BAD MANNERS coming to Lanzarote

BAD MANNERS coming to Lanzarote

preview by Norman Warwick

This month´s edition of Gazette Life Lanzarote carried news of a confirmed date for a gig by one of the seminal bands of the British pop scene.

Lanzarote’s army of ska fans will be delighted to hear that Bad Manners, the legendary group led by Buster Bloodvessel, have been confirmed to play in Lanzarote in October.

The group, who had huge success during the Two-Tone craze in the early 80s with hits such as Lip Up Fatty, Special Brew, Lorraine and, of course, Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Nu Nu, will be performing at the Arrecife En Vivo On Fire concert in the capital on the evening of Saturday, October 5th .

They’ll be appearing along with Californian stoner rock band Fu Manchu, Spanish grunge duo Bala, Cordoba trio John Doe and other unconfirmed guests. Tickets for the concert are available for €30 at arrecifeenvivo.com, although a venue has yet to be announced.

Bad Manners reformed ten years ago after several years of inaction, during which Buster stood as London Mayor for the Ska Party and opened a hotel in Margate called Fatty Towers, “which catered for people with huge appetites”.

Buster is a born showman who is sure to be sticking his immense tongue out at Lanzarote fans, although it remains to be seen if, at the age of 65, he’ll still be dancing the Can-Can in a pink tutu.

Buster, real name Douglas Trendle, is an English singer who has been the frontman of the Two-Tone band Bad Manners since forming the band in 1976. He took his stage name from the bus conductor played by Ivor Cutler in the Beatles’ 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour.

Earlier this year, BFI launched the re-release of Dance Craze, the 1981 concert movie that pulled together a brace of performances from the Two-Tone era, featuring the likes of The Specials, Madness, Selector and The Bodysnatchers.

In the mix was also Bad Manners, a Ska band that in some ways felt like they stood on the outside of the fold, their performances being slightly less serious than those of their contemporaries but no less enjoyable or loyal to the genre of Ska.

The Two-Tone legend has continued, with most of the bands of that era still performing in some form or other. Whilst never actually on that wonderful label, Bad Manners will be forever associated with it, and their shows still manage to pack sweaty concert rooms worldwide to this day. November 2023 alone saw them performing in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Ireland; their appeal stretches far and wide.

In a 2023 interview with  V13 media, Buster Bloodvessel reminisced a little about the old days and explained that his enthusiasm for the scene remains undiminished.

“Just playing crazy music, and being lucky enough to be in Bad Manners. We’ve always been a fun band, never anything serious.”

Frequently seen as something of a novelty band (often playing on the image of the singer himself as a vastly overweight skinhead), and being considered serious musicians has always been a fine line to walk.

“The fact that we used to always make people smile gave us the position of being a novelty band, but we’ve never been a novelty band, we’re very serious with our music but not very serious with out attitude.” Buster told V13 media “I would rather be me than a lot of these serious bands that have done so well.”

In fact Buster has fond memories of the Ska scene going all the way back to that Dance Craze era.  

“It was a fantastic time. The fact that all the young kids would come along to all the shows, and it was a riot most nights, I don’t mean in a nasty way but in a good way, the atmosphere was electric. I don’t think there’s been anything like the Two-Tone era for live music, it really was quite amazing”.

The film puts that electric atmosphere at the fore and proves Buster’s point well as a unique moment in British music history. It also highlights the audiences at the time, and as highlighted even further in the Madness biopic Take It Or Leave it, crowds did vary greatly, and not always for the best.

“Of course, it had its elements of not very nice political stuff going on, which was terrible, but we survived that and came out the other end so to speak.”

Buster’s skinhead appearance was a magnet for such unsavoury crowds and he states

“There were Fascists and anti-fascists, the fascists tended to stay with the OI music and the anti-fascists came with the Ska music. Anti-racist we were”.

Buster was delighted to attend the launch of the re-release of Dance Craze.

“I went with all the people that are left, there’s not so many left, unfortunately. It was really enjoyable and they called me out from the crowd, and they were telling us how big we were, which surprised me. I always thought The Specials were the big boys, Madness second… we could have been third? Definitely, in size of people who came to see us, we could have been third.”

 “The fact that we are going round the world, going to places, such as Lanzarote, that we’ve never played before, with large crowds, that’s amazed me, We’re very big in the Philippines and Indonesia, very big in Mexico, countries where we never thought we’d sell anything, we’re selling big time at the moment. And a lot of the bands that have supported us have gone on to do very well in their own countries.”

The Height Of Bad Manners is the album that today still stands as a classic singles compilation, and was, indeed, the soundtrack to many a house party in the early 80s.

“I loved making that. It’s a strong body of work, and of course we had loads of hits. I’m really proud of it.”

For quite a lengthy period Bad Manners were never off Top of the Pops (The BBC flagship chart show) during that time.

“They really took to us at Top of the Pops, and they made all our videos as well.”

Many of us still remember when Buster had his whole head painted red for a performance of Just A Feeling on the show.

“Well, I just decided I wanted to look like a Swan Vesta (matches) by painting my head red, a very silly thing to do but we were very silly in them days. But because I didn’t do it in rehearsals, and did it on the live thing, it made my head disappear, so I looked like somebody without a head, and they went mad because of it. We had to do it again, and the make-up lady got sacked. It was my idea; it wasn’t her idea.”

“The most popular song and still is, is Lip Up Fatty, no doubt about that. But you can’t beat Can Can live which is why we always end their gigs with it. “We didn’t write it but got writers credit for it”.

V13 media make a case for  “Walking In The Sunshine” which in some ways was a departure from the straight Ska sound,

“A great song, that was one of our best-written songs, and the best thing there was our brass lines.”

Buster still works with brass and is doing so  on a proposed new album.

Buster’s physical size is something he has never shied away from, and he has referenced it in many song titles, and of course in the name of his restaurant,  Fatty Towers restaurant.

We now live in a world in which the word fat has become taboo, but Buster was a role model for larger kids in the day.

“I’m not ashamed of it, I went through a period where I did lose a lot of weight, but unfortunately, I’ve put it all back on now. They still sing “You Fat Bastard” at me even though it’s politically incorrect and not a thing to say to people. I liked it because it meant I stood out from the crowd and could be identified very easily, I play it to my advantage.”

“I just like the big sound of Bad Manners”.

“Even if we lost a harmonica player we replaced him with another brass player, or a session player who did a similar sort of thing. We had a violin player at one point, but it all works, we can change the lines, they’re so strong you can throw in other instruments and it just works”.

So Lanzarote music fans, (and we are an eclectic, multi-cultural bunch of indigenous folk, new residents of British, German, Dutch, French and increasingly Belgian and Italian and of course, tourists from all over Europe and around the world) can put the date of October 5th in their diary and look forward to re-living the ska days of our youth. It will be interesting to see the age demographics of the audience and hope the genre of the music sits alongside an already eclectic musical diet of classical, jazz, and Spanish folk lore that is delivered across the island.

As soon as we have confirmation of the venue and availability we will include details in these pages.

Acknowledgements:

The prime sources for this article were first published by Lanzarote Gazaette Life in July 2024 and an interview in V13 media in December 2023 written by Del Pike.

Del Pike is a University lecturer in Film and Media in Liverpool (UK). He writes film, music, art, literature and culture articles and reviews for a number of websites. Del loves nothing more than snuggling down in a dark cinema, getting sweaty at  a live gig or drifting off late at night to a good book. He loves cats. He enjoys promoting new talent online so please say hi if you have something to show.