Rhoda Dakar has been a much-loved icon in the UK music scene since her original band, The Bodysnatchers, released their 2-Tone anthem Let’s Do Rock Steady in 1980. It’s bizarre, then, that her new album Version Girl recently topped the ‘official breakthrough chart’. “It’s only taken me 43 years!” she jokes onstage in Cardiff’s the Moon.
Rhoda has hardly been silent in between – working with The Specials in their various line-ups, Madness, and plenty of solo releases, including material on Mo’Wax. Her latest album sees Rhoda covering some classic tracks that mean something to her personally: Louis Armstrong, Tim Buckley, Morrissey and Lou Reed are just some of the artists given a unique ska, dub and reggae makeover.
As a patron of the Music Venue Trust charity, Dakar is passionate about protecting, securing and improving UK grassroots music venues, and has chosen to tour smaller venues with her five-piece band to bring Version Girl to life. With Cardiff the first date on the tour, the album really comes alive, as The Moon Club skanks along, kicking off with a rocksteady cover of the Kinks’ Stop Your Sobbing, as later covered by The Pretenders.
The intimate venue brings out the sense of community and unity inherent in Rhoda’s music. There are some great insights into why she chose some of the songs to cover, including confessing to almost stalking David Bowie when she was younger while introducing her version of The Man Who Sold The World. Elvis Costello recently took to social media to praise her cover of As Tears Go By calling it a “beautiful, trippy rendition of the mighty melancholia of Jagger/Richards,” and tonight it really stands out as a gig highlight.
Rhoda’s personality really comes across well in a small venue, at times standup comic-esque between songs: “We aren’t going to leave and come back for an encore. There’s nowhere to go but out on the street, and I haven’t got a ticket so they probably won’t let me back in…” Instead, the band all turn their backs on us and wait for the chants of “Rhoda, Rhoda” until she turns around, beaming, and finishes where she started, 43 years ago, with a frantic Let’s Do Rocksteady.
Rhoda Dakar, The Moon, Cardiff, Wed 30 Aug
words BEN POTTER photos CHARLOTTE LITTLE