King Schascha of the dancehall

Frontman Dave Wakeling is the only original member of the two-tone British ska band that moved from England to Southern California over 25 years ago. He calls all the shots.

“The rest of us are all hired guns,” says Escondido’s King Schascha, whose job description is “toaster” in the English Beat. “You can call it ‘toaster’ or ‘ska rapper.’ They call it dancehall DJ in the Caribbean. I call what I do ‘the hype man.’”

Ranking Roger (who also played with Wakeling in General Public) was the Beat’s best known toaster, but there were others. (“Did you know Pato Banton did it for a while?”) Schascha got the gig three years ago.

Next year the English Beat turns 40. Business is still good. “We already sold out both nights at the Belly Up [this weekend]. That’s why they went ahead and booked us back for two nights in February.... There is this place in Amagansett [New York] in the Hamptons that we always play at. It has, like, 120 seats. Tickets are, like, $130. It always sells out.”

Schascha was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. For nine years he was a Marine stationed at Pendleton, Miramar, and Coronado where he was a heavy-equipment mechanic. After discharging in 2006, he’s maintained “…a permanent green card. I am a resident alien.” He says Trump’s anti-immigrant posturing doesn’t scare or motivate him. “I am a Rastafarian. I don’t do politics.”

But he has lobbied, without success, Escondido city fathers over his day-job. He runs a nonprofit soccer league for 80-plus kids aged 6 to 12.

“We need fields in Escondido. There are, like, five fields for all these soccer groups in Escondido, San Marcos, and Valley Center. Some of those clubs have dibs on the fields, but we can’t use them even if they don’t end up using them. I heard the city has hundreds of acres of unused space they could use for fields, but nothing ever happens.”

King Schascha appears with English Beat starring Dave Wakeling on Friday and Saturday and again February 16 and 17. His own band, King Schascha and Irusalem (where he sings straight reggae) opens both shows.