1972. Across Middlesborough Road from where i lived in Blackburn south was a small shopping strip which we used to hang around in. There was a fish and chip shop where we buy potato cakes and chips for about 20 cents the lot. we'd sit in the sunshine chatting up the girls and sharing our food. you could hear the radio blasting from the shop. One afternoon this song came on. I'd never heard anything like it it but it was mesmerizing. I wasn't even sure if I liked the record at first. was it an instrumental? why was the guy speaking the lyrics. What were the lyrics? Halfway through the chippie came out and started accusing us of ripping him off by 5 cents. Did he give us one too many potato cakes? I dunno but we didn't have any money left anyway. So he banned us from the shop. A few unsavoury words were bandied about and from then on we had to move to the milk bar and live on milk shakes for the rest of the summer.
Double barrel was my first taste of ska. Of course I had heard Israelites and My Boy lollipop but Double barrel was something altogether. This was all over the radio that summer and I learned to love it. It was a real grower. A few of my friends were sharpies and at the time all they listened to was Bowie and Slade but some were really starting to get into this ska sound.
Soon after came "Mad About You' by Bruce Ruffin. Ska was slowly filtering onto commercial radio. Then I picked up a ska compilation dead cheap at K-Mart and started getting into these weird sounds. The album was Tighten Up which was a rare find here but when I got to Blackpool a few years later there was tons of the stuff in the record stores.
The skinhead undertones were a bit of a worry what with me having hair halfway down my back. And having to stay out of their way at Box hill Station. But the skinheads in Melbourne seemed to be more into Lobby lloyd and the coloured balls anyway.
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