Jerry Dammers

Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers

Dammers was born 22 May 1955 in

Dammers was one of the founding members of ska revivalist band the Specials. Prior to the Specials, Dammers had played with Neol Davies and other reggae musicians who would later form the Selecter. He had written songs in his teens, and his idea in forming the Specials was that it would combine reggae and punk.^[7] He formed the band, initially called the Coventry Automatics, with vocalist Tim Strickland, guitarist/vocalist Lynval Golding, drummer Silverton Hutchinson, and bassist Horace Panter in 1977. He then asked Terry Hall to join. Hall was performing vocals with Squad and Roddy Radiation, both of whom were part of the local Coventry punk scene.^[2] Dammers has said that anti-racism was a key element of the band, and the Rock Against Racism movement was formed at the same time. He also saw the Specials as an opportunity to integrate white and black people through the same music, and he picked members to make the band multi-racial.^[8] Until this time, white British people mainly played rock, blues and jazz, while black British people played reggae, jazz, and soul. The Specials was an opportunity to have black and white people in the same band, something not common at the time, through playing ska.^[2]

GQ editor Dylan Jones noted that the Specials differed from other ska bands at the time because of Dammers’ political messages in the Specials' lyrics.^[9] After talking their way onto a tour with the Clash, then a better-known group, Dammers pushed the Specials to adopt the mod/rude boy fashion sub-culture,^[7] and this look was copied by fans of the band.

They released their eponymous first album, The Specials, which was successful, and then their second album, More Specials, which was less so.

After some issues with Roddy Radiation not being able to play,^[10] Neville Staple, Terry Hall and Lynval Golding at this point left the band to form Fun Boy Three.

The band changed its lineup and rebadged as

Dammers at times attempted to rejoin the re-formed Specials, but in 2008 he stated that things had not worked out, and his attempts were not welcome.[14]

He founded 2 Tone Records,^[15][16][17] as a ska version of the Motown label,^[18] the main label that kick started the ska revival of the late 1970s/1980s. Dammers got graphic artists to produce specific art for the label, including the iconic man in the suit graphic, which was based on a photo of reggae musician Peter Tosh.^[16][19][20] The label was a sub-label of Chrysalis Records, but still independent. The era saw a lot of racism, and 2 Tone Records was a bulwark against that, celebrating racial unity and combating the rise of the National Front. The whole two-tone scene took off, and the label released early singles that would end up becoming major hits for bands including Madness, the Beat and the Selecter. The Selecter left the label, and Dammers strayed from the ska influence to bring jazz influences, most particularly on the album More Specials^[20] However, by 1984 the Special AKA were the main artist on the label, and Dammers was the only original member left.^[7] Dammers almost destroyed the label through the cost of the release of the Special AKA album, but was saved when the single "Free Nelson Mandela" became huge internationally, while also bringing enough light onto apartheid that it was a factor in the end of the regime.^[20][21] He got into a lot of debt,^[22] and towards the end of the label he had to stop recording because of a lack of funds. Dammers finally shut down the label in 1985,^[21] seven years after it was founded,^[23] though the message of racial unity imparted to its many followers had a positive effect on society.^[22]

Dammers' founding of 2 Tone Records, which launched Madness, the Specials, the Bodysnatchers, the Beat and the Selecter among others, his push for the punk ska cross genre of music that the Specials had played, and his suggestions for the adoption of retro 1960s mod/rude boy clothes were a key element in starting the ska revival of the late 1970s^[24][25][26] and the two tone ska/punk sound specifically.^[27]

He became an anti-

In November 2006, Dammers was awarded an honorary degree from Coventry University, celebrating by DJing at the launch party of the Coventry branch of the Love Music Hate Racism organisation. In the same month, he attended a private viewing of a Harry Pye curated art exhibition in east London that featured paintings of bands and singers that had once been championed by the late BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel. Dammers read out a four-page poem, in which he thanked Peel for helping his own band, and for supporting black musicians.^{[citation needed]}

Dammers has produced singles for Robert Wyatt, the Untouchables, UB40 and Junior Delgado. He contributed "Riot City" to the soundtrack of the Julien Temple film, Absolute Beginners, and "Brightlights" to the compilation album Jamming: A New Optimism.

Dammers still regularly DJs in English nightclubs.

Dammers has been recognised widely by his peers and music critics for his role in making ska music popular in the 1980s, his creation of ska/punk fusion, and for his role in race relations and the anti apartheid movement. Mojo magazine referred to him as "The Ska Punk Wizard",^[30] while the Clash's lead singer, Joe Strummer, referred to him as the Tzar of Ska. GQ magazine referred to Dammers as the Paul McCartney/John Lennon of Ska.^[9]

Dammers has received a number of awards for his services to anti apartheid/human rights and music:

• The South African Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo in silver award, a national honour, for his role in the anti-apartheid movement (received In April 2014, Dammers received). "It feels fantastic. It is a real honour to be considered for this, especially when I compare what little I did to the work of those who sacrificed their lives, I am humbled," he said.^[31][32]
• Radio 1 DJ Award, for his work with 2 Tone Records and the Specials (1979)
• Honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.^[33] (November 2015)
• Q magazine's Q Merit Award at London's Park Lane Hotel.^[34] (October 2000)
• Ivor Novello Inspiration Award (May 2014) ^[35]

• "Riot City" (8:29) – on Absolute Beginners (Songs from the Original Motion Picture) (LP, Virgin V-2386, 1986)^[36]
• "Solitary Tower" (3:50) – on Monsterism Night (CD, Lo Editions LOCD-22, 2009)^[37]
• "Free Nelson Mandela" (with Simple Minds) – on Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (VHS/Secam, CMV Enterprises 49011, 1989)^[38]