Back to a time when The skas aligned

A NEW EXHIBITION IS CELEBRATING THE MIDLANDS’ 2-TONE MOVEMENT OF 40

IT’S finally here! After what seemed like forever in the waiting, this month Coventry was officially announced to the world as UK City of Culture 2021.

Patience, resilience and improvisation all played their part to ensure Coventry Moves, the opening ceremony, was both spectacular and safe. Lavish street parades celebrating a richness in culture, past and present, were unveiled and streamed live to a global audience.

And of course, the effervescent HRS (Her Royal Ska-ness) Pauline Black was there to ensure this party started right.

A shining jewel in Coventry’s crown is the 2-Tone ska music revival, which had a profound impact on Britain’s youth culture. So only right, then, that The Herbert Art Gallery should host the first dedicated exhibition, 2-Tone Lives & Legacies.

Martin Roberts, curator, frames it in a nutshell: ‘‘2-Tone was such a fantastic achievement for Coventry. It went out across the world and changed so many people’s lives.’’

Among a raft of contributors involved is the influential Pete Chambers, who set up the Coventry Music Museum with a fondness for the 2-Tone period.

‘‘It seemed totally right that we worked with Pete,’’ says Martin. ‘‘He’s spent a long time gathering sought-after pieces; he’s got some really cool stuff. We are hoping people will visit us and the museum to get a deeper experience.’’

Every era has a starting point, so when was 2-Tone’s moment?

‘‘‘I’m not entirely sure, but it was between April and June 1979,’’ says

Neol Davies, guitarist / songwriter with The Selecter back then.

Neol’s referring to the night the double A-side single Gangsters / The Selecter was played on Radio 1 for the first time. To be more precise it was May 23 and it’s thanks to the slightly incongruous but infamous Radio 1 DJ the late John Peel. If Neol was slightly sketchy with the date, then he’s pin point when relaying the story.

‘‘I was siting with Jane, my partner. We always listened to John Peel in the evening but, of course, we were more invested once we’d sent our single in.’’

That night Peel played The Selecter instrumental track first, accidentally crediting The Specials. Both miffed and excited, Neol phoned the BBC switchboard.

‘‘I didn’t really know what to say,’’ Neol recalls. ‘‘But the next thing I knew they put me though to John in the studio, who took my call while another song was playing. He wrote down what I was telling him, apologised and said ‘I’ve got to go’, then clunk went the handset.’’

Peel made amends by playing both sides again and, crucially, something clicked. Listeners couldn’t get enough of this new, edgy ska sound. Add to it Terry Hall’s melancholy voice and the show was inundated with requests in the coming days and weeks.

Initially, record label Rough Trade released the single in modest numbers.

‘‘‘It was in a white sleeve to begin with, but then Chrysalis Records stepped in and did a deal,’’ Neol recalls. ‘‘That’s when the 2-Tone figure of Walt Jabsco appeared on the sleeve.’’

Weeks later the single went top ten in the UK chart.

Before the turn of the decade The Beat had charted a top ten hit, too, with a plucky cover of Smokey Robinson’s Tears of a Clown. Madness

signed to the label for their debut single, The Prince, before entering the top ten with the chaotic One Step Beyond.

Political and cultural heat was rising as we entered a new decade and The Specials founder Jerry Dammers’ vision to take his 2-Tone movement up and onto a larger stage was taking shape.

The 2-Tone label offered a shortterm franchise if you like. Horace Panter, bassist with The Specials, says: ‘‘We didn’t take responsibility for Madness, The Beat or The Selecter, we just gave them a leg-up by inviting them to release a record on the 2-Tone label and let them get on with it.’’

The exhibition team for Lives & Legacies opened a ‘message-board’ for fans to write or call in with their personal stories.

‘‘We had a huge response to this,’’ Martin Roberts says. ‘‘Some were very emotional’.’

And if that doesn’t get the tassels on your loafers wagging, there is also an experiential room recreating Top of The Pops, when three of the ska bands performed on the same show.

Added to that, there’s the striking cartoons and animation designed by Stewart Francis Easton.

If you’re a dedicated follower of fashion, there’s something for you, too, with some original outfits on show. One of those belongs to Rhoda Dakar, who stood out for me with her outfits and stylish dancing.

You were a snappy dresser, I suggest? She smiles: ‘‘I had a friend, Tonie Earley, who had a stall in Kensington Market. He was able to get some unusual outfits. They were so well made and I’ve still got about ten of them in the wardrobe. I won’t get rid of them!’’

Terry Hall, The Specials’ frontman, was another, with his tonic suits and pinstripe shirts.

What the exhibition unequivocally proves is how the movement’s legacy has carried forward. The artists from that period are still writing, recording and performing.

Case in point, The Specials have just finished recording a new album and Neol is positively effusive about his new single.

‘‘Man, it’s great; I think you’ll really like it,’’ he tells me, talking about Come Around, recorded with Ossie Holt, Daddy Woody and a very easy-on-the-ear vocal from Bella Deanie.

Rhoda is also keeping busy, asides from her work as an ambassador for Black Lives Matters, she has been recording recently, her last single in April being a lockdown version of Morrissey’s Everyday Is Like Sunday. Another single is due out next month.

Rhoda became a permanent feature of the second coming, The Specials AKA, and I’m unable to resist the opportunity to gauge her thoughts on the enigma that is Jerry Dammers.

She gives a knowing smile before saying: ‘‘He’s a genius arranger. He saw what everyone else didn’t back then, that 2-Tone would have a legacy way beyond it’s time. And it did.’’

2-Tone Lives & Legacies is on until September 12. Free to enter, you can book tickets in advance at www.theherbert.org