Rhoda Dakar

Rhoda Dakar

Rhoda Dakar is a British singer and musician from Hampstead, in the United Kingdom, born in 1959. She is best known as the lead singer of The Bodysnatchers, a group associated with the 2 Tone record label.

The Bodysnatchers and 2 Tone

Dakar joins The Bodysnatchers in 1979. The band’s first single is the double A-side Let's Do Rocksteady and Ruder Than You, which reaches number 22 in the UK Singles Chart. The group also appears on Top of the Pops, tours with The Selecter, and records a session for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel. Several members later leave to form the Belle Stars.

Work with The Specials and The Special AKA

Dakar also works with The Specials. Her duet with Terry Hall, I Can't Stand It, appears on More Specials. After The Specials announce their break-up in 1981, Jerry Dammers forms The Special AKA with Dakar and John Bradbury. Their first single, The Boiler, reaches number 35 in the UK Singles Chart in 1982. Dakar appears on the Special AKA album In the Studio, which includes the UK Top 10 single Free Nelson Mandela and reaches number 34 in the UK Albums Chart.

Solo and later collaborations

Her first solo album, Cleaning In Another Woman's Kitchen, is released on Moon Ska World and includes new acoustic versions of songs from her Bodysnatchers period as well as material co-written with Nick Welsh, who records as King Hammond. Dakar and Welsh later release the garage rock album Back To The Garage on N1 Records. In 2009, she is the featured guest vocalist on Madness’s The Liberty of Norton Folgate track On The Town, and performs it with them at their Madstock show in Victoria Park.