The Specials were formed in Coventry in 1977, as The Coventry Automatics and later The Special A.K.A. by:

• Jerry Dammers – Organ
• Lynval Golding – Rhythym Guitar
• Horace Gentleman – Bass
• Terry Hall – Vocals
• Roddy Radiation – Lead Guitar
• John Bradbury – Drums
• Neville Staples – Vocals
  • with honourary members:
  • Rico Rodriguez – Trombone
  • Dick Cuthell – Trumpet

The following article, is one of the best on The Specials that we’ve read and was written by Alexis Petridis for MOJO magazine. Permission was requested for it’s use on the site. All Rights Reserved.
(Alexis also wrote the excellent ‘Ska For The Madding Crowd’ article on Ghost Town for The Guardian)

In June 1980, The Specials flew to New York to make their US television debut, performing their first single, Gangsters on Saturday Night Live. To the wave of American ska-punk bands who appeared in the mid’90s, The Specials appearance has become legendary, the stuff of hushed, reverential tones and fuzzy, nth-generation video copies passed among collectors. For the members of Rancid and No Doubt at least, it was a perfect, inspirational moment: The Beatles on Ed Sullivan in Sta-prest and a pork pie.

For The Specials themselves the memory is different. Weary from touring, they rowed about their hotel, about the limo NBC sent to take them to the studio, about what they should actually do on the show. Jerry Dammers, the bands leader and troubled political conscience, thought the hotel was too flash and expensive, the limo was just rock-star bollocks, the live show was a platform to say anything the band really wanted to say. The others disagreed. ” Jerry was thinking so far ahead of us,” reflects Lynval Golding. “He said to us, ‘It’s a live TV show in front of millions of people, we can do anything we want’. I just thought, Oh my God, he’s really lost it. We’re dealing with racism and political problems in England and he wants to take on America as well.”

So the band played a tense, speedy version of Gangsters instead: wrestling with their instruments, no eye contact except the occasional glower. On the one hand, it’s and incredible performance: a splenetic, wild burst of energy set to ferocious, groundbreaking, thrilling music. On the other, something is clearly very wrong with the people on stage. Grim faces, their movements are slightly too aggressive. The band seems barley in control of what is going on. At any moment you feel the whole thing could prematurely collapse and this lot could start punching each other.

Viewing their performance today is rather like seeing he Specials career condensed into two and a half minutes. As Jerry Dammers surmises two decades after The Specials demise: “It was a laugh to start of with, it was great. But it ended in chaos, total chaos”.

Dammers first met Roddy Byers in the early 70s before the latter changed this name and became Roddy Radiation. ” I was about 15, the first band I had was called Gristle. I played the drums,” smiles Dammers . “Just recently I was reading this interview with Roddy and it turns out he was in that band. It only clicked this year that it was the same guy: he had long hair at that stage and I just didn’t remember. Anyway, he was telling the story and he said, ‘Jerry’s band had this weird name: Rissole.’ Maybe our communication problems stemmed from then.”

Dammers, the son of a Coventry clergyman, had other musical plans. His fellow student at Lanchester Polytechnic, Horace Panter, remembers “this weird looking bloke with tartan trousers who used to smash things up”. While Panter played bass in a soul band, Dammers became part of “a small group who dressed like teds or skinheads. We used to wreck the hippie parties, play Prince Buster records. I had this band playing dodgy versions of Desmond Dekker’s 007. We used to gob at each other on stage. I was like a forerunner of punk.”

After college a brief period with New Faces winning covers band Sissy Stone, Dammers asked Panter to help him record some of his songs. They were joined by a vocalist called Tim Strickland (“A kind of Lou Reed chap,” remembers Panter, “he didn’t really sing, he sort of glowered and spat”) and two refugees form Coventry’s multiracial soul scene: a Barbadian drummer called Silverton Hutchinson and Jamaican guitarist Lynval Golding. Christened The Coventry Automatics, the quintet muddled through Dammers songs. “I used to have reggae lessons,” remembers Panter. “Lynval used to come round my flat, play records and go, ‘Listen, mon! De bass should sound like dis! I got the hang of it eventually.”

They secured a residency at a club called Mr Georges – 40p to see the band support Coventry’s punk combos. One punk band, Squad, yielded their 17-year-old lead singer to replace Tim Strickland in The Automatics. Terry Hall was given to performing with his back to the audience. “He worked in a stamp shop” remembers Dammers. ” I told him, Philately will get you nowhere'”.

Despite Halls off stage shyness and comparative youth – he was five years younger than Dammers – he was a remarkably capable front man. “If anybody in the audience fought,” remembers Roddy Byers, “Terry had a great way of putting them down. He’d pick them out and ask the rest of the audience what they thought of them, just make them feel completely small”.

Hall claimed he abilities had less to do with stage craft than his exercises on Coventry’s streets: “Me and Roddy were in the first groups of punks that ever appeared in Coventry and the people took the piss all the time. That only made us more hardened to ridicule and afterwards things didn’t worry us again”. However according to Panter, he remained an aloof presence in the band: “I don’t ever remember saying much to Terry”.

The Automatics attracted the attention of DJ Peter Waterman famed for playing Philly soul at Coventry’s Locarno with Neville and The Boys, a dance troupe featuring roadie Neville Staple. Waterman offered The Automatics time in Soho Berwick’s Street Studios. Looking to flesh out their sound, and unaware of the shared history, Dammers invited his former Gristle/Rissole band mate, Roddy Byers, to join.

Byers came complete with his own anthem to urban alienation, Concrete Jungle, but if the appointment of a punk guitarist was intended to smooth out the bands lumpy attempts to fuse punk and reggae, it failed. In Berwick Street, they lurched gracelessly from one genre to another. In addition, the band was sick of Waterman’s advice. “We had to get ride of him when he tried to teach Terry Hall to dance,” says Dammers. “He got on stage and demonstrated. It was unpleasant. It involved hip swinging”.

Dammers searched for other routes to stardom. Through a Clash roadie, Steve Connolly, Dammers blagged a meeting with Clash manager Bernie Rhodes. He managed to talk to his band, now renamed The Special AKA The Automatics, onto the 1978 On Parole Tour. “Suicide were the official support but they couldn’t make the first dates so we were supposed to fill in for them,” says Panter. “Then Neville started supplying Mick Jones weed and we were allowed to stay. It was like being in a film. It was ace”.

The tour was effectively the making of The Specials. Neville Staple became a member after plugging a microphone into the mixing desk at London’s Music Machine and toasting along with the bands set. In Bracknell, skinheads disrupted the tour, evidence that the National Front, in political decline thanks to losing votes to Margaret Thatcher, had shifted tactics and begun recruiting football hooligans and skinheads. If the NF could no longer get votes, it would kick its way into the headlines and gigs.

“That was the night The Specials concept was born” says Dammers. “It was obvious the Mod/skinhead revival was coming and I was trying to find a way to make sure it didn’t go the way of the NF. I idealistically thought, we have to get through to these people, and that’s when we got the image together and started using ska rather than reggae. It seemed a bit more healthy to have an integrated kind of British music, rather than white people playing the two. In the 1940s and 50s, Professor Longhair took on board Caribbean rhythms, then Jamaica picked up on New Orleans sound. You got Afro-Cuban jazz combining North American jazz with African rhythms – and that’s the roots of ska”.

There were also less idealistic reasons for the bands new image. “We looked odd,” admits Panter. “I was this sort of Woolworth’s skinhead, Terry wore loud checked jackets and Jerry had tartan trousers. We saw the mod revival thing going on and you could still buy tonic suits in Gosford Street real cheap.”

Rhodes graciously allowed The Special AKA to move into The Clash’s rehearsal studios in Chalk Farm, north London. “It was freezing,” remembers Golding. “Sleeping on the floor, rats jumping over you”.

Eventually Rhodes booked the band a gig in Paris. The ensuing trip was enshrined in Specials legend. At Dover, their driver told the band to unload the van, then promptly drove off. Silverton Hutchinson was refused entry to France because of his Barbadian passport. The van picked up them up was only big enough for two members. Staple and Golding hopped aboard, the others hitched. At their hotel, the management complained the last English band to stay there, The Damned, had smashed the place up and snatched Golding and Byers guitars in lieu of payment.

“There was a lot of shoving in the hotel lobby, then the manager of the club turned up and told us to go to the club,” remembers Golding, “By the time we arrived, our guitars were there”.

“We thought, how did they do that?” says Byers. “Then the manager of the club arrived, he offered me and Terry a mint. As he opened his jacket, we saw a gun”.

The trip precipitated the demise of both Bernie Rhodes as manager and Hutchinson as drummer. The latter was unsure about the shift to ska and fed up living in penury. “He walked into the rehearsal one day, called us a bunch of wankers and left” notes Golding. Back in Coventry, they borrowed money to fund a recording session, featuring Dammers flatmate John Bradbury on drums.

Inspired by Stiff and Rough trade, 1979 was the years of the indie label: hundreds hopeful bands began their own cottage industries, Dammers among them. He designed the 2 Tone label, with its black and white checks and ‘rude boy’ mascot, Walt Jabsco. His name came from a second hand bowling shirt, his image was a crudely drawn copy of an early photo of Peter Tosh. “The Wailers trying to be The Impressions,” smiles Dammers, “The 2 Tone man was an impression of an impression of The Impressions”.

Backed by The Selecter, an instrumental recorded in 1977 by John Bradbury and guitarist Neol Davies, Gangsters borrowed its riff from Prince Busters Al Capone (and changed the inaugural cry to “Bernie Rhodes knows, don’t argue!”) and the bands Parisian experience: ” Don’t interrupt while I’m talking or I’ll confiscate all your guitars”. Recognisably post-punk thanks to Terry Halls’ monotone vocal, yet danceable as 60s ska, it sold steadily for 6 months, bolstered by John Peel plays and the bands increasing live reputation. By May, when the Special AKA played the Fulham Greyhound, Mick Jagger was in the audience, keen to sign the band to Rolling stones Records. Panter claims he left the gig in a huff noting the resemblance of the bands Little Bitch to Brown Sugar. The Specials ended up signing to Chrysalis, in a deal brokered by new manager, Rick Rogers, a former associate of The Damned.

“Chrysalis was more open than anyone to the idea of the 2 Tone label. which was sort of groundbreaking” explains Dammers. “Mind you, they were laughing all the way, because they got the talent spotting and A&R done for nothing”.

With the deal with Chrysalis signed, The Specials picked up momentum at remarkable pace. Uniquely in the post punk landscape they offered a complete and easily accessible package: a ‘new’ sound, an image, a political stance and, most importantly at this stage, a hyperactive live show. “You get this fantastic feeling of togetherness playing ska because no one individual could do it on their own,” says Dammers. “It all interlocks – you get this communal feeling between the musicians onstage and that spreads into the audience like a fever. That’s why The Specials gigs and the 2 Tone gigs were the wildest the country has ever seen. They were just absolutely fucking incredible”.

By June 1979, Gangsters was in the Top 10 and on Top of The Pops. “The Specials there,” offered host Peter Powell. “Good time music form Coventry”.

With the bands rise in popularity, however, came the first signs of tensions that would eventually destroy them. Dammers was uncomfortable with his celebrity. “Everywhere you would go, everyone acts abnormal. ‘He’s in The Specials – act abnormal!’ It’s like entering The Twilight Zone or something. It can be a bit weird, to put it mildly, especially as it happened really quickly”. During the recording of the debut album, producer Elvis Costello was unimpressed by Byers’ Clash influenced licks and unsuccessfully argued that Dammers should sack him. It was the first step to the guitarist’s gradual estrangement from Dammers.

Like many debut albums, Specials offered a thunderous run through the bands set, its live feel abetted by Costello’s thin production. While punk had been a phenomenon largely revolving around London – from the Clash’s Westway strife to Sham 69s suburban bovver – The Specials were resolutely provincial. Terry Hall sang in a deadpan Midlands’s monotone. Nite Klub was set no in Wardow Street but in a shabby Coventry ballroom, where “all the girls are slags and the beer tastes just like piss”.

Despite the presence of Jamaican ska trombonist Rico and its Toots and the Maytals covers, Specials was an album thick with the preoccupations of post punk British youth. The National Front is on the march; teds fight punk’s bovver boys luck around every corner waiting to put the boot in.

Its October release was heralded by the 2 Tone Tour with The Specials, Madness and The Selecter, which was sometimes marred by crowd violence. “The amount of violence at specials gigs ahs been exaggerated down the years” say Dammers. “I really wish there hadn’t been any. The great majority were trouble free, but there were a few where a minority thought they were supposed to have a scrap. With about four exceptions, any sign of trouble was nipped in the bud by the band stopping and Terry explaining that it wasn’t part of the deal”. In Bristol, Neville Staple discovered his fame now meant girls were willing to star with him in hotel room porn. On November 7, all 3 bands appeared together on Top of The Pops. In just 3 months, 2 Tone had gone from indie label to countrywide phenomenon.

“The Specials played 2 gigs in Coventry Tiffany’s that Christmas,” says Panter. “That was the apogee of 2 Tone, for me. Coventry was an industrial motor city, lots of unemployment. Without being melodramatic, it raised peoples spirits here a but”.

The bands’ punishing live schedule ensured things would never truly be the same again. Buoyed by the speed of The Specials rise in England, manager Rick Rogers was keen for the band to break America: a 6 week US tour was booked, followed by a lengthy European jaunt. From their arrival in America, it was clear that all would not go according to plan.

“It’s hard to believe now, but at the time, the concept of retro did not exist in America at all,” remembers Dammers. ” We arrived at the airport in our tonic suits and pork pie hats, ready to take America by storm, and this bloke who picked us up in the minibus said to Rick, ‘Say, are these guys mental patients?’ He really thought we were from a mental hospital because of the suits and short hair”.

The band ploughed on. A support slot with The Police, then a headlining tour. In Los Angeles they were booked for eight shows in 4 nights at the Whisky a Go Go.

“It was one of the stupidest things that ever happened to The Specials,” Dammers remembers. “On stage were putting everything in to it. Playing two shows a night was like putting someone in for 2 boxing matches a night – it made no sense at all. I hate to say it, but that really broke the spirit of the band. We were completely exhausted. After that, everybody stopped getting on.”

Even news from England that The Specials Live EP had topped the charts couldn’t lift the bands mood. Dammers had done little to endear himself to the American public by telling a press conference he “could have had more fun on a school trip to Russia”. Now his insistence that the band turn down limousines and flashy hotel accommodation was irking at least one of his fellow Specials.

“I was getting pissed off,” remembers Staples. “Maybe he came from a background where he was privileged, but the rest of us didn’t, so let’s enjoy it a bit. You get a limousine sent, who wants to go in the van with the gear? Fuck that, I’m from the streets – let me live a bit’.

Dammers remains largely unrepentant.
“Its’ hard to discuss things with Neville – I wish I’d tried more. Maybe a vicars pay was actually low enough to teach me some respect for money. We didn’t travel in the van with the gear, we travelled in a normal tour bus and the hotels were fine, with a few exceptions.

“It seems odd now, because rock music has returned to excess, but in the early 80s it was different. I remember Bad Manners staying in a hotel where the lobby was made out of remnants. I got a train once with Dexys Midnight Runners and they all had to bunk the fare. You’re buying into the American dream, you’re buying into bullshit, and you’re being flash with money. The amount of money that gets wasted on tour is phenomenal.”

“It was fine in the beginning,” Terry Hall told MOJO. “But it became difficult when there was nothing left to rebel against. We couldn’t sing about unemployment when we were buying ready meal meals for 2 at Marks and Spencer.”

On their return to England, Byers student baiting Rat Race became The Specials fourth consecutive Top 10 and Lynval Golding was attacked by racists outside Hampstead Moonlight Club. “I got beat up badly,” he says. “My ribs were smashed in. It was a frightening experience. It was a racist attack, it was because I was walking down the road with two white girls.” The day after the attack, Golding was given painkilling injections so he could play the Montreux Jazz Festival.

The issue of The Specials drug use, and its effect on their deteriorating relationships, is a thorny one. None of the ex-members agree precisely who was taking what. There was certainly a lot of pot smoking – on the tour bus, trombonist Rico dispensed marijuana and wisdom from his ever-present Bible in equal measure- but Panter is adamant that after America “cocaine reared its ugly head.” Others dispute this, but all agree that alcohol was a destructive force within the band. “When everybody got sloshed and all that crap, I used to go back to the room with my weed and women,” claims Staples. “When they were pissed, that was when their inhibitions came out, that’s when it all became ‘I hate you’ I never thought, ‘He’s like that because he has been taking cocaine or amphetamines’, I thought, ‘He’s is like that because he is has been fucking drinking.'”

Whatever the reasons by the time The Specials embarked on their summer 1980 tour of British seaside resorts, relations in the band particularly between Dammers and Byers, both heavy drinkers were strained to breaking point. Dammers original idea was for the band to sail around Britain on a boat, anchor offshore and travel to the gigs by speedboat. “That got translated by our manager into doing a tour of every seaside town in Britain. That sort of thing happened often with Rick Rogers. His intentions were totally right but it somehow went wrong. For too long the band doubled up in hotel rooms because that was what we did in the early days and Rick thought that I didn’t want the policy changed. Of course I did.”

“On the first day of the tour” remembers Panter, “Jerry was going ‘I don’t want to do this.’ Everybody else was saying ‘The trucks are here, the tickets have been sold’. I suggested doing it with another keyboard player, because I could see that Jerry was at the end of his tether, but the roller coaster had started- nobody was allowed to get off it.”

The tour continued. During a photo session, an argument about clothes ended with Byers attempting to push Dammers over a cliff top. (Dammers; “Actually, Roddy give me one of those jokey little pushes, but it was a bit more dangerous that it should have been”.) Later that night, he smashed his guitar over Dammers keyboard mid set. Dammers was at a loss to explain what was wrong: “It wasn’t as if anybody had told me what the problem was.”

“I always rebelled against authority and Jerry started to be an authority to me ” says Byers today. “I saw him as the guy who was telling me what I could and couldn’t do. I wasn’t happy with my internal situation (Byers has briefly split from his wife) and I was drinking too much. I was being a total arsehole.”

Ongoing sessions for the bands second album were tense. “Every day someone left” says Golding. “It was horrible.” Dammers was keen to venture beyond the first albums ska roots. He had become interested in muzak and easy listening, a dramatic Shift in sound which caused some consternation in the band: Staples and Byers were particularly unimpressed. Chrysalis Records were nonplussed by Stereotype, a mournful dirge satirising lads culture earmarked as a single (despite its wilful uncommerciality, it reached Number 6). Other band members became resentful of Dammers control.

“Everybody was into different kinds of music,” says Byers, “but Jerry still wanted to control what was happening. He’d been right up to that point, but I started to think he was losing it a bit. He wanted to use drum machines. I didn’t want them on my songs.” “I wanted everyone to write songs, I didn’t want to do it all myself,” counters Dammers. “Just trying to keep everyone happy was difficult. Roddy had a song called ‘We’re only monsters’. The lyrics went something like, ‘We’re not the boys next door, we’re the werewolves from down your street.’ It was not right for the album, so I told him to go and write something else. He came back with this song and the lyrics were essentially saying ‘Jerry Dammers is a heartless bastard and he won’t do any of my songs.’ I was like, No, that’s not a good one either. Then Neville came up this idea, called Neville’s Erotic Sounds. It was ahead of its time, genius. It had classical music and dub reggae playing at the same time in the background and Neville arguing with some girl about having a tape recorder under the bed. I didn’t like to listen much further than that.”

Released in September 1980, More Specials betrays the atmosphere that surrounded its creation. Its music is brilliantly varied – leaping from reggae to Northern Soul to Dammers’ jazz-inspired exotica – its tone inescapably bleak. International Jet Set despairingly examined the misery of touring. Hall’s Man At C&A was rife with nuclear paranoia. Even Pearl’s Café, which dated back to the Coventry Automatics, matched jaunty ska to a bitter, frustrated chorus. “It’s all a load of bollocks, and bollocks to it all.”

On the ensuing tour, fan’s stage invasions had got out of control. “At first it was a great laugh – we’re all in this together, there’s no stars here,” says Dammers. “Then people were getting on-stage two numbers into the set. It became tedious and dangerous, but you couldn’t stop it. One gig we told the audience it was too dangerous and they wouldn’t have it and it ended up in a massive ruck with the bouncers.”

In Cambridge, an audience member jumped on-stage and attacked the support band, The Swinging Cats. Violence between bouncers and the audience flared throughout The Specials’ set. Terry Hall hurled a mic-stand at one bouncer. Dammers announced that the band would stop if the violence didn’t cease: another bouncer got on-stage and threatened him. After the gig, Hall & Dammers were arrested at the behest of the promoter and charged with incitement to riot. They were fined Ł400.

Even Hall, usually redoubtable on-stage, was perturbed. “As a group we’re now thinking whether or not to carry on doing tours,” he told a reporter after the trial. “We don’t like violence at our concerts, we’ve made that clear from the outset. We offer music as an alternative to fighting. It’s easier to use your energy dancing than punching someone in the mouth. Anyway, if the fighting doesn’t stop, there’s only one way to make it stop. We either stop gigging or call it a day.

“You’re in this fantastic group making wonderful music and you can’t play it anymore because people are hitting each other,” says Panter. “I ran away, I went to America after that tour. It became absolutely unbearable.”

Worn down by the pressures of life as a Special, Panter became involved in ‘Exegesis’, a religious cult which preached self-assersion (it’s other celebrity adherent was Mike Oldfield). “Just to add to the fun and games, Horace joins some nutty cult and starts giving them all his money!” sighs Dammers. “Anyone who knows anything about those cults and trying to get people out of them… it was a nightmare.”

The band reconvened in early 1981 to rehearse Dammers’ epic Ghost Town. The song had been inspired by scenes glimpsed during the band’s last tour. “In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down. In Glasgow there were little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was clear something was very, very wrong.”

The song’s noble intent didn’t make the rehearsals or recording sessions any easier. “People weren’t co-operating at all,” says Dammers, “Every little bit of Ghost Town was worked out, all the different parts, it wasn’t a jam session. I can remember walking out of rehearsals in total despair because Neville would not co-operate. You know the brass bit is kind of jazzy, it has a dischord? I remember Lynval rushing into the control room while they were doing it going, “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” In the meantime, Roddy’s trying to kick holes in the studio wall. The engineer was going,” If that doesn’t stop, you’re going to have to leave!” I was saying This is the greatest record that’s ever been made in the history of anything! You can’t stop now!”

Nevertheless, Ghost Town was a remarkable record, The Specials single greatest achievement. Quite aside from it’s musical content – a doomy mesh of reggae rhythms, jazzy chord progressions and stabbing John Barry brass – there was the matter of its sheer prescience. As the track sailed to Number 1 in June 1981, its lyrical prediction – “the people getting angry” – was chillingly borne out. Riots erupted in Brixton and Liverpool’s Toxteth and spread around Britain’s deprived inner cities. No record in British pop history has ever collided with the news so acutely.

But its success couldn’t save The Specials. Despite his protestations in the media that “The Specials as a working unit are stronger than ever, and I feel we’ve got a lot more to give”, Hall had been working on demos with Lynval Golding & Neville Staples prior to the Ghost Town sessions. “It was just an idea as a break from the band,” says Golding today, “Like Damon from Blur’s done with Gorillaz. But no one was talking, no communication in the band, we couldn’t even look at each other…”

“After more or less getting on my knees and begging the band to do the song, I thought after it got to Number 1 that I’d proved myself to the band, that they were going to realise that I knew what I was doing,” says Dammers. “We had popularity and critical acclaim. We got to Top Of The Pops, and Neville came into the dressing room and announced they were leaving. I was really, really upset.”

Inevitably Roddy Byers also left. “I was relieved. If I’d carried on in the band, I’d have ended up dead or someone would have got hurt. I wish I’d drunk less and not argued so much, but you can’t change the way you are.” Dammers determined to continue with Panter, Bradbury and singer Rhoda Dakar. She had left Conference League 2 Toners The Bodysnatchers, bringing with her their sole original number, The Boiler. A saga of attempted rape climaxing in harrowing screams, it was the first single issued by the new line-up, re-christened The Special AKA. It reached Number 35 six months after Ghost Town reached Number 1: an indication that both the single was deliberately uncommercial and 2 Tone’s moment had slipped away.

Dammers retreated to Coventry to search for new-musicians. “I had a lot of loyalty to Coventry, but the pool of talent wasn’t big enough. John Shipley was from The Swinging Cats, Stan Campbell came in on vocals. It was out of the frying pan and into the fire really.”

Sessions for the third album lasted two weeks before Panter quit, alienated by his continued involvement in Exegesis. “I could see that Jerry was struggling, but I was full of Exegesis and self-assertion and he was dead against that. It must have been hell for him. I hated leaving. I couldn’t change Jerry’s mind, make him go away for a bit, get some inspiration. He was going to confront it head-on.”

The sessions lurched on. John Bradbury belatedly emerged as a songwriter, contributing two tracks, but could see matters were spiralling out of control. “It took an inordinate amount of time,” he says. “There didn’t seem to be any rehearsals for it – it all took place in the studio. Did Jerry tell you how much it cost? It was loads. The money being spent was ridiculous. There was no way the album was going to recoup it unless it got to Number 1 and sold across the continents.”

That clearly wasn’t going to happen: the next single, War Crimes, with its awkward rhythm and lyric comparing Beirut to Belsen, was released in Christmas 1982 and flopped. The similarly uncompromising Racist Friend struggled to Number 60. Stan Campbell was unimpressed: he had thought he was joining a chart-topping combo.

“It got a bit hairy at the end, that band,” says Dammers. “Nelson Mandela was the same as Ghost Town. I literally had to beg them to do it, which was really humiliating. I knew it was a really important song, but once again people didn’t want to co-operate.”

It was the final track to be recorded for The Special AKA’s third album, prosaically named In The Studio, and its only hit. Like Ghost Town, it had implications beyond it’s chart placing. “Jesus, it really woke people up,” beams John Bradbury. “A lot of people had never heard of the guy before that.”

In The Studio itself sank without trace. “The record company did no promotion on it at all,” complains Dammers. “I think they spent Ł9,000 on promotion, which considering all the time that had been spent on it was just ridiculous.” It was an ignoble fate for an underrated record, although quite how any record company in 1984 was supposed to market an album filled with tricky time signatures and brooding songs about alcoholism and agoraphobia remains a mystery.

“£9,000 pounds on promotion?” chuckles John Bradbury, when reminded of the figure. “After Jerry had finished recording, that’s probably all the money the record company had left.”

Alexis Petridis

The Selecter began life not as a band but as an instrumental track titled ‘The Kingston Affair’, which was then later re-named ‘The Selecter’. Coventry musicians Neol Davies, John Bradbury and Barry Jones recorded the track in 1977, and it was to remain under wraps until 1979 when it would appear on the flip side of Gangsters. The Special AKA had used the entire recording budget (said to be £700) for Gangsters and were in need of a track for the records b-side. John Bradbury, by this stage drummer for The Special AKA, mentioned a track, which he had recorded a few years previously. The laid back rocksteady sound of ‘The Selecter’ proved an ideal partner for ‘Gangsters’ and was released complete with is on unique catalogue number, TT2. This move also earned Bradbury the accolade of being the only person to play on both sides of both the first and the last 2 Tone single releases (JB All-stars ‘Alphabet Army’); and on top of that, it also means that he recorded for the label under 3 different guises.

Neol Davies – Rhythm/Lead Guitar
Pauline Black – Vocals
Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson – Vocals
Compton Amanor – Rhythm/Lead Guitar
Charley ‘H’ Bembridge – Drums
Desmond Brown* – Keyboards
Charley Anderson* – Bass

*later replaced by James Mackie (keyboards) and Adam Williams (bass)

By July 1979 ‘Gangsters’ was in the national charts, so with some assistance from The Specials’ Lynval Golding, Neol Davies set about forming a band along similar lines to The Specials under the name The Selecter. At the time Coventry had various reggae, punk and soul bands on the go, which proved to be rich pickings for anyone wishing to create the 2 Tone sound. Local reggae outfit Hard Top 22 provided the nucleus of musicians so with the addition of a female vocalist by the name of Pauline Vickers the line up was complete. Pauline had made her way to Coventry via Lanchester Polytechnic where she was ‘asked to leave’ although she did gain employment as a radiographer in a local hospital. Pauline had performed with various local bands and adopted the stage name Pauline Black to avoid any awkward questions from her employers. She would also earn the title of the first 2 Tone pin up which she took in her stride but she was always keen to point out that the music should come first.

After a matter of weeks the band managed a gig and with a few more under their belt, they made their London debut supporting The Specials. The band had signed to 2 Tone and along with The Specials were to form part of a 14 strong ‘committee’, which would handle the labels’ affairs. The first move was to record the debut single. Roger Lomas, who had produced the track ‘The Selecter’, suggested that ‘On My Radio’ was a perfect choice for a single. So with the standard 2 Tone single budget of Ł1000 the band went in to Horizon Studios in Coventry and with the assistance of Roger Lomas recorded the track and its b-side, Too Much Pressure.

By now the first 2 Tone Tour was just about to begin. Madness, The Specials and The Selecter were about to undertake a nation-wide tour, which would see the bands play on the same bill with a rotating headline slot. The tour began at Brighton’s Top Rank on 19th October 1979 and was, not surprisingly, a sell out. The slot on the tour gave ‘On May Radio’ a welcome boost and the band were scheduled to make their Top Of The Pops debut. So on Thursday 8th November the band made their national TV debut and were joined on the same episode by The Specials performing ‘A Message To You, Rudy’ and Madness with ‘One Step Beyond’, leaving no one in any doubt that 2 Tone had well and truly arrived. ‘On My Radio’ went on to sell a total of almost 250,000 copies and made every play-list in the country, which is surprising as the song is a direct criticism of the radios indifference to new music.

By this stage the band were regulars in the music press with Pauline being an editors obvious choice for the front page. Numerous TV and press interviews followed as 2 Tone fever swept the nation. Keen to capitalise on this new musical phenomenon, Chrysalis rushed the band back into Coventry’s Horizon Studios to record their debut album, Too Much Pressure. Errol Ross was brought in to produce the album, which like The Specials debut consisted mostly of the bands live set. And again like The Specials debut, the record contained covers of old reggae and ska tracks. The Selecter were somewhat less obvious in their choice of covers and opted for the likes of Justin Hinds ‘Carry Go Bring Come’ and the The Pioneers ‘Time Hard’. Two tracks from the bands live set which didn’t make it on to the album were The Upsetters ‘Soulful I’ and The Ethiopians ‘Train to Skaville’, although the band did go on to record the latter but only after they had left 2 Tone. The band also performed their own version of ‘Madness’ but this also failed to make it onto the album.

The album was recorded over a two month period and saw the band assisted with honouree Specials members Rico and Dick Cuthell, who were brought into to add the necessary brass sections. The album was completed and a release date of St Valentines Day was set, with a single ‘Three Minute Hero’ acting as a taster of what was to come. The single got an average review from the critics and achieved the lowest chart position for a 2 Tone single since ‘The Prince’ by Madness (both reached number 16).

With an album to promote, a tour was organised that was billed as the “2 one 2 Tour”. The Beat and 2 Tone’s latest signings, The Bodysnatchers were set to join the band on the 30 dates. However, The Beat had just started their own label, Go Feet, so they couldn’t commit themselves to the tour and were replaced by Holly and the Italians. Holly and the Italians unfortunately got a poor reception from the crowds on the tour and pulled out to be replaced by The Swinging Cats who themselves would later sign with 2 Tone.

On the tour The Selecter were to witness what was becoming all too familiar at 2 Tone gigs; violence and racism. Holly and the Italians sound was not what ticket paying fans wanted to hear at a 2 Tone gig. While most of the crowds were indifferent towards them, some members of the audience took exception to the band and fighting would breakout during their set. Then there was matter of racists attending the gigs. Like all bands on 2 Tone, The Selecter had their share of ‘fans’ who had rightwing sympathies and would make their presence known at gigs. Why racists would listen to ska or reggae is a mystery in itself and is all the more bizarre that they should attend a Selecter gig where of the 7 members of the band only Neol Davies was white.

Despite these setbacks the tour was a success and helped push the album to number 4 in the national chart. Roger Lomas was back working with the band again and he remixed the track ‘Missing Words’ which was released as the bands next single. Backed by a live version of ‘Carry Go Bring Come’ the single was yet another hit for the label but the chart position of number 23 was the lowest so far for a 2 Tone single. The chart position was no reflection on the work of Roger Lomas, who prior to 2 Tone had no experience with ska but had since went on to work with Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers, but was perhaps a sign of things to come for the band and 2 Tone.

Like The Specials, parent company Chrysalis were keen to push The Selecter in the US. A coast-to-coast tour was organised and the bands first single ‘On My Radio’ was released just prior to the bands arrival. 2 Tone failed to make the same impression in the US as it did in the UK and The Selecter discovered that certain sections of the country were unaware of who they were. Pauline Black said of the tour ” There were small groups of people on the west and east coast who knew who we were but there was this huge big bit in the middle (of the US) who were completely gob-smacked by us”. The tour did little to expand the bands popularity in the US and they were to suffer the same fait as The Specials, with their material confined to the college radio circuit.

The Selecter had been together less than a year and already they had a top selling album, 3 top 30 singles under their belt and not to mention tours on both sides of the Atlantic. But all was not well with the band or more importantly the bands’ relationship with 2 Tone. The label was a run away success but the unfortunate thing was that it was now out of everyone’s control and the ideals that 2 Tone were founded on seemed lost in the mountains of rip-off merchandise. As Neol Davies said “There is a hell of a lot of money being made, supposedly in our names, but where’s it all going?” Worse still were the badges and T-shirts printed in the name of some band called “The SelectOr”. It’s not that the band had anything against the imagery of 2 Tone, far from it; it’s just that they felt that they were now restricted by the media’s perception of 2 Tone. Neol Davies said of the 2 Tone image, “It’s great to have things that are visually eye-catching and 2 Tone records have a real identify of their own, which is great. But I do feel the way it has been presented spoils all that and it’s original intentions and turns it into something it shouldn’t be”.

The band also felt that there were not enough avenues for them to broaden their musical horizons again this was due to the huge success of 2 Tone. The band admitted that they were less than happy with their album ‘Too Much Pressure’ and again it was the result of what Pauline Black described as ” a life-span, which was telescoped down into a very short space of time”. Jerry Dammers agreed that in 2 Tone he had created a “Frankenstein’s monster” and while he ignored The Selecter’s suggestion to close down 2 Tone the band themselves chose to leave. In the statement to the press the band said, “We originally wanted to stop 2 Tone completely. On one hand, we had certain ideals about the recording industry, which could have been put into practice. On the other hand, due to the success of 2 Tone, many of our ideas have been hampered, so we were faced with the choice of leaving or staying and living with it”. The band chose the former and signed directly with Chrysalis in a deal which gave them their own label and the option of signing other bands. In turn 2 Tone released a statement say that the label would continue “with the main objective of helping new bands”. And true to their word a week after The Selecter left 2 Tone the label signed The Swinging Cats, who ironically would pick up a few support slots with the post-2 Tone Selecter.

With the perceived burden of 2 Tone off their shoulders, The Selecter wasted no time and once again went back to Horizon Studios to record material which as they saw it would be outside the confines of 2 Tone. And just when the dust was beginning to settle on the split from 2 Tone, keyboard player Desmond Brown decided he had had enough and quit the band. Taking stock of the situation the band made the decision that some sections of the band were not up to the job and bass player Charley Anderson was “asked to leave”. The band was of the opinion that they now had the material to record a very good second album, which would make-up for a debut, which they were far from happy with. And in order to do this changes would have to be made and unfortunately Charley Anderson was that change. Charley and Desmond went on to team up with original Specials drummer Silverton Hutchinson and form The People. Their first single ‘Musical Man’ was released on Specials drummer John Bradbury Race Records and was a tribute to another 2 Tone signing Rico Rodriguez, proving yet again that 2 Tone really was a ‘family affair’.

Producer Roger Lomas took over bass duties until a permanent replacement was found in the shape of Adam Williams. And as luck would have it Williams knew a keyboard player, James Mackie who could also play saxophone, which was ideal for the musical direction which, The Selecter were about to take. The result of all these upheavals was a much darker album and a sound, which Pauline Black described as “quintessential Selecter”. Trombonist Barry Jones was back in the fold once more and the album titled ‘Celebrate The Bullet’ was set for release on 27th February 1981. However, luck was not on The Selecter’s side. The title track of the album was released as a single at a time when US President Ronald Reagan had just survived an assassination attempt. At such a time it would have been a brave radio producer who would have earmarked a track titled Celebrate The Bullet for a prime time slot. Chrysalis had expected big things of the track and even the accompanying video could help its fortunes. The bands debut single for Chrysalis ‘The Whisper’ had fared slightly better but only just made it into the top 40.

No matter how honourable the intentions of the band were they were first and foremost recognised as a 2 Tone band. A change of image wasn’t going to help either. Pauline had dropped the trademark trilby hat and Fred Perry’s in favour of a frizzy Afro and jump suit but even this couldn’t revive their fortunes. Ska was no longer the force it once was and this coupled with lack of airplay left the band with no other choice but to split.

Pauline had a brief solo career (see below) and it wasn’t until 1990 that The Selecter would once again come under the spotlight. Pauline and Neol were invited to play a brief set in support of Bad Manners, which to their surprise was well received. They teamed up with Nick Welsh and Martin Stewart to form the nucleus of a band and re-recorded ‘On My Radio’, which was released under the titled ‘On My Radio ’91’. The band continued to record and perform with different line-ups and recorded 4 albums of new material: The Happy Album, Hairspray, Cruel Britannia & Pucker. All of which were well below par with the original band and did little for the reputation of a once great band. On top of this there were what seemed like endless compilation and pointless live albums.

After the original band split Pauline Black signed a solo deal with Chrysalis Records and released a cover of Jimmy Cliffs ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ which failed to make an impression with the record buying public. She also teamed up with ex-Specials/Fun Boy Three members Lynval Golding and Neville Staple to record a single ‘Pirates of the Airwaves’ as Pauline Black and The Sunday Best, but a song about illegal radio stations was never going to catch the eye of a play list compiler and the song sadly sank without trace.

Pauline then went on to do some acting and the occasional piece of TV and radio presenting, most notably her own late night programme Black on Black and children’s TV show Hold Tight (where Bad Manners provided the theme tune). She continued acting and won the Time Out Award for Best Actress in 1990 for her portrayal of Billie Holiday. She also found time to write a novel, The Goldfinches, which got some favourable reviews at the time of its release. She continues to perform with various musicians as The Selecter.

Neol Davies left the reformed version of The Selecter and went on to teamed up with the former Specials bassist Horace Panter to form a blues band, Box of Blues.

Charley Anderson has recently being working with Swedish ska band The Skalatones.

Gaps Hendrickson briefly joined the reformed version of The Selecter and occasionally performs as part of the 2 Tone Review.

The Blackroom – The Coventry Music Scene by Pauline Black

By October 1981, constant touring and differences over musical direction saw The Specials original lineup split. Terry Hall, Neville Staples and Lynval Golding departed to form The Fun Boy Three, and Roddy Radiation going his own way. Jerry Dammers wanted to continue as The Specials, but legal wrangling forced him to revert to the original moniker of The Special AKA. The remaining members went on tour around Germany backing Rico.

• Jerry Dammers Keyboards
• John Bradbury Drums
• John Shipley Guitar
• Gary McManus Bass
• Rhoda Dakar Vocals
• Egidio Newton Vocals

Dammers being the perfectionist he is, spent the next three years putting together an album. ‘In The Studio’ eventually emerged in 1984 to high critial acclaim, but sales were no where near enough to recoup Chrysalis investment in the record, rumoured to be over Ł 200,000 pounds, leaving Dammers in a hell of a lot of debt with Chrysalis when it failed to sell as hoped.

‘What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend’ became Dammers last record on the label he set up (The JB’s Allstar’s “Alphabet Army” became the last 2-Tone release in ’85). Dammers then turned to politics full time, getting involved with Artists Against Apartheid and Red Wedge. It was Dammers who was primarily behind the 1988 Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday concert at Wembley featuring Stevie Wonder, Dire Straits, Whitney Houston and Simple Minds. Two years later the event was repeated at Wembley with Mandela now free and able to attend.

(A more in-depth article will be included shortly)

One of the most prolific session players of Jamaica’s pre-ska era, trombonist Rico Rodriguez recorded both as a solo artist and as an honorary member of The Specials. Born October 17, 1934, his musical pursuits began while attending Kingston’s Alpha Boys School, an institution for wayward boys, where he studied trombone under the legendary Don Drummond. In the years to follow, Rico emerged as one of Jamaica’s most highly regarded session musicians, often working under the direction of the renowned producer Duke Reid.

In 1961, in the months prior to the explosion of the ska phenomenon, he relocated to the UK, where he recorded a number of sides for the fledgling Island label and gigged extensively on the jazz and R&B circuits, playing with Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames and others. He also remained a top-notch session man, appearing on Sugar & Dandy’s 1967 classic “A Message to You Rudy,” among others.

Despite maintaining a permanent residence in Britain, Rico held fast to his strong Rastafarian beliefs, and Island frequently paid for him to return to Kingston to record with the city’s most prominent session players; while his forte remained jazz, he adapted brilliantly to any environment, and applied his improvisational skills to productions from notables including Sly & Robbie.

In 1977, Rico also cut the now classic solo LP, ‘Man from Wareika’, it was followed a year later by ‘Midnight in Ethiopia’. In 1979, he appeared on The Specials’ cover of “A Message to You Rudy,” and soon joined the band as a virtual full-time member. Rico also helmed his own outfit, Rico and the Rudies, to yield the albums Blow Your Horn and Brixton Cat. Again as Rico, he also cut another pair of solo LPs on 2 Tone, 1981’s That Man Is Forward and its 1982 follow-up Jama.

Session work was then primary focus for over a decade, but in the mid-1990s Rodriguez returned with a number of solo projects, among them 1995’s Roots to the Bone and 1997’s Tribute to Don Drummond.

The link below is an excellent and comprehensive resource for Rico by Reinhard Braun, covering his career from 1958 to the present…
Reinhard Braun – Rico Rodriguez Discography

The North London Invaders, was formed by Mike Barson, Chris Foreman, and Lee Thompson in 1976. By 1978, the band had changed their name to Morris and the Minors and had added Graham “Suggs” McPherson, Mark Bedford, and Dan Woodgate to the group. Later in 1978, they changed their name to Madness, in homage to one of their favorite Prince Buster songs. The following year, Madness released their debut single, a tribute to Prince Buster entitled ‘The Prince’ on 2 Tone. The song was a surprise success, reaching the British Top 20. Following its success, the band signed to Stiff Records and released another Prince Buster song, ‘One Step Beyond’ which climbed to number seven.

• Suggs Vocals
• Mike Barson Keyboards
• Chris Foreman Guitar
• Lee Thompson Sax
• Mark Bedford Bass
• Daniel Woodgate Drums
• Chas Smash Vocals, Fancy Footwork

Madness quickly recorded their debut album, also titled One Step Beyond, with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. Released toward the end of 1979, the album peaked at number two in Britain and it stayed on the charts for well over a year. At the beginning of 1980, the band’s third single, ‘My Girl’ peaked at number three. For the next three years, the group had a virtually uninterrupted run of 13 Top Ten singles, during which time they were one of the most popular bands in Britain.

In the spring of 1980, Carl Smyth officially became a fully fledged member of the band, and the 7 piece Madness released the Work Rest and Play EP, which reached number six. Madness’ second album, Absolutely, was released towards the end of 1980. The record peaked at number two on the British charts, but across the water, it stalled at number 146 in the US charts, Sire subsequently dropped the band after the commercial disappointment, leaving Madness without an American record contract for several years.

Back in England, Madness continued to gain momentum, as the group began playing matinee shows on their tours so children under 16 years old could attend the concert. In the autumn of 1981, the band released their third album, Seven, which peaked at number five. In January of 1982, Madness hit number four with a cover of Labi Siffre’s “It Must Be Love.” In March, their streak of Top Ten hits was interrupted when “Cardiac Arrest” stalled at number 14 on the charts, due to radio’s reluctance to play the tune. The band bounced back a few months later with “House of Fun,” their first UK number one single. That same month, the hits compilation, Complete Madness, topped the UK album chart.

After the follow up single ‘Driving In My Car’, Madness returned in the late summer of 1982 with The Rise and Fall. Like their previous albums, it was a UK hit, reaching the Top Ten, but it also contained the seeds of their brief American success with the Top Five UK single “Our House.” The single was released in America on the group’s new label, Geffen, and it received heavy airplay from MTV. The music-video television network had previously played the videos for “House of Fun,” “It Must Be Love,” and “Cardiac Arrest” when the band’s albums were unreleased in the United States, thereby setting the stage for “Our House” to become a massive hit. With “Our House,” Madness had MTV exposure coincide with a record release for the first time, which sent the single into the American Top Ten in the summer of 1983. The success of the single brought the U.S. compilation album, Madness, to number 41. Madness managed one more American Top 40 hit that autumn, when “It Must Be Love” peaked at number 33.

December 21st 1983, at the London Lyceum Ballroom Mike Barson played his last gig with the (until around nine years later). Upon its release in the spring, Keep Moving hit number six on the British charts. In June, the group released their final single for Stiff Records, “One Better Day,” which peaked at number 17. In the autumn, Madness formed their own record label, Zarjazz. Madness released “Yesterday’s Men,” their first recording on Zarjazz, in September of 1985, nearly a year after the label’s formation. The record peaked at number 18 and its parent album, Mad Not Mad, reached number 16 upon its October release. Their chart decline continued early in 1986, when their cover of Scritti Politti’s “Sweetest Girl” peaked at number 35. For most of 1986, the group was quiet. In September, Madness announced they were disbanding. Two months later, their farewell single, “Waiting for the Ghost Train,” was released, charting at number 18.

After staying dormant for a year and a half, the group reunited at the beginning of 1988 as a quartet called The Madness, releasing its comeback single, “I Pronounce You,” in March. The Madness featured Chris Foreman, Lee Thompson, Chas Smash, and Suggs, and was augmented by Jerry Dammers, and Steve Nieve (keyboards) and Bruce Thomas (bass) of the Attractions. “I Pronounce You” reached number 44 on the U.K. charts and its accompanying album stiffed upon its spring release. The group disbanded for a second time that autumn.

In the summer of 1992, the original lineup of Madness reunited to perform two outdoor concerts at London’s Finsbury Park. The group dubbed the event Madstock and released a video of the first of the two shows. The Madstock event was repeated over the next four years. Suggs launched a solo career in 1995 with The Lone Ranger, which performed respectably in the U.K. charts. In 1996, Madness played the final Madstock and announced they planned not to reunite for future concerts, but by 1998 they were back on the road. The group also reunited with original producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley to record their first new material in over a decade.

Formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978, The Beat were fronted by the dual vocal attack of Wakeling and Toaster Ranking Roger, who joined the group after he jumped onstage at a 1979 Beat gig opened by his punk band. Signed to 2 Tone for a one off single, their cover of Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown” was a top 20 UK hit in late 1979. They were joined on that recording by then-50-year-old saxophonist Saxa, who had played with The Beatles and with such ska stars as Prince Buster and Desmond Dekker.

• Dave Wakeling Vocals, Guitar
• Ranking Roger Vocals
• Andy Cox Guitar
• David Steele Bass
• Everett Morton Drums
• Saxa Sax
  • and later including
  • Wesley Magoogan Sax
  • Blockhead Keyboards

In 1980, the band formed their own label, Go-Feet via Arista, in a deal mimicking 2 Tone’s with Chrysalis, and released a pair of hit singles, “Hands Off … She’s Mine” and “Mirror in the Bathroom” . They followed up with a debut album, I Just Can’t Stop It. Later releases included 1981’s reggae-influenced Wha’ppen and 1982’s Special Beat Service, which included the hits “Save It for Later” and “I Confess.”

Shortly after the latter album’s release, Saxa decided to stop touring, and the group eventually split, with Wakeling and Ranking Roger forming the new wave act General Public and Cox and Steele joining singer Roland Gift in the pop group Fine Young Cannibals.

The main instigator behind The Bodysnatchers was fruit and vegetable seller Nicky Summers. Nicky had caught The Specials at an early gig at the Moonlight Club in London and was totally bowled over not only by the music but also by the fact that the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves so much. So impressed by The Specials was Nicky that she immediately set about forming a band. She placed an ad in the music press for like-minded musicians (The famous story of the replies to the Rude Girls Wanted ad has become a fable within 2 Tone circles) and things soon started to gather pace.

At first the band was a 4 piece but soon expanded to a 7 piece. Among the line up were a civil servant, a fashion designer, a lifeguard, a secretary, a freelance illustrator and a schoolgirl. As wide and varied as this group of people may have been they did have one thing in common; they could either just about play their instruments or for others it was as case of not been able to play them at all. Of those who could just about manage a few notes they were either self-taught or were given the occasional lesson by boyfriends etc and for those who couldn’t play at all they just “learned to play as they went along”.

• Rhoda Dakar Vocals
• Nicky Summers Bass
• Stella Barker Rhythm Guitar
• SJ Owen Lead Guitar
• Pennie Leyton Keyboards
• Jane Summers * Drums
  • later replaced by Judy Parsons
• Miranda Joyce Saxophone

Now that the line up was complete there was the matter of a name for the group and what material to play. They decided on the name Bodysnathers because they said “the music is body snatching” but deciding on what material to play was less straightforward. Although they had taken inspiration from The Specials and it was indeed their intention to play ska in its new 2 Tone form they found the pace of ska was too much for such an inexperienced group of ‘musicians’. Instead they opted for a slower style in the form of rocksteady. Now that the band had found a style of music within their somewhat limited capabilities they collected together a number of songs, which would give the band a set to play live. They choose some old reggae/ska songs to cover such as Monkey Spanner, OO7 and a song, which was to become their first single, Let’s Do Rocksteady. Also among their early set lists was a reggae version of London Bridge Is Falling Down. Once they were confident enough they composed their first original song, ‘The Boiler’.

The band got their first gig in November of 1979 at the Windsor Castle pub in London and at only their second gig were asked by The Selecter to support the band on their forthcoming tour. By the end of 1979 the nation was well and truly in the grip of 2 Tone fever and it wasn’t longer before the music press was suggesting that The Bodysnatchers would be the labels next signing. So with only a few months experience behind them they were indeed signed to the label. Their signing didn’t exactly meet with universal approval within the 2 Tone camp, with some voicing concern about what lay in future for such an inexperienced band. Here was a band that by their own admission were not competent musicians and they were about to jump under the media spotlight which was waiting patiently for the labels first failure.

The Dandy Livingstone song, Let’s Do Rocksteady, was the choice for the bands debut single. For the b-side the band selected an original composition, Ruder Than You and producer on both tracks was Roger Lomas who was working with Bad Manners at the time. While the band were on tour with The Selecter the single entered the charts at number 44 and peaked at number 16 which earned them an appearance on Top Of The Pops. With a single in the charts and the 2 Tone connection the band received moderate media coverage and made the occasional television appearance such as the regional ITV programme ‘Alright Now’, where they were part of a special 2 Tone edition. The band also managed an appearance on ‘Tis’was’, the madcap Saturday morning children’s TV series where guests would feature extensively throughout each episode. Madness earned themselves a lifetime ban after their antics on the show. The band also found time to record two sessions for John Peel who had been a fan of 2 Tone from its inception.

The band had signed a 2 single deal with 2 Tone and for the second release an original was selected, Easy Life, and this time a cover version would appear on the b-side. The track chosen was Winston Francis’ Too Experienced and the resulting track stayed faithful to the original. Although the band were pleased with the single and it certainly deserved a higher position chart than it received (50), by this stage of 1980 2 Tone was beginning to loose its appeal with the record buying public. The Selecter had announced that they were quitting the label as they felt that 2 Tone had lost direction and with the labels next signing The Swinging Cats becoming the first 2 Tone single to miss the charts completely it was obvious that the label was no longer the force it once was. The band soldiered on regardless and managed a short headlining tour of their own and picked up the support slot on the Toots and the Maytals tour but by October 1980 the band had played their last gig at Camden’s Music Machine in London. The band cited ‘musical differences’ for their decline with some wanting to take a more political stance while others wanted to follow a more pop orientated career.

Rhoda and Nicky had intended to work together after the split but the idea came to nothing while 4 other band members found some success in the form of ‘The Belle Stars’. They recruited vocalist Jenny McKeown, bass player Lesley Shore and keyboard player Clare Hurst then set about recording a debut single, ‘Hiawatha’, which was actually an old Bodysnatchers original. The single didn’t exactly set the world on fire and it wasn’t until the band’s fourth single, ‘Iko Iko’, that the band made a dent in the national chart. They did manage an appearance on Channel 4’s music programme, The Tube, along with fellow ex 2 Toners’ Fun Boy Three, with both bands featuring in the brief retrospective on 2 Tone which was included in that particular episode. They continued to release singles including yet another Bodysnatchers track, ‘Miss World’, included on a 4 track EP, all of which met with limited success. The single, Sign of the Times, was their biggest hit but even this couldn’t save their career and their label, Stiff, soon dropped them.

Rhoda’s proposed band may have failed to materialise but she did go on to release a single with what remained of the Specials, The Special AKA. Rhoda had guested on The Specials second album and was more or less a member of the band throughout 1981, both performing live with them and appearing on Top of the Pops to promote The Specials second number 1, Ghost Town. She released the old Bodysnatchers song The Boiler under the title of Rhoda and The Special AKA which given its’ subject matter was never going to be a chart hit. Rhoda had been performing live with The Specials prior to their split and Jerry Dammers was working on the song with the intention of releasing it before the split was announced, and in fact the track became part of The Specials live set.

Rhoda became one of the few permanent members of Dammers next project The Special AKA sharing vocal duties with Stan Campbell. After the demise of The Special AKA Rhoda kept a very low profile although she did make the occasional guest appearance with artists such as Palm Skin Productions.