One Step Beyond

     A funny thing happened in the UK around the year of 1978. Something happened to the underlying attitude of the angry youth. Back then most of the bands around were predominately white, didn't give a crap about the past, hated any sort of organized clothing style, and beat up anyone dancing anything but the pogo; but by 1979 everyone totally turned around and started skanking like crazy to the fun sounds of ska. They went to go see integrated bands who were wearing the now famous black and white suit of the rudeboys.

     The Specials leapt to the forefront of this wave by creating their own record label, and outputting a string of hit records. They were not the only ones around though; bands such as Madness, the Selecter, The (English) Beat, Bad Manners, and The BodySnatchers filled the dancehalls of the UK on a nightly basis. Even Elvis Costello and The Police was skankin' to the beat back then. Listen to some of those early Police albums, and you will notice a distinct ska rhythm present in some of their songs. Elvis Costello only released one single under the two tone label (Can't Stand Up for Falling Down), but he did produce the first Specials album; along with being the guest singer and producer on The Special AKA's single Nelson Mandela.

     Unfortunatly, the fun did not last for to long. The bands songs were mostly geared towards non-rascial themes, and unity; but the croud that went to these shows was dancing to a different drum. See, the problem was the mix. On one hand you had the working class skin heads. They shaved their heads, wore big boots and braces, with jeans and white t-shirts. On the other were the richer rudeboys. The rudeboys wore expensive two tone suits, shiny shoes, and went out and bought vespas to ride around. They had money to burn, and weren't afraid to show it off. These two elements in a crowd together, packed into a dancehall to listen to their favorite ska bands did not make a happy mix. Huge fights broke out on a regular basis. Dancehalls were wrecked, and therefore dancehalls did not want to book ska bands anymore. The dancehalls did not want to take the risk . At one of the Madness shows it got so bad that Madness was literally blacklisted. They were not allowed to play anywhere. They were even stricken from the Dance Craze LP because of it.

     So that is why by 1981 ska had died down. Some bands kept going however, the specials split into two seperate bands; Fun Boy Three was formed by Hall Staples, and Golding, while Jerry Dammers formed the Special AKA. The (English) Beat split in two also.. They re-formed into General Public and The Fine Young Cannibals. Madness came back for a few reunion tours, namely they played a show with Morrissy in the early 90's. Then they actually toured again a few years back. Bad Manners kept their nose to the grindstone and are still making albums today, but the only original member is the lead singer. So that brings us to the Current wave of ska bands.