79 Ska Revival: Dance Craze - 2 Tone Girls

ONE GREAT BOOK WITH A CHOICE OF FIVE GREAT COVERS. TAKE YOUR PICK. It's forty years since the Specials took the pop world by storm with their infectious mix of Ska rhythms and punk attitude. Madness and The Selector followed close on their heels. Within a matter of months the 2-Tone bands had stolen our hearts and conquered the charts with a non-stop procession of unforgettable hits: 'Gangsters', 'A message to you Rudi', 'Too Much too Young', 'The Prince', 'One Step Beyond', 'My Girl', 'Too Much Pressure'… "Your last chance to dance before World War Three," Specials singer Terry Hall called it. An exaggeration of course, but 2-Tone served up the most perfect pop since Trojan reggae dominated the UK charts a decade earlier. And the bands kept coming – Bad Manners, The Beat, The Bodysnatchers. Even Judge Dread came back! Garry Bushell was the first rock writer to see the Specials live, the first to interview Madness and the first to watch the bands attempt to export their magic to the USA. This book is his collected dispatches from the front line during that exciting, exhilarating rise of the rude boys. The Ska, Rock & Mod revival of the late Seventies early Eighties put life and laughs into a politIcally grim UK scene. Journalist Garry Bushell was on the front line, working for_ Sounds_ and _Dance Craze_ magazine, and was present to witness all of the critical events.