Back in 1983 Matt had a cassette recording of a Californian radio station, Radio F.A.T. , based in Gilroy, which was playing country-swing, country and bluegrass. We listened to it incessantly and during a cold winter on his first trip to Canada, Matt transcribed the lyrics of several of the songs on the tape, including…

Ska is the music from 1960’s Jamaica that preceded Reggae. In this piece, I want to talk about Ska. S-K-A … Ska. At 17 years of age, a friend told me that a friend of hers wanted me to join his band. Apparently they played Country music and Ska. She enthused, “Dave’s really excited about…

A friend of Amanda’s was working as a freelance photographer and got us a two-page feature in Jackie Magazine called ‘City Limits – In London’ along with some copy about things to do and see in London. It came out on July 5th 1986 (Issue 1174) but by the look of the backgrounds the photos…

Forest Hill Billies A-Z A for Amanda on washboard and vocals, Alan on drums, Albany Empire, Acoustic stage Glastonbury B for Bill on the bass, Britanny, ‘Bad to the Bone’, ‘Big Black Cat’, Brighton Busking Festival, Belgium tour, brass section, Bo on posters, Brest En Couleurs, busking, backdrop lost in France, and ‘Billies of course…

‘It’s The Wooluf’ In the wild days of The Forest Hillbillies we had a kinda punk instrumental called ‘It’s The Wooluf’ – it got faster and cycled thru a few keys at the end which was fun (this clip from a gig in Paris a million years ago). But the Andrews brothers and fellow saxist…

A memorable and thoroughly enjoyable gig for the The Forest Hill Billies was Gaz and Duke Vin’s Rockin’ Luxury Cruise to Amsterdam in 1986. The cruise was a mini floating festival of reggae, rock steady and ska music with a great mix of people and featuring some true legends of the Jamaican music scene. The…