2-Tone
72 articles
Patti Smith Group: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 22 May 1976
Energy is back in fashion ...
The Clash, The Specials: The Clash/The Specials: Friar's, Aylesbury
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 8 July 1978
FOR PEOPLE who like to put things in neat little pecking orders – and because of our conditioning there's a lot of them – the ...
The Specials: Moonlight Club, London
Live Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 24 March 1979
Speciality of the house ...
The Specials: Rude Boys in the Jungle
Profile and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 7 April 1979
DAVE McCULLOUGH REJOICES AS THE SPECIAL AKA (MORE COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE SPECIALS) BREAK FREE AND GAIN COMPLETE CONTROL. ...
The Specials: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 19 May 1979
Tighten up: Long Shot Kick The Bucket (Slight Return) ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 9 June 1979
"ROOD BOIZE" Yeah! "ROOOOODD BOOIZZZZ" Uh huh! ...
Madness: Moonlight Club, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 14 July 1979
TOO 'OT, MUCH TOO HOT... Prince Buster had it sussed yonks ago. Tuesday night down the Moonlight and people are evaporating just standing still. Feverishly ...
Madness, The Selecter, The Specials: The Specials, Madness, The Selecter: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 4 August 1979
In the heat of the night ...
The Specials: Don't Call Me Ska-Face!
Profile and Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 6 September 1979
SO WHAT'S SPECIAL ABOUT THE SPECIALS? David Hepworth is the man with the answers ...
The Selecter: They Still Bear The Skas
Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 8 September 1979
BLACK SHOES, bright socks, black shades, white shirt, black trilby, irridescent trousers a tad too short and chest-hugger jackets...Stepping down from the inter-city train to ...
The Specials: A/K/A The Specials
Interview by Deanne Pearson, New York Rocker, October 1979
THE SPECIALS A.K.A., a.k.a. the Specials. They are contracted under both names, adding to the confusion already created by billings under one name or the ...
Madness, The Selecter, The Specials: 2-Tone: Ska Authentic And More.
Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 October 1979
GARRY BUSHELL CHECKS OUT 2-TONE ...
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 20 October 1979
SKANKING AND BACON SANDWICHES WITH THE SELECTER BY GARRY BUSHELL ...
The Specials: Specials (2 Tone CDL TT5001)***
Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 20 October 1979
Rudies in a rut ...
The Specials: Specials (Two Tone)
Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 20 October 1979
YOU JUST can't shake the tunes out of your head, can't stop beating your feet to the heat as The Specials' unique excitement surges through ...
Madness: One Step Beyond (Stiff)
Review by Deanne Pearson, New Musical Express, 27 October 1979
Blue Feat ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 17 November 1979
HAIRCUTS, HAIRCUTS everywhere and 70p a drink. ...
Madness: Nice Band, Shame About The Fans
Report and Interview by Deanne Pearson, New Musical Express, 24 November 1979
Deanne Pearson puts the cat among the pigeons and scotches some nasty rumours. ...
Profile and Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 29 November 1979
Dr. Hepworth dons a white coat and investigates... ...
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 8 December 1979
Top skanking inna Lewisham ...
The Beat: Don't Call Me Ska Face
Interview by Deanne Pearson, New Musical Express, 8 December 1979
"It's just The Beat having a Punky Reggae party," says Deanne Pearson of the latest 2-Tone tornadoes. 'Check' them out... ...
The Selecter, The Specials: The Specials, The Selecter: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 15 December 1979
TWO TOP FIVE two-tone bands in one night. The message comes through loud and clear: rude bwoy can't fail. ...
The Selecter: 'Two Tone, Black And White, That's The Whole Thing'
Interview by Mike Stand, Smash Hits, 10 January 1980
Mike Stand (a sort of grubby grey) checks out The Selecter ...
Report and Interview by Mark Williams, Melody Maker, 19 January 1980
MARK WILLIAMS explodes the 2-Tone myth with the Beat ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 2 February 1980
GARRY BUSHELL takes advantage of a brand new page logo to talk technical turkey with LEE 'KIX' THOMPSON and discovers that madness is a Selmer ...
The Beat: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 2 February 1980
Ranking dead stop ...
The Specials: Hurrah, New York NY
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Melody Maker, 2 February 1980
Up to you ...
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 3 February 1980
MADNESS PROVIDED the L.A. rock audience with its first tantalizing taste of the ska sound that has taken off in England in the past six ...
The Selecter: Too Much Pressure (2 Tone TT5002)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 9 February 1980
FIRST TIME I heard 'Three Minute Hero' I was convinced it was gonna be the single to bust the 2-Tone flush. Third time I heard ...
The Selecter: The Selector: Too Much Pressure (2-Tone CDLTT5002)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 9 February 1980
A GENT FROM a reggae shop asked me what I thought of 2-Tone. He informed me that since the advent of the checkerboard whirlwind, the ...
The Selecter: Survival Inna Suburbia
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 23 February 1980
IT TOOK HIM ages to get the lapel of his jacket off. The scissors kept on cutting the cloth instead of the bits of stitching, ...
Madness: One Step Beyond (Sire Records 0085)
Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 February 1980
The Nutty Sound ...
The Specials: The Specials (Chrysalis)
Review by Don Waller, New York Rocker, March 1980
BY THE END of side one, I found myself plastered spread-eagled to the ceiling, tongue and eyes bulging, my face frozen in a delirious grin. ...
The Specials: Stanford University, California
Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 1 March 1980
THE SPECIALS' mini-tour of California has, predictably enough, been full of incident. Three sold-out nights at the Whisky in LA, the club all decorated in ...
Interview by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 15 March 1980
They don't all wear hats and they're not all mad but The Beat definitely admit to being reds. ...
The Specials: Rude Boys Can't Fail
Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 15 March 1980
THEY DON'T muck about, the Yanks. These buildings go all the way up like the architect was getting paid by the cubic foot although exactly ...
Madness, The Selecter, The Specials: Ska Jump: England to America
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 16 March 1980
ROCK MUSIC'S vitality depends on a constant influx of new sounds. Just when American audiences are catching on to the three-year-old British punk/new-wave movement, a ...
The Specials: The Specials (Chrysalis)
Review by Jim Farber, Creem, April 1980
BRITISH PEOPLE have given the world plenty of jerky things over the course of history: mercantilism, the white man's burden, Mary Poppins. But perhaps the ...
Battle Of The Sound Systems: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 5 April 1980
PERSONALLY, I have seen more wonderful sound system contests playing out of a freezing November evening at the Stratford Municipal Hall. ...
The Specials: Scam & Scandal In The Family
Report by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, May 1980
IN THE LAST issue of NY Rocker (#27/March '80), we printed an "Emergency Editorial" decrying the $10.00 price of tickets to the Specials' show presented on March ...
The Beat: I Just Can't Stop It (Go Feet)****
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 24 May 1980
A JOURNALIST of this periodical on being asked if he fancied interviewing the Beat remarked that, although he'd nothing against the idea in principle, he'd ...
The Specials: Today Coventry, Tomorrow — Coventry
Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 29 May 1980
Terry Hall treats David Hepworth to a short course in TwoTonics and explains how to keep out of the Rat Race. ...
The Beat: Off The Beaten Track
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 7 June 1980
Dave McCullough suddenly discovers unexpected subtleties, lurking within 'the tatty tinkle of rude boy muzak'. And not because he's just found out that the Beat ...
The Beat: I Just Can't Stop It (Go-Feet)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 14 June 1980
Are you ready for post-2-Tonism? ...
The Specials: Too Much Too Young
Report and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 21 June 1980
PAULO HEWITT joined the Specials Seaside Tour expecting fun and frolics. He found a band grappling with self-doubt and the 2-Tone monster. ...
The Beat: Beat Crazy: Can't Stop It Now...
Interview by Deanne Pearson, The Face, July 1980
This time last year the Beat had just started their first one-night a week pub residency in Birmingham, after playing only six gigs. DEANNE PEARSON ...
The Beat: I Just Can't Stop It (Sire SRK6091)
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, August 1980
BIRMINGHAM, England has been the birthplace of several major musical trendsetters: the Move, Moody Blues, Black Sabbath. Unlike a number of other large cities in ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 15 November 1980
THE BEAT are beginning again at the beginning. Here they are in Chicago, four or five weeks into their first American tour — much of ...
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, January 1981
ON A MONDAY morning so dark from thundery rainclouds it seems as though the sky has fallen in, Graham 'Suggs' McPherson, shoe-less and wearing only ...
Madness: The Return of the Mad-nificent 7
Report and Interview by David Hepworth, Smash Hits, 5 February 1981
Davy, Dav-ee Hepworth (King Of The Wild Frontier) watches Madness ride off into the sunset. ...
Interview by Mike Stand, The Face, April 1981
"GOD HOLD you in the palm of His hand," said Saxa pulling the bedclothes up to his chin. "He close it and you are dead. ...
Live Review by Sheryl Garratt, New Musical Express, 30 May 1981
THE WAY to tell how well a Beat gig is going is by Saxa's smile, and tonight he was grinning so wide the ends nearly ...
The Specials: English Music Scene Like a 'Ghost Town'
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 August 1981
This town coming like a ghost town... Bands won't play no more — Too much fighting on the dance floor... Why must ...
The Fabulous Billygoons, The Specials: The Specials enjoy themselves
Report and Interview by Betsy Sherman, Boston Rock, 1 October 1981
YOU COULD'VE taken a seat in the Bradford Hotel lobby and gotten a pretty good show for free. Besides all manner of impatient fans milling ...
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1981
David Steele and Ranking Roger talk about playing political benefits; their unconcern with breaking America; changing producers; Malu Halasa's book about them; their record deal; their Go-Feet label, and working with the Congos' Cedric Myton; Saxa taking a back seat and his son Lionel taking over; doing cover versions; their new single 'Hit It', and their opposition to nuclear weapons.
File format: mp3; file size: 19.4mb, interview length: 20' 11" sound quality: *****
The Beat, The Specials: The English Beat: Wha'ppen? (Sire); The Specials: 'Ghost Town' (EP)
Review by John Swenson, Musician, November 1981
TWO TONE is not merely the introduction of a black sensibility in British pop for the first time, it's a true melding of the interracial ...
Review by Iman Lababedi, Creem, February 1982
I SUPPOSE that the proof that Madness have handled the precarious business of being a teeny-bopper band with a measurable degree of humor, aplomb and ...
Fun Boy Three, Rico Rodriguez, The Specials: Rico Rodriguez: Rastaman
Profile and Interview by Deanne Pearson, The Face, February 1982
From the Wareika Hills to Top of the Pops. A profile of Rico, the Specials trombone ace, with a side order of oaths for the ...
The Beat: For English Beat, Dance Music is the Medium for Tolerance
Profile and Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 20 November 1982
ANDY COX, a young British lad with thick, wavy hair, plays a choppy guitar riff that's part slam-bang punk and part chinka-chinka reggae. Dave Wakeling, ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 8 January 1983
TERRY HALL reckons the Funboy Three have grown up into a real group. The proof is threefold. First, the release of one of this year's ...
The Beat: The English Beat: Special Beat Service (IRS)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1983
UNLIKE WH'APPEN, Special Beat Service successfully manages the transition from 2-tone to full color, giving the English Beat a sound that is at once more ...
The Beat: The English Beat: 2-Tone Survivors Make a Joyful Noise
Interview by Bill Holdship, Musician, February 1983
"THE CIRCUMSTANCES that brought the Beat together make us tenuous, in a way," observes singer/guitarist Dave Wakeling. "With any one set of musicians, sooner or ...
The Special AKA, The Specials: The Special AKA: The Skars Have Healed
Interview by Tony Fletcher, Jamming!, March 1984
"WHO IS he anyway?" enquires one of the tastelessly coiffeured punkettes of Jerry Dammers as the main man poses for photos in Soho's Chinatown. Jerry ...
Madness, The Selecter, The Specials: The End of 2-Tone: Madness/The Specials/The Selecter
Report by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, November 1986
Farewell, Madness – the last of the 2-Tone tribe. Phil Sutcliffe follows the fate of the three groups that pioneered the ska revival. ...
Harry Crews: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 1 October 1988
TONIGHT — If past reports of her live shows are to be believed — Lydia Lunch is not quite herself. Nor is she alone. Harry ...
The Specials: The Making of 'Ghost Town'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2007
Spring 1981: the Coventry boys' eerily funky hymn to their home city nailed the spirit of the times, and remains the best piece of political ...
Retrospective and Interview by Jon Wilde, Mail On Sunday, Spring 2007
"THIRTY YEARS of getting away with it," is how vocalist Suggs describes the pop career of Madness. "Thirty years of good-hearted mischief and a little ...
The Special AKA, The Specials: The Specials: Original Gangsters
Retrospective and Interview by Lois Wilson, MOJO, May 2008
Out of the inner-city misery and post-punk experiment of the late '70s came a group of black and white Coventry kids called the Specials who ...
Madness : One Step Beyond... (30th Anniversary Edition)
Review by Stevie Chick, bbc.co.uk, 2009
The vaudevillian nuttiness of their debut set hasn't diminished over the decades. ...
The Special AKA, The Specials: Jerry Dammers: Booted Out of the Band I Founded
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Daily Telegraph, 3 March 2010
Jerry Dammers talks about his exotic new project – and why he wasn't part of the Specials' reunion. ...
The Specials: Rude Standards Agency
Report and Interview by Tom Doyle, MOJO, March 2013
The Specials storm the BBC studios, tantalise with talk of new bhangra, Arabic and jazz material. ...
Esperanza: Tragedy, but the band played on
Report and Interview by Peter Ross, The Times, 13 April 2014
Esperanza were playing Glasgow's Clutha bar when a helicopter crashed through the roof. They tell Peter Ross how music helped them and their fans. ...
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