The mid-to-late ’90s had a brief mainstream ska boom. In that time, only a handful of bands had an actual hit on radio. One of those bands was Orange County-based group, Save Ferris. They scored big with their cover of the 1982 Celtic-New Wave song “Come On Eileen,” originally by Dexys Midnight Runner. In fact, a lot of people know Save Ferris’ ska rendition of the song above the original. Today we bring on Save Ferris’ lead singer Monique Powell. We talk about the group’s formation in 1995, their place in the Orange County scene, what it was like to have a popular video on MTV and how they coped with ska going out of fashion. We also learn about the band breaking up in 2003, Monique reforming the group in 2013 (after some intense neck and spine surgery) and we briefly discuss some legal issues with the other members of the band. We also learn so much more about Monique, like how Gary Oldman officiated her wedding, how seeing The Selecter and The Queers transformed her life, how she sang on Reel Big Fish’ “She Has A Girlfriend Now,” her obsession with the ’80s and that one of her former band members went on to star in the TV show Finding Bigfoot!We also learn about the fire at Bottom of the Hill when Save Ferris were on stage, the Save Ferris Vegas show. And we learn how the phrase “Ska Now More Than Ever” was created by Save Ferris member Pat Ferguson. If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy