Rocksteady Essential

Honestly, who hasn’t heard of the Paragons. If you’re part of the mod, skinhead or suedehead subcultures we’ll be honest: you have no excuse. The group responsible for giving both Bob Andy and John Holt their start in the music business, the Paragons put out one of the biggest and most recognizable tunes in Jamaican music history: The Tide Is High. It’s been sampled, or the lyrics borrowed, by many a mainstream musician that you have to hope it’s led to at least a few people tracking down the original. Their “On The Beach” album is a rocksteady classic and absolutely essential to any collection and was our own personal baptism too the sweet, sweet sounds of rocksteady. So if you don’t already own it, pick up a copy and if you do put it on once more and remember just how good these cats are.

Bert Sugar RIP

On Sunday evening another individual who made up a large part of boxing history passed away. Bert Sugar was a vivacious character with an absolute ravenous appetite for the sweet science. Cigars might be the only thing the cat liked more. Owner of Boxing Illustrated and one time editor of the sports bible, The Ring, Bert output as a writer was enormous. We’d go as far as to say he served as one of the biggest faces of the sport while never participating in the ring. He appeared in countless movies, documentaries and interviews about the sport of boxing. He was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. Bert’s life was boxing. Although it was not all that held his interest as his output relating to baseball, professional wrestling and even Houdini can attest. But few men have stamped their own legend on the sport, and even fewer yet did so as a journalist. He served, and will continue to serve, as a major inspiration to us. And above all Bert was a character. Not a guy trying to be a character, an honest to god character who lived his life the way he wanted. We can’t possibly sum up all of Bert’s accomplishments, mention all his writing or really give justice to just how important he was to boxing so we’ll leave it at this: we’ll miss ya Bert.

Chelsea Shed Boys Part Deux

Those famed Chelsea Shed boys again.

Waffle Knit Cardigans

Have a great weekend, from For The Suits. And if you have a spare one of these waffle knit cardigans, send it our way.

Stinky Turner on his Boxing Career

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Wonderful clip of Cockney Rejects frontman, Jeff “Stinky Turner” Geggus, discussing his boxing career on Bunce’s Boxing Hour. His love and admiration for the sweet science shines through as he talks about it and its incredible to hear about seven British Schoolboy boxing champions growing up on the same street. That’s the East End for ya, we suppose.

Weekend Preview: 23/03/12

If there’s one theme running throughout many of the fights going on this weekend, the one which keeps popping up is a need to prove oneself. Whether that is done through continuing a rise to the top of your division, in the case of Diego Magdaleno, or re-establishing yourself as one of the best in your division, in the case of Zab Judah, or simply reminding people you are just as good as you were once thought to be, in the case of James Kirkland, the boxing ring provides no better an opportunity to do so. Life is black and white once you step into that ring. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, you need to stand toe to toe with your opponent if you want to prove yourself. Judges may be able to skew a decision in your favour, but what you cannot have influenced by any other outside factor is what the fans see and the opinions your performance leads them to form about your ability.

Erik and Manny

In anticipation for our weekend preview, to be posted tomorrow evening, we figured we’d give you a great picture. You likely know the fella on the right, Manny Pacquaio. He’s sort of a big deal nowadays. Who you might not know, but we really hope you do, is Erik “El Terrible” Morales. He’s in the main event on HBO this weekend and happens to be one of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time. His trilogies with Pacquaio and compatriot Marco Antonio Barrera are legendary. Morales is a Mexican fighter personified. And one of our favorite fighters. Guess who we’re rooting for on Saturday?

Kingstonians on Caltone

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To get you a little more excited for that Caltone compilation, here’s one of our favorite tracks on it. Been a top tune for us for awhile now, as is most of the Kingstonians output to be honest. Lovely Jackie Bernard lead vocal accompanied with the great harmony provided by brother Lloyd Bernard and Radcliffe Bryan. Too sweet.

Joe Calzaghe, Legend

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With the recent string of disappointments UK based fighters are coming off in fights taking place in America, we needed some cheering up as we’re sure you do. Darren Barker and Matthew Macklin both gave very impressive performances in respective losses to current Middleweight king, Sergio Martinez, showcasing a never say die and fight to the end mentality that seems to be bred into every English boxer. One fight we would love to see though is the subject of this documentary, Joe Calzaghe, matched up with Sergio Martinez. Although clearly only a dream, and likely happening at a catchweight, it would be interesting none the less. Joe, as is often the case with pugilists from the UK, still to this day does not get the respect he truly deserves in North America although he did everything he could to change that perception. But this documentary does well to showcase the legend of Calzaghe and make it crystal clear he was one of the best ever in his weight class. Hopefully a few readers will gain a new found respect for Joe because of it, or be remembered why you thought Joe was one of the best.

Lee Perry

Certainly one of the most, shall we say, interesting figures in the Jamaican music industry “The Upsetter” is celebrating his birthday today. Lee Perry begun his long and storied journey through music business selling records alongside another legendary figure, Prince Buster, for Studio One label owner Coxsone Dodd. Over time Perry started proving himself very helpful around the Studio One studios and eventually began to produce tunes for Dodd. But, as was to become a theme in Perry’s career, he ended up falling out with Dodd over money and the little issue of Dodd thinking Perry was a little bit “off” in the head. So Perry left and joined Joe Gibbs Amalgamated label, where many credit him for creating the famed rocksteady sound debuted in Roy Shirley’s hit “Hold Them”. Although the track is credited to Gibbs, it’s a safe bet Perry had more than a little bit to do with the track. Perry decided in 1968 he didn’t like Gibbs too much anymore and left to create his own label, Upsetter, and record “People Funny Boy” a tune recorded to badmouth Gibbs. And, along with “Nanny Goat” by Larry Marshall, it happens to be credited as one of the first examples of the reggae sound. This was only the start of a incredible run for Perry as he went on to record some absolute monster skinhead instrumentals with his Upsetters house band, consisting of cats like Gladstone Anderson, Glen Adams and Alva Lewis. Their “Return of Django” single hit number 5 on the UK charts near the end of 1969, certainly helped on by their popularity with skinheads. It was far from the only big tune for the Upsetter label, as Perry put out a number of huge tunes on the label throughout the early 70’s before going on to once again create a new sound, this time dub. Happy birthday, Scratch.

Piece of History

Any proper stylist needs to thank West Ham supporters for the introduction of tipping on the collars of the Fred Perry polo shirt. First introduced in 1957, tipping on the collar was at the behest of Hammers supporters insisting to the department store Lilywhites that it be added. Lilywhites approached Fred Perry and the rest was history. You’re welcome.

Weekend Preview: 10/03/12

Did you check out the video we posted of last year’s fight between Juan Manuel Lopez and Orlando Salido yet? If not, go do that before we even begin. You need to understand how great of a fight that was and that you should be extremely excited for the rematch.

Classic Brutus Remake

Celebrated shirtmaker Brutus has yet another great shirt available for pre-order today. The shirt in question also happens to be an exact remake of one originally put out in 1969. So most can probably figure out exactly why we’d be excited about it, while everyone else just needs to realize it’s a great shirt. A click on the picture will bring you through to the Brutus site. You’re welcome.

For The Suits. Quarterly

We’ve got some exciting news: we’re putting out our first ever printed zine at the end of March. That’s right: the end of this month. We’ve decided to do a quarterly printed zine compiling some of our favorite stuff posted on the site as well as exclusive content to entice you cats to get the printed issue. We’ll be featuring some of our favorite boxer and music profiles, our profile on Jason Hue of Thick as Thieves, a label retrospective on Pama’s “Unity” label and a feature on boxing’s famed “Black Murderers Row”. And a few other suprises. Contact us if interested.

Salido's Proving Ground

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In anticipation for a highly anticipated rematch happening this weekend, here’s one of last years best fights: Juan Manuel Lopez versus Orlando Siri Salido. Weekend preview coming soon, highlighting not only this exciting rematch but also Mikey Garcia’s fight on the undercard and Ricky Burns fight in the UK as he continues on his journey to be ranked among the best boxers in the lightweight division.

Skinhead Revolt

This may be one of our favorite skinhead reggae albums of all time. Sure there has been better skinhead reggae compilations done since, but personally this was the first skinhead reggae LP we ever purchased and an introduction to many of our favorites to this very day. Pat Kelly is probably the star of this, but we are certainly biased towards vocalists so it might be different for you. But if you can’t love tracks like “Dark End of the Street” and “If It Don’t Work Out” you likely suffered brain damage at some point. Other classics include the title track by Joe The Boss and “Reggae Girl” by the Tennors. If you don’t have this yet, buy it. You won’t regret it.

Henri's Wonder Goal

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Henri Lansbury, current Hammer on loan from Arsenal, scored a wonder goal for England’s under-21 side against Belgium. It’s the first goal in the highlights. Spectacular, whether he meant it or not.