I WAS quite chuffed when I read Dave Lowdon’s letter that mentioned ska music (HAS, June 13). He is correct in stating that this particular brand of music was popular before bands like The Beatles arrived on the global music scene.

Ska originated in Jamaica in the late Fifties, incorporating an infectious blend of American jazz, rhythm and blues and hints of calypso. It became very popular during the Sixties, when Jamaican acts like Prince Buster, and Millie and The Skatalites had hit singles in the UK charts.

A lot of folks think that ska emerged in the late Seventies, with The Specials spearheading the acclaimed multi-cultural British version of the music, which incorporated a sprinkling of punk and reggae thrown in for good measure, but it was Ernest Ranglin and Coxsone Dodd who helped to develop the fusion in 1959 in Kingston-based recording studios in Jamaica.

I got into ska music when I was a child, after I watched Buster Bloodvessel poke his tongue out at the public while appearing on Top of The Pops with Bad Manners in 1980, and the uptempo musical style has been booming out of stereos all over the world for decades.

I just hope that it continues to flourish, as the genre has the ability to make people smile, and nothing, in all honesty, can match that.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.