Two Barnsley acts are taking part in a unique musical project to raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust. Already being touted as potential saviours of the UK metal scene, Servers along with Barnsley punk legends System of Hate are both covering classic tracks by Madness for a forthcoming charity compilation album.
Launched in 2011, and the creation of Paul Williams, an admin of The Specials’ fansite, Specialized – Mad Not Cancer is a series of albums, concerts and festivals. The Specials themselves had played a prestigious gig at The Royal Albert Hall in aid of the charity Teenage Cancer Trust so Paul put his love of 2-Tone and The Specials together with the idea of somehow doing a charity project to raise money for TCT, and the project of a charity album of Specials covers by modern day artists, not just ska bands but from all differing genres was born.
The project took off at an alarming speed, with a. 40 track double CD evolved, with album artwork by Williams and original 2-Tone designer John Teflon, a 20 date tour around the UK (including a superb one off special in Australia). 2012 saw a 3 day festival take place in Dorset and 2013 saw Specialized 2- Beat Teenage Cancer released. This time round, bands paid homage to 2-tone legends The Beat. 2014 and Specialized 3 sees stalwarts of UK music and 2Tone legends MADNESS take centre stage, with an incredible 70 acts covering Madness classics. Already this year, Specialized has raised £22,000 this year, and an amazing £50,000 in the last 18 months. Hopefully, both Servers and System of Hate will help push that figure even higher.
On the album, Servers cover Love Struck, originally released in 1999 and taken from the album ‘Wonderful’. Lee Storrar, then band’s frontman said, ‘ it was hard work but it’s for a great cause. It fact I’ve religiously donated to Cancer Trust every month for 15 years now. It was a no brainer when we were asked to take part.’ I told him their take on the Madness song sounded a little like The Doors. ‘Any doors comparison is fine by me’, he said.
Pat Crawford, guitarist with System of Hate said, ‘Graham asked us if we fancied doing a Madness track for Specialized and that it was for Teenage Cancer Trust. Everybody was totally up for it. We got given Stepping Into Line to cover and none of us knew it. Apparently it was a b-side of My Girl. We all had a listen and our jaws all dropped with its speed and fast paced vocals. We were thinking how the hell we gonna do this? Martin laid down a basic template for the whole track with a drum machine and keyboards. Mr Andy blower, a friend of the band, added some saxophone to give it a bit of the Madness feel. To be honest, Martin has worked his socks off on this track the result is mostly down to his hard work. What was a difficult task, has turned out fantastic. It basically gave us a challenge and I believe we are a better band from the whole experience.
Barnsley born Graham Lambert, is artist liaison and Representation at specializedproject.co.uk and organises gigs in Camden, the home of Madness. ‘I really wanted to get some bands involved from my home town, so to get Servers and System on board is fantastic.’
You can keep up to date with the Specialized 3 project by following the facebook page and visiting the website.
https://www.facebook.com/specialized3madnotcancer
http://www.specializedproject.co.uk/
You can follow both Servers and System of Hate via these facebook links:
https://www.facebook.com/ServersUkhttps://www.facebook.com/systemofhate
The full list of artists and songs appearing on the album is now as follows:
The Resonations – 1978
The Klank (USA) – Baggy Trousers
King Hammond – Bed & Breakfast Man
Skoisters – Benny Bullfrog
Billy Brown & Amelia Scalies – Blue Skinned Beast
Darren Fordham & UPforitNESS – Burning The Boats
The Feckin Ejits – Cardiac Arrest
Ska’Lett – Crying Shame
Spahni Dub Dancers (Switzerland) – Death of a Rude Boy
Bombskare – Deceives the Eye
Swagga – Dont Quote Me On That
The Simmertones – Drip Fed Fred
Rude Boy George (USA) – Driving In My car
Indeed (France) – Burning The Boats
The Bighead – Embarrasssment
Special Brew – Forever Young
The Humanitarians – Grey Day
Andrew Crayford – The Harder They Come
Cartoon Violence – House Of Fun
The Originals- If You Lose A Good Thing
The Evil Turkeys – In The City
The Bionic Rats (Rep of Ireland) – In The Rain
Dirty Revolution – It Must Be Love
Big Fat Panda – Johnny The Horse
Sound Syndicate (Spain) – Return Of the Los Palmas 7
Servers – Lovestruck
Urang Matang ft. Big Jim Paterson – Madness (Nutty Mix)
The Service – Rise & Fall
Chas ‘n’ Jane – Madness is all in the mind
The Values (ft.Neil Innes & Bedders)- Madness ( Unlimited Version )
The Spritely Allstars – Misery
The Rough Kutz – Mistakes
Missing Andy – My Girl
Matt TMY ft.Horace Panter – My Girl2
Bim Skala Bim (USA) – Nightboat To Cairo
Maddy Carty – NW5
Esperanza – On The Town
Bluebird Parade – One Better Day
Kingston Ska Orchestra – One Step Beyond
The Crabs Corporation (Argentina) – The Opium Eaters
Specialized Collective – Our House
Auto- Prospects
The Hotknives – Razor Blade Alley
LP6 – Shame & Scandal
The Crooners (Germany) – Shut Up
System Of Hate – Stepping into line
The Amphetameanies – The Sun and the Rain
Rocket Punch (Phillipines) – Swan Lake
Addictive Philosophy – Take It or Leave It
The Communicators – Tarzans Nuts
Ed Rome – The Prince
Martin Black – The Wizard
French Boutik (France) – Tiptoes
The Funaddicts (Australia) – Tomorrows Just Another Day
Tom Bright – In The Middle of the Night
Kingsize – Waiting for the Ghost Train
Erin Bardwell Collective – Wings of a Dove
The Iconics – You said
Ska Face – The Young and the Old
The Smoggers – Youre wonderful
Ska Dogs – Uncle Sam
Cabstars – Rockin in A flat
Onex & Trax – Never Knew Your Name
Porky Poet Ft. Terry Edwards – Keep Moving
Mr B. – E.R.N.I.E.
Thierry Arnold – Patience
The Inflatables – Believe Me
Sumudu – Sarah’s Song
Matt Neal ft.Horace Panter – My Girl 2
Theatre Of Ghosts – Walking With Mr Wheeze
Alternative Barnsley 