A Story With A Happy Ending

The year was 1981. My boyfriend at that time, Jim Shelby, was working at Odyssey Records on Lighthouse Ave. in New Monterey. Consequently, I spent a lot of time hanging out there. One day while perusing the racks, I came across an album which was a soundtrack to a movie called Dance Craze. It looked like it might be good, so I bought it. Little did I know that album would change my life.

It introduced me to ska music. The English Beat, The Specials, Madness, and many others. Pretty soon I was buying every ska album I could get my hands on, which was easy because nobody else in Monterey, California was buying them. It took me a while to convert my friends, and even then I had limited success. I would drag them to Beat and Specials shows in San Francisco or Santa Cruz. Ska music became as much a part of my identity as my blue eyes or ever changing palette of hair colors back then.

Ska is the music that steered me away from Led Zeppelin. Enough said.
(But I still love me some Zep.)

Anyway, it's 27 years later and I'm a grownup (on the outside) and a parent and life goes on. I have responsibilities and routines because that's what grownups and parents have.

But on Wednesday, I get to go back in time for an evening. You see, The English Beat is coming to Spokane. I already have my tickets. And I am taking my son Max. We both get to be 18 for a little while.

So if you live up here and want to be happy for a night, go see The English Beat on Wednesday at the Big Easy. You will not be sorry.


I'm still trying to convert people!