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

Still got my 2 tone button from the 80's, narrow spaghetti black tie, my Specials and English Beat albums.

Since it's not posted yet - gotta include Concrete Jungle


A must have on our college dance party mix tape.

 

The thing is, although The Specials, Madness and The Beat (and to a degree, The Selecter) were all part of this movement, they all sounded pretty different from each other, they all had their own take on this sound and movement. A lot more diversity than the corresponding Mod Revival, I think, and I think the Two Tone stuff actually holds up a lot better 40 years on than the mod stuff.

 

Agree indeed, and there will be time to talk in detail about the albums posted above, nice to see the thread coming alive though. I have info for all the releases up to the release of Ghost Town and can go further if we feel the thread is not exhausted, but I will definitely see it through the Two Tone heyday. We will be involving all the major players, plus a few curveballs along the way, I am sure.

I have done a lot of homework, getting release dates, chart positions, videos, original versions etc, so I think this will be a lot of fun. I also have a lot of magazine scans from Record Collector and other places from years ago, which I will post sporadically.

 

I was going to post about this tomorrow - but I'm too fired up to leave it...

Was this the first song I heard by Madness? It must have been - but I don't remember the talk about it or their first appearance on Top Of The Pops, like The Specials. I know for whatever reason, I didn't get to see it every single week... Anyway, it wasn't long before I got hold of the single and loved the B-side just as much.

The spoken intro with the guitar, followed by the snare drum shots and then the rest of the band following in eased you into something very infectious indeed!

This fitted in perfectly with the then-'mod revival' we had over here and was in continual rotation on my Fidelity Music Master record player, which looked like this...


... actually a hand-me-down from my eldest of two brothers, like almost all the records I owned to date!
I'm sure one day, I will find one of these machines again just to play a lot of the records I had at the time on.

 

I had to respond to a vivid memory of this!

We used to be able to play a song in the school assembly hall, when we first went in, in the morning - and then a student would do a talk about what reason they chose it for... would have to be something connected with a topical 'issue' or perhaps religious theme. When I saw this record by the player, I wondered which song it was going to be and I was as wide-eyed as almost everyone else when the needle dropped on this. That intro... And I must have been one of the very few in there that knew this song and album so well - so it was even more amusing to me. Yes, it's indistinct - but listen closely enough to the 'football chant' in all the overdubs and you'll hear that word you think is in there, really IS!

 

Well, I have to be here for this one!

I was only five when 2 Tone started so that means I missed the beginning of it but also that it's the first music I remember along with Adam and the Ants. It's been something I've constantly liked for as long as I've liked music. Madness - Baggy Trousers was the first 2 Tone related record I remember and liked. I've always loved Madness. I didn't get The Specials until a few years later. They probably looked too glum for an infant boy!

I have all the 2 Tone records up to Ghost Town and a couple more from after that. I'd love the Rico 45s & LPs.

I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about the first two 45s. Both absolute classics. Gangsters in particular still sounds fantastic. What a great bass sound. The B-side - The Selecter is great too.

2 Tone also has the best label design ever for me. The whole aesthetic is truly timeless. I'll be playing this music forever.

 

Nuclear attack!!!!

 

Exactly and - I think The Selecter were perhaps more straightforward ska (and reggae.) As for the Mod Revival, there were maybe two or three superb bands but some now seemed to just be jumping onto a bandwagon... which didn't really work because does 'Mod' have its own sound? I could never pin it down to that... Not that we're discussing that particular movement in here of course, but it's not a bad thing to mention it occasionally in passing - like other things - that may or may not be employed as useful examples.

 

We were waiting.. Welcome!

 

I remember at the time there was a bit of crossover between the movements. Which fragmented a bit as time went on but I know of at least one Mod fan group in Facebook that regularly features two tone stuff too.

 

I only pretend to like it to look cool...

I need to find out have to upload photos here...

 

It seemed like everybody had a record player that looked like that in the early 80s! They were great. I remember them sounding good.

2 Tone sounds good on anything it's played on, but it really suits those record players.

 

I was in HS during the '90s third wave ska thing, when the punk/skate kids got into Moon Ska Records and all the ska comps of the time. I found myself discovering and digging ska a lot then, too - but of the music that got passed back and forth amongst my pals, the Two Tone stuff (particularly the Specials) really seemed to hold up and have a substantial quality that a lot of the third wave stuff lacked - especially when it devolved into pop punk bands with marching band horns who alternated between ska upstrokes and NOFX polka punk.

 

Although there might not be so many of us around who are fans of the bands in this thread, as there are fans of 'classic' rock acts... Madness and The Specials are two bands that released records that to me are just as 'classic' as anything else I have in my collection of a few thousand records. So I would have to say exactly the same!

 

Totally agree. I love 60s ska & rocksteady and have a lot of it, but I think 2 Tone is a rare example of somebody taking an influence from the 60s and improving on it as well as not falling into a parody. I prefer the post punk / 2 Tone / early indie era to most so called 'classic' rock. In the UK at least, genuinely inventive things were happening in music then, including rock.

 

There was a chap in town the other day who was like a real throwback from 1979... he had a jacket on that was plastered with badges of The Jam, Madness, Two Tone, Vesper mopeds, the Mod symbol with the arrow and related sew-on patches. I saw his bicycle first, and it was covered in stuff!! I couldn't begin to describe what he'd done to it (sort of Modded it I suppose.. ) but he told me he wouldn't leave it in town even chained up because kids would be raiding it for the things pinned all over it... I'm kicking myself that I didn't ask to take a photo. I won't be so shy if I see him again though..

 

Imgur.com is the site that people now seem to swear by on here... used to be Photobucket that I used but they don't allow sharing your pics on forums for free anymore. I can't say I've noticed you ever posting pictures - do you mean how you physically link them?

 

I’ve now gone over the imgur specifically for this thread. Was with photo bucket for over 10 years.

 

The Prince wasn't as big a hit as Gangsters. Number 16 if I remember currently. More than respectable for a debut and records had to sell loads to make the top 20 then. I think 1979 is the year of the highest singles sales ever in the UK.

 

I never have, I don't know where to start! I want to show off my records too, they only get moderate interest at best from most people I know, but here people get it!

 

I got through a few 'stereos' that played just records, but I found how to connect a cassette recorder into the back socket at an early age - just using wires I'd strip with scissors - and yes, I did get a few electric shocks for various reasons! My mono Fidelity 'suitcase' player has been out of action for a year or so... probably needs just a capacitor replacing but I've been very lazy these days. That does a perfect job for playing old 45s, late at night when chilling out... I still want another Music Master though!!

 

Couldn't agree more - I love hearing the 'original' ska but have to say that IMO it moved on a bit, with the involvement of these bands. The late 70s-early 80s is one of my very favourite eras in British music... gets just as good as the mid/late 60s, sometimes.

 

The Prince must have been a good seller - with so much competition at the time of course... I still see copies of it here and there. I've just read that it got to #16, so you're bang on! Some of the singles from the time that I still love, I often find just about managed to get in the top 30. So Madness did superbly to sell so many.

 

Two-Tone was the gateway drug that got me into rock music. I love this stuff with all my heart, and I even have a tattoo of the Beat dancing girl logo (my first tattoo when I was 17). Can't wait to see where this thread goes!

 

I'll PM you... I described it the other day to someone in a thread somewhere - should be able to find that and do a 'cut and paste' job. Would be great to see some of the things you have.