Prince Buster – “Wreck a Pum Pum” (compilation 2000, tracks late 60s). Ska and rocksteady isn’t something I know very much about (not that that has ever stopped me before, mind). This is a pretty cool compilation of Prince Buster’s party tunes courtesy of Hackney Libraries – so lots of shagging basically. The title track and its female vocal counterpart must go down well in a party situation but I ain’t to keen on hearing that Buster’s “dick is in a terrible state” at 8 o’clock on a Monday morning, even if this is over a great ska version of “the little drummer boy”.

The two tracks which stood out for me were “She Was a Rough Rider”, a touch more subtle, but still just as, uh, engorged… and “Pharoah’s House Crash” which is impassioned and topical: “The firemen strike, the watermen strike… every day you take bucket to the well, one day the bottom must fall out”, i.e. can’t take no more: resistance style….