SKA
REVIVAL
September 1979. England. The Prince by Madness
had entered the British charts on 1 September. The
Specials were riding high in the Top Ten with Gangsters.
Those hot, hot summer holidays were over and the standard school
uniform of black and white was about to take on a whole new
meaning.
Pocket money was spent on 2 Tone badges
and scarves. Ties were worn skinny-side out and uniforms were
altered to include stove-pipe pants, crombies, white socks and
penny loafers. 2 Tone was taking over . . .
 Taking Berry Gordy's Motown as the
blueprint and "with an agenda for social change resulting in
racial harmony", The Specials' organist and chief songwriter
Jerry Dammers set up 2 Tone records and had The Specials rubber
stamping 5,000 plain paper sleeves for their debut single in
bassist Horace Panter's bedroom a mere five moths earlier. Only
three months later the revived ska movement in the UK had become a
huge mainstream phenomenon.
Top Of The
Pops was invaded by Madness, The
Specials and The Selecter, and five
months later Jerry Dammers declared "2 Tone has become a
monster". Its success (five Top 10 hits including The
Specials' first Number One with the live EP featuring Too Much
Too Young) had taken its toll.
What differentiated the 2 Tone movement was the extent to which
the bands controlled their own affairs: their autonomy being
something major record labels couldn't co-opt, replicate or dilute
(unlike, say, Madchester or Britpop).
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