With three million people unemployed, racists on the march, riots in the inner cities and the police Special Patrol Group (SPG) breaking heads on the…
Browsing: Ska
During the late 70s/early 80s a small pub in downtown Sydney, called the Sussex Hotel, was the birthplace of the Australian mod revival. When the…
Formed in 1979, Bad Manners – a nine-piece ska band from north London – were one of the many bands to take their inspiration from The…
Ska revivalists The Beat were formed in Handsworth (a racially mixed area of Birmingham immortalised by reggae band Steel Pulse with their Handsworth Revolution album) in…
Six West Indian immigrants formed this soul, ska and reggae group in Leeds in 1966. They were originally called The Bedrock Sunshine Band and took…
London’s Belle Stars came together in 1981 from the ashes of 2 Tone act, The Bodysnatchers when it was Rhoda Dakar, not Jennie McKeown fronting the band. They…
In the fecund college-rock scene of the 1980s, Camper Van Beethoven from Redlands, California, were the experimenters, unafraid to delve into collisions of ska beats…
Formed in January 1986 by four former members of The Allniters and led by Jamaican vocalist Patou (“Pat”) Powell, Club Ska released their first single,…
The independent British 2 Tone record label was founded by Jerry Dammers of The Specials in 1979 to promote ska-flavoured dance music performed by racially…
Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Dekker (real name Desmond Dacres) was orphaned as a child. He lived in Seaforth, St Thomas, before returning to…
As a former bouncer at Brixton’s Ram Jam club, Alexander Hughes met Prince Buster and Derrick Morgan. He also worked as a bodyguard and -…
Ska legend Laurel Aitken was born Lorenzo Aitken in Cuba on 22 April 1927 and moved to Jamaica with his family in 1938. He became…
Madness were at the forefront of the UK ska revival at the end of the 70s. They ultimately shed the 2 Tone image and became one of the most…
Born Millicent Small in Clarendon, south Jamaica, she was one of seven brothers and five sisters raised on the sugar plantation where her father was…
6 May 2020 Jamaican singer Millie Small has died at the age of 72 after suffering a stroke. The star was most famous for her…
No Nonsense began as a gang of mates hanging out together from Oak Park High School in the western suburbs of Melbourne (Australia). At the…
Prince Buster (real name Cecil Bustamente Campbell) was drawn into the Jamaican music business as a teenager in the 1950s, when he intervened in a…
The Selecter are often considered 2 Tone’s ‘also ran’s’ behind The Specials. They were a top live draw in their own right, though, and their 1980 album Too…
In the early 1960s, Jamaican producers such as Leslie Kong, Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd and Duke Reid created a new sound to replace American R&B acts.…
September 1979. England. The Prince by Madness had entered the British charts on 1 September. The Specials (pictured above) were riding high in the Top Ten…