“If punk is an attitude rather than a style of music or dress, then two-tone was it’s offspring.”
“Two tone’s protagonists, brought up on reggae and punk, moulded parts of each to make a new form. They added that ‘I can do it’ attitude and created two-tone. The lineage isn’t obvious, but it is there. They were autonomous and independent, and admittedly used all the the doors that punk had opened for them.”
Chris Sullivan
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“The whole punk thing did influence us in that we thought we could start a band too. There were so many bands around that a circuit of live venues had developed and we were able to play them, We were influenced a lot by Kilburn and the High Roads, Deaf School and a strange pub rock, quasi-punk mix. I remember I was so thrilled when I went to see these bands, and being thrilled by the fact that they were so near in the bar. Of course, when we started, none of us could really play that well. It was the ‘can do’ idea behind it that influences us.”
Suggs
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“A lot of people where were into the early punk phenomenon moved into one of the four or five directions – electro, rockabily, a curious rock-dub fusion, a Velvet-inspired goth vibe, and two-tone – until each one of them reached ‘Erbertsville and they moved on once again”
Chris Sullivan
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“The legacy of punk and then Madness was that when you went to a gig, the bloke who had just been performing on stage could now be standing next to you at the bar. He was just the same as you. He had the same common or uncommon accent as you. It was liberating. You were no longer divorced from rock stars; they were just like you.”
Chris Langer, songwriter and producer
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“The whole thing about punk and two-tone movements was how quickly you could get a record on the streets. It was just like Jamaica, where guys used to go into the studio, get a record, get it pressed, go out onto the street, sell 50 copies, then go back and press another 50. That was the greatness of two-tone – people cutting records and getting them out on the street.”
Dennis Morris, photographer and record industry figure
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“It’s a different industry now. Music today is clever, but it sounds manufactured, Two-tone had a reality which was raw and natural.
Clive Langer
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“The two-tone movement became so big and successful that the money men and the major record companies started appearing. That’s when the problems began.”
Dennis Morris
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“I was one of those early punk fans and used to go to Barbarella’s. I wasn’t into the music that much, but O liked the spirit of it. When we began the Specials, there was a certain punk sensibility, but the music and the clothes were completely different.”
Jerry Dammers, keyboard player, the Specials
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“Luckily for Coventry, two-tone happened because if it hadn’t, the town would have exploded.”
“Coventry was an area which had got really devastated during the Second World War. It was very depressed. There was lots of National Front. It was very heavy. It was lucky that two-tone happened because music has always been the saviour of a divided society, and with two-tone it didn’t matter if you were black or white.”
Dennis Morris
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“A lot of bands in the punk thing tried to express the feeling of being unemployed and pissed off in an urban environment, but none of them expressed it as well as the Specials in ‘Ghost Town’. One of the reasons two-tone was so valid was that it was multiracial, a true reflection of Britain at the time. I’d like to think that if punk had been left alone and unhindered, it would have developed into this, which is maybe what happened in Coventry.”
Stephen Colegrave
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“The Specials were a fantastic band. It’s hard to explain now, but they were absolutely the band of the moment. There was a special energy coming out of their songs and everything they did. The problem was that there were too many strong individual geniuses in the Specials.”
Dennis Morris
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“Being on tour with the Specials was really refreshing because they weren’t just another punk group – they were taking it somewhere else, and it was something we were really familiar with, the two-tone suits and all that. A lot of us had been into ska before punk came along, and really it was a direction we could have returned to. Reggae was an area the Clash explored quite thoroughly.
Paul Simonon
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“The Special’s music is the stuff that turns legs to rubber and plays pinball with your brain. They strike a near-perfect balance between accessibility and attitude.”
Dennis Morris
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“It’s not that we’re just trying to revive ska. It’s using those old elements to try forming something new. In a way it’s all still part of punk. We’re just trying to show some other direction. ... You’ve got to go back to go forward.”
Terry Hall, vocalist, the Specials, New Musical Express, 10 May 1979.
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(Quotes taken from Punk, Stephen Colgrave and Chris Sullivan, Cassell Illustrated, London, 2004).