Ska stars can go one step beyond

Photo: Josh Hiles

Lee Hollister and Manchester Ska Foundation.

LEE Hollister is the energetic and enthusiastic lead singer of the eight-strong ska, two-tone and reggae covers outfit Manchester Ska Foundation, which has steadily increased audience numbers this year.

Their infectious renditions of classics from Madness, the Specials, the Selecter and the Beat among others send hot crowds into a frenzy - and confident frontman Hollister is unsurprisingly hungry for more.

MSF will have played almost 70 shows by Christmas — not bad for a band in its fourth year.

But Hollister, who fronts the band supported by Sean, Paul, Adam, Bob, Lynne, Vince and Chooi, expects 2015 to be even better.

Speaking after another gig at Queen Street Conservative Club in Shaw, he said: “We’re still packing places out, but one of the nice things is we’ve been seeing a lot of new faces this year. That’s always good, and we’ve been branching out a lot more too.

“With us having an increased following we want to keep giving the people different things, and right now, on top of new songs we’re working on, we’ve got about 60 we could do at any given time.

“The aim is to top 65 gigs in 2015; we might even get up to 80.

“I’d like to think Manchester Ska Foundation have got quite a long lifespan because we do change our sets round. Hopefully our fans won’t be getting fed up with us just yet!”

There’s still a number of Manchester Ska Foundation dates left to fulfil in 2014 — including shows at Royton’s White Hart and the Mare and Foal in Failsworth — but an exciting collaboration could be on the cards on December 20 at Stockport Guild Hall, when former Inspiral Carpets frontman Tom Hingley might join the band for a few numbers.

Hollister explained: “This is going to be like a big Christmas special, with us on in the main room. Just off there, Tom will be playing an acoustic set. Last week we heard a whisper that he might want to get up with us.

Advance tickets on 0161-477 8777. Find the band at: www.manchesterskafoundation.com or on Facebook.


LISTEN to clips from Simon’s exclusive audio interview here