MUSIC MATTERS by Pete Chambers: Rude Rebels and Ska with attitude - The Coventry Observer

MUSIC MATTERS by Pete Chambers: Rude Rebels and Ska with attitude

Coventry Editorial 29th Sep, 2018 Updated: 19th Nov, 2018   0

Rude Rebels

It’s been a rollercoaster existence for the Staple family over the last few weeks, with the heartbreaking loss of their grandson Fidel to knife crime.

It’s hoped that this album will serve as some kind of tiny distraction from the heartbreak for the family. I think Fidel would have wanted that.

Then only last week, Christine ‘Sugary’ Staple was inducted by the Lord and Lady Mayoress as honorary patron of the 2-Tone Village at a surprise event. She thought she was attending the launch of this very album.




Rude Rebels is Neville and Sugary Staple, with former Specials band mate Roddy Byers as special guest. The album kicks off with Rebel Down, it’s cards on the table time, Ska with attitude, with Neville and Christine Sugary sharing the vocal. But if you were looking for any husband and wife novelty act, then forget it.

These guys know their genre inside out, and how it shows. Most of the album is made up of mainly originals written by Neville and Christine. Musically it straddles the seventies Trojan sound with the other foot firmly planted in 2018.


It’s a refreshing collection of ostensibly good time music. ‘Wrong Shoes’ however does get serious and addresses homelessness, something that Neville and Sugary have long fought to highlight on Coventry’s streets. The song ‘Dirty Little Liar’ is a previous EP track that grabbed the attention of one Jeremy Kyle.

The Stranger Cole classic ‘When I Call Your Name’ gets the Staple treatment too, making it their own. Once again it’s a jump into the future with a big nod to the past. Standouts for me include the aforementioned ‘Rebel Down’ and ‘When I Call Your Name’. ‘Ska To The Beat’ is infectious and defies you to not move your feet. “Way of Life’ is saying it how it is, a word to the haters, and the album closes with ‘Woulda, Coulda Shoulda’, with toasting by the legend Daddy Woody.

It’s a glorious piece of latter day Ska. Listen to it as you work, play it in the car, but best of all, put it on full blast in your living room and Skank to the Rebel Down beat.

The couple along with Roddy Byers will be signing copies of their new album at Coventry’s HMV on Saturday September 29 at 12pm.

Access is granted on a ‘first come first served’ basis with a purchase of the album from HMV Coventry on the day of the event, up to store capacity.

Sheryl McClean

Anyone who has ever seen Coventry band The Session would have no doubt been impressed by the incredible vocals and stage presence of their female vocalist Sheryl McClean.

Well, she has been doing a touch of moonlighting of late, singing live with Tom Grennan on Soccer AM on Sky 1 to an audience of over 215,000 people. Followed by some live gigs with Tom supporting James Blunt no less. Well deserved.

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