From The Specials Band

Sugary Staple

Christine SUGARY STAPLE, is a Singer, Songwriter, Actor, Events & Entertainments All-Rounder, the pivotal creator & founder of the much celebrated Skamouth Festival, and a Fund-Raising Extraordinaire. Sugary fronts the From The Specials Band beside lead singer and husband Neville Staple, the Original Rude Boy, plus writes and produces songs. She also manages Neville and the band, including organising tours, PR, graphics, artwork, social media, website content and band promotions, as well as video production and endorsements. Sugary was awarded the accolade title of ‘Modern Day Lady Godiva of Coventry’ in 2021, as part of recognition for her charitable work, her activism, City promotion, culture projects, city safety projects for safer streets and 2-Tone Unity messages. See her story at www.sugarystaple.com

Joe Atkinson

Joe has been playing organ and piano with Neville since 2003. He also takes on backing vocals duties and a bit of harmonica. He loves vintage keyboards (Vox Jaguar, Elka x-55,Hohner Pianet) but is usually seen onstage with his trusty Roland VK7 organ. As well as the Neville Staple Band, Joe plays for Flipron (who released a single “The Comet Returns” with Neville in 2012) and The Rhynes (pronounced The Reens) and has also toured with many other acts including Donovan, The Selecter, Chris Jagger and Bad Manners.

Sledge

Took up guitar at the age of 12 and started playing bass at the age of 18. Influences . Sting, Stanley Clark and Geddy Lee.

Joined The Neville Staple Band in 2005 and has co-wrote and co-produced a number of tracks on the last few band albums.

Previous band experience includes Bad manners, Special Beat, The Beat and The Selecter. Sledge also has his own local punk band.

Quote. “You can never have to many basses”

Matty Bane

From Bath in Somerset,Matty Bane has been playing drums for over 30 years, currently playing  Premier drums.  He first toured with Neville as part of the Special Beat tour of Japan and Australia in 2005 and  has been part of the Neville Staple band for 7 years and has drummed on 2 of Neville’s albums.  Matty has played with Bad Manners for over 10 years and also toured with a host of other Artists including Max Splodge, Eddie Tudor-Pole, John Otway and Paul Foxes Ruts.

Matty also has his own Band in Bristol called The Transpersonals and likes trains, real ale and conspiracy theories.

Billy Shinbone

Billy Shinbone is the deviant folk-pop-skiffle manglings & disco-punk-rock-blues of Somerset. Multi-instrumentalist Billy Shinbone, -funnelling his twin passions of old country & 60s psychedelia through the rusty plumbing of a DIY musical approach & his love of a twisty lyric. It all began when he spent time touring in the USA with arty psychedelic popsters Flipron & found himself falling in love with the old country & Cajun music he was hearing in the bars of Tennessee & Texas. “I wanted to be in a world where a fancy suit wearing, electric sitar playing, poetry reading, cocktail drinking aesthete like me could happily exist pouring himself into the Cajun rhythms & stomping hillbilly hollers that would be naturally suspicious of anyone not dressed in denim & plaid. That world didn’t really exist so I had to invent it for myself. A world where Jeckyll & Hyde can hang out together & have fun. And anyone is welcome to come & spend some time here. Music is the potion.”

Drew Stansall

Saxophone Player Drew Stansall from Leicester has played and recorded with The Specials + Jamaican ska pioneers: Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken, Alton Ellis, Derrick Morgan, Owen Gray, Rico Rodriguez and Symarip.

For many years Drew has been at the fore-front of the old skool ska scene including many resident performances at the prestigious London venue ‘Club Ska’. Throughout his career with the Jamaican artists he has played at many different types of venues from small bars to massive European festivals including playing at the 2006 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland with Prince Buster. Drew then joined the reformed Specials and played 2 sold out 30th anniversary UK tours in 2009, also played all the major UK festivals including main stage at V-fest and played to over 100,000 on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury and watch by millions on TV , also toured Australia, New Zealand, Japan and appeared on The Jools Holland Friday night live show.

Peter New

Peter New is a free-lance Jazz Trombonist living in Leeds. Peter currently performs in numerous groups including Neville Staple’s Band – From the Specials as well as privately teaching, composing arranging and producing

Main Crew

Regular Deps, Recording Musicians & other From The Specials studio buddies.

Peter Johnson
Spencer Hague
Liam Dixon
Erin Bardwell
Jody Moore
David ‘Davo’ Edwards
Ross Moore
Gareth Johns
Daddy Woody (aka Nuff Lyrics)
Trevor ET Rockers Evans
Dave Welton
Patrick Pretorious
Tom Lowry
Mike Bennett
Ed Rome
Richie Hawthorn
Pete Ames
Faisal Rashid