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The Dixo Wankers were a Dutch 2 Tone era Ska band.

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The Dixo Wankers were a Dutch 2 Tone era Ska band.

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The Ska-Dows name came about as a play on the name of the late 1950’s Rock/Surf group “The Shadows” from whom the Ska-Dows covered this song (Apache) for their first single release. The Ska-dows are just one of many groups to have covered this classic tune and it has become the most sampled Hip-Hop beat after the Sugar Hill Gang covered the Incredible Bongo Band’s version of Apache (see Wikipedia’s history of Apache).

I know that this record was released previously on Cheapskate Records in either 1979 0r 80 before this WEA version came out.

Sugar Hill’s Version of “Apache”

My personal favorite version of “Apache”

I had read somewhere once that the album cover for Ghost Town was taken from an old postcard. Interestingly, this image had already been used for a children’s spooky sound effects record put out by Soma Records years before the 2 Tone release.

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       This album exemplifies what I love about collecting Ska records. I might not dig the cheesy repetitive Synthesizer on “Babe, Don’t You Know The Ska” but I do love the D.I.Y. ethos put behind this hand drawn cover and insert art. This release in 1981 from Italy goes to prove the influence that the English 2 Tone movement had over all the world at the time. It’s always nice to discover bands from this period doing Ska music besides the usual suspects (Special, Madness, Bad Manners, etc…).
       This obscure band is particularly intriguing being that they are from Italy yet the B side of this single contains the track “Michigan” and they sing about all sorts of other U.S. States they don’t want to visit because they want to go to Michigan for some reason?

Rico Text Here