Hey You Rude Boy! It's the Two Tone and related thread (release by release).

Here are a couple of pictures of The Specials at 'The Parsons Nose' chippy in Coventry city center, also known as Loui's. My mum worked there for several years and remembered them from their visits. Whenever I hear the lyrics 'Hope the chip shop isn't closed, cos the pies are really nice', it always reminds me of here. About 100 yards opposite and to the right was the nightclub Lynval Golding was stabbed in a racist attack and seriously injured.

National Chip Week

 

Not sure how but for some reason this got omitted from my extensive list. This was actually released before the single, so The Specials ended up releasing their first LP on the back of one song, Gangsters, yes, that was all that was available by the group before the album came out. There was probably some BBC1 sessions before the album came out, but we will list them in a separate entry later on.





Didn't come out in the US until 1980, that release had Gangsters on it, after Too Much Too Young, of which the latter track was truncated, losing its' elongated, dub coda chopping off 4 minutes of the track.

Very strong début album, they came, they saw, the sung about it.

It is interesting, that the album deals with a lot of really serious issues, yet it sounds like they are having a big party, there is so much joy mixed in with the angst. Songs about teenage pregnancy, racism, inner city violence, crime, yet they are having a ball.

 

This thread is amazing and I hope to revisit. Not much to add but the 2 Tone stuff and especially the Specials were HUGE where I was a lad -- Quoting the link about the Chippy because I think that picture is the most English thing I've ever seen!

 

It was many years later that I heard the album version and was only ever familiar with the live single version, so it was quite a shock to hear it played at a slower tempo and yes, the end does kind of go on too long. The only vinyl of the Specials I have is the US version of the album, which I bought the reissue of a couple of years ago, and that's the only place I have the edit on, need to find a copy of the US CD, to get a digital copy of it.

 

Next we take a diversion from the Two Tone Label, but returning to our old friends Madness.
On the back of their one Two Tone single, they managed to get a deal with Stiff. I imagine there was a lot of companies that wanted to sign them, but I think they did right going with Stiff, it was a pretty exciting record label of its' own with so many interesting artists signed to it.

Madness' first release on the label was also their début album, One Step Beyond.




By this time, Chas Smash was classed as a member of the group, but wasn't there for the iconic photo taken for the cover. This was entered the charts on November 3 1979 and got to number 2 and stayed on the charts for 78 weeks.

This was followed up a week later, with the title track being released as a single.


The cover was an alternate take of the album cover, but also in colour and had the catalogue number BUY56. This was backed by the non-album track Mistakes. The A side had the opening speech edited down, and was a massive success on the charts, reaching no.7 and staying on the chart for 14 weeks.

 

One Step beyond was another cover version of a Prince Buster song, and here is that version.

 

In all of the years I've listened to the Specials debut I never knew that the US version of "Too Much Too Young" is an edit! Is the full length version available online somewhere so I can hear it?

 

Wonderful - thank you for sharing how you came to these bands. Yes, the influence is still being felt today as well, I think, of these great artists we are talking about here. And even I would be amazed by seeing a release from them that somebody else owned, yet I'd somehow not seen in local record shops... I'd get a bit jealous to be honest. There are even today, some releases that are 'new' to me but then I find out they are not at all rare once I look online! That was the great thing about those times though - you'd not know what you'd see and you'd always find something you didn't expect, as far as the records go. Not quite as many as these:



Or the 'exotic' pressings of familair LPs such as this:




My collection? I WISH!!!

No, just a couple of quick snaps I took during my first visit to the 2-Tone museum that has had a couple of mentions.

Favourite band, Madness? What can you say to that? And yes... please do contribute whenever you can.

 

For any 'budding' guitarists that are into a bit of this sort of music - this is a must to learn as one of your first songs - I wish I knew that at the time!! It's just a very simple 3 chord sequence that's not too far off something like The Trogg's Wild Thing (although that has four...) Anyway!

I used to play the single to death - almost wore it out but still kept on playing both sides of it when I got the CD of the debut album that included the two sides. The best trombone solo I've ever heard, by far.

 

Always loved how the bass guitar and bass drum 'dropped out' and then back in again - very effective and I'm trying to think of any other song that does this, with no success. BIG favourite, with one Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders) helping out on backing vocals.

 

Great photos - thanks for sharing that. It has to be my favourite line in the song. I wonder if anyone knows if the song Why was written due to the horribly savage assault on Lynval (One of the b-side tracks to Ghost Town - sorry, I know that's jumping ahead but it may be relevant here) or perhaps it occurred well before that?

 

A truly amazing debut IMO and easily would have to be in my all-time top 5. Top 20 album of all time, without a shadow of a doubt. I never even thought many times until fairly recently that Gangsters wasn't included - oddly didn't miss it because the album is so strong but it perhaps would have made it even more potent to add it. Hearing a version of it a couple of years ago with the song included was very strange yet welcome. But that's just one song!!

I don't think I could choose a favourite but Blank Expression is very cool and the sound of the rhythm section on here is so tight and even... intricate... at times, that the rest of the instrumentation and voices just glide on top. Always enjoyed the version of Too Much Too Young on here, although I don't see many say that.

It's a very gritty, aggressive and sometimes even fierce album - yet tuneful and highly entertaining. As the last few bars of You're Wondering Now approach, it always leaves me feeling a little sad. Again, so effective.

The front image is very imposing and intimidating, even - it's like they're saying "We want answers - and we want them right now!" I wonder if the back (a version of it, posted below the front here) is of them actually looking at something, or whether it was 'staged'?

 

From memory, I think Why? was written about an attack in London in 1980. The incident in Coventry was post-Specials.

 

Was the opposite for me - I heard the single what seemed an age after the long album version... and I thought it was... rushed. When I saw a copy of it (is it and EP thought, or maxi-single) I expected it to be the version from the album, perhaps just the first part of it before it stops and starts up again. But I can see the reasoning behind it now and it's certainly more attention grabbing. I think I like them about equally - might depend on the moment when I hear them or it, though.

 

Ghost Town was the first single I bought, from memory. The 2 Tone thing really must have been the mainstream at that point in the UK(1980/1). I was just buying stuff in the charts, but I was 10, had sta-press trousers, button down shirts, tie pin, skinny tie, slip ons.

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning was very evocative, even then.

 

Ah, thank you - I was thinking of adding more... (only something hypothetical about the actual 3-tracker release) but shall wait until we reach 1981 here.

 

The first new 'chart' LP I ever bought - for the three people on here that don't know the reason behind my username/avatar.

I have the sleeve from it framed upon my wall - as I do The Specials debut (don't worry, I have other, better copies of the LPs in my collection) and so it certainly is an album that's always been regarded a classic by me. So many great singles were released from it and there are some already very 'dark' things occurring in the deceptively jolly/jaunty tunes it contains. Which is something that always intrigues me in music - not wonder some of my favourites on here are songs like In The Middle Of The Night!



Also, great cover of Swan Lake and at my suggestion, we did Rockin' In A flat, in a band I was in (one of the rare songs I'd actually sing!) Although it was easier to change the key to straight A - and we simply called it Rockin'!

The Salvo deluxe 2 CD set (the first one with the M on the side) is useful for the extra content on the bonus disc but is a bit 'tinkered with.' So, if I want to listen to it on CD, I will play the one with the Compact Price logo:


And it might be worth noting that the 12" single of OSB has a 'remix' of the track with another edit of the speech.

 

I wouldn't have said it dominated the charts, thought I'd have loved it to but the presence of at least a few of these bands could hardly be ignored. I was 10 in 1980 and had the two-tone jacket with a big Madness sew-on patch on the back and (repeating myself from earlier in the thread, sorry) the slip on shoes that we see on the Dance Craze sleeve.

 

Ah great to see some replies, didn't post yesterday had a busy morning and quite frankly, wasn't feeling too good, but seeing the thread bumped up was nice.

So, we have had The Specials, Madness and the Selecter, now its time for the fourth major player in this story.
The Beat (The English Beat).
CHS TT6 The Beat, Tears of a Clown/Ranking Full Stop. Entered the chart on Dec 8 1979 and got to no 6, matching the chart placing of Gangsters, it stayed in the chart for 11 weeks.
The A side was a cover version of the Smokey Robinson classic and the B side was an original, although it was actually inspired by two songs, Laurel Aitken 'rude reggae' classic, ***** Price and Ranking Roger’s toasting on the track owes a lot to Big Youth’s ‘S90 Skank’.



Like Madness, The Beat only released one single on Two Tone before getting a contract elsewhere, for The Beat, elsewhere was Arista records who gave them their own custom label, which we will go into more of next time.

At the time I think The Beat were my favourite of all the Ska groups, however over time, my allegiance has moved over to the Specials the most, but The Beat were a really great group who deservedly went onto a pretty successful career and I think had the most success in North America. They didn't have that essential Britishness of Madness and The Specials, so were able to make that leap across the pond a lot easier.

 

Ranking Full Stop.

 

Smokey Robinson.

 

Sorry to read that you've not been feeling great - I hope you're much better now.

I've left it for a couple of days, until I had the time (and energy after working long hours) to catch up here...

My silver labeled pressing of this (actually, I have two - one being a French one... I couldn't find it in my collection the other day so picked another up but at least they're not the same thing at all, eh? ) says A1 for Tears Of A Clown but not A2 for Ranking Full Stop - just the letter A. But TOAC will ALWAYS be the sole A side on here, for me! Not that the 'flip' isn't also great but the other track is yet another that got constant plays from me and so it naturally still excites. I always imagined them releasing an album on Two Tone, yet never did so with Madness - how strange!

Tears Of A Clown - I heard this version many years before the Smokey Robinson original... which is my favourite Motown single of all. Intelligent, memorable lyrics and musically fascinating to me in both versions. Some unusual things going on with it that I won't bang on about, here... Seems to have been overshadowed by maybe two or three later singles but IMO it's very hard to beat. Oops - pun unintended.

 

Catchy as anything! Listening to the single again this afternoon, I was thinking the bassline was 'recycled' in another of their songs (part of it anyway) which is Stand Down Margaret on their first album, titled I Just Can't Stop It. Might just be me though.