DUBlin Tribute Night for Founder Jason Weir

DUB-SKA @ The Bernard Shaw
Dublin Ireland – Easter Sunday April 9th 2023

This Easter Sunday 2-Tone.info is bringing the music of a generation back to the dance floor with DUB(lin)-SKA.

Tickets are €15 and can be bought on the door or at dubska.eventbrite.ie

Developed as a tribute night for Jason Weir, one of the founders of 2-Tone.info who very sadly passed away on February 5th this year. The night will celebrate Jason with the music that bonds friends, fans and communities with its spirit of social unity and its stand against racism and hate.

Jason was well known and hugely respected in the 2 Tone / ska collecting community as an authorative figure with an encyclopedic knowledge of the label. He was always on-hand to advise other collectors and was especially vigilant of scammers trying to rip buyers off online. He was for many years active on the left in the Young Socialists/Militant supporters in the Ballymena and wider area.

His friend and comrade Niall Mulholland paid tribute to him in his Militant left article:

Jason Weir – “A gentle giant… A big man with a big heart… Witty, sensitive, and telling it straight…”

“Jason grew up in a working-class family, from the ‘Protestant side’ of the community divide in Northern Ireland, albeit he was always adamantly non-religious. After a short, unhappy stint in a small left group, Jason joined the Labour and Trade Union Group/Young Socialists in the mid-1980s. Still a teenager, he soon became a supporter of the Militant newspaper, and committed to its banner-head slogan: ‘For workers’ unity and socialism’.

In many ways, Jason joined our ranks as an already very rounded person. He strongly opposed sectarianism and saw the future in cross community, working class-based politics. He had an acute sensitivity for the oppressed and marginalised in society. Unusually for the time, Jason was not afraid to call out anyone who he felt was displaying sectarian, racist, sexist, misogynist, or homophobic attitudes”

See the full article here:
https://militant-left.org/jason-weir-25-10-1968-05-02-2023/

2-Tone.info is the web’s most comprehensive discography of the 2 Tone label and info and has developed over the past 18 years to catalogue over 550 items from the UK record label’s catalogue from 1979 onward.

The archive was initially built from the combined collections of Jason & Peter Walsh but has grown over the years with contributions from collectors all over the world. Accompanying text is by Jason, design & development by Peter  & Brian Greene. Despite the longevity and intensity of the project (18 years) the two co-founders, both from the island of Ireland, never actually met face-to-face, all collaboration was online over distance given that Peter left Ireland shortly after the two started work on the project.

Dance Craze (1981) has been reissued on DVD Blu-ray 27/03/2023 with a limited cinema release in the UK. At Jason’s tribute night, a copy of the new release of Dance Craze and some T-Shirt merchandise will be raffled to raise funds for the evening’s designated charity Dog’s Trust Ballymena.

Jason was a dog lover and had a few rescue dogs from from the Ballymena centre over the years. His family have suggested Ballymena Dog‘s Trust as the most appropriate charity for the event.

Dog’s Trust Ballymena

https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/our-centres/ballymena

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