Rico on Railton Road
Rico Rodriguez, the great Jamaican ska trombonist, has died this week at the age of 80. In the UK he's best known for his work with The Specials, including playing on 1981's Ghost Town. The record famously reached number one in the week of the July riots that swept the country that year, and was actually recorded in the week of the first Brixton riot in April 1981 - a precursor to the long hot summer that was to come. The song's lyrics seemed to have anticipated the uprisings with its lines 'This place, is coming like a ghost town, No job to be found in this country, Can't go on no more, The people getting angry'. Even the video seemed with hindsight to refer to rioting, with the band throwing stones - though into the Thames at Rotherhithe rather than at the police. During the Brixton riot, The George - a pub with a racist reputation on the corner of Railton Road and Effra Parade -was burnt down. A new pub, Mingles, was built to replace it and unlike its p...