London Intl Ska Festival 2012 Update: Los Granadians Added

THIS JUST IN! London International Ska Festival 2012 announces latest band to be added to the show is Spain’s leading early reggae hitmakers Los Granadians making a very rare exclusive UK performance. This is one of the bands that would make me travel for sure.

Despite their young age as a band, just ten years on the road, the Granadians have influenced new artists from Europe, Mexico and South America, evoking in them a curiosity for so far unknown musical styles, and even inspiring the creation of bands directly playing versions of their songs. So much so that very shortly we’ll have the pleasure to find some “Tribute to the Granadians“ album in the market.

The Granadians have been surprisingly successful all over very different stages, going far beyond the “revival“ 60’s Reggae scene of which they are considered pioneers. Singing all their songs in Spanish, they’ve headlined festivals in many different parts of the world, their music has been used for radio campaigns and tv advertisements.

Further than that, the group also have enjoyed playing live, recording or producing records for some of their Jamaican idols from the 60’s such as Dennis Alcapone, Derrick Morgan and Dave Barker.

In their own words: ‘We love Jamaican music from the sixties, especially Rocksteady and Reggae, but we don’t define ourselves as interpreters of Jamaican music. Back in the day, tons of reggae tracks were recorded in England by English artists… as well as in other parts of the world, like Mexico, Argentina and Spain… and there were some pretty interesting Rocksteady and Reggae tracks being produced out there. We consider ourselves closer in spirit to these Hispanic and English bands that adapted such rhythms than to the original Jamaican artists. And we are also very interested in Rock and Roll culture, (especially from the sixties) and its relationship with other things like Sci-Fi movies and, well, anything that exudes original Rock and Roll attitude. Rocksteady and Reggae provide the format for expressing our ideas only because they¹re our favorite rhythms from that era’.

Here is a video for Los Granadians’ “Le Fiebre”