“Brexit chaos. A near-decade of Tory austerity. Poverty, racism and inequality on the rise. A country irreparably divided. Time to send out the Two-Tone Bat-Signal and call in The Specials. Their numbers have dwindled due to death, ill health and dissent – Jerry Dammers, Neville Staple and Roddy ‘Radiation’ Byers have all quit since their 2009 reunion, and drummer John Bradbury died in 2015 – but ”
“When the Specials’ Jerry Dammers’ launched the 2 Tone label in Britain in 1979, his group was more than just a ska revival band with good taste in covers — they were a multi-racial spearhead of a post-punk movement combatting skinhead racism (fueled by far-right groups like the National Front) and the craven business-first classism […]”
“The Specials are back, and they aren’t playing around. The founding fathers of Britain’s 2-Tone ska revival—Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter—are still dealing with the same shit they were singing against in 1981. Racism, gun violence, catcalling…things haven’t changed all that much. “Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys” calls for a world where race is dissolved and white supremacy no longer ex”
