The Midland of England in the summer of 1979 was birthplace to one of the most unexpected music revivals in UK history. Punk rock had lost its sense of fun, and its shock value, with bands becoming either too political or too commercial. The middle ground was there for the picking and was niftly conquered by groups comprised of disillusioned punks who recognised the opportunity of having fun whilst still making a stand for the blank generation of the mid seventies. They discovered Ska music, and made it their own.
The Ska bands of this era had a major impact on contemporary music, as did punk, but in many ways they eclipsed their Punk forefathers. Bands such as The Specials, Madness, The Beat and Bad Manners won international acclaim and enjoyed massive commercial success, many artists going on to become celebrities in their own right. Sadly by the mid-eighties, it was all pretty much over bar the shouting. Then in 1990, from the ashes of arguably the two most groundbreaking bands, The Specials and The Beat (or English Beat in the USA), the Special Beat was born. Headed by beat toaster, Ranking Roger and Specials "Rude Boys" Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, the band toured extensively and produced two live albums. In 1992 they toured Japan and now, for the first time, the footage from the Tokyo show on that tour is available on Dvd and features numerous classics from the back catalogues of both the 2-Tone era giants.
Tracklisting: - Concrete Jungle
- Monkey Man
- Tears of a Clown
- Rough Rider
- Too Much Too Young
- Get a Job
- Rat Race
- Too Nice to Talk To
- Too Hot
- Do Nothing
- Nite Klub
- Noise in This World
- Gangsters
- Ranking Full Stop
- Mirror in the Bathroom
- Enjoy Yourself
- Jackpot
- Save it for Later
- You're Wondering Now
We use cookies to help you navigate our website and to keep track of our promotional efforts. Some cookies are necessary for the site to operate normally while others are optional. To find out what cookies we are using please visit Cookies Policy.