Too Much Too Young,The 2 Tone Records Story
Rude Boys, Racism, and the Soundtrack of a Generation
Daniel Rachel
Akashic Books
Daniel Rachel’s epic tome is a detailed history of the 2 Tone Record label and the bands who powered the ’80s ska revival. The 2 Tone movement rotated around the Coventry bands Specials and Selectors (both terms borrowed from Jamaican sound systems). The label’s first release was a split single by the above-mentioned bands, released in 1979. The label released 13 albums and 50 singles before folding in 1986.
Rachel does a good job of detailing the origin of 2 Tone. Keyboardist Jerry Dammers was instrumental in assembling the elements that became 2 Tone. As the guiding force behind the Specials and the 2 Tone label, his goal was to combine the reckless energy of punk with the groove of reggae. His ambition was that a music blending cultural styles played by multiethnic bands could make people rethink their attitudes about race and class. This was no hippie dream, because 2 Tone was flying in the face of the racist National Front and their street soldiers, the Skinheads.
Rachel documents the brief and tumultuous life of 2 Tone. There was constant conflict between bands, within bands, among the bands and their public. When you’re explicitly trying to change the world, things are bound to be rough. Dammers never tied bands to the 2 Tone label which allowed the more commercially successful (English) Beat and Madness to leave for major labels. The ska revival ignited by 2 Tone has ebbed and flowed over the years but never really gone away. There would have been no Third Wave in the 1990s if there had never been a Specials. Too Much, Too Young clocks in at almost 500 pages. Hard core ska fans will love the detail. For the casual fan, it may be bit of an overload.
