A new book on 2 Tone (forgive the shameless plug)!

Any TPers in this forum who liked/loved 2 Tone ska as part of their new wave mix might be interested in my new paperback book The Duff Guide to 2 Tone, which is available through Amazon. (PPM, if you're interested in a review copy for your blog, let me know.)

Here's the blurb from the back cover of the book:

"The Duff Guide to 2 Tone features over 70 reviews of reissues of essential 2 Tone albums from The Specials and The Special AKA, The Selecter, The Beat, Madness, The Bodysnatchers, and Bad Manners, as well as write-ups of their more recent records, gigs, books, and movies—which no self-respecting fan of 2 Tone should miss! (This guide also features reviews of 2 Tone-adjacent releases that you need to know about.) Ska music writer Stephen Shafer was Moon Ska Records “director of propaganda” during the 1990s and played a significant, behind-the-scenes role in making the so-called American “Third Wave” of ska happen. With a foreword by Gaz Mayall (The Trojans, Gaz's Rockin' Records, Gaz's Rockin' Blues, and co-writer of The Bodysnatchers' "Ruder Than You"), The Duff Guide to 2 Tone draws from over 12 years of Shafer’s reviews from his Duff Guide to Ska blog—and this collection not only provides a critical overview of 2 Tone’s ever-growing body of work, it also documents the continuing and largely unwritten history of these bands, as well as 2 Tone’s lasting impact well into the 21st century."

If you're intrigued, you can check out the book's table of contents, my intro, and Gaz Mayall's foreword via Amazon's "Look Inside" feature. (Within the last 10 years, Madness, versions of The Specials, The Beat, and The Selecter, and Rhoda Dakar of The Bodysnatchers all have released some excellent, noteworthy records.)

We now return you to your regular programming...

Thanks!

Mr. S:

Congrats on finding the time to write a book. I can barely find time to sleep! I was a late bloomer to 2nd wave ska's allure, but once I heard "I Just Can't Stop It," I crumbled. This new trend that was diverting attention from all of the synth rock I loved and was actually having its day in the sun, was actually pretty darned great. My problem was that it no doubt made more sense on a club floor than in a home but we didn't go clubbing until there was a club culture in my backwater [by the early 90s] that supported original music and by then, 3rd Wave Ska was happening and we got a "better late than never" groove thang going. Yep. I would love to review your book so I'll PM you on that.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Thanks so much, PPM!

Hallelujah! Just as I was wondering what to read next. Thanks, Fam! I can't wait!

Delvin,

So glad my timing was good! Hope you enjoy it--and thanks so much for the support. (I had a feeling you'd be interested in it, too!)

All the best,

Steve/Familyman

Ah, you’ve picked a good topic. The four pillars of 2-tone (the Specials, too much pressure, one step beyond , I just can’t stop it) were SO important to my overall musical (and personal) development. I refer to these albums all the time.

While I obtained many singles and subsequent albums (including the Bodysnatchers etc) from that original era, I will admit to not keeping up with any current developments. Sounds like your book is a good place to get caught up.

Thanks so much, Bip!

I think you'll really enjoy this book. Within the last decade or so, all of the pillars of 2 Tone have released a number of stellar records and books--and the following are great starting points for catching up with each band: see Madness' concept album The Liberty of Norton Folgate (plus its wild accompanying performance/art film by Julien Temple), Can't Touch Us Now and Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da, and their book Before We Was We; Pauline Black and Gap Henrickson's version of The Selecter's Subculture and Daylight albums (and Pauline's autobiography Black By Design); Dave Wakeling's US-based version of The Beat's Here We Go Love, and Ranking Roger's UK-based Beat's Public Confidential (his autobiography, I Just Can't Stop It: My Life in The Beat, written just before his untimely death, is an essential history of that band); Rhoda Dakar's Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers (I declared it "the lost 2 Tone album"); and Terry Hall, Lynval Golding, and Horace Panter's version The Specials' Encore (plus the bootleg recorded before, and that is actually better than, their debut '79 album, Live at the Moonlight Club, was finally officially released by 2 Tone/Chrysalis in the US almost 40 years after the fact). All of these, and much more, are reviewed in The Duff Guide to 2 Tone.

As you can see, there's lots to feed/re-kindle your love of 2 Tone!

I might drop a Xmas hint to family members regarding this. Where I grew up on Sydney's northern beaches, the second wave (no pun intended), was huge, to the extent that my first band was a ska band. We only got into the root stuff down the track to the extent that our second single was a Dandy Livingstone cover but, man, the Specials and Selecter debuts were a massive influence.

Aitch, thanks! What was the name of your ska band, and did you record anything?

The Leftovers, which turned out to be a huge mistake as we were unaware of the Brisbane punk legends with the same name, but that's another story. We put out two singles on Method records. The first one, The Lemonade Song (which lurks on Pete Porker's Ska Skank Down Under compilation) ironically knocked Sekret Sekret's Girl With A White Stick off the number 2 spot on the independent chart. Their singer, David Virgin, was also the singer of the aforementioned Brisbane punk legends.

It's a small world, Aitch! I was at Moon Records at that time, and, with Pete Porker's help, put together a modified US version of that release (which didn't end up selling very well in America, but was a great comp, though The Leftovers didn't make an appearance on ours--sorry!).

He did two of them so I guess he combined them and we didn't make the cut.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2020 06:02PM by Aitch.

Our loss, Aitch!