Neville Staple struggles to sing his famous hit ‘A Message to You, Rudy’ since the death of his grandson.
The former Specials singer was left devastated by the murder of his grandson Fidel Glasgow – the son Staple’s daughter Melanie – who was stabbed in Coventry on a Saturday night on September 1.
The Neville Staple Band performed at Coventry’s Godiva Festival the next day (02.09.18) and as well as giving a warning about knife crime Staple dedicated The Specials’ 1979 hit to his daughter and late grandson.
Staple struggled to finish the track that night and he is still finding it very emotional to perform that song on stage now.
Being interviewed for the seventh episode of online music TV show ‘Red Stripe Presents: This Feeling TV’, he said: "There is [a serious message in the music]. Singing those songs; ‘Message…’, ‘Concrete Jungle’. Once you’re on stage singing it, kind of, what’s happened to me … You do [think about]. But you’ve got to get the music to talk for you as well. Because I’m not a good talker. We won’t get stuck, or too emotional [referring to death of his grandson]. Like on stage, after my grandson died, I was introducing ‘Message….’ and I couldn’t finish it, so my wife, Sugary, had to take over. Because I get very emotional now."
Next year marks 40 years of 2 Tone music in the UK and Staple and his wife Sugary believe that The Specials’ aim to highlight social deprivation and call for racial harmony have never been more relevant than they are today.
Speaking about the different generations that attend his concerts, Staple, 63, said: "It’s kinda great when we’re doing a festival and stuff and you get the kids singing along and you’re thinking how comes they know that song? But then when you dwell into it, it’s their parents that have been playing these songs and they just grow up liking it, loving it!"
Referring to whether or not 2 Tone can help to bring society together, Sugary added: "Yeah I think so. It’s more of a now or never. As you guys probably know, we’ve gone through a recent tragedy of our own, with knife crime and stuff. It’s this [2 Tone] that has given us strength and the message through the lyrics. We’ve got all the classics, the Specials songs that Neville does, his own songs, some that we’ve done together on the new album, all of that, they all talk about what’s happening around us. Which ska music has always done. You’ve got the fun party sound, everyone jumps and you can’t help but move, but there’s always important words in there."
Neville Staple struggles to sing Rudy song after grandson’s death
