As you may know – I wrote Neville Staple of The Specials’ biography which was published in paperback this year – Original Rude Boy. Came as a bit of a surprise to discover that Neville was a bit of a lad back in the day and I mean burglaries, fights with knives and other bad behaviour, or what he calls “Neville things”.
He was a real Rude Boy and there’s no doubting it. Some of the stories you can expect to find in Original Rude Boy:
- Neville’s rough childhood and how he battled through it
- How he met future Specials roadies Trevor and Rex
- The amazing sound system scene and his system, Jah Baddis
- Why Neville ended up doing a stint in borstal
- When he first met the Coventry Automatics
- Going on the road with the 2Tone bands
- Being managed by Bernie Rhodes
- What it was like hanging out with the legendary Jerry Dammers
- Why did The Specials split?
- What he really thought about Fun Boy Three
- Forming the Neville Staple Band and taking ska on the road
- The Americans who picked up the 2Tone flame
