The Equators - Hot

Gave this a spin this evening up on the 3rd floor. Loved it. 

I came across the album in 1981 while browsing the bins in a small record store a few blocks from my house. I was ready to buy it just from the info on the cover. It looked like a ska band from England on Stiff Records. I asked the clerk about it and she said if I liked the English Beat which she already knew that I did then I would like this band too. So I was ready to buy Hot by The Equators without ever hearing any of it but Mary said they just got the album in the store and had another copy at the counter which she then put on the turntable. Indeed I did love it right from the first song and all the way through.

I used the songs on this album on many of the mixes I made throughout the 80's. 

It turns out this was the only album they made and they disappeared after this record flopped. This record is a stone classic in the English 2-tone ska tradition.

Sometime in recent years a couple of former members of the band along with a new group re-recorded the album and released it using the original graphics. It sounds nothing like the original recording and is considered a rip-off by people buying in expecting to get the original. Sad.