Little Axe: Sugar Hill to Stoke Newington

THE MAN the critics are calling the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and King Tubby is sitting in a grim pub in an untrendy part of North London. Skip McDonald is nursing a beer, his mellow voice barely audible above the sound of sports on the big-screen TV. His band, Little Axe, is across the road rehearsing for a tour that they hope will take them beyond the critical acclaim that’s been heaped on them since last year’s debut album, The Wolf That House Built.