Ska pioneers The Skatalites promise to bring the party to Hong Kong

Watching an important and influential band perform live usually involves a degree of chin-stroking reverence, and perhaps more appreciation than actual enjoyment. There’s no danger of that with The Skatalites.

The Jamaican band basically invented ska, the genre that emerged in the 1960s and began the lineage that led to rocksteady, reggae, dub, dancehall and raggamuffin – but go and see them live and what you will have is a massive party.

“Every song has its own energy,” says the band’s keyboard player and manager, Ken Stewart. “People start moving from the first note, and they don’t stop. Even if we play for two hours, they still want more.”

That was certainly the effect the band had when they rocked the main stage at Hong Kong’s Clockenflap open-air music festival last year, and there’s another chance to see them in Hong Kong when they play at the Hang Out centre in Sai Wan Ho on October 4.

The Skatalites formed in Jamaica in 1964; their name reflects the widespread fascination with space travel at the time. The 10-member band was a kind of supergroup of Jamaica’s finest musicians, including saxophonists Roland Alphonso and Tommy McCook, bassist Lloyd Brevett and drummer Lloyd Knibb, assisted by legendary producer Coxsone Dodd. Their reputation certainly went before them: so many people turned up to watch their first rehearsal that they decided to charge admission and turn it into a gig.