Post by Bazza on Jul 19, 2005 17:46:23 GMT -5
On Sunday 17th July Laurel Aitken, widely acknowledged as the 'Godfather of Ska' and affectionately known as 'Boss Skinhead,' died of a heart attack at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, England .
Laurel Aitken was born in Cuba on April 22, 1927 and moved to his father's homeland of Jamaica in 1938. In 1957 he began his recording career with the single "Roll Jordan Roll." The double A-side "Little Sheila" / "Boogie in my Bones" was the first single released on Chris Blackwell's Island Records, one of the first ever ska records, and the first Jamaican recording ever released in England. Aitken relocated to the U.K. and recorded numerous hits throughout the 60s. He was later acknowledged as "an elder statesman to the Two Tone ska revival movement of the punk era.
The 2-Tone era saw Aitken performing with The Beat, touring with mod band Secret Affair, and backed by punk/reggae act The Ruts. and The Beat rewrote the lyrics of "Pussy Price" for their own "Ranking Full Stop." Aitken returned to the recording studio with The Ruts and came up with "Rudy Got Married" which became his first ever U.K. chart single in 1981. Aitken resumed his regular U.K. tours during the '80s, and spent a year and a half working with a band called the Potato 5, with whom he recorded probably the best ska album of the 80s on Gaz's Rockin' Records. In 1986, he appeared alongside David Bowie in the mod film Absolute Beginners; additionally, UB40 covered Aitken's single "Guilty" on their hit Labour of Love album, further increasing his visibility. Aitken performed with several third wave ska bands over the '80s and '90s, and although his recording activity dropped off substantially, he continued to tour into the new millennium, even documenting and releasing a performance titled Live at Club Ska, issued in 2004.