Tome of Beasts 2

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Panter: When we played our last [2 Tone line-up] gig at the Carnival Against Racism in Leeds we were barely speaking. I think of Ghost Town as a triumph of will, that Jerry managed to get everyone in the same place to record it. run-down social services, bureaucratic and sometimes inadequate welfare benefits, and a crisis in health care, especially mental health and for old people. Once again, immigrants have been wrongly getting the blame. In fact, immigration has been boosting our economy, servicing the NHS. One of the many real problems, is the government’s failure to build social housing, which would also boost the economy. Tragically, Staple’s grandson recently being stabbed to death, shows that whatever causes it, the violence and the gangs have not gone away.“ Bagot, Martin (6 December 2011). "Coventry music heroes honoured in Wall of Fame". Coventry Evening Telegraph . Retrieved 8 December 2011.

Dammers says: “Coventry had the heart bombed out of it in the war and was a city in decline at the end of the 70s after the 60s car industry boom had brought high wages. But 2 Tone didn’t just happen in Coventry, Madness had completely independently come up with a similar idea of playing ska in London before they ever saw The Specials. I had first seen Ranking Roger toasting punk lyrics over reggae rhythms in Birmingham, so the punk-reggae fusion was already in his mind. The band he toasted with became The Beat…” The film ends with the dam bursting: during a Specials performance of Nite Klub (filmed in Leicester) there is a full-on stage invasion by fans. Be-harnessed Dunton found it both “frightening” and “pretty spectacular”. For Panter, these invasions became so regular that they eventually become an irritation. “It was fantastic for an encore. But it was getting to the point where after five songs there’d be 50 of Swansea’s finest clambering up on stage. It wasn’t that they were nasty – they were generally just drunk,” the bass player says. The Specials would withdraw to an extra drum riser at the stage’s rear – “a second line of retreat” ­– while roadies formed a protective line in front of them.If the term ‘2 Tone’ is not immediately familiar to you, the music it’s associated with almost certainly will be. None more so perhaps than ‘Ghost Town’, released by The Specials 40 years ago this month: a lament for a Britain that, at the dawn of the 1980s, was haunted by recession, unemployment and inflation, and seemingly without any hope for the future. ‘Ghost Town’ might well rank as the bleakest song ever to have hit number one – and the more remarkable for being genuinely infectious too.” Chambers, Pete (2005). The 2-Tone Trail: The Roots of Two-tone Music. Tencton Planet Publications. ISBN 9780954412531. A bundle of things all at once, 2 Tone was always about more than music. From a record label set up in Coventry in 1979 by the musician Jerry Dammers, it swiftly became a look, a political stance, and a banner to gather round; a movement with loyalties and aspirations way beyond the ska-inspired hits the label produced. Born in 1955 in India, to an Anglican dean, Dammers had come of age in a Coventry that was, for the time being, a boom town – redeveloped after the Second World War, thriving on industry, and growing on waves of migrants from Britain’s former colonies. By the late 1970s, the boom was over. The Midlands’ car factories stuttered and shut, jobs disappeared; crime went up, and racial tensions grew. As Britain was sliding into its Winter of Discontent, Margaret Thatcher was advocating ‘an end to immigration’ altogether, before the country should become ‘rather swamped by people with a different culture’. Neol Davies: Rough Trade pressed the single for us and we rubber stamped 5,000 copies in Jerry’s flat. After John Peel played it, Rough Trade couldn’t keep up with demand. CHS TT12 27 The Special AKA — "What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend" (Extended Version) / "Can't Get a Break" 12" (Early copies had free poster)

Dammers soldiered on with the remaining half of the band, and made increasingly uncompromising records while reverting to the Special AKA – including The Boiler with Bodysnatchers singer Rhoda Dakar, a horrific monologue about an attempted rape. This programme is another example of the BBC’s commitment to create jobs, investment and bring productions to the West Midlands as part of our Across the UK plans. Earlier this year we announced all MasterChef series will be made in Birmingham from 2024. A BBC documentary telling the extraordinary story of a global music sensation born out of Coventry, comes to BBC Two, next weekend.

Practise 2 times table

CHS TP 27 The Special AKA — "What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend" / "Can't Get a Break" 7" (Picture disc)

She donated a number of items to the exhibition, including her trilby hat and a 1980s Selecter T-shirt from the US, an example of how 2 Tone gained worldwide popularity. CHS TT12 17 The Specials — "Ghost Town" (Extended) / "Why?" (Extended) / "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" 12" It’s a programme celebrating the sense of hope and pride felt in the city of Coventry at a time when there was growing racial tension across the UK. It blends personal testimonies with photos and archive footage – revealing the social and cultural significance of the music as well as the energy and fun of the live gigs and the fashion. These were the lyrics that sparked my interest in 2 Tone. The Specials’ iconic song reached number ten in the UK charts in 1979. Although this was a cover of the 1967 Dandy Livingstone song Rudy a Message to You, The Specials made it their own, adding unique riffs and twists which left an imprint on me and how I saw fashion from the scene.Rhoda Dakar with the Bodysnatchers on the second 2 Tone tour. Photograph: Virginia Turbett/Redferns Inside 2 Tone: Lives & Legacies at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum until September. Photograph: Garry Jones Despite internal troubles, Ghost Town proved the pivotal 2 Tone release, encapsulating the urban alienation, decay and the violent mood on the streets in 1981 – few would agree its reign at the top of the charts as Britain's inner cities blazed was coincidental. It also destroyed the Specials. I sketched my own 2 Tone man on the school walls, imagined myself at the Nite Klub and blushed at the thought of p*** stains on my shoes . I learnt about the imprisoned Nelson Mandela, the horror of rape and bombs dropping on Beirut. 2 Tone carved a deep groove in my soul and thanks to the oxygen of airplay on Radio 1, the mind-blowing visuals of Dammers says: “When we signed the label to Chrysalis, we retained artistic control. I just wanted to give like-minded bands a break and thought if we worked together instead of competing, we could build a ska movement up to support each other. Chrysalis was the only company who agreed to let us have the facility to release other bands through 2 Tone.”