An earthquake erupted in Fort Monroe, Virginia, on September 14-17, 2023, and a contingent from Stateside Madness was there to bear witness. This year’s Supernova International Ska Festival proved to be one of the most significant ska music events ever mounted on American soil, and arguably the biggest and best. Among the frenzied throngs of party people were Poly Collins, Bobby Rubin and myself (Donald Trull) from the SSM admin crew. It was the first time for the three of us to meet up in person, and long overdue! 

Our partner Laurie Alfaro was unable to make it because she was rocking out at Riot Fest in Chicago, although we had the pleasure of meeting SSM member Al L’Heureux, who’s a hell of a friendly guy. Charles Benoit was also in attendance, although I didn’t get the chance to say hello. And oh, what a weekend we had.

First off, Supernova is by far the most organized and best designed large-scale music festival I’ve ever attended. Just think about all the crappy hassles you usually have to deal with at a festival: nasty belligerent crowds, too much heat, long restroom lines, overpriced bad food, multiple stages forcing you to choose what to see and what to skip, and a general lack of civilized society. Supernova has got none of that drama. They have huge tents with shaded seating aplenty, abundant port-a-potties, good food trucks, and an eminently logical system of two stages side-by-side, so one band plays while the next band sets up for continuous music, and the audience doesn’t have to miss out on anyone on the bill. (Not to mention the two stages are set perpendicular to breezy Chesapeake Bay beach access.) And best of all, the Supernova crowd is uniformly joyful and laid-back, as if they’re actually there for the love of the music, and not determined foremost to get shitfaced drunk as rapidly as possible. Now that’s a refreshing change of pace.

On Friday, Bobby’s good friends The Skapones were one of the first bands to kick off the festival. Bobby could be found hanging out with Paul Willo and rest of the Skapones crew all weekend, and through their access he got to chill backstage with many of the Supernova artists. Other bands he particularly enjoyed included Adhesivo and The Untouchables. Poly seemed to like just about everything, but he was especially impressed with Catbite and Rude Girl Revue. Al gave props to The Skapones, Fishbone and Out of Control Army.

For myself, I was excited to see two old ’80s favorites live for the first time: Bad Manners and The Untouchables. And Hollie Cook, whom I was grateful to see for a third time, dependably brought the house down. But my top pick for the weekend would have to be Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. I only just heard about them when I saw their intriguing name on the Supernova bill a few months ago, got a few of their albums and became an instant fan. These guys demonstrate an understanding and respect for ska in all its forms, from its Jamaican roots to British 2 Tone to American third wave, and mix it all together with their own original artistry and next-level musicianship. TSPO soared through blinding versions of The Godfather Theme, Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” and the Prince Buster/Madness classic “One Step Beyond.” Pure thrills.

All that aside, I think nearly every rude boy or girl on hand would agree that the emotional highlight of Supernova was Lynval Golding’s surprise guest appearance. We were blessed to witness a moment in music history as the Specials legend performed on stage for the first time since the passing of Terry Hall, joining The Aggrolites for a heartfelt tribute. Lynval took an old reggae/rocksteady standard, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” and transformed the lovelorn ballad into an ode to his late bandmate and other departed friends. He implored the audience to send “love, love, love” to Saxa, Ranking Roger, Rico Rodriguez, Everett Morton, John Bradbury, and Terry Hall.

Following that beautiful eulogy, Lynval steered the crowd back into party mode in the best possible way. He broke out the harmonica and launched into “A Message to You Rudy.” It don’t get no better than that, right folks? Well, cinch up your suspenders and Doc Martens, because next it was time for “Enjoy Yourself.” Everyone’s feet stomped and brains exploded as we shared one collective thought: How in the world are we lucky enough to be here right now?

Wow. All I can say is thank you to Tim and April Receveur, the brilliant organizers who founded the Supernova Ska Festival in 2014. They have created a marvelous thing. We in the Stateside Madness community are accustomed to feeling like outsiders, alone and separated from like-minded souls by hundreds of miles of land and ocean. It’s a staggering bewilderment to walk amongst thousands of fellow ska lovers right here in the USA – in an odd little corner of the Southeast coast, no less! It gives me deep inspiration to see evidence that we SSM folks aren’t as alone as we think. With a few more events on the level of Supernova giving us opportunities to come together, we can finally start building a stateside fan community to rival the tight-knit network that our cousins in the U.K. enjoy. A lesson to us rudies.

Love, love, love.

Photos courtesy Bobby Rubin, Al L’Heureux, D. Trull, and Supernova International Ska Festival

I became a fan of ska music in a distant foreign land where such music is unheard and unheard of: the mountains of western North Carolina. Madness was my entry point, which led to the English Beat, the Specials and the rest of the 2 Tone scene, and eventually brought me to ska’s Jamaican roots in the Skatalites and Prince Buster. Content with my many obscure interests, I knew ska was never going to be a thing in the land of my birth, and that was okay.

Fast forward to the spring of this year, when I was visiting my family in Waynesville and found some info my sister had printed about a free summer concert series in the neighboring town of Sylva. The scheduled acts for the Concerts on the Creek series ran the gamut of expected local tastes: classic rock, bluegrass, country, beach music, Jimmy Buffett covers. But hello, what’s this odd little listing?

Friday, Aug. 19: SKA City, ska music (7-9 p.m.)

ZOMG what in the…? Wait, that’s a typo, right? A ska band? Performing for my ancestral homefolk? Who are presumably meant to show up voluntarily? Is this real life? No, it couldn’t be… but yes it is.

Immediately I was determined to witness this show. More than that, I needed to connect with Ska City and find out what they’re all about. There was surely a kinship to explore here, a bond between geographically unlikely troubadours and blogger, each of us fighting the good fight for musical skappreciation in the wilds of North Carolina!

The history of Ska City dates back to 2019 when some Asheville-area musicians met up through Craigslist to form a small ska group that included Will Chatham (drums), Dennis Owenby (sax) and Vinnie Sullivan (guitar). The lineup shifted and expanded into the current population of nine Ska Citizens, rounded out by Julia Ruff (lead vocals), Rob Grace (keyboards), Garrick Smith (baritone sax), Dave Wilken (trombone), Gabe Holguin (trumpet) and Rob Heyer (bass). Rob Grace is an expatriate from Coventry, lending the enterprise a dash of authentic British ska cred. Out of the other members, Will is my only fellow native North Carolinian, with the rest drawn from various parts of the U.S. by Asheville’s renowned weirdo magnet.

So what gave Ska City the courage to skank it up in a ska-less land where black and white checkerboard means the NASCAR race is over with?

“One of the theories behind this group is that we’d either do well or go down in flames,” Vinnie says. “The reason being, is a ton of people we spoke to about doing a ska band would say, ‘SKA! Holy crap, I used to go to ska shows all the time!’ We knew the audience was there, just weren’t sure if we’d get people coming out. But we’ve been doing pretty good, getting bigger audiences and better gigs as we go along.”

Can it really be as easy as that? Ska bands are famously disrespected by the unenlightened, and us rude boys and rude girls have been subjected to simple rudeness. Has Ska City ever had to pacify a hostile crowd by resorting to “Rawhide” or “Stand by Your Man”? 

“Ha! Great question. No, never had to appease a crowd,” Vinnie says. “I assume we’re winning over anyone with an open mind, if they’ve never heard of or liked ska in the first place. We pepper the set with originals and classic ska and other covers, some covers that a country fan, for example, might recognize and get into.”

And what about covers that readers of this blog might get into? Of course I had to ask Vinnie, where does Ska City stand on Madness?

“We love Madness, a few of us have been ska fans since WAY back.” Unfortunately, there are no Madness or Prince Buster numbers in Ska City’s current set, but Vinnie suggests that could change. “I’d love to do ‘One Step Beyond’ or ‘Our House,’ classics for sure.”

The Ska City show took place at Sylva’s Bridge Park, which has a nice bandstand pavilion in front of scenic Scott Creek, with a big lawn where it’s BYO folding chairs and blankets. A paved patch in front of the stage serves as the dance floor. It turns out the band previously played here in 2021, so clearly it went over well enough for them to be invited back. The gathering all-ages crowd was already showing signs of interest during the sound check, which further boded well for the evening ahead. Ska City started the show proper will a peppy take on Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” widely recognized as the Blues Brothers’ opening theme. That made me smile in light of my earlier questions about any possible Bob’s Country Bunker nightmares.

The set list shrewdly kept the band engaged with a fair number of familiar songs without at all pandering: “The Tide Is High” (originally recorded by Jamaican rocksteady group The Paragons before Blondie made it a hit), Stevie Wonder’s “You Can Feel It All Over,” Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” (rendered with the original lyric of “Brown Skinned Girl”), Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” and an inventive take on Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

But Ska City is no novelty cover band. They pride themselves on original compositions that slot in nicely beside the multi-genre standards in their set. A couple of drinking-related songs went down well with the crowd: Dennis Owenby’s “Raise Your Glass” and Dave Wilken’s “Pizza and Beer.” Another original (whose name I didn’t catch) addressed the challenges of finding romantic time with kids in the house, which must have resonated with the young parents of the rugrats running around all night. I enjoyed the band’s self-titled theme song, which Julia introduces as a primer on the meaning of ska. “There’s a little place (Ska City!) I’m gonna take you to (Ska City!) You’re gonna love it there! Bring your mama to (Ska City!)” The lyrics namecheck Prince Buster, 2 Tone, Coventry, The Specials, Selecter, The English Beat… but alas, not Madness. I has a sad. 😢

Ah well, I can forgive ’em that. I could still feel the archetypal presence of Madness at work, if only in my mind. Rob Heyer has a jazzy Bedders bounce in his bass, and Rob Grace conjures cool Barson energy in his porkpie hat and shades while laying down mellifluous organ. Most striking of all, saxman Dennis Owenby is the Lee Thompson of North Carolina, in stature as well as impish demeanor. “This next one’s a song we didn’t write,” Dennis quipped. “It’s still pretty good, though.”

Ska City had me hooked from the start. It was all over early in the set when the horn section heralded “Rudy, A Message to You” and I had to haul my ass straight to the dance floor. I did my best to exhort the crowd to take heed of Rudy’s cautionary tale, jumping around the concrete slab with some kids and a few senior citizens. (Plus the one dad in a ska T-shirt who joined in later, bless him.)

That huge classic led directly into the best moment of the night, a spectacular interpretation of “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck. Ska City is far from the first ska or reggae act to tackle this revered jazz standard, but they really nailed it. The band got a serious Skatalites stretching-out groove cooking, with about everyone taking extended solos breaks in turn – just thoroughly impressive. The other high points for me were a blazing runthrough of Toots & The Maytals’ call-and-response colossus “54-46 (Was My Number)”, and the joyous shifting tempos of Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ “Come on Eileen” that closed the show with a suitable bang.

All in all, Ska City delivered an evening of personal affirmation for me, and hopefully an entertaining discovery for other attendees. People always ask “What is ska?” But it’s something you can’t explain in words, or with YouTube videos, and maybe not even by playing great records. The only way to understand ska is to hear a good band play live. In this respect, my new comrades in Ska City are doing a fine public service.

Like the song says, I literally did bring my mama to Ska City – and my sister too. And I think now they know me a little better.

Thanks to Vinnie Sullivan and Rob Grace for graciously chatting with me for this article. Check out Ska City at Ska.City and on Facebook and YouTube.