Darlington original ska outfit, The Skapones, have been on one hell of a journey over the last few years. Lee Allcock caught up with frontman, Paul Willo, to discuss their US tour, their new book and more.
2019 was a bit of a bumper year for The Skapones, wasn’t it?
2019 was incredible. How we managed to fit it all in is still a wonder. We didn’t know Covid was around the corner and would take the wind out of our sails, but yes, it was crazy. We played in Europe and Ireland, toured the UK in our own right, and, of course, played as support to our heroes The Specials on their 40th-anniversary tour, which meant we played at Middlesbrough, amongst many great things that year. The album and the singles were also getting great reviews.
From playing shows in pubs across the North East to performing at Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles. That’s some journey…
We will never, ever forget our roots. The Whisky A Go Go is probably the most famous venue in the world and it was such a buzz and thrill to play it, but we love playing places like The Voyager or Trimmers in South Shields. Sitting in Jim Morrison/The Doors’ dressing room in the Whisky, and driving in Hollywood and seeing that sign, was brilliant. And all those legends that had graced that dressing room was fabulous – you could smell the history. America was an eye-opening crazy time: playing coast to coast, no sleep, and we were constantly on planes, trains, or some kind of automobile. On one day towards the end of the tour, we had breakfast in LA, lunch in Chicago and supper in New York. The last date in Brooklyn was superb, packed, hot and sweaty. It was an amazing trip. Since then, we have had three USA vinyl single releases, two on AP Productions label in Detroit and the other on the USA’s top Ska & Reggae label, Jump Up Records. Next year is our 10th anniversary and we are going back to the USA to play the magnificent Supernova Ska Festival in Virginia and possibly some east coast dates.
Tell me a bit about your new book, ‘Way Out West…2019, The Specials & Stuff…’, and how it celebrates your achievements as a DIY band. And the book comes with a mini live album too, doesn’t it?
The book covers 2019 and all that craziness, but it’s also the story of a complete DIY band. We have no one controlling what we do – it’s all self-management. It’s an honest, open account of being with The Specials, on the road, the USA tour in-depth and how relationships and dynamics change when all of this happens. It’s got the discography etc. in there as well. We were very chuffed to have Horace Panter, bass player with The Specials, do the foreword for the book and we have had a couple of book signing sessions at Black Slab in Redcar and HEAD in Darlington. The book, if you buy direct from us via our store at theskapones.co.uk, comes with a free live CD including a little compilation of tracks from our various gigs around the UK called ‘Still A-Live’. We play another 40th-anniversary tour with another set of our heroes, The Beat, and go off on tour around the UK with them and get to play Newcastle.
To find out more about The Skapones and their new book, head to theskapones.co.uk.
