Posted on May 12, 2010 - by Editor

The Slackers + The Skints + Dirty Revolution

The Slackers © Imelda Michalczyk

Islington Academy
London, UK
Saturday 8th May 2010

A Saturday night in the capital and a healthy dose of ska and good times were planned with the line-up promising plenty of dancing and skanking good times. The frustrating prolonged London weekend public tube engineering works meant I arrived late for the show, but to be fair to both Dirty Revolution and the Skints I had seen them play probably a dozen times already and by all accounts they gave very good account of themselves on the night.

What hit me straight away as I entered the venue was how jam packed it was. The Slackers are perennial visitors to London and the venues and crowd sizes have changed on nearly every occasion, never under cooked or empty by any means, but the Islington Academy was heaving! That of course was a great sign and it was obvious that the UK support bands had more than done their part in setting the right mood and tone, limbs had been warmed up and so had the lungs and drinking arms it seemed!

In support of the New York based bands latest record “The Great Rocksteady Swindle”, things seem to be very, very good in the band

The Slackers © Imelda Michalczyk

camp. I personally have enjoyed the album and the increased input from all the band members have resulted in a more varied record. The band on the night are all dressed up with Marcus Geard on stand up bass looking spiffy in his bowler hat and suit and old school moustache, Saxophonist Dave Hillyard in trademark casual attire, Vic Ruggierio and Glen Pine (the ladies men my female friends tell me) in cool but casual dress up. Agent Jay on guitar and Ara on drums enjoy the show; dancing, playing and banging away the music which hasn’t lost its swaying cool reggae and ska fusion with a melting pot of influences from the opener ‘Keep It Simple’ to ‘Don’t You Want A Man’  and instant new favourite ‘Mr Tragedy’.

The vocal responsibilities have always been shared largely between Vic and Glen and songs like ‘Watch This’ and ‘Have The Time’ are true greats whilst Dave gets to take to the front with ‘The Fool’ (Dave Hillyard & The Rocksteady 7) which is a fun and well played out song on stage. The entire band just seems to be having carefree fun, so simple yet infectious.

The Slackers © Imelda Michalczyk

With requests coming thick and fast and considering the entire bands collective output from The Slackers and other projects would compile a song list numbering in the several hundred they do well to mix things up every night.  ‘Keep Him Away’, ’Cupid’ and greatly requested ‘Propaganda’ all go down well with the crowd; hips and shoulders moving, bumping and generating chemistry.

The band even manage to play an unrecorded song called ‘Strychnine’ by The Sonics but the flow is so easy going, yet energetic that every show seems like a privilege. I thought having seen them play just about every London show for seven years was good going till I met a kid at the merch stand who claims to have seen them play 73 times. Although its overkill, I bet every single night was fun, in some way memorable and different. I often fear the legacy of the band will only truly be realised once they are gone and not wishing that any time soon; I would encourage you to go enjoy the magical chemistry The Slackers live while you can.