VESPA

Vespa (– ‘a wasp’ in Italian, is also the name of a scooter, cultic among mods and skinheads ) is one of the first bands in Poland who have taken up a hopeless mission of transferring ska rythms onto the Polish ground. Its debut concert took place in 1995. Two years later a no longer existing record label QQRYQ released their first album, simply called ‘Vespa’. One of the first Polish LPs consistently sticking to the ska genre met an enthusiastic welcome among polish ska fans. The album features unpretentious and spontaneous songs, bursting with energy and youthful enthusiasm, performed by a classical ska squad with a leading brass section. In 2003 Jimmy Jazz Records released their second album ‘Bujaj się’, with which Vespa proved that they had not been idling away time and made some progress. It is filled with clear references to ska genre classics, brass section jazz arrangements and extended instrumental tracks. The musicians decided also to combine ska rhythms with swing fascinations, which resulted in creating the biggest hit single from ‘Bujaj się’ – the song ‘To miasto’ (This city - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNSpjP19wAo). Soon afterwards The Wasp started working on their new material. In June 2007 the band released at their own cost the hit single “Gorace lato w miescie/ Nie klam” (“Hot summer in the city/ Please, stop your lying”), followed by the full album “Potwór” (“The Monster”). The single met an enthusiastic welcome, and the first track was played by many local as well as national broadcasting stations. In Autumn 2007 the band decided to take matters into their own hands and founded Showbiz Monstaz Records, a record label which has released “Potwór”.



‘Potwór’ (‘Monster’) is yet another step in creating Vespa's individual style, of which their previous album was already a signal - a neat combination of Jamaican ska and rocksteady rhythms and American 'swing revival'. “Potwór” also features instrumental tracks (eg. a reinterpretation of John Coltrane’s “Equinox”) and is filled with clear references to the classics of the genre, like “Nie klam” (“Please, stop your lying” originally performed by Errol Dunkley) and “Rub up push up” by a classical Jamaican author, Justin Hinds. The lyrics constitute a separate layer of the album. Written with wit and grace, they tell stories about male-female relationships and life in the city jungle, but also stories inspired by film characters like murderesses, werewolves or giant wasps. The graphics of the album also deserve credit – the cover was designed and drawn by Bartosz Minkiewicz, the co-author of ‘Wilq superbohater’, a popular comic series (‘Wilq the Superhero’).
With a performance in the concert studio S1 in Polish Radio Szczecin in February 2008, Vespa has begun a concert tour ‘Potwór Tour 2008-3000’, which within two months visited 30 cities in Poland and Germany. It is also the time of releasing the second hit single from ‘Potwór’ – ‘I was a teenage werewolf’. In November 2008 SMR released Vespa’s debut material on CD, which has so far been available only on MC. This event was accompanied by the special “Rimemba de dejs” tour.
March 1, 2010 is the release date of Vespa’s newest album “Older fatter richer”, which is being promoted by a hit single “It costs so much today” (“To tyle dziś kosztuje”) As soon as the album is out Vespa begins ‘Older fatter richer 2010-3000’ tour.