***Official** West Indies in England***

[Poker Boy]

How come this game's a Friday start? Spent until 11.30 this morning wondering where cricinfo's scoreboard was.

I think its to give the players an extra day to prepare since this Test and OT are back to back. Headingley started on Friday too.

 

[steds]

I'd assumed Headingley had something to do with the bank holiday.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Indeed

Terry Hall was always a fave of mine. Any particular reason for sticking him on your posts righat this moment in time?

I'd like to claim it was to honour that other great son of Coventry, late of this clime, Marc Robbins, but in reality I just fancied a change from Harmy Bowie & have always loved Tel's wonderfully lugubrious face. And his music, obv.

The Specials being just a tad more important than Fun Boy Three

Oh, definitely, but you could say The Specials were more important than just about any 80s band bar possibly The Smiths.

 

[steds]

Oh, definitely, but you could say The Specials were more important than just about any 80s band bar possibly The Smiths.

He says without a whiff of bias.

 

[PY]

In all fairness to him, The Smiths nail The Specials to me musically but I don't think I could speak of influences too much except to say that The Smiths won the NME Top 100 most influential bands a few years back.

Were you in Hull in the 80s BB?

 

[roseboy64]

You don't give people Test caps for the sake of it. If a player isn't ready for Test cricket, you don't let him play Test cricket, regardless of the state of the series. Test cricket means more than that. Sylvester Joseph is a far better batsman than Ravi Rampaul is a bowler. Look at his domestic record and 'A' team record over recent seasons. Certainly far more worthy of his Test caps than Rampaul is at this stage.

And I think it'd do much more for West Indies cricket to win the final Test than to lose 3-0 and give Ravi Rampaul some match practice.

He's ruled out anyway but I see your point.

 

[Richard]

Yes, yes it is. The former lead singer of The Specials, Fun Boy Three & Colourfield, Richard "Langers" Hingston.

Philistine.

Never even heard of the last 2, TBH.

And Madness > The Specials IMO.

 

[Richard]

Were you in Hull in the 80s BB?

Wouldn't he be more of a Housemartins type if so?

 

[The Baconator]

It's absolutely chucked it down all day, and it doesn't look like it's going to relent. It's strange really, because last weekend it was roasting. I went through 3 different pairs of gloves in just 2 hours because of the sweat.

Have been told it's my fault for singing too much yesterday. Sorry.

 

[PY]

When were Beautiful South in their pomp?

 

[Richard]

When were Beautiful South in their pomp?

Round about 1994-1995 sorta time wasn't it?

My favourite BS song is the debut, though.

 

[wpdavid]

I'd like to claim it was to honour that other great son of Coventry, late of this clime, Marc Robbins, but in reality I just fancied a change from Harmy Bowie & have always loved Tel's wonderfully lugubrious face. And his music, obv.

Oh, definitely, but you could say The Specials were more important than just about any 80s band bar possibly The Smiths.

I loved Hall's permanently sarcastic vocals - absolutely perfect for that band at that time. What other response could there be in the early years of Thatcher's Britain? I remember hearing their first single, "Gangsters", for the first time and being completely blown away. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. Or since, really. tbh that & "Ghost Town" were streets ahead of anything else they did. Have you ever heard "More Specials"? To my mind, it was even better than their mainly ska debut album, although my copy went missing years ago. "International Jet Set" is an absolute hoot.

I wish they were as important as you reckon. Unfortunately, after they left the scene, all we had were new romantics and pretty boys. Integrity was thin on the ground by the mid80's, IIRC.

 

[Richard]

New Romantics weren't all bad.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I loved Hall's permanently sarcastic vocals - absolutely perfect for that band at that time. What other response could there be in the early years of Thatcher's Britain? I remember hearing their first single, "Gangsters", for the first time and being completely blown away. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. Or since, really. tbh that & "Ghost Town" were streets ahead of anything else they did. Have you ever heard "More Specials"? To my mind, it was even better than their mainly ska debut album, although my copy went missing years ago. "International Jet Set" is an absolute hoot.

I wish they were as important as you reckon. Unfortunately, after they left the scene, all we had were new romantics and pretty boys. Integrity was thin on the ground by the mid80's, IIRC.

I think they've stood up pretty well. There were obviously of their time (Ghost Town seems to sum up the early Thatcher years in a nutshell), but there's a timeless quality to them as well. Blur got me into them really, around the time of The Great Escape they seemed to be indulging in some pretty wholesale theft from The Specials back catalogue. They even called a song "Stereotypes" just in case we hadn't worked it out.

I'd agree that Ghost Town is the best thing they ever did too. It reminds me of Good Vibrations actually in that both songs have seriously weird arrangements (they really do, listen to them!) but sound totally immediate too.

 

[wpdavid]

New Romantics weren't all bad.

No, they just weren't particularly my cup of tea. But, if pushed, I could probably list a couple of Spandau Ballet & Duran x 2 tracks that didn't make me switch off my radio. If pushed very hard indeed ..

tbf, by my early 20's, I'd been very into the new wave stuff from the late 70's and very early 80's, so I was never going to fancy what followed. You know how these things are.

 

[wpdavid]

I think they've stood up pretty well. There were obviously of their time (Ghost Town seems to sum up the early Thatcher years in a nutshell), but there's a timeless quality to them as well. Blur got me into them really, around the time of The Great Escape they seemed to be indulging in some pretty wholesale theft from The Specials back catalogue. They even called a song "Stereotypes" just in case we hadn't worked it out.

I'd agree that Ghost Town is the best thing they ever did too. It reminds me of Good Vibrations actually in that both songs have seriously weird arrangements (they really do, listen to them!) but sound totally immediate too.

I'll have to play them both & see what you mean. I did love the manic fairground organ on Ghost Town. As you say, there's a lot going on, but you'd have to be dead not to love it immediately. I haven't heard the Blur stuff at all, but I'll have to borrow a copy now.

 

[Richard]

No, they just weren't particularly my cup of tea. But, if pushed, I could probably list a couple of Spandau Ballet & Duran x 2 tracks that didn't make me switch off my radio. If pushed very hard indeed ..

Both legendary bands IMO.

 

[wpdavid]

Both legendary bands IMO.

I'll get my coat ...

 

[Richard]

(Isn't it something that a Test starts tomorrow and most of the last 50 or so posts have been about Ska and New Romantic? )

 

[wpdavid]

(Isn't it something that a Test starts tomorrow and most of the last 50 or so posts have been about Ska and New Romantic? )

Aye - it's hard to get excited about this one, isn't it.