and here's a new one that focuses on women in ska, Rude Girls: Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond, by Heather Augustyn and out now on Sally Brown Publishing. The synopsis reads: The first book on ...

For a brief and rather glorious period at the dog end of the 1970s, the 2 Tone ska movement gripped the nation’s pop kids. Bursting forth from the Midlands with stylish chequered clothes and ...

a band who would do for Irish folk music what the Specials did for ska). “2 Tone taught me about black and white unity,” Rachel says. “It gave a voice to the pointlessness of street violence ...

2 Tone music started in Coventry in the 1970s. Here’s a quick guide introducing the style if you haven’t heard of it before. 2 Tone music was a blend of Jamaican reggae, ska, and British punk ...

Only a few months after the North London show I saw, the record label Chrysalis signed up the Specials; their leader, Jerry Dammers, insisted the band retain its own independent imprint, 2 Tone. Other ...