Radioactive Roddy

     Over the past ten years, Roddy Radiation (from The Specials) has been working his musical magic to bring two of his favorite musical styles together, ska and rockabilly, with his more recent project, The Skabilly Rebels. Founded in 2003, they formed in Coventry, England. Because of how expensive it is to fly a band overseas, Roddy has a collective of members in the U.S. to play with him out here. Since he still enjoys it, they’re known for dropping some Specials’ tunes, strictly pulling from the tunes that he wrote, like “Rat Race.” The Skabilly Rebels put out their debut album, Blues Attack, in 2009, a few years before their 2012 U.S. tour. As far as touring goes, Roddy finds the U.S. to be more accepting of his new project, whereas in the U.K., people mostly still just want to hear The Specials.

    For their latest tour, The Skabilly Rebels picked up Lynval Golding (also from The Specials). I asked Roddy what The Specials think of his new project and apparently, they’re annoyed that Lynval is playing in it. It seems that they fear that The Skabilly Rebels could potentially break The Specials. Roddy also mentioned that he’s unsure about what’s going on with The Specials presently, although he did say that they’re trying to tour again. We also had a good laugh over the story of Elvis Costello as a producer for The Specials. Apparently, he wanted to fire Roddy, seemingly because Elvis thought his rockabilly sound on guitar wouldn’t really work with a ska band. Roddy never heard about this until after recording with him and, to this day, still thinks he’s a good guy.

Due to ties with The Stray Cats, Roddy also said that at one point, they attempted to tour with The Specials. I read in a previous interview about Roddy catching The Stray Cats at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues club in England, so I asked if The Specials ever played with the owner Gaz Mayall’s ska band, The Trojans. Turns out, rather, that Roddy’s played with his father, famous blues guitarist John Mayall.

On this latest U.S. tour, the Skabilly Rebels played Pub Rock in Scottsdale. I arrived with my wife and hung out out front with some friends before proving that I was on the guest list which hadn’t arrived yet. The Skabilly Rebels ran into some issues on the road, making them run very late. Luckily, local DJs Beat Betty and Fullstop were there to crank out the jams. We grabbed some drinks and hung out before someone from the venue showed us the new control booth for KUKQ onsite. Eventually, The Skabilly Rebels arrived and I ran into Roddy at the bar. We ordered drinks and spoke about conducting our interview before their set. We relaxed in the green room for a brief Q & A session. Afterwards, I hung out with my wife and friends before their set and even had the DJs spin some Bodysnatchers.

After a couple more tunes, The Skabilly Rebels took the stage. Their mix of ska and rockabilly blended together very well. Turns out that one of the guitarists that plays with him in the U.S. is Kevin Bivona from Los Angeles based ska punk band, The Interrupters. As usual, Roddy killed it on lead guitar while Kevin focused on rhythm. Especially toward the end of their set, they threw down some Specials’ classics, like “Concrete Jungle” and “Rat Race”. Overall, Specials tunes or no, The Skabilly Rebels got the crowd shaking it on the dancefloor and singing along.

~Garyn Klasek