In the shameless self-promotion department, Rude Boy George, the other band I'm in, has just put out a preview video below of one of the tracks we recently recorded with producer Wayne Lothian (ex-English Beat, General Public, Special Beat), which will be released as a digital EP later this year on Electric Avenue Records.
If you're not familiar with Rude Boy George, we're made up of members of Bigger Thomas, Across The Aisle, The Toasters, and my fellow ska blogger Steve Shafer (Duff Guide To Ska) --and we do ska and reggae versions of New Wave hits.
I met Lothian nearly 20 years ago and actually took a few bass lessons from him at the time when he was living in New York City. We reconnected a few years ago when Bigger Thomas played support shows for The English Beat throughout the Northeastern United States.
A bassist with a career spanning over 25 years, Lothian has played with some of the most prominent musicians of UK ska and reggae, from The English Beat and General Public to The Specials and UB40.
Hailing from the UK, Lothian grew up in Coventry, hometown of The Specials and The Selecter. He grew up hearing his father play guitar and picked up the bass—at age 11. His eclectic tastes influenced his sound early on, fusing Bob Marley and the Wailers’s reggae grooves with the exuberant disco stylings of Chic. By age 13 he formed a band with Lynval Golding, guitarist for The Specials and Fun Boy 3. They named the project After Tonite and soon went on tour with The Pogues, featuring Joe Strummer and Kirsty MacColl.
Lothian and Golding continued their collaboration with a short-lived band called Sunday Best, with Neville Staples of The Specials and Pauline Black of The Selecter rounding out the line up. Sunday Best was an immediate hit, and they quickly found themselves performing for the prestigious show The John Peel Sessions at the BBC. These early successes compelled Wayne to study music at Matthew Bolton Technical College in Birmingham, UK, where he honed his bass chops and added drums, guitar, keyboard, and sound engineering to his bag of tricks.
Stay tuned for more details about our 6-song EP produced by Lothian and look for us playing out a lot more this summer and fall...
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