Uncut, July 1998

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
... Bibliography ...
727677787980818283
848586878889909192
939495969798990001
020304050607080910
111213141516171819
202122232425 26 27 28


Uncut

Ultimate Music Guide


UK & Ireland magazines

-

The rise and fall of 2-Tone


Uncut

May 1979 — The first Specials radio broadcast on — what else? — the John Peel show. The band play "Gangsters," "Too Much Too Young," "Concrete Jungle" and "Monkey Man"

September 1979 — "Gangsters," the first release on the 2-Tone label, backed with the instrumental, "The Selecter," peaks in the singles chart at Number Six, and a label, a movement and a fashion statement are born

October 1979 — The first Madness single, "The Prince," is released on 2-Tone, their only single for the label before they sign with Dave Robinson's Stiff Records

October 1979 — The 2-Tone bus hits the road for a 40-date British tour featuring The Specials, The Selecter and Madness, kicking off at Brighton's Top Rank

November 1979 — The ska take-over seems complete as The Specials ("Message To You Rudy"), The Selecter ("On My Radio") and Madness ("One Step Beyond-) all appear on the same edition of Top Of The Pops promoting Top 30 singles

January 1980 — The Beat hit the Top 10 with their first single, "Tears Of A Clown," and follow the model of 2-Tone's deal with Chrysalis by establishing their own label Go Feet through Arista

January 1980 — "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" by Elvis Costello is scheduled for release on 2-Tone but then withdrawn after WEA obtains an injunction, claiming they have the right to all his work. About 13,000 copies of the single are subsequently given away at Costello gigs. They are now are worth an arm and a leg

July 1980 — The Selecter leave the 2-Tone label amid considerable rancour. The band fold the following year

October 1980 — Following a riot at a Specials gig in Cambridge, Terry Hall and Jerry Dammers are charged with incitement and subsequently fined £1,000

July 1981 — "Ghost Town" tops the singles chart and become the anthem of a long, hot summer simmering with tension as black youth erupts against Thatcherite unemployment and the streets are set ablaze in Brixton, Birmingham Handsworth and Liverpool's Toxteth

September 1981 — The original Specials play their last ever live gigs on their second American tour

October 1981 — The Specials split as Staples, Hall and Golding form the Fun Boy Three. Dammers continues to record as The Special AKA, recruiting Rhoda Dakar from The Bodysnatchers and other friends and neighbours for the In The Studio album which will take three years to see the light of day

April 1984 — Dammers' song "Nelson Mandela," produced by Elvis Costello, becomes a global anti-apartheid anthem and charts at Number Nine in the UK for The Special AKA

September 1984 — "What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend" by The Special AKA becomes Dammers' last record on the label he set up

January 1986 — A little more than six years after "Gangsters," "Alphabet Army" by JB's All Stars is the last ever release on 2-Tone, although in spirit the label had died a good 18 months earlier

July 1986 — Madness play their last gig with the original line-up in Hartlepool before announcing two months later that they, too, have finally split

-
<< >>

Uncut, No. 14, July 1998


Excerpts from Uncut's feature on 2-Tone.

Images

1998-07-00 Uncut clipping 01.jpg1998-07-00 Uncut clipping 04.jpg
Clippings.


The Elvis connection


Uncut

1998-07-00 Uncut clipping 03.jpg

Curiously, what would have been 2-Tone's first Top Five single was ultimately released by another record company. Following a dispute with Warner Brothers, Elvis Costello & The Attractions found themselves temporarily homeless between the shutting down of Radar Records and the formation of manager Jake Rivera's new imprint, F-Beat.

Having recorded the largely 2 Tone-inspired Get Happy!! album in late '79, Costello was keen to get the first 45, "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down," out as soon as possible, and conspired with Jerry Dammers to make it a one-off release for the Coventry indie. The single was pressed and scheduled for release, but the legal loopholes were sorted out at the eleventh hour and the record finally came out as the first to carry the F Beat name, reaching Number Four in February, 1980. The disc was later given out to punters at a London Costello gig, making it a collector's item today.


Clipping.
1998-07-00 Uncut clipping 02.jpg

-



Back to top

External links