JERRY DAMMERS, the man behind The Specials, 2-Tone, and the explosion of British ska in the late 1970s and early 1980s, will play a DJ set at Stress!!, De Burgos, on Bank Holiday Sunday at 8pm.
In Coventry in 1978, Dammers founded the 2-Tone label which unleashed the modern ska phenomenon across Britain (and Ireland ). He was also the main songwriter and leader of the great British Ska band The Specials - best known for the singles ‘Too Much Too Young’ and ‘Ghost Town’.
The first single 2-Tone released was ‘Gangsters’ written by Dammers for his band The Specials, which also included vocalists Terry Hall and Neville Staples.
The song’s ska sound, shot through with a distinct punk attitude and socially conscious lyrics, captured the frustration of British youth in the early days of Thatcher.
Despite their pork-pie hat and shiny mustard suit image, The Specials were a serious concern. Featuring a multi-racial line-up, the band tackled race issues in songs such as ‘Why?’ and the loutish drinking culture in ‘Nite Club’. However their finest hour was the epic, haunting ‘Ghost Town’ which summed up the race-riot torn summer of 1981. Though a massive and deserved hit, it marked the end of the original Specials as Hall and Staples left soon after.
Dammers carried on with the band and released the single ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ in 1984, which went into the Top 10 and played a role in keeping alive the awareness of the Apartheid regime and of the South African leader still imprisoned in Roben Island.
Dammers is still active and remains a politically aware conscience in British music. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary degree from Coventry University and celebrated by DJing at the launch party of the Coventry branch of the Love Music Hate Racism organisation.
Tickets on sale from De Burgo’s. See also www.myspace.com/stressahah
