THE STORY OF THE CLASH & THE SPECIALS

England, late seventies. Punk and ska begin to overlap. Jamaican ska and reggae collide with the urgency of punk, and by 1978 and 1979 The Clash and The Specials are moving through the same musical and cultural landscape. Different bands, different sounds, but sharing the same sense that music could say something about the world outside the venue as well as move the people inside it.

On Friday 11 December, that connection returns to the stage when Black Market Clash and More Specials bring The Story Of The Clash & The Specials to Sooki Lounge.

Black Market Clash play The Story Of The Clash, going beyond a greatest-hits set and deep into the catalogue. London Calling, Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Rock The Casbah and I Fought The Law sit alongside Straight To Hell, Safe European Home, Janie Jones, Police & Thieves, The Guns Of Brixton and (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais.

For this show, Black Market Clash also bring a three-piece horn section onto the stage, opening up another part of The Clash catalogue. We’ve looked, and we haven’t found another dedicated Clash tribute anywhere in the world currently performing this music with its own horn section. We don’t think even The Clash themselves ever took a complete brass section onstage to reproduce the arrangements heard on songs such as Rudie Can’t Fail and Revolution Rock.

The horns are only part of the night. Rest assured, there will still be a lot of punk rock.

More Specials takes on one of the great catalogues of Britain’s Two Tone movement. Created by members of Loonee Tunes, Australia’s longest-running regularly performing ska band, the musicians behind More Specials have lived and breathed ska for more than forty years.

A Message To You, Rudy, Gangsters, Too Much Too Young, Concrete Jungle, Rat Race, Ghost Town, Do Nothing, Nite Klub, Stereotype and more. More Specials combines the songs everyone knows with deeper album tracks, driven by tight rhythms, horns and that unmistakable Specials ska pulse.

Through Loonee Tunes, these musicians have shared stages with Bad Manners and From The Jam, played major festivals and venues around Australia, and built more than four decades of experience performing ska live.

And this double header isn’t a regular thing.

The last time Black Market Clash and More Specials brought The Story Of The Clash & The Specials together, at Brunswick Ballroom in June, the show sold out.

Now they bring it to Sooki Lounge for one Friday night in Belgrave.

Two bands. The music of The Clash and The Specials. Punk, ska, reggae, horns and a packed catalogue of songs.

Don’t miss it.

📽 Watch Video: https://youtu.be/pi7QdGSvYLI