The “Original Rude Boy” is preparing to kick off his season of summer shows with a performance at a charity festival near Worksop.
Former Specials star Neville Staple is the headline act at Mac-Stock, a two-day event at the Black Market, Warsop, raising money for Macmillan Cancer Relief in memory of Roy Parker, father of festival organiser Graham – Roy died from cancer in 2010.
Neville says: “We have got tonnes of festivals lined up – the more the merrier. e just love doing festivals both and intimate venues.
“With festivals, you get to play in front of a lot of people who maybe gae just heard the music, but not seen someone from the band.”
And Neville says his driving force is to see people enjoying themselves. “I don’t do it seriously,” he says.
“If I see the crowd enjoying themselves, it’s enjoyable for me.
I tell them ‘I’m older than you, you should be dancing, not me’, It’s like that, we laugh and joke on stage.”
It is this fun which Neville says was missing when The Specials reformed in 2008 – he quit the band again in 2013.
“The fun was lacking in it,” he says.
“When I was in the US for 10 years I had my own band, this is like having my own band again.
“I like to jump around and climb things, just to make it exciting, I run across speakers and have fun.
“I like to bring the excitement to it, have the crowd wondering ‘when he going to go up, where’s he going to go next’,”
Neville shot to fame with The Specials who enjoyed a string of hits in the late 1970s, including Free Nelson Mandela, Rat Race and A Message to You, Rudy, as well as number ones Too Much Too Young and Ghost Town.
The band split in 1984, reformed in 1996, split again in 2001, before reforming again in 2008.
Neville, however, is happy fronting his own band, although he has no problem performing Specials songs.
“We get that there are people there for the music,” he says, “people who have loved the music for years and years, who have grown up with it.
“I like to see people enjoying themselves.
“We perform a mix of stuff. Everytime I do a gig, the audience have got to hear Ghost Town, Message to You, all the favourites, plus we’ll do some of my own stuff and some old ska.”
And despite his age – Neville is 61 next month – he has no plans to give up.
“The crowd’s energy sees us through. That’s what I feed off and that’s what the band feed off.
“People tell me that I shouldn’t jump around like I used to, but I’m still doing it, still enjoying it.
I will keep going as long as a I can.
“It’s not really a job, I enjoy it, it’s something I like and I like to see the crowd happy,”
Mac-Stock is at The Black Market, Worksop, on Friday and Saturday, March 25-26. For details, visit Mac-Stock on Facebook.
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