Ska’d by the music
(story of the Symarip)
I earn a living from commissioned video production work, teaching
media studies and running audio-visual workshops. But very occasionally I pursue a labour of
love. A film I feel compelled to make whatever the outcome, process or financial
backing. Such a film has had my, somewhat divided, yet consistent attention since
2012.
Ska’d by the music is the story of the Symarip, (also known
as The Bees, Seven Letters, the Pyramids and Zubaba). I first heard their music
many years ago in the late 1970s and early 80s, following the Two-Tone revival of
Ska music in the UK.
I think some people might expect a documentation of recorded
gigs and maybe something about the band. If that is the case you will be
disappointed, what I wanted to highlight is how significant they were at
capturing a moment in time.What I found so fascinating about them was the audience they
attracted. Not the first group of black musicians to appeal to a predominantly
white audience. But this was different, they were appealing to the Council
Estate kids.
The Jamaican kids, alienation and lack of opportunities,
were being echoed in white working class teenagers. It’s a complicated subject
and that was why I felt a desire to address it.
The establishment branding these two groups separately as a
problem. Found themselves becoming increasingly uncomfortable at the now common
ground these teenagers found in each other.
They were working in the same factories, going to the same
clubs and dance halls. Sharing and exchanging music and culture, it doesn't
take a huge leap to see where the parallels were drawn and connection were
made.
The 1960s were offering a period of change, although
perhaps a little more progressive in some areas than others. Looking at film
and music culture during this period, we get some indication of attitudes of the
time.
In the UK, earlier in the 1960s for example, we can see
reactions to films like a 'Taste of Honey' (dealing with mix-race relationships
and having a gay character in the storyline).
Warwickshire County Council had banned the film ' Saturday
Night Sunday Morning’. The distributors at the time had been concerned. They
saw a problem with a film in which the working classes were portrayed as
leading an active sex life!
We only have to watch some of those TV programmes dealing
with attitudes in the 1960s and 70s to see that however far you feel we need to
go as a society, we have come a long way since then.
Symarip in terms of the music they produced, the audiences
that followed them needed to be documented. Both as a reflection of music and
fashion, but also I believe as a consideration of social and economic history
of the time.
of the time.
Anybody who remembers seeing the response to the ‘Sex Pistols’
and Punk in general in the press and on TV, will remember how paranoid the authorities
were. So if we take that to some eight years earlier. Those of us
not around, or too young to remember. We can only imagine, what the responses
must have been like to this group of young Jamaican Rude-boys. The nervousness
and snobbery of the powers that be, escalating into something else.
Symarip were not overtly political, but they were making
changes in their own way. They did not
discriminate what colour their girlfriends were. They engaged with white
working class teenagers following a skinhead fashion. On a knife-edge, it would
only take one thing to push those in power to start banning the group, songs
and any performances. Of course the inevitable happened, overzealous teenagers
smashing up furniture was all that was needed. Songs were banned by the clubs,
BBC and the Mecca ballrooms. . .
Ska’d by the music (story of the Symarip) released January 2018
