WATCH - 'TWO TONE BRITAIN' DOCUMENTARY

We have unearthed this 2004 documentary from Channel 4 in the UK of the story of the Two Tone movement. Relying heavily on musical influences from Jamaican ska and reggae, the label provided multi-cultural Britain with a soundtrack and an identity for the first time.

Mark Lammar narrates a 2004 Channel 4 documentary looking back at how the Two Tone bands influenced an entire generation in early 1980's Britain. The movement started in Coventry and the label was home of The Specials, Madness, The Selecter and The Beat, amongst others.

Two Tone's wider cultural and political significance is very much at the heart of the programme. At a time of desperate divisions between whites, blacks and Asians, Two Tone fostered a disregard for skin colour and actively promoted interracial mixing and a collective and inclusive ethos.

UPCOMING EVENT IN MELBOURNE

POP PRESERVATION SOCIETY PRESENTS: TWO TONE SKA NIGHT WITH DJ VITTORIO

DJ Vittorio will spin records from the Two Tone era, and will go back much further. From the great Prince Buster, Skatalites to Desmond Dekker, the evening will go back as far back as when the genre began in Jamaica during the late 1950s. Ska was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterised by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off beat.

DJ Vittorio will also play the great ska acts from Australia including Strange Tenants and The Allniters for an evening of dancing and partying. Or as Suggs from Madness puts it, “running around like idiots, a blur of legs, arms and adrenaline.”

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