JUST six months after forming and playing covers to appreciative audiences across Plymouth, Ska band The Kingstons are ready to record some new material.

It’s been an ambition of band founder David Gray since he started performing music many years ago but, until now, that ambition has not been shared by fellow band members.

‘I absolutely love being in this band,’ said David, a music teacher from Tavistock who used to run the Tavistock Music Academy.

‘I have been in a lot of bands and always wanted to do original material but the others were always happier doing covers.

‘In this band we are all like-minded. I have always enjoyed playing covers but you do not get the same satisfaction from playing someone else’s music.’

The Kingstons have already sneaked one of two original tracks into their set but not made a song and dance of it yet: ‘A lot of the music we play is unknown to the audience anyway but they are still cover tracks,’ said David. ‘With Ska music there are similarities in the beat so people do not always notice when it is an original song especially when they are dancing and having a good time.’

David, who founded another popular local band The Normals ten years ago, was previously a member of Jessica and the Rabbits with his saxophone-playing wife Jenni.

When the couple had their third child last year they had a bit of a break from gigging but are now firmly back on the scene.

From a young age David listened to bands like Madness and Bad Manners and later discovered the ‘guys who started it all’ Root Ska bands like the Skatalites and Toots and the Maytals (the band’s name is taken from a Toots and the Maytals track Funky Kingston).

‘Jenni wanted to play again and I was keen to play in a Ska band,’ said David.

‘Last summer we put some adverts out and very quickly got a line-up.

‘I thought we would be looking at musicians from Plymouth but we found several on our doorstep! Our drummer lived half a mile away from me and in a strange coincidence both he and the singer we chose had moved down here from London three years ago.

‘There are nine of us which is quite a large number for a band and in six months we have done a lot. The Oldulph (Arms) in Tavistock has supported us from day one and we always get a really good crowd there but we have also been doing a lot of gigs in Plymouth as there are more venues there.’

In July The Kingstons — David Grey (trumpet), Jenni Grey (sax), Steve Capol (singer), Senga Clarke-Cote (singer), Malcolm Bray (drummer), Chris Soper (bass), Wolf Clayton (keyboards) Jack Broadhurst (trombone) and Justin Barlett — will go into the recording studio but they also have another exciting project lined up.

‘We have been really keen to make a contribution to an album which is raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust,’ said David.

‘An organisation called Specialized is behind it and they are making a album recreating the music from the 1981 2-Tone documentary film Dance Craze which featured bands such as The Bodysnatchers, Bad Manners, The Beat, The Selecter and Madness.

‘We are recording a track for it by The Beat which is called Big Shot — it’s not a track we would normally play but we were really keen to get on the album. It’s great to be involved in something like this.’

David worked as a self employed music teacher in Tavistock for 13 years teaching music to primary school pupils but now has a permanent job teaching music at a school in Torquay.

So what do his pupils think of his band?

‘They didn’t believe me,’ he said. ’I had to show them a couple of YouTube videos to convince them but now they think we’re quite cool!’

l The Kingstons will be appearing at The Rock in Yelverton on Saturday, March 5 and The Ordulph in Tavistock on Friday, March 11.