What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding? by The Spammed
On Saturday 10th of July I was a fly on the wall while super group, The Spammed recorded an absolutely brilliant version of, What's So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding? The man producing the track, was the legendary, Jesus of Cool: Nick Lowe who is also the song’s composer. The session took place at the wonderful, British Grove Studios in West London. The musicians involved were; Horace Panter who is bass player of The Specials, Rat Scabies who is the drummer of The Damned, ex Higsons and sometime Blockhead sax player, Terry Edwards, amazing guitarists; Jon Klein and Micko Westmoreland. And on lead vocals was the actor Kevin Eldon. The track, currently being mixed by the esteemed sound man Wes Maebe will appear on a compilation of protest songs called, Viva! which will be released on the Specialized Recordings label next year. The press release for Viva! includes this little quote:
From the freedom sounds of Jamaica to the Urban revolt of two tone the voice of social comment and protest has been ever present. Nowhere does music collide more dramatically with the wider world than in the protest song, Where some will say that music and politics shouldn’t mix others know that music as voice of protest is interwoven with the history of humanity. Rather than being merely a addition to the business of pop, protest music is woven into its DNA. from the traditional to the modern Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Public Enemy, the Clash or Kendrick Lamar, you are not sitting down to a boring seminar; you are on the heart beat of music when it is most alive. Our theme for our 10th anniversary is VIVA! The Freedom Songs. A four disc boxset CD documenting histories most Iconic protest songs.
Nick Lowe released his original version of What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love & Understanding? way back in 1974. The song was made famous by Elvis Costello & The Attractions who recorded it in 1979 since then the list of artists who’ve had a crack at it range from; Curtis Stigers to Candie Staton to Bruce Springsteen to Bill Murray to Willie Nelson. Last week was the first time Rat Scabies and Nick Lowe had been in the same studio since Lowe produced The Damned’s first album in 1977. There was a wonderful feeling in the studio, everyone seemed at their best and a bit of magic happened. After many, many tries and different takes and experiments there was a lovely moment when Nick was so happy with what the band played he sang a few lines from Cliff Richard’s famous Euro-vision hit, Congratulations!
“Specialized are an amazing bunch of people doing really great stuff for all the right reasons and we of The Spammed are honoured and delighted to be able to do our small bit to help out. Plus it’s pure joy when, as a golden bonus, we get to work with people like Nick and do songs like What’s So Funny”
Interview with Paul Willo
Paul Willo who is the founder of The Specialized organisation is also the lead singer of the increasingly popular band The Skapones and so tends to be rather busy these days, we were delighted he answered a few questions for us …
Le Document (LD) Which charities benefit from the sales of The Specialized CD compilations besides Teenage Cancer Trust?
Paul Willo (PW) We set out with teenage cancer trust at the very beginning then extended that to help out with Youth music and Tonic music for mental health. It was after that we realised, we wanted to broaden our horizons. TCT was there at the start and it remains our focus and through projects like Justgiving we can spread the love a lot more around to many other different causes and projects. we aim now to change it around every year, but TCT is the main focus and will continue to be well into the future.
LD Can you tell me approximately how much has been raised by your organisation over the last 10 years?
PW Oh Lordy. Probably 100K+? also, to keep the project running and providing all we provide, we now put some back into the project but our next intention is to professionalise the project and run it properly as a CIC, devote more time to it, make it as big as we can possibly go.
LD Are you and Paul Ayriss the main organizers are there any unsung heroes you’d like to be singled out?
PW Myself and Paul Ayriss share the same drive and ambitions and we bring different skill sets to the whole thing but yes there are many unsung heroes. we class all our community as unsung heroes. It’s a worldwide community now, it’s actually quite crazy. We have our artwork legend Dave Moran whose eye for detail is second to none, there’s Kat Dormer & Dev Hinkley on the merch and stage team plus stage and sound legends like Dave Woods, Clive Rooke, Jon Evans, Steve Nevard, Michelle & Neil McGuffog who we met at the very first specialized event in 2011. They had just lost their daughter aged 17 to cancer and I was in awe of their strength, they’ve been ever present with us since then, taking her message of hope, loss and strength to thousands and remain constant sources of inspiration.
LD Do you still release coloured vinyl EPs like you did with You’re Wondering Now – was it successful? And are you still a label who consider releasing albums (I know the music business has changed a lot over the last 10 years)
PW Yes, the vinyl released have been ok, some better than others but now we work with Jump Up Records in Chicago, a big USA ska label who make vinyl albums and singles for us for free. The interest in vinyl has helped. Yes, we run Specialized Records, the label, within the project. It releases the themed tribute albums and also the original showcase series we are doing Nu Ska which is now up to Volume 3 showing off the best in ska and reggae from all over the globe. We have been very excited about our most recent vinyl/CD album release which is the BRAND-NEW album from USA Ska legends BIM SKALA BIM. We helped with production and mastering and artwork and the band gave the whole album to us for FREE so we make 100% profit which is amazing – truly. Since then we have announced the charismatic front man of the band Dan Vitale as our very first USA based ambassador and we will be working with him in many areas.
More info here.
P.S. The first release by The Specialized Organisation was a compilation album called: Specialized - A Modern Take On Specials Classics. One of the tracks from that first album is You're Wondering Now by Roland Gift and The Values. The members of The Values will be familiar to regular readers of Le Document (Mikey Georgeson on organ, Andrew Petrie on organ, Yolanda Speare on baritone Sax, Paul Speare on tenor sax, Rob Jones on drums, and Julian Wakeling on bass and everything else). I thought the track stood the test of time well and was pleased to read the album is set for a re-release. Have a listen and judge for yourselves …
