lancasterband

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1979 - BATTLE OF THE BANDS REUNION

The Lancs reprise its 1979 Battle of the Bands - BEAT 79 - with SA’s greatest blues rock band and winners of the competition, Baxtop, tomorrow night 3rd May.

Go to and like The G-Spot Facebook page to gain membership and access.

9:00 - LANCASTER BAND, the original ensemble formed in 1974,one of the bands that spearheaded ska in South Africa. Dylan Hichens (bass), Harry Lancaster (drums), Garth Hichens (guitar) & Robin Lancaster (guitar & vocals)

10:15 - BAXTOP, Surfacing in Johannesburg during 1978, these guys are the true pioneers of South Africa blues-rock.
Larry Amos (guitar & vocals), Tim Parr (guitar & vocals), Bruce Williams (drums & vocals)

11:30 - ALL STAR JAM

Yes it is happening. Here is the detail from the originator of these events dating back to 1978, Bruce van der Spuy - another Little Freedom Farm Party: Friday 29th March-Saturday 31st March

Ok, so some 30 years later we’ve decided to have another Little Freedom Farm Party - The Reunion! So bring your tent and all the necessary camping survival gear (we are not going to list them, you should know by now) and join us this Easter weekend at the Last Resort - 15Km from Hermanus on the Stanford Road (5Kms further than last time). The site is amazing…we have a river, two large dams, great camping sites, fresh water, showers & toilets, a stage with a Bedouin covered front of stage area amongst large trees, there’s a chill teepee, there’s a party lounge, food stalls and of course there is MUSIC – good homegrown stuff (we’re thinking of inviting Rodriguez to the next one, just to add a bit of spice) for now we are joined by Lancaster Band, Larry Amos (Baxtop), Slow Jack, Boulevard Blues Band, Gypsey Blues, Akkedis, Adam’s Family, Reini Adelbert, Stoneage, Da Da Fm and more. Our full program will be out shortly.

So here’s the buzz ( How to attend the Little Freedom Farm Party) :

• Finish ‘work’ on Thursday (28th March) go home chill and pack your car, you will have missed the Easter rush.

• Friday morning (after a good breakfast) leave for Hermanus – If coming from Cape Town or Somerset West, do the Coastal Route via Kleinmond – it will put you in a good mood for the party. You can even have a light lunch in Hermanus, stock up on cigarettes or whatever before you head out to the Last Resort.

• Gates open at 12 noon Friday 29th March – arrive, pitch a tent, make yourself comfortable, go for a walk, go for a swim, chill in a lounge – we’ll have suitable background music. Friday night is chilled – it is Good Friday for goodness sake.

• Slow Jack starts the party at Sunset, followed by Adam’s Family and then it’s The Boulevard Blues Band with Akkedis to end the evening.

• Saturday morning…have a swim in the dam, have breakfast – your own or ours…chill out for the morning. Lunchtime we have Gypsey Blues and then it’s down to the river, bring your guitars and djembis, we’ll have a jam.

• Sunset played in by Reini Adelbert and then the party starts with Larry Amos (Baxtop Blues), Lancaster Band, Stoneage (with Peter Leibrandt ex Black Frost) and then Da Da Fm.

• Sunday after a late breakfast we have a Lunchtime Jam (and toast) and then it’s time to head home.

Do’s and Don’ts

This is the greenest Festival ever - the area is pristine and that’s how we want to keep it. Whatever you bring you must take home with you that includes your wife/girlfriend, children ( we are children friendly), friends and your rubbish - please bring a black bag along and take everything you brought home with you. Unfortunately NO pets are allowed. Also you may bring your own liquor-we will have a party lounge-but ALL liquor must be decanted into plastic bottles and ALL beers must be in cans (ALL of which you must of course take home with you). You can swim in the dams (bring lilos or anything that floats) you can go on a river cruise, wine tasting, nearby quad biking, fynbos hiking, visit the local town of Stanford or even go for a flip in an airplane…and more!

VERY IMPORTANT! NO fires will be allowed anywhere on the premises, other than designated areas. The Last Resort provides a communal fire to chill around and designated braai areas. NO personal fires allowed at all.
Thank you.

Tickets (Participation)

This is a party-and in order to participate you need to contribute. Cost per person as follows:

Friday 29th March-Sunday 31st March (Full Festival ticket) R300
Saturday 29th March-Sunday 31st March R200
Sunday 31st March (day trippers) R50

You really can’t stay anywhere cheaper than this in Hermanus for Easter weekend and no one else has the MUSIC! Also, we’re running an “Early Bird” special of R250 for a full weekend pass, if tickets are bought before Wednesday 20th March. Tickets are limited, don’t delay!

Tickets are available at: www.quicket.co.za

Of course, you attend the Festival entirely at your own risk. The owners and or organizers of the venue are not responsible for loss or injury to person or property of anyone entering, remaining on or exiting the venue, for any reason what so ever.

Great, we look forward to seeing you there for a totally unforgettable weekend!

Kindest regards,

Bruce van der Spuy and The Little Freedom Farm Party people

Our dearest Saxy G passed away on the 23rd September 2012, after a long brave fight and we mourn the loss of our special front-man. The Lancaster Band community will never forget this larger than life person who was widely loved and respected by everyone who knew him. Hamba Kahle Gary.

It’s 30 years since Lancaster Band released ‘Comic Strip Heroes’ and we’re happy to be taking to the stage to play some of the old favorites as well as some new material too!

We’ll be sharing the stage with the likes of aKing, Machineri, Van Coke Cartel and others…

So come down to the Herzlia Primary School fields for a day of great music and fun.

TIME: 2pm - 7pm
ENTRANCE: R60 at the door

Lancaster Band will be one of several performers on stage during the Kommetjie Festival on Saturday 19 November. 12 well known bands have been scheduled to start playing at Fishermans Restaurant and The Helmsman Pub from 5:00pm. Live music will be followed by a number of Hot DJ’s.Entrance to both venues will be R50 per person payable on entry at either venue on the evening (one ticket allows entry into both venues)

The Lancs will be on the Fishermans Restaurant pub stage from around 9:30pm and will perform an full hour long set. It is likely that in honour of the 30 year anniversary the band will perform the complete Comic Strip Heroes album, plus a few current tunes.  We are all looking forward to connecting with our freinds and enjoyign a chilled day in ‘the little cup’

For more information please see  schedule here, contact Steve on 083 225 5077 or email bar.freight@absamail.co.za

Photo: Maria Wagenaar

We are entering the 30 year anniversary of the recording of ‘Comic Strip heroes’. In celebration of this milestone we are currently busy recording the entire album with the current band line up. The band has developed some of the arrangements, it has the addition of keyboards and sax in its sound palette, and is playing the material with a great deal of experience now. Added to this a bonus CD is also being wrapped up, including live takes of the various band line up’s recorded at venues around Cape Town. A 30 year anniversary box package to be available through on-line sales and at gigs will include a CD copy of the original vinyl album in it’s original order, the new current production, and a disc of some live takes and video clips accumulated over the years. A celebratory retrospective. Keep an eye on our sites

Here is the review of The Beat, Lancaster Band and Rudimentals gig at Mercury Live from  Your LMG Mag December issue - We think it hits the spot! Thanks to “Girl Banned”

The Beat (UK)
+ The Rudimentals
+ Lancaster Band
Mercury Live Sat 13 Nov.

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Tonight was always going to be one of those “once in a lifetime ” kind of gigs. The Beat, 2Tone Ska legends, are jamming on the stage I get drunk in front of almost every weekend. there is a queue around the block and not surprisingly the show is sold out. The majority of the (older) crowd is dressed impeccably in suits with braces , loafers, porkpie hats and even a few pairs of Jerry Dammer’ style shades. The Lancaster Band are beaming like teenagers at their first gig, in complete awe of being invited to play on the same stage as the very legends they grew up listening to. They rinse the stage with their contagious and faultless ska beats. the skanking is in full swing and the walls are glistening from the rising temperature. the atmosphere is copasetic and the first hint of Chronic wafts past me, the fogeys have pulled out all the stops. T-Boz and the Rudies deliver their signature Afro-beat reggae with abandon as the heaving crowd soaks up their energy. we are reaching fever pitch, the drunk and stoned mass seem entranced as they patiently await The Beat’s arrival on stage. Ranking Roger and his offspring Ranking Junior bust out, holy smokes this is happening! Every person in the audience is sporting an ear-to-ear smile as the band delivers hit after hit whilst mashing the set up with new songs. Ranking’s rapport and engaging charm has the crowd bobbing on the ends of his puppet strings. When they finally play ” Mirror in the Bathroom”, a small part of me fears that the floor may give way. But it’s the epic crescendo as we all belt out the chorus, a capella, that leaves Ranking’s jaw dropped wide open.

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Cape Town and The Beat have etched a priceless impression on each other tonight!

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“Girl Banned”
LMG Issue No 44

Check this out … a neat read by Carlos Amato from the Times Live online: SA gets to feal The Beat

BRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAA!!!” The Beat hits Joburg and Cape Town this weekend.

Expect some deeply skankalicious insanity, if you can make the show: unlike their old support acts U2 and REM, the ska giants from Birmingham have not mutated into complacent, soporific billionaires.

Three decades ago, frontman Ranking Roger and company torched the UK airwaves with Mirror in the Bathroom. Alongside The Specials, The Beat fronted the second wave of ska, reviving the frenetic early-sixties ancestor of reggae.

It was a resistance moment, as well as a natty, monochrome style and a jittery beat: both bands spoke up for working-class Britons, black and white alike, in a time when racist neo-Nazi thugs, the newly elected Margaret Thatcher and rampant unemployment were all on their case.

Roger sang on Free Nelson Mandela, Specials frontman Jerry Dammers’ 1984 anthem, so his first visit to South Africa is about 26 years overdue. “For me, this is a moment in a lifetime I’ll never forget,” he said this week. “This will be our first time ever so I am filled with excitement.”

Roger is unconvincingly modest about The Beat’s success before their break-up in 1984. Aside from getting doors opened for then-promising youngsters like U2 and REM, The Beat also toured with The Clash, David Bowie, Talking Heads and The Police.

He reckons they were - and are - a political band, first and foremost.

“I think half the reason we got to play with these great bands was because of the things we sang about, and how brave we were at delivering it in a peace-loving manner. We also gave a lot of money to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Greenpeace.”

In the fame stakes, The Beat were always a rung below The Specials, who delivered the most irresistible anthem of the two-tone generation in A Message to You Rudy. But musically speaking, The Beat were just as hot, and probably more inventive in their melding of ska and punk flavours.

Their debut album I Just Can’t Stop It, is the record of the genre, packing a succession of classic floor-fillers: Hands Off, She’s Mine, Whine & Grine/Stand Down Margaret, Ranking Full Stop and Rough Rider.

Since reforming in 2003, they’ve added a new vocalist in frontman Ranking Roger’s son, Rankin Junior, whose freestyling skills have won rave reviews. Former guitarist Dave Wakeling is no longer involved, he’s currently touring the States as The English Beat (they used that moniker Stateside to distinguish them from an obscure American rock band).

Legendary original saxophonist Saxa is now 80, so he can be excused his happy retirement in Birmingham. Alongside Ranking Roger, the surviving original members are drummer Everett Morton and keyboardist Blockhead.

Expect all those hits, plus a fiery cover of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah.

WHEN AND WHERE:

Tonight: Tanz Cafe @ The Buzz Shopping Centre, Witkoppen Road, Fourways. Tomorrow night: Mercury Live, 43 De Villiers Street, Cape TownTickets: R125 on webtickets.co.za, or R150 at the door.

Lancaster Band and Rudimentals in support at Mercury in Cape Town on Satruday night!!

We are working hard in preparation for the Mercury Live Gig supporting The Beat (UK). Remenber this is a pre book gig so if you do not want to miss out it would be wise to get those tickets now  - Cover Charge: R150 or R125 presold online www.webtickets.co.za

To catch up on The Beat story here are some words from the Mercury Live site:

Formed in the working class suburbs of industrial Birmingham in England in 1978 The Beat arose at a time of high unemployment and social upheaval. From the outset the band offered messages of hope and peace with an insight into sociopolitical topics would later alongside The Specials see them heralded as forerunners of the whole 2-Tone Ska movement.

Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling led with vocal duties while Andy Cox and David Steele took guitar and bass duties with Everett Morton supplying the most distinctive of drumming styles. Added to this mix was the renowned saxophonist Saxa, adding the deliciously warm Jamaican ska instrumental flavour that is forever associated with the bands sound. Having played saxophone with Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken and Desmond Dekker in the first wave of ska The Beat on formation seemed to immediately come of age.

The Beat’s first single was the infectious cover of Smokey Robinsons Tears of A Clown, which on release went straight into the National Top 10 at No.6. The record, an effortless like fusion between a number of different musical styles such as Ska, Punk, Pop, Soul and Reggae, immediately saw the band finding themselves an overnight success.

Further hit singles from the first album included Mirror In The Bathroom, Cant Get Used to Losing You, Hands Off… She’s Mine and Best Friend, and with a catalogue such as this it was easy to see why the The Beat would become one of the most popular recording and live acts in the UK.

Huge radio airplay followed in the US which saw The Beat head stateside and then further with world tours alongside some of the biggest performing artists such as The Clash, The Police, REM, Talking Heads, The Pretenders and of course The Specials.

While The Beat could deliver with what almost seemed effortless ease songs of Love, Peace and Unity. Songs such as Stand Down Margaret saw them spearhead a movement wanting real social change and multicutural inclusion. The thousands that sang along in unison with the band at nuclear disarmament marches bear testament to the uplifting feeling the band could evoke with their musical swagger and genuine care for humanity.

After 3 Gold and Platinum top selling albums worldwide with I Just Cant Stop It, Wh appen, and Special Beat Service - The Beats musical fluidity and openess, delivered in their explosive all encompassing live shows allowed them to reach hundreds of thousands of fans across the world, communicating positivity and freedom through not only their music, but their actions and genuine commitment to causes.

Almost in reaction to the height of their fame The Beat to the disbelief of many disbanded with Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling forming General Public with Mickey Billingham of Dexys Midnight Runners and Andy Cox and David Steele putting together the Fine Young Cannibals. Though both enjoyed phenomenal success, no other artist has sounded like The Beat or indeed is ever likely too. Ranking Roger also briefly joined Mick Jones post-Clash band Big Audio Dynamite injecting his toasting and vocal style that to this day remains his trademark.

After numerous offers to return to the stage The Beat returned in 2003 for a sell out show at The Royal Festival Hall with the inclusion of Ranking Jnr taking vocal duties to an accolade of critical acclaim. With Dave Wakeling heading to the US Ranking Roger alongside Everett Morton, Ranking Jnr and Mickey Billingham returned to their roots with deeper rhythms, a wall of sound that transcends time and an unwavering dedication to real unity and love that leaves the future still to be written, there can be no question…

…The Beat are back!

… and the Lancs are amped to be back on the Mecury stage … without doubt the best stage sound in the city. This is one gig not to be missed!

Wednesday 20th October: Gary Munroe celerbrates his birthday today. This man has so much energy - he is a front man and a one man brass section bundled into the one and only unstopable Saxy G!!!