apt, isn’t it?" and I thought "You bastard!". They could have
played it earlier.
Q This
is the 20th anniversary year since the start of 2-tone. What memories do you have of the
beginnings of 2 -tone? Perhaps you could include what you were doing prior to joining The
Selecter too.
A
One of my fondest memories is
teaching you how to dance to ska music in my kitchen. Do you remember, Pauline?! (laugh).
After I broke up Hard Top 22 to form the Selecter with Noel Davis I was still wondering if
we had made the right decision, because without you and Desmond the lineup still
didn’t feel convincing. From the time you two joined, I remember our first rehearsal,
and it was a magical feeling; I felt the Selecter was complete.
The best times were the tours with The
Specials and Madness, and when we reached our heights of having three bands on top of the
pops on the same night it was like a dream come true.
Before joining the Selecter I did DJ'ing
with El Paso and Duke Brown around the Midlands playing sound system competitions, mostly
with the big sound systems like Quaker City, Sound City, Mafia Tone, Hi Five, etc.
Then I went into voluntary youth work with
the Coventry City Council, starting Holyhead Youth Centre, for the young black kids who
had nowhere to go at the time. We received various grants from Cadbury’s Trust to
renovate the place and employ some of the youths to actually work there. Chris Christy was
involved with me from those days.
This period was also when I first met Neol
Davis. He did a stint with us in Chapter Five, which also included Desmond Brown and Gaps.
After Chapter Five broke up I went touring with a band called True Expression with Don
Myers. Then I joined the Century Steel Band which was called Tropical Harmony at the time.
We did a lot of shows up and down the UK.
Then I met Charley H and we formed Hard Top
22 with Chris Christy. Later we brought in Compton Amanor who was living in Leamington at
the time. We did a lot of Rock Against Racism gigs and supported all the just causes,
which meant we couldn’t get any commercial deals because people identified us as
being too political!
Q What
are you currently recording and is Lynval Golding producing the album?
A
The Skalatones are currently
recording their fourth CD, called Tune In, in Landskrona, Sweden. When I suggested that
Lynval produce it, everyone agreed wholeheartedly. The CD has twelve tracks and musically
it’s a lot different from the last album. Having Lynval along with us this time
around has added twenty years of experience, plus my twenty.
Lynval was able to get the best out of each
individual because he is so focused on details. Since the other CDs were produced
ourselves, it was really a luxury to have Lynval there, just pulling it all together while
we made the music. He, Micke and
Suzy worked really well together on the engineering/production side.
Q Do
you have plans for touring in Britain? In particular Coventry?
A
We have no plans for touring
Britain at the moment. It’s ironic, isn’t it, that in the place where the
so-called second phase of ska music started (Coventry), a lot of people don’t even
know who The Specials or the Selecter is. Ask them about 2 Tone and they might have an
idea.
After returning from Africa I was shocked
to find how big the ska music scene was in Scandinavia, Germany and the USA. They are even
playing ska music in Hawaii! So it’s like a world underground and it all started from
us from Coventry. Still, sometimes when I think about it I shake my head in disbelief. In Coventry, we may be doing
something for the millennium.
Q What
are your thoughts on the current state of ska music worldwide?
A
World ska is there. If you like
ska music there are hundreds of ska bands to choose from. So you have to weave your way
around to find the best. Currently the Skatalites still carry much respect. I was honoured
to meet Roland Alphonso, the sax player, here in Rome the middle of last year before he
died. He paid a tribute to all of us and the work we did to revive ska music in the
eighties.
You still have the ska culture and fashion,
and some people refuse to give it up because they believe in it and they love it. This
next phase of ska which they are calling the 'third wave' and which some bands are
currently doing in America is played so fast that I still need time to digest it!
But if the bands are making a living from
it and calling it ska then it’s good luck, because maybe the people coming to see
them will want to go further and know more about ska and go back to the roots, back to the sixties.
Q What
are your hopes for the future of The Skalatones
A
I just hope we won’t get lost in the jungle, because
it’s a BIG jungle!
Charley Anderson
Rome, 1 March 1999
Well that’s if from the blackroom for this week. My thanks to
Charley Anderson for taking the time to answer my questions.
E-mail me on blackroom@cwn.org.uk with your
opinions and questions, which will be answered on these pages.
Next week watch out for an interview with Dennis Lahoorier, the voice
of Dr Hook, as he likes to be known and a review of their gig at Bedworth
Civic Hall. Plus more local bands and the Selecter’s exploits in Paris,
for Behind The Scenes.
ALSO THIS WEEK: RICHARD
DREYFUSS THE SUPERHEROES
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