The Big One 2024 in Preview Saturday 9th

Lead by Lynval Golding ‘The Specials Family’ features Specials members and the musicians that played live with the band for a number of years as well as appearing on the ‘Encore’ and ‘Protest Songs’ albums.
On the 19th March the groups released  ‘When a Light Goes Out’, featuring Lynval Goldings final performance on guitar.
This performance will be an exclusive one off and a must see for any Specials fans

King Hammond has been a Specialized ambassador throughout our existence. He’ll be back with The Rude Boy Mafia.
King Hammond (AKA Grammy award winning musician Nick Welsh). In a 4 decade career in Ska & Reggae music Nick has worked with artists like Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken, Rico Rodriguez, Dave Barker, Judge Dread, Susan Cadogan & in 2002 won a Grammy award for his work on the Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry album “Jamaican ET”. He has also been a member of The Selecter & Bad Manners as well as his own groups Big 5 & Skaville UK.

The Skapones are undeniably 2Tone influenced and lyrically and musically they follow the path tread by the likes of The Specials, The Selecter et al. They have toured extensively around the UK, Europe and have two tours of the USA under their belt. In 2019, they supported their heroes The Specials on their 40th anniversary tour and supported The Beat ft. Dave Wakeling on their 40th anniversary and recently were support to The Skatalites around the UK. 20 singles and 4 albums carries the bands discography. In 2023, they charted in the National charts with their last single “Windrush”.

Known for their hard-hitting, skank-like-you-mean-it live shows, Karl Phillips and the Rejects promise genre-bending musical madness.

Karl’s refreshingly honest lyrics test the boundaries of the human mind and the English etiquette, coming from a place most people can relate to but never dared to mention!

This vibe has carried the band from London’s legendary underground haunts to the UK’s leading music festivals such as Boomtown, Bestival and Secret Garden Party and even across Europe to Montaurock Festival in France and Latvia’s Summer Sound.

The Activators are an 11-piece band whose eclectic style transcends Ska, Reggae, Celtic, Punk and Dub, even venturing into Balkan folk and Tango! Their energy, style and liking for utter mayhem have led to them becoming regulars on the live music circuit in the UK and in Europe. As an audience member screamed at one of their Reykjavik gigs: „The Actlvators eru betri en milljón tunna af bjór!! “ They have raised the roof from Iceland to Italy, and across the UK from Tyneside to Taunton and Carlisle to Camden sharing the stage with many great acts from Jimmy Cliff to The Beat to The Skints to The Selecter to Fat Boy Slim to John Ottaway to Blossoms to Ollie Murs to Fraebbblarnir (Iceland’s finest!) to name but a few.

Big Lemon Beat are a 7 piece band from deepest darkest Somerset. If you like big beats and zesty riffs then BLB are the band for you! Their natural habitat is in fields full of music lovers wanting to dance.

Inspired by musical legends such as James Brown, Amy Winehouse, Paul Simon, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. Big Lemon Beat have crafted their unique, genre crossing sound that bleeds energy and excitement

Though still a relatively new band Newtonic have already released some impressive music videos and performed throughout the UK

Tomás Doncker cut his teeth as a guitarist with New York No Wave acts including James Chance & The Contortions, Defunkt and J. Walter Negro & The Loose Jointz among others. He is noted for touring and recording with Japanese jazz musicians Sadao Watanabe and Masabumi Kikuchi. This led to him to producing studio and songwriting sessions with Bootsy Collins, Yoko Ono, and The Itals.

Doncker has worked with artists including Madonna, Ivan Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Meshell Ndegeocello, Corey Glover of Living Colour, former Parliament Funkadelic keyboardist Amp Fiddler, Grammy winning producer/bassist Bill Laswell, Chocolate Genius, and 2016 Grammy award nominee Shemekia Copeland. His ongoing collaborations with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa have received massive critical acclaim. He has produced hundreds of records for independent musicians. He is the founder and CEO True Groove Records.

Tomas will be backed by members of The Specials Family