Locomotive formed in Birmingham, England originally as a jazz band and by the mid 60s they were taking great influence from early ska music brought to the city by Jamaicans who were finding work in the industrial heartland of Britain.

Although there were other white musicians dabbling in Jamaican Ska in the early 60s, Locomotive were possibly the earliest British band to experiment with Ska in an authentic way, and as a white 'band' were probably quite ahead of their time considering they made it to vinyl.

While Brumbeat bands and artists such as 'Spencer Davis Group', 'The Move' and 'Robert Plant' were mimicking the blues of black America, Locomotive were looking more to the West Indies for their inspiration, which, today, could be considered a short-cut to a cooler sound than black American blues, which by this time had taken a step in a completely different direction "heavy metal".

Locomotive's later styles included Soul, Psychedelia and a fade into the prog rock era with Norman Haines eventually going it alone.

This is the first cover of Dandy Livingstone's "Rudy A Message To You", recorded in the same year as the original in late 1967 and is B-Side to "Broken Heart" on the Direction label. It was recorded over a decade before the seminal Specials version.

There were several notable band members such as Chris Wood who went on to join supergroup 'Traffic', Mike Kellie of 'Spooky Tooth' and Bob Lamb who was the producer for 70s dub reggae band 'UB40'.

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Pictures are of late 60s Brum, would have loved some gig photos, if anyone can oblige I'll pay you handsomely.

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