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June 2 2000
Mark Foggo's Skasters (Shaking Mannheim up!)
It’s been about 12 years now that I’m into ska, and in such a long time I had the pleasure to meet and to see the live performances from about all the most important artists of the genre. But still, I never happened to see Dutch men Mark Foggo and his Skasters.I took my chance the day that Alessandro, Mr. SkabadiP himself invited me for a long dancing weekend up in Germany.
So, on Friday, the 2nd of June, we showed down to a not so crowded show with a few cool bands playing. We were too busy talking with Mark and missed Regatta 69 from the States, then it was Skatrek, playing a good traditional style ska: some cool rocksteady classics and good reggae originals: a band I hope to hear again soon. Then Ngobo Ngobo went on stage with their great quality pop-ska that has quite a few supporters in Italy as well. Finally it was Mark Foggo’s Skasters turn. Well I felt on my skin what it means to have about 20 years of ska shows on your shoulders. Even more, I felt what a Mark Foggo’s show means in terms of fun, groove and music.
I never met Mark before and he doesn’t pay me for what I’m saying, but he really deserves such enthusiastic opinions cos he’s an absolute genius. And so are all the single members of the band, so full of energy really great players.
He’s a real Character and he’s got such a huge personality. A real ska entertainer: one of the best I’ve had the chance to see. As far as my experience goes, I can say that I reached such high levels of fun about 7 more times. It was at a Madness show in Switzerland, Mr. Review in Stuttgart, New York Ska Jazz Ensemble in Biella, Italy, the Busters in Stuttgart in ’92, Hepcat and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at the Bloom in Mezzago and the Skatalites at the legendary show at the Leoncavallo in Milano. All different types of ska, I know, but the thing that all this people has is the energy they put on the stage, the passion for the music they pass on to the audience and the extreme professional style they got. And Mark Foggo and his Skasters has them all.
Sure it can depend from your mood whether you like a show or not, but I’m sure that such enthusiastic shows where you dance, sing and laugh and everything is ok are really a few. And as you see, I’ve seen loads of shows in these years.
There’s 4 parameters I look after to judge a band: the kind of music they play, how they play it, their stage presence and how much I’ve been dancing at their show.
Mark doesn’t only have such a unique voice that I believe is the Ska Voice itself, he also got an incredible face mime and he can do hundreds of different faces supported by two eyes of an out of his mind man. Something you’ll find out he’s not if you’ll have the chance to meet him off stage, as he’s a real intelligent, nice and gentle man.
For the whole length of the show (1 hour and a half, but the skasters could go on even more if it wasn’t for the guys of the venue) I saw Mark dancing in the most funny and crazy ways, miming the lyrics of each song (with absolutely hilarious results like in the classic "Spot" or in the more recent "Big Red Cars" and in the amazing "Bumpy Airlines"), jumping up and down in every corner of the stage, involving the crowd in catchy sing along and introducing each song in different ways, and finally, playing trombone in one of the few instrumentals they play: "Ska Town". All this with loads of sweat but with no sign of tiredness or fatigue. Pure energy from the beginning to the end of the show! I wonder if he keeps fit training in some way...
Just as Mark said at the beginning of the show, Mannheim has been a real Ska Town that night. Shacked by the catchy rhythms of those powerful and original songs like "Car On A Train", with the punctual keyboards of Dominique Dubois, the unfailing "Weirdos" and "Two Legs", the amazing choruses on "It’s You" with the great sax solos of Paul Berding, and again the amazing drums of George Conrad who did a real dance hall crasher in the high speed "Ramona from Barcelona".
Well, such an energy that I thought I had a shower with my clothes on.
It’s been quite a long time I wasn’t having such a good time. I found myself skanking at each song with a weird smile on my face and I even thought I got a paralysis or something.
What else can I say? I know this band since 1989 and some of their songs followed me around in these years. Listening to them live, singing, and dancing at them was simply super!
Alessandro was caught in a frenzy ska dance with his cute Fani the Greek, and I think I heard him screaming by happiness; Gaspar, a French friend of mine who was at his first ever ska show, was enthusiastic and started screaming. I myself had started shouting out loud just as soon Mark got on stage and said "Hallo" (Ska People).
So, maximum respect to the great Mark Foggo and his cool Skasters, and if you want to know more about the Man, about what he’s doing, musically and not, about his band, his records, his future projects, his Eindhoven based Skanky’Lil Records, well just check out the interview we did with him.
Hello! Ska People
by Sergio Rallo - translation by Antonio Crovetti - photos by Fani
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