Part I

As the Blackpool Ray Perez and  I, started off by producing/promoting/throwing parties in backyards, soon after a few backyard,  junkyard gigs I was turned on to the Hong Kong low by shortbus productions’ Jason Faulk . The rent was cheap, it was an all ages venue that had a full bar. It had 2 floors, the bottom was a restaurant and the top, a decked out banquet room with a small stage and checkered dance floor. I did all the sound, and Ray took care of the bookings and security.

We started working out of there for about a year and a half, We were also booking bigger shows at venues like Leonardos in Huntington Park, and Hollywood Moguls during this time. During the period of 1992-1994 at the Hong Kong and other spots were putting show together at, I would record some of these bands that were fairly unknown outside the L.A Ska scene.

A few of these recordings were the beginning of the Blackpools Skampilation series. 3 cassettes and 2 7″ on 3 volumes, all live. It was never set up as turning into a label, but one thing lead to another, and I started putting together Skauthentic. About this time in early 1995, Ray and I split up, he got busy with family life and I officially had launched Steady Beat Recordings.

I found wider distribution with the help of Darryl Rubio, the stiff dog. He ran stiff dog records and had just finished putting together “SKACA” a bunch of ska-punk bands comp. He worked at Tower and had all the connex.  So I also became a distributor of sorts for other bands moving their product and funneled all that through the distribution channels.

Jason Faulk pops into the picture again and turns me on to Las Palmas Theatre, we book one of the biggest shows in a while, Jump with Joey, Hepcat, Lets Go Bowling, Yeska, The Dynamics, it was a sell out. Some of this bread would be used for studio time for the  Skauthentic disc. In the next few months  I started moving Mobtown and Ocean 11 discs.

Things were cooking and I started chartering buses to take the party to San Diego or San Francisco or Sacramento, you get the picture, “SteadyBeat Express” . A sound guy at Las Palmas Turned me on to the Whisky a go go . The 1st show there was a sell out, Yeska, Seepsot, Mobtown, The Allentons and more.

End of part 1.

Leave a Reply