By Jason Needham

Many 2 Tone collectors like myself caught the bug when they heard the beginning of Gangsters at the youth club or on the school bus radio. From that day forward all I was interested in was that sound and that black and white label. Within 2 years it had exploded then imploded leaving very little behind. I refused to let it go so easily and spent every weekend on the hunt for different copies of UK releases.

I would go to every record fair in town, and I soon added Jamaican ska and reggae to my collection. It was the same deal. Look for the label. Be it Bluebeat, RIO, Island, Pama and buy it. I would buy anything on those labels as I knew the label had its own sound. My 2 Tone collection has a bit of everything but today my focus is on interesting items that by their nature are rare and seldom seen but also might go under the radar of many collectors.

What to Collect…

Many people will focus on the UK paper label singles and albums first then move onto the 12″ singles. Some will want to buy everything they can and not worry about condition. Others will focus on rarities only. Some collectors may move onto collecting picture sleeves or even focus on one country at a time. For a label with such a short history there really is a lot to collect and one thing I will promise you is there is no such thing as a complete 2 Tone collection. We really don’t know what else could be out there when it comes to the rarities.

My own collection started out with UK paper labels and test presses of a few albums and 12″ releases then I moved on to anything UK I didn’t already own followed by the odd European picture sleeve that showed up at record fairs. Everything changed in the mid-nineties with eBay. I started refining my collection offloading hundreds of ska and reggae singles of lower condition but keeping the best. I started buying European 2 Tone releases and focused on condition and rarity. I bought all my UK rarities as they were released, and I managed to buy many European rarities like the Dutch Concrete Jungle in excellent condition before the rarity value was added.

The downside was I sold off all my UK injection moulded presses as the rarity value at the time was unknown. Gangsters on silver injection moulded, The Prince and Ghost Town with blue labels. I sold them all only to buy them all back later. The good news is rarities can still be found at bargain prices today if you know what you’re looking for and are in the right place at the right time.

Acetates, Proofs & Test Presses

The journey from master tape to the wax of a commercial release goes through a few stages and this offers the collector another area to focus on. Acetates, test presses, mailouts, proof sleeves and promos were a natural next step of focus for me once I’d exhausted the commercial release area of collecting. Below is a brief explanation of these formats with some examples of items from the collection.

Acetate (Master Lacquer)

An acetate is cut by the mastering engineer. It’s the result of transferring the recorded sound on tape to the master lacquer (cutting the lacquer) the acetate can be played on a normal record player but will wear out much quicker than a vinyl record. They can be destroyed from the weight of a turntable’s needle arm in very few plays. Acetates come in a few sizes and 2 Tone records can be found on 7”, 8”, 10” and 12” from what I’ve seen and some are single sided, others double sided. It’s rare they are available to the public so they can be highly prized especially if they contain unreleased versions or unpublished tracks.

Elvis Costello, I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down Acetate

My Acetates in the archive:

Proof Copy

Proof artwork of picture sleeves are highly collectable and very rare items. Some were mocked up with a test press and given to the rep to take around to all the dealers. As with acetates or test presses anything different from the released version increases the collector’s interest so different artwork that was never used (rejected) on the commercial release is also highly prized. Note that some proof sleeves might just be the front cover but most are not glued and open out like a card.

More Specials – Proof Sleeve

More Specials (rejected) Proof Sleeve with Pre-Release Matrix Test Press, mailout and poster with centre fold. This came from the west country Polydor rep. The rep would have a boot load of upcoming releases and drive around all the record shops using the proofs to get orders. The letter spacing being the difference and reason for rejecting.  

Dance Craze – Proof Sleeve

Dance Craze (rejected) Proof Sleeve with Test Press. This came from a different Polydor rep. The back cover is missing track 4 (razor blade alley) and also the commercial release has Songs Featured In The Film Dance Craze written at the top.

This Are Two Tone – Proof Sleeve

This Are Two Tone (rejected) Proof with Test Press. This sleeve was rejected due to the centre spindle having a printing error.

My Proof Sleeves in the archive: