The Club Ska All Stars set at DJ Jim’s Blue Galaxy stage was a who’s who of Tokyo and Japan’s ska, reggae, rock steady and dub headz. It featured back to back sets from the likes of King Nabe, Prince Matsuoka, Ras Taro, Dr. Ihara, Yossy, Bobo and Ko-ta-raw.

While I didn’t stay for the complete two and a half hour throw-down, I got a good sampling of ska fire before I ran off to check out an aging Bob Dylan along with around half in attendance at Fuji Rock.

Being a big fan of ska and rock steady music I was familiar with these legends in the Japanese scene before and had seen a couple of them play live before also. These men are pure vinyl junkies, many owning shops, playing in groups and collecting records for decades. Most of them specialize in and are aficionados of rare and often forgotten hits of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

It’s a real treat hearing these guys play as you will get to hear tunes that often haven’t seen the light of day for years and years. Everyone in this group played rare 45 singles, the tracks were mostly Jamaican in origin, with a little rare groove, American and Japanese soul and funk mixed in for good measure.

It’s not hard to appreciate watching these true music fans and collectors share their passion by playing out records that you will likely never get to hear again. The appeal in sets like this isn’t the fine tuned mixing or blending but in the selection of the tunes and pulling out gems from the record bag that will impress even the next DJ about to come after you.

The grouping of this great collection of ska, reggae, rock steady music geeks was a great meeting of the minds and a special set for those of us that hung around to listen to the bulk of it. It’s hard not to enjoy and dance around to these old classics and that’s exactly what I hope to have the chance to do again.

The quality of music at the Blue Galaxy has been raised again this year, with the Club Ska All Stars just being one example. I’m curious how they’ll be able top themselves next year at the Galaxy and a bit doubtful they can do it.