Punk Performers & Theories Of Ideology ('Punk Mass' 1970 - )
Dec 14, 2020 23:54:10 GMT
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Post by petrolino on Dec 14, 2020 23:54:10 GMT
♫ Ska Punk | Vinyl Revolutions ♫
{: The Cultural Impact of 2 Tone Records (~ established via Chrysalis Records)}
2 Tone Records was one of the most influential English music labels to emerge during the rock 'n' roll era. It was founded by musician Jerry Dammers (the Specials) in 1979. Its headquarters were in Coventry, Warwickshire, about 21 miles east of Birmingham.
If you visit Coventry today, the 2-Tone Village is an area located just outside the city centre that's dedicated to celebrating the city's ska punk heritage. Attractions include the 2-Tone Café (& Simmer Down Caribbean Restaurant) and the 2-Tone Shop.
"The Specials started in Coventry in the late 1970s, a mixed-race ensemble playing a thrilling mixture of ska, reggae and punk, with pointed, politically sharp lyrics. Originally, there were seven members – the three here today (singer Terry Hall, guitarist Lynval Golding, bassist Horace Panter), plus band founder/songwriter/keyboardist Jerry Dammers (creator of the 2 Tone record label, to which the Specials were signed), as well as singer Neville Staple, guitarist Roddy Radiation and drummer John “Brad” Bradbury. Much of the Specials’ impact back then was collective: a group of street-tough individuals, the band as gang. Their gigs were raucous, confrontational affairs, occasionally marred by far-right elements wanting to cause trouble with a group that had both black and white members.
In 1981, after their scorching single Ghost Town went to No 1, Hall, Golding and Staple left to form the Fun Boy Three. The remaining Specials added more members and continued as the Special AKA, before splitting in 1984 (though Dammers was held in a record company contract until 1987). Since then, there have been various Specials reincarnations."
In 1981, after their scorching single Ghost Town went to No 1, Hall, Golding and Staple left to form the Fun Boy Three. The remaining Specials added more members and continued as the Special AKA, before splitting in 1984 (though Dammers was held in a record company contract until 1987). Since then, there have been various Specials reincarnations."
- Miranda Sawyer, The Guardian
"Because of bands like UB40 and the Beat too, we were doing something that wasn’t in London. It was a sense of pride in where we were and wanted to make some sort of change. Lyrically, I think what we were doing was all very similar. We were all in the Midlands, and the only band I remembered from the Midlands was Jigsaw, who blew it all sky high [chuckles]."
- Terry Hall, The Guardian
Jerry Dammers
Charley Anderson
'Concrete Jungle' - The Specials
2 Tone Records was backed by Chrysalis Records which was significant. This arrangement came about as Chrysalis had tried unsuccessfully to sign the Specials. Jerry Dammers cut a deal with Chrysalis in order to start his own label.
It was around this same time that Chrysalis broke new ground with their distribution of Blondie's complete video cassette album 'Eat To The Beat' (1979), a move reflecting the label's stated philosophy that innovation spurred creativity. For 'Eat To The Beat', Blondie shot music videos for every song on the album, becoming one of the first groups to do so (they are the earliest I know of). Chrysalis were also home to Generation X.
"We were very minimal when we started, very rough-edged. So, in that respect, we fit in. But I think every band was totally different and that was kind of curious for the scene. I don’t think that the punk sound really became the punk sound until much later. The punk era wasn’t really just one musical sound. There are a lot of differences among Television, the Ramones, and the Talking Heads. And Blondie maybe wasn’t as fully developed as those bands were. But we all had the same kind of philosophy, and that’s more what the punk period was about — wanting change, having a more urban kind of sensibility and some weird kind of wit. We got out of that overly serious, pompous, big, guitar-band sound. Lyrically, we got into some crazy stuff. It was more about some kind of antisocial mood.
Because we had a lot of personnel changes in the beginning, we were more of an experimental or exploratory kind of group. We really changed personnel quite a few times. And at each time it was a collaborative ensemble situation. It wasn’t like Chris (Stein) and I were telling everyone exactly what to play. We were trying to incorporate whatever a musician or a person brought to us to create a sound. And, finally, that jelled. Then we had a specific sound.
Although, I know Chris has always been very interested in worldbeat — at that time it wasn’t really called that — and of creating crossover, which at that time was really new. So that’s why we did some of the things that we did — to try things: “Let’s do this experiment. Let’s mix up a little bit of disco and techno sounds with a rock beat. Let’s do it with reggae. Let’s try some rap.” It was just things that we liked and things that were around us. We were truly a New York City band in that respect. We had ears open to all the influences that were around us."
- Debbie Harry, Andy Warhol's Interview
Debbie Harry, Chris Stein & Lynval Golding
Chrissie Hynde, Pauline Black, Debbie Harry, Poly Styrene, Viv Albertine & Siouxsie Sioux
'My Clone Sleeps Alone' - Pat Benatar
In the 1980s, Chrysalis Records found themselves at the forefront of the video revolution and their strengthening roster included Spandau Ballet and Ultravox. They also stepped up efforts to enhance their American distribution wing by securing deals with Pat Benatar and Toni Basil, musical artists who became noted for having expansive videographies that showcased inventive art design and finger-hopping choreography.
'Toni Basil’s debut album, WORD OF MOUTH, was released in the U.K. in late May 1981, and “Mickey” was released as a single, but was not a hit at that time. The album also features covers of the David Essex classic, “Rock On,” and three Devo covers — “You Gotta Problem” (a reworked cover of “Pity You”), “Be Stiff” and “Space Girls.” And as a bonus, Devo performs on the songs (she was also involved with Devo co-founder and bass player Gerald “Jerry” Casale at the time, and she was a fan of the band)!
WORD OF MOUTH would be released in the U.S. in April 1982, nearly a year after its U.K. release. Though not immediate, the success of the album and first single “Mickey” would rely on word of mouth (and a whole lot of cheering) that would get Toni Basil onto the music map.
“Mickey” debuted unsuspectingly on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 at No. 83 in early September 1982. Five weeks later, it made its debut in the Top 40, and took its time climbing up the chart, until exploding into the Top 15 in mid-November 1982. The following week, it leapt into the Top 10 on the Hot 100, and in mid-December 1982, it spent a week at No. 1, and would have stayed on top longer, had it not been for the huge hit by Daryl Hall & John Oates (who had a number of huge hits around the holidays in the 80s), “Maneater.” “Mickey” would go on to spend over half a year on the Hot 100, sell over two million copies in the U.S. alone, and finished the 1983 American singles chart year at No. 36.
“Mickey” debuted unsuspectingly on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 at No. 83 in early September 1982. Five weeks later, it made its debut in the Top 40, and took its time climbing up the chart, until exploding into the Top 15 in mid-November 1982. The following week, it leapt into the Top 10 on the Hot 100, and in mid-December 1982, it spent a week at No. 1, and would have stayed on top longer, had it not been for the huge hit by Daryl Hall & John Oates (who had a number of huge hits around the holidays in the 80s), “Maneater.” “Mickey” would go on to spend over half a year on the Hot 100, sell over two million copies in the U.S. alone, and finished the 1983 American singles chart year at No. 36.
Word of mouth got out about “Mickey” around the globe, too, and it spent five weeks at No. 1 in Canada, two weeks at No. 1 in Australia (the sixth biggest hit of 1982 there), plus it reached No. 2 in New Zealand and through a re-release in the U.K., No. 3 in Ireland, South Africa and BILLBOARD’s Dance chart.
After “Mickey,” Toni Basil released three more singles from WORD OF MOUTH, and the final single released from the album, “Shoppin’ From A To Z,” reached No. 77 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in March 1983.'
- 'Forever Young : My Life Stuck In The 80s'
Neil Giraldo & Pat Benatar
Toni Basil, Martha Davis, Grace Slick & Cyndi Lauper
'Shoppin' From A To Z' - Toni Basil
Major 2 Tone acts included the Specials, the Beat and the Selecter, spiritual leaders within the ska punk movement. The Bodysnatchers were a seven-member ska troupe formed in 1979 that disintegrated and reassembled as the Belle Stars, with five bodysnatched members still remaining. There were other acts signed to 2 Tone Records in the early days including the Higsons, a musical vehicle for author and comedian Charlie Higson.
"I was born in Saint Catherine, Jamaica. This man was crippled and he sat in front of this house in the village, where I come from, this brownstone house, on a mat. He died and I went down to the river with my sink pan on my head to fetch the water. It was broad daylight. I’ve got the water, I’m walking, then suddenly there he was, sitting in front of his house on his little mat. My mind just went, “Wooah, wooah,” and the sink pan of water has gone off my head. I just run. And often now, I don’t believe that I saw him, but I saw him. I still can’t grasp it."
- Lynval Golding speaking with Diane Morgan on the subject of ghosts, The Guardian
Jerry Dammers & the Rude Girl Aerobicisers
Amy Winehouse & Terry Hall
Charlie Higson (The Right Hand Lovers / The Higsons) & Paul Whitehouse (The Right Hand Lovers) speak about their background in music on John Peel Day
2 Tone intended to release a single by Elvis Costello & the Attractions, but 'I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down' was blocked from release for contractual reasons; new pressings of the single were distributed by the record label F-Beat which had been recently set up by Jake Riviera, co-founder of Stiff Records.
2 Tone did get to launch the showcase single 'Dance Craze' for ska variety act Bad Manners, which was designed to coincide with the release of Joe Massot's documentary about the 2 Tone movement, 'Dance Craze' (1981). Massot's film was largely shot on the road in 1980 and it features tour footage of Bad Manners, the Beat, the Bodysnatchers, Madness, the Selecter and the Specials.
In 1980, the Beat created their own record label, Go-Feet Records. To gain a footing in the United States of America, the band struck distribution deals through their own label with the record labels Sire Records and I.R.S. Records.
"By 1976, Pauline Black was singing in local pubs, earning £10 a gig. Then one day in May 1979, she went to a rehearsal with a group of friends and left as the lead singer with the Selecter. A few months later, the band had their first hit, On My Radio. Within seven weeks of being a fully formed band, the Selecter were supporting the likes of Madness and the Specials and Pauline was being hailed as the Queen of Ska.
It was around this time that she changed her surname from Vickers. The name Black came to her after a session with the band – she was naming the elephant in the room, she says: "I thought, that is just absolutely amazing! My family, for the first time, will have to say it," she says.
"[The term] coloured was still used in those times. Black was still an underground thing, and to actually name yourself Black, as far as my family was concerned, was quite a big bone of contention. I don't think I've ever been fully forgiven. If I'd changed my name to Smith, that wouldn't have been quite so bad," she says.
If changing her surname to Black was radical for the time, so too was her androgynous "rude-girl" uniform of a sharp black and/or white suit with a grey fedora.
Though never quite as successful as Madness and the Specials, the Selecter had their own loyal following and a string of UK hits after On My Radio, including Too Much Pressure and Three Minute Hero. What made them different from other bands on the 2-tone scene was not only the fact that they had a black female singer, but there was only one white member, out of a line up of seven. "Madness were all white, there were only two black people in the Specials. And then there was us," says Pauline.
It was a time of racial tension in Britain and it was not uncommon for rightwing skinheads and National Front supporters to launch into sieg heil chants during 2-Tone gigs. Wasn't Pauline disheartened when the music she loved was appropriated by "bonehead skins," as she calls them? "It was never appropriated, they were just there. In Top Rank clubs and Tiffany's, and all those kinds of places, you would have 2,000 people in there and 40, possibly 50 people who sieg-heiled at you that particular night," says Pauline.
How did she deal with it? "I rather naively thought they could be shown the error of their ways. That didn't happen, but we tried. We'd ask the audience: 'Do you want these people in here?' Sometimes that would shame them into shutting up," says Pauline."
It was around this time that she changed her surname from Vickers. The name Black came to her after a session with the band – she was naming the elephant in the room, she says: "I thought, that is just absolutely amazing! My family, for the first time, will have to say it," she says.
"[The term] coloured was still used in those times. Black was still an underground thing, and to actually name yourself Black, as far as my family was concerned, was quite a big bone of contention. I don't think I've ever been fully forgiven. If I'd changed my name to Smith, that wouldn't have been quite so bad," she says.
If changing her surname to Black was radical for the time, so too was her androgynous "rude-girl" uniform of a sharp black and/or white suit with a grey fedora.
Though never quite as successful as Madness and the Specials, the Selecter had their own loyal following and a string of UK hits after On My Radio, including Too Much Pressure and Three Minute Hero. What made them different from other bands on the 2-tone scene was not only the fact that they had a black female singer, but there was only one white member, out of a line up of seven. "Madness were all white, there were only two black people in the Specials. And then there was us," says Pauline.
It was a time of racial tension in Britain and it was not uncommon for rightwing skinheads and National Front supporters to launch into sieg heil chants during 2-Tone gigs. Wasn't Pauline disheartened when the music she loved was appropriated by "bonehead skins," as she calls them? "It was never appropriated, they were just there. In Top Rank clubs and Tiffany's, and all those kinds of places, you would have 2,000 people in there and 40, possibly 50 people who sieg-heiled at you that particular night," says Pauline.
How did she deal with it? "I rather naively thought they could be shown the error of their ways. That didn't happen, but we tried. We'd ask the audience: 'Do you want these people in here?' Sometimes that would shame them into shutting up," says Pauline."
- Hannah Pool, The Guardian
𝄞 > 'The Ska EP' ~ Lily Allen < 𝄞
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𝄢 > 'The Ska EP' ~ No Doubt < 𝄢
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𝄜 'The Ska EP' ~ Amy Winehouse 𝄜