You’ll read a lot about “culture” on this blog - usually in the comments section. Much of it concerns a contrived, selective, orthodox brand of official Ireland “culture”, which if we weren’t told about all the time, we’d probably know nothing about. Gaelic, Aran sweaters, tin whistles, Peig, those bagpipe things you play with your armpit. But let’s get on to culture as it really applies in the real world. And Ireland.I was at Madness in the O2 last night, and was very impressed. Not by the O2 or many of the people present – particularly in the row of seats I was in, hopping up and down like a jack-in-the-box to allow egress to those more interested in the bar and the pop-corn than the band. There are two few aisles, you see, and there’s more legroom in a Ryanair jet than in the O2. Throw in the Irish propensity for face-stuffing and that meant I was paying for a seat I wasn’t actually sitting in most of the time. That’s fine if you’re a dancer, but I’m not.
Back to Madness, though. I know they’ve had 30 years to perfect their set, but they were excellent. The light show was superb too, though sound-wise the bass was a bit muddy - and the bass player had a lovely Stingray, so it wasn’t that. Well-crafted, classic ska and pop hits played excellently - with Suggsy the consummate front-man.
As a bonus, Jerry Dammers was there doing DJ, playing an eclectic selection of Blue Beat, reggae and original ska sounds. Dammers, of course, is the man who set up the Two Tone label in the late seventies, a label that included his band The Specials, The Selector, The Bodysnatchers and (initially), Bad Manners, Madness and The Beat.
And while the punk of the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Jam and others had an important message before and during the ska explosion, the practical anti-racist ethos of Two Tone is hard to beat - and is possibly the most durable. This is simply because it united black and white youth around a common culture consisting of a love of music that transcended other so-called cultural divisions. All the more impressive, as it happened just as unemployment, government policy, racism and rioting had indeed transformed some British cities into “ghost towns”.
The open, accessible and inclusive culture of Two Tone is one that’s well worth us all celebrating.
And the music’s not bad either.
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14 comments:
lol. Good post!
I went to see the Specials last month.
http:// www.youtube.co?v=tC4_GKIJG9s
Sorry to say I missed The Specials when they were here.
Hi GM, great gig I was at it myself. I echo your experience about the bevvies. Another thing too, when Jerry Dammers was doing the DJ set I was singing along (well screaming/shouting)having being a former Rude Girl I know all the words, but incredibly many people around me were moaning about when would Madness be coming on, they had paid to see Madness and were not interested in hearing The Beat, The Specials, The Selecter, etc. Did the whole Two Tone thing pass them by? well obviously!
Jayzus, a mass outing of former rude boys ... count me in!
I quite like your headline - "Madness - part of what we are". But it is really a more local, insular thing, innit? I mean, Madness and the Specials were, for instance, quite big for a while in Germany, but it never sank into popular culture that much.
Actually I nearly peed myself when the following joke was told recently ... and none (I repeat NONE) of the other numerous non-Irish or non-British nationals (that PC enough now?) got the joke at all:
"What's the first sign of madness approaching? Suggs in your driveway ..."
@ Ella, yes you'd wonder alright. The stuff Dammers was playing was excellent, and the inspiration for the ska revival bands.
@ Bernd, yes... taking liberties with the headline just for the sake of double meaning, I admit. Glad to hear they were big in Germany, wasn't aware of that.
"Big" is relative ... their first chart success was "Our House", but airplay was pretty good. Unfortunately the whole ska thing went down the drain fast, with right-wing skinheads jumping onto the bandwagon in no time.
Pity, Bernd. Obviously these boneheads can't have been very SHARP ;-)
Have a great new year, btw.
Bugger, had family obligations that night (thanks Carmel!). Great band, I still have their debut album from Christmas 1979 - bought for me by a cracking girlfriend (sorry Carmel!).
Happy New Year GM, hope to catch up with you in 2010...
You too SaS - and Cracking Carmel! ;-) Have a great 2010.
This is more of the usual lefty self-hating crap from Gombeen Nation. We hear the same bullshit from commies like Roddy Doyle. Rural Ireland and old style Irish nationalism and Gaelic culture are to be crossed out and replaced by a multicultural urban proletarian culture that will be in the vanguard of the New Revolution. This will naturally be led by nerdy middle class music critics. All the culchies will be sent to the gulags. What harm did ceili music do anyone?
I like a lot of ska music myself. But most of Jerry Dammers music for the Specials was ripped off the original Jamaican ska and reggae artists and then he has the nerve to go on about "racism".
And about Madness. Weren't some of the members pally with a certain Ian Stuart of Skrewdriver. He appeared in the film Take It Or Leave It. Chas Smash, a London Irishman said in 1979 that everyone was welcome to a Madness gig even National Front supporters. He was no NF supporter but he was streetwise enough to know the far left is as bad as the far right just as blacks are as bad as whites if not sometimes worse.
I'm going to listen to a few Clancy Brothers and Wolf Tones tunes now. To hell with what you "cool" people think.
PS The young one in Crystal Swing is a million times better looking the Jerry Dammers. Culchies rule and don't you Dublin gurriers forget it.
Freemind
Ha ha. Great.
The problem with Ceili music is that it's shite. The English had the right idea about folk dance, I think. They had morris dancing and they recognised it for the embarrassment that it is. A curiosity, no less, and that's the place for it. Likewise ceili.
Don't get too miffed about the Dublin/Rest Of The Country Divide. The Specials, who were the driving force behind the Two Tone message (Madness just rode the bandwagon for a short time) were themselves provincials, hailing from Coventry. Dammers was always stongly influenced by Blue Beat and Jamacian ska... indeed the Specials never made any secret of that, and their music was more faithful to the original than any of their comtemporaries.
"The problem with Ceili music is that it's shite. The English had the right idea about folk dance, I think. They had morris dancing and they recognised it for the embarrassment that it is. A curiosity, no less, and that's the place for it. Likewise ceili." - The Gombeen Man
If wasn't for Irish, Scottish and English folk music there'd be no American bluegrass which begat rockabilly which begat rock'n'roll which begat rock which begat indie. Some traditional music is good. It can be reinvented. Remember the Pogues, the Byrds, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin were all inspired by folk. Most English people have forgotten their roots.
"Don't get too miffed about the Dublin/Rest Of The Country Divide. The Specials, who were the driving force behind the Two Tone message (Madness just rode the bandwagon for a short time) were themselves provincials, hailing from Coventry. Dammers was always stongly influenced by Blue Beat and Jamacian ska... indeed the Specials never made any secret of that, and their music was more faithful to the original than any of their comtemporaries."
The Specials were alright. I might be related to some of the members of that band for all I know, I have family connections with Coventry and the English Midlands. But as far as I'm concerned Baggy Trousers was more relevant than the entire Specials back catalogue. The Specials excluding the two black members were all white middle class left wing hippies who jumped on the skinhead and mod revival bandwagon at time started led by Sham 69 and the Jam and the white cod-reggae thing started by the Clash. Dammers far-left politics inherited from his father a vicar and liberation theologian are now hopelessly outdated.
Yes and the young girl in Crystal Swing is far better looking the Jerry Dammers. There is no way you can refute that. Not unless you need glasses.
Well, you can go back to the Fra Fra Tribesmen of modern-day Ghana which led to American Blues which led to R&B which led to gospel which led to soul which led to Ska. I'm sure things are seldom so linear though and there were all kinds of synergies going which led to modern music.
As it happens, I liked the Pogues and I like some folk music too... though some people think it's exclusively Irish, which it isn't. Not interested in trad though. Not at all.
Yes, a lot of Irish worked in Coventry... massive conurbations in the English midlands - some automotive industry they used to have, much of it in decline now, so I can see the inspiration for Ghost Town.
I'd say Terry Hall was too young to ever have had a dalliance with the hippies. Not sure about the ages of the others but I imagine they were all kids when mod was going on and they would have grown up through the whole beatnik and hippy thing. Certainly wouldn't have them down as middle-class hippies, and their audiences most certainly weren't.
Think they were all influenced big-time by punk though, which is funny as even a band such as the Pistols bypassed the whole heavy rock thing and went back to the mod era for their early covers.
Think Weller took the same route, though he was only 19 when In The City came out, I think. Sham 69 were more streetpunk leading to Oi (still think their stuff is great - though even Pursey had to contend with sieg heiling morons who obviously didn't get quite Sham's meaning). Yes, Oi had some rather unsavoury characters in the mix.. Mr Stuart and a certain Johnny Adair. The 4-Skins ACAB is a great singalong though.
So I think the ska thing came out of that whole mod, retrospective thing, but when you think about it they didn't really have to delve back that far for it.
As far as politics goes, I think 2-Tone, and the Specials in particular, had the simplest and most practical philosophy - "unite or fight". I don't think they were political pamphleteers in the way that say TRB and Crass (socialism and anarchism respectively) were, and political poseurs like the Clash were (thought I did, and still do, like those bands). Heady days indeed, though I was only a nipper.
I'll give you that one on Crystal Swing though.
The Spectrums cover band.
The Spectrums 80s covers band
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