The 2 Tone Story
I'm Dave Marshall Barrett and if you know me you will know I live, sleep and breathe music – so much so I’m a music teacher by day and a presenter by night. So when 大象传媒 CWR asked me if I’d like to do a documentary for the 40th anniversary year of 2Tone I flung myself in with a hard stomp, skanking it with a Harrington jacket and a tasseled loafer.
For this special programme I look at how the likes of The Specials and The Selecter put my hometown of Coventry on the musical map. I got to chat to all the members of the 2Tone movement, revisiting the places and the people who like me lived through the birth of a musical phenomenon.
It has been thrilling to explore all the little spots I pass in Coventry where this incredible movement started, places like 2Tone HQ on Albany Road, the old Mr George nightclub (above TJ Hughes) and Tiffany’s (the library).
Coventry has for a long time been so harmoniously and richly diverse. It feels like this incredible mix of black and white musicians making black and white music could only have come from here and I wanted to delve deeper into that. My parents were part of the Windrush generation and came to Coventry in the late 50s. When I was growing up and The Specials burst onto the scene in my home city – they were just those lads we knew from the youth club.
My nickname 'Marshall'
When I was ten, I was taken by my big brother Fritz to see my cousin Charley Anderson (The Selecter) performing with his Jah Baddis sound system with Neville Staple at the Holyhead Youth Club. It was a key place where many of the members got to know each other, it was a place that inspired me and I’d later go to and set up my own sound system, which is where I get my ‘Marshall’ nickname from.
Going back down to the almost untouched basement and still see the graffiti on the wall (it wasn’t me – honest) was so exciting. In the late 70s I had Jheri curls and I was into jazz funk. I vividly remember when my white best friend at school came in wearing a pork pie hat and listening to ska.
I was like “Whaaat?”. Back then I thought ska music was old fashioned, it was the kind of music I’d grown up with - the music my dad listened to.
Having the opportunity to interview members of both The Specials and The Selecter has been fascinating – hearing first-hand the stories of their formation.
“I always had these high hopes for Coventry, that it was going to be the next New Orleans” Jerry Dammers told me.
Building a band
They share stories about the early gigs, the creation of the front cover of The Selecter’s single made up from cuttings carefully placed then knocked out of place from Jerry’s dog. They talked about how the band got their name; the good times and heartbreakingly, the bad times.
We often think being a pop-star is glamorous but listening to some of the stories and the lengths that all the boys went through – shared cigarettes and pints, the sleeping on park benches to get to the top of the charts – these boys grafted hard to make it.It makes the stories of the break up so much more poignant.
During their interviews they showed vulnerability and sadness. Roddy Radiation was on Top of the Pops one year and the next he was back on the dole, refusing to admit to people who recognised him who he was, instead pretending he was his older brother. They all spoke frankly whether they ‘left the band’, ‘created a new band’ or just stopped turning up to rehearsals.
It was a break up at the height of their fame – when arguably their biggest hit GhostTown was at the top of the charts – that they split. Their original line ups were never to be again. Despite efforts for reunions over the years, both The Specials and The Selecter both perform without their founding members Jerry Dammers (The Specials) and Neol Davies (The Selecter).
New work
The documentary doesn’t just focus on the old days. The Specials (now just Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter) have come back this year with brand new album Encore – it entered the album charts at number 1 earlier this year 40 years on from them forming.
I was at the album launch at the 100 club in London and met the legendary DJ and filmmaker Don Letts who told me why he thought the band made an impact globally and still do, he said it was because they make music with a message.
Those messages are connecting with younger generations, people like new collaborator Saffiyah Khan. She shot to fame standing steadfast in the face of an EDL member, nose to nose with a smile on her face, wearing a Specials t-shirt. She caught their eye, and ended up collaborating and joining them on their world tour.
Her story made me think again about how the 2Tone spirit could only come from Coventry – a place where fresh faces meet one moment and the next they are jamming all night in basements. Now that’s special.
