Buster’s back and he’s as Bad as ever

Bad Manners, The Rainbow Rooms, Swansea

WE DON’T know if you’ve ever tried doing the Can Can in a pair of 18-hole Doc Martins but, suffice to say, it’s advisable you try doing some stretching first.

Failure to take such necessary precautions is likely to result in you walking about like that time when, as a child, you fell asleep on a lilo off the coast of Portugal and got badly sunburned behind the knees.

And, let us be very clear, that’s not an attractive look for anyone to be sporting, summer or no summer.

But, provided you’re sensible about it then there’s nothing at all wrong with dancing like a loon to the legendary ska sounds of a British musical institution like Bad Manners.

Led by the irrepressible, wild and formerly 31-stone Buster Bloodvessel, a man almost as gargantuan as his onstage persona, they’ve more than 40 years worth of performing behind them and a reputation as a magnificent live band.

Once banned from Top of the Pops for their OTT exploits, the group – formed in North London in 1976 – are very much indelibly inked on the brains of anyone growing up in the ’80s.

Regulars on notorious kids’ show Tiswas, they became a huge youth favourite notching up 11 Top 20 hits courtesy of the likes of Lip Up Fatty, The Can-Can, Lorraine, Special Brew and My Girl Lollipop.

This merry troupe of ska troubadours have maintained a punishing live schedule after all this time and deserve their billing as “the hardest working band on the planet”.

Intrinsically British, Bad Manners are about partying, having a good time, not taking yourself too seriously and they always offer plenty of unbridled entertainment and energetic fun.

Buster may be a lot thinner now – doctor’s orders, so the story goes – but he’s still larger than life, as is the music.

Bad Manners play The Rainbow Rooms in Swansea on Thursday, August 24. For more information, call 07763 000382.