Neville Staple - Original Rude Boy: From Borstal to the Specials: A Life in Crime & Music

All you punks and all you teds, National Fronts and natty dreads keep on fighting til youre dead

Do the Dog The Specials

ORIGINAL

RUDE BOY

FROM BORSTAL TO THE SPECIALS

A LIFE OF CRIME AND MUSIC

NEVILLE STAPLE

WITH TONY McMAHON

FOREWORD BY PETE WATERMAN

First published in 2009
by Aurum Press Ltd, 74-77 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF

This eBook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved
Copyright Neville Staple and Tony McMahon, 2009, 2010

The right of Neville Staple and Tony McMahon to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

Photographs: p.iii, courtesy of Redferns/Getty Images; p.xi, courtesy of Pete Waterman; p.192, courtesy of UrbanImage/Adrian Boot; p.230, The Face, April 1982, courtesy of Bauer Media; p.3423, courtesy of UrbanImage/Adrian Boot

E-book conversion by CPI Group

ISBN 978 1 78131 198 1
ePub ISBN 978 1 78131 198 1
Mobi ISBN 978 1 78131 198 1

Dedicated to Katherine Brown Staple
my mother
19332008

CONTENTS

BY PETE WATERMAN

W ay back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, if youd been blessed with a crystal ball youd probably have thought it was on the blink.

Had you been able to see what the future would hold in relation to what was happening at a Coventry nightclub called the Locarno it would have stretched the imagination beyond credibility.

As a DJ at that same club, my job as I saw it was just to entertain. In truth, to me it was always about the music and involving the audience in that experience. I always searched out new sounds and ideas, and I always had a superb rapport with the audience the kids who paid to come in.

Looking back now, nearly 40 years on, I can see that in what was a relatively intolerant society, we were quite a unique little organisation and yet nobody really talked about the diverse cultures that were involved. It was just accepted.

One of the kids I befriended was this cheeky West Indian who had a twinkle in his eye, was full of mischief and was passionate about music. His enthusiasm, and ability to actually back that enthusiasm with talent, gave me the opportunity to feature him regularly on stage as a toaster and a dancer.

He was also instrumental in bringing me new sounds. Not all, as I seem to remember, were great but some tracks did become huge audience pleasers.

Later, when I joined the record industry as an A&R scout and then as a young record producer, the initial success I had actually put me off the business. I had to return to Coventry to get my feet back on the ground in the real world.

It was when I had a job on a building site that I found myself listening to the rehearsals of a punk/ska band that at the time called themselves The Automatics. Because an American band had the same name they had to change theirs and were to be known thereafter as The Specials.

I became their first manager. Once again, I found myself involved with Neville and just as he had been an asset to me as a DJ at the Locarno he was an asset to me in this new role. Nevilles involvement with The Specials was just that little bit different from the ordinary.

I remember well us all piling into a van one Sunday and going down to Berwick Street Studios where we recorded Too Much Too Young, Jay Walker and Concrete Jungle. The Specials went on to achieve amazing success and ska became a culture all of its own.

No crystal ball could have ever told from those Monday nights at the Coventry Locarno, that both Neville Staple and Pete Waterman would hitch their wagon to a star and achieve such fame we were just two rude boys in a world of wonder.

2 Tone Records/Chrysalis Records ( EMI)

2 Tone tour poster.

Neville Staple, personal collection

A s usual Id just started to have a mid-afternoon kip on the sofa round about 2pm. Years of being on the road with The Specials often touring in cramped conditions had acclimatised me to the sofa over my bed as a place to sleep. Id smoked my very large roll-up, was thoroughly chilled out and looking ahead to some gigs at the weekend.

Thats about the moment that my front door came crashing down. Nine heavily uniformed coppers charged through the opening.

Stay where you are! Do not move! My gob half-open in disbelief, I watched as the boys in blue began ripping my skirting boards off, overturning all my furniture and flashing torches into every dark corner. I had no idea what they were up to.

This yours?

Yeah The copper sniffed the small plastic bag, half full by now. its for personal use.

That didnt wash with the forces of law and order.

You have the right to remain silent And so on. After four or five hours in a police cell, the local constabulary decided that I wasnt the drugs overlord of the city of Coventry and could be safely let out on to the streets again without posing a threat to the general population.

I cursed myself on the way home that Id left an illegal substance on the coffee table. But Id been distracted the night before by three young women whod come round after a gig to keep me entertained. Theyd left some other shit on the table that was far worse than my drug of choice. I hadnt cleared any of that crap away but then I was hardly expecting the front door to come flying off its hinges.

This event didnt happen when I was in The Specials or Fun Boy Three. It happened barely a year ago.

Its symptomatic of the two sides of my character. One is the Dr Jekyll side. The public persona as the vocalist in two seminal pop bands. A face regularly seen on Top of the Pops or beaming cheekily from the front cover of Smash Hits or the NME.

The other is Mr Hyde a Neville Staple that is a creature of the streets. A man who has burgled houses, been thrown in borstal and fought skinhead gangs with knives and chains. A Jamaican-born rude boy who knew all about ska music and the feelings of frustration and anger that inspired that music long before The Specials made it the sound that kicked off the 1980s.

Its often said that there were two distinct and very different halves to The Specials. A well-educated art school set versus the uncouth rude boys. Those rude boys were me and my two buddies Trevor Evans and Rex Griffiths, who were officially the bands roadies but really my mates and in Trevors case a fellow borstal inmate.