THE STORY BEHIND
While born from infighting, the song gave the Welsh band their unifying live stunt – the Newport Helicopter
IT’S THE PART of Skindred’s live shows that has gone down in legend.
We all know it’s coming and we all bloody love it. At some point - most likely at the end of the set - fans will hold their shirts aloft and whirl them around like the world’s most costeffective method of air conditioning.
But the band’s iconic Newport Helicopter didn’t come into being until a decade into their career –and, hard as it is to imagine, they faced an uphill battle even getting audiences moving when they first started out.
“It was like pulling teeth!” admits frontman Benji Webbe. “Like, ‘For fuck’s sake, put your hands in the air!’ Now every time we turn up somewhere, they treat us like it’s our hometown.”
In 2011, the band were well on the way to cementing their reputation as metal’s most reliable party-starters. Although their 2002 debut, Babylon, did not chart domestically, it enjoyed success in the US when it topped the Billboard Top Reggae Albums Chart, while the singles Nobody and Pressure both earned Top 50 spots on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
“We spent about three years going over and touring there, so we clearly did something right,” Benji says. “We played Nobody on [Late Night With] Conan O’Brien [in 2004], which was huge for us. They might not have the history of the ska stuff like the UK does, but the audiences in the US just gravitated towards the heaviness. We’ve always been the weird kids in the class –we’re the alternative to the alternative!” Keen to build on the success of Babylon, Skindred continued to make in-roads in the US with their next two records - 2007’s Roots Rock Riot and 2009’s Shark Bites And Dog Fights. Roots… peaked at No.6 on the US Heatseekers chart, but Shark Bites… stalled at No.21 on release. It also marked a rare period of instability for the band, whose line-up had remained fixed from the release of Babylon with Daniel Pugsley on bass, Mikey Demus on guitar and Arya Goggin on drums.
THE FACTS RELEASED: 2011
ALBUM: Union Black
PERSONNEL: Benji Webbe (Vocals), Daniel Pugsley (bass), Mikey Demus (guitar), Arya Goggin (drums)
HIGHEST CHART POSITION: N/A
“At the time of Shark Bites… I was going through a lot of stuff,” Benji admits. “I left my wife and moved to Florida with someone else, so I was in a really different place. We were in the studio recording it, but it was quite difficult because even though I lived out there, the boys were basically away from home the whole time.”
Ahead of writing for their fourth record, Union Black, Benji moved back to the UK and the band reconvened in Bristol to start rehearsing. These sessions lai
