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January 1980 — "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" by Elvis Costello is scheduled for release on 2-Tone but then withdrawn after WEA obtains an injunction, claiming they have the right to all his work.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
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