Listen: Hiawatha / The Belle Stars
Hiawatha / The Belle Stars
I guess Two Tone spawned The Belle Stars. Never in all my years, until tonight, did it hit me that ‘Hiawatha’ is based on a ska beat. Having formed off the back of The Bodysnatchers demise, it’s with fondness I recall seeing them for the first time at Dingwalls, with Madness and The Selecter and God knows who ruling the Camden Town in crowd roost. The lineage becomes pretty clear. Only took thirty years to dawn on me.
And if memory serves me well, it was Naomi on WNYU’s New Afternoon Show, who played the grooves off ‘Hiawatha’ around Christmas of ’81. This weather brings that all right back.