PAUL Williams, the leading authority on all things Ska and 2Tone, has compiled a third album of specially recorded cover versions to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

“We started with the Specialized album of Specials covers, which went superbly, and a year later the theme was The Beat,” says the York ska historian, biographer, concert promoter, website administrator and lead singer of the ska revue band The Skapones to boot.

“In the first two years, we’ve raised over £50,000 so far, and this year is our biggest project yet. For Specialized III, we’re covering Madness and we’ve compiled a huge four-CD box set. It’s gone even better than the other two and really caught the imagination. “ Indeed so; Specialized III - Mad Not Cancer assembles 74 new cover versions from the canon of Camden’s vaudevillian Nutty Boys.

“It was two-fold thing starting up these fund-raising records,” says Paul. “When The Specials re-formed, I was administrating their website and got to see their seceret comeback show at Bestival, when they raised £9,000 for charity just through guest-list tickets paying £5 for a ticket, and I thought, ‘how do we keep this fundraising in the public eye?’.

“Then I saw a programme on the Teenage Cancer Trust, which made me think how teenage years should be the best time of your life but not in those circumstances. I know a few bands and so I came up with the idea of doing a record and it grew from there.”

Rather than merely gathering ska versions, Paul decided to broaden the musical horizons.”We thought, wouldn’t it be it be interesting to stretch it beyond ska to folk, punk, electro (my brother, John Williams, is the hardcore trance DJ, DJ Onex),” saysPaul.

The project has grown and grown through the power of Facebook and social media. “On this new record we have bands from Australia, America, the Philippines, France and Germany, and Japanese musicians have been in touch about contributing to the next one,” says Paul.

“With it being Madness this time, it ended up being four CDs, because Madness fans are across the board, with a lot of female fans and a pop following, whereas Specials fans are more specialised with the Rude Boys culture.”

Paul has dedicated a year to each album, culminating in a three-day festival at Sandford Holiday Park in Poole, and come January he starts all over again, setting bands a recording deadline of April.

New addition Mad Not Cancer has the backing of Madness frontman Suggs, who has “done a little publicity video for us”, while band member Lee Thompson is a “big supporter of Specialized”, recording an acoustic, stripped-back version of Madness for the project.

Comedian Phill Jupitus is among the contributors. “Porky Poet; that’s Phill Jupitus, doing the words of Keep Moving with searing guitar by Terry Edwards,” says Paul.

“We also have Neil Innes, Madness bassist Mark Bedford, Dennis Bovell, Dexys’ Big Jim Paterson, Desmond Dekker’s band members and The Specials’ Horace Panter doing recordings for us. It’s been fantastic.”

Specialized III – Mad Not Cancer can be ordered from Specials2 Records at specializedproject.co.uk

  • The Specials play Leeds O2 Academy tonight.