As last year came to a close, those of us who had gathered at Colchester Arts Centre saw in the new year in the most uplifting manner. Colchester’s New Town Kings saying goodbye to 2014 with one of the best ska bands on the circuit. Thankfully, someone has had the good sense to book them again for this year. If you missed it before then get yourself a ticket now as you’re in for an absolute treat. Since 2014 was drawn to a close, The New Town Kings have had a very successful year with some class festival performances and more musical projects than imaginable! It seems only right then that we had a little catch up with vocalist Dabs Bonner to find out what they’ve been up to…

You’ve seemingly had a busy year since last year’s NYE show, how has 2015 treated you?

Bro! We’ve had a wicked year so far, Things have really started to come together for us creatively and we’ve loads of little projects that are coming to a head. Chuck that together with some great shows and I’d say we’ve been treated pretty well cheers. 

You definitely got out there and played the hell out of the festival circuit, were there any highlights?

Boomtown once again delivered more highlights than most, Protege, Alba Rosie and Anthony B to name a couple. Always seems like family at Boomtown. Feels like festivals should.

I noticed that you’ve been recording recently, what have you got in store for us?

Ah yes! We’ve had a really creative year on the recording front. This week we’re releasing a remix of Luna Rosa ft YT which YT totally smashed. Mid December we’re releasing our final single for the year which we’re looking forwards to getting out there.

We’ve been working with grammy nominated producer Daniel Boyle (Lee Scratch Perry, Max Romeo) in the studio in preparation for the album and are putting the final touches on a colab with Jamaican reggae legend Sylford Walker which will be sure to interest the aficionados. 

You headed out on a European tour earlier this year, how did you find touring the continent?

Ah man we always love visiting the neighbors! Met up with some good friends old and new and played some wicked shows. This year was prob a little more poignant in the face of everything that’s going on in the world right now. It’s really inspiring to see how people are coming together.

While a lot of venues put on DJs for new years, it’s refreshing to see a band such as yourselves back playing in the new year in an energetic manner and, based on last year, it certainly seems to be popular! What inspired you to play your first NYE show?

Does it change the mood of NYE for yourselves? For a lot of people NYE is about the excess but performing right through to the early hours of the morning must be a different feeling?

Ha! We generally play a huge set on NYE so you might call that excess! NYE is always huge! Fun and games are always nearby but fact is there aint nothing like showtime! Asides! The excess generally finds us after the show! 

As the new year rolls in, what have you got planned for 2016?

Well we’re putting together the tour schedule at the moment so are looking forwards to loads of wicked shows. Hopefully the album will be the highlight. We’ve scheduled in recording early next year at KONK studios which we’re really excited by. We’re really proud of the music we’re sitting on and can’t wait to share it with the world.