Following the release of her stunning reggae & dub versions of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World”to celebrate what would have been his 75th birthday last month, 2 Tone & Bodysnatchers vocalist Rhoda Dakar has announced an eight-date UK tour for March 2022 (her first live tour in almost five years).
Rhoda will be treating fans to a set of classics from across her whole career, as well as previewing songs from her forthcoming brand new album (due out via Sunday Best Recordings later in 2022).
Full list of March 2022 UK live dates is as follows;
Wed 2 March Liverpool – The Cavern
Thu 3 March Newcastle – The Cluny
Fri 4 March Glasgow Cathouse
Sat 5 March Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms
Fri 11 March Bradford Sally Brown’s
Sat 12 March Birmingham Night Owl
Fri 18 March London – The 100 Club
Fri 25 March Shrewsbury Albert’s Shed
Rhoda Dakar began her musical career as lead vocalist with all-female 2 Tone band The Bodysnatchers. In 1980 they released two classic songs of the 2 Tone era, “Let’s Do Rock Steady” and “Easy Life.”
After a year together they split and Rhoda went on to guest with The Specials in Europe and the USA, having featured on their second album, ‘More Specials’, for which she won the first of her seven gold records. After their demise, and before joining Jerry Dammers’ new project The Special AKA, she recorded The Bodysnatchers’ first original song, “The Boiler,” a harrowing tale of date rape, which was inevitably banned.
The Special AKA spent the next two years recording the ‘In The Studio’ album, which spawned a Top 10 hit in the vital, era-defining “Free Nelson Mandela.”
In recent years, Rhoda has recorded the lost 2 Tone album ‘Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers’ as well as working with musicians including Madness, Dub Pistols and Dr. Robert (of the Blow Monkeys).
More recently, Rhoda has inked a brand new record deal with Sunday Best Recordings who have just released her stunning reggae & dub covers of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World.” Listen to the single HERE
It is a passionate tribute to one of her all-time favourite musicians – one who had a profound effect on her when she first saw him on TV; “I was bewitched by seeing Bowie perform “Starman” on Top Of The Pops,”Rhoda recalls. “I was 12 going on 13 and thereafter he held sway over all my teenage years. Friendships, music, clothes, attitudes – all were influenced forever. It’s hard to choose, but “The Man Who Sold The World” is one of my favourite Bowie albums.” Adding, “There had been the traditional reggae version of the title track back in the day, but the vocals lacked commitment, so we thought we’d do a proper, modern version.”
Whilst “The Man Who Sold The World” has been covered many times by artists as diverse as Lulu, Midge Ure and Nirvana, the track has never been given a committed reggae treatment. Rhoda’s version of the song was recorded at Perry Vale Studios in London and produced by guitarist Lenny Bignell, who has worked with almost every legacy reggae artist. A low, rumbling bassline by Andi McLean accompanies a laidback groove by drummer Marley Drummond and a bluesy harmonica solo outro by Joff Watkins. LA’s Roger Rivas, hailed by many (including The Specials’ Lynval Golding) as the world’s best reggae keyboard player rounds things off to perfectly soundtrack one of the best vocal performances of Rhoda’s career to date.
In a classic rock’n’roll cosmic twist, Marley Drummond is the great grandson of acclaimed Jamaican trombonist Don Drummond (The Skatalites) – Don taught Rhoda’s old friend & 2 Tone Records compadre Rico Rodriguez to play at Kingston’s Alpha Boys School.
“The Man Who Sold The World” is the second in a series of five 7” singles, all mastered by dubstep pioneer Jason Goz at Transition Mastering – each b/w dub versions – which will be released upfront of Rhoda’s new album (due in autumn 2022). Each 7” single sleeve will be exclusively designed by renowned Sheffield artist Pete McKee.
Coinciding with the release of the new single, Rhoda recently joined revered multi-instrumentalist Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey, The Blockheads, Madness) and a group of exceptional musicians to play live at his ‘Bowie + Beyond’ (covering the period 1977-1980) nights at Pizza Express, Holborn.
