Part 2: Too Much Too Young

With the recording complete, Dammers approached Geoff Travis at Rough Trade to set up a distribution agreement. Rough Trade decided that they would like to handle 5,000 copies, which was double what Dammers had expected to have pressed. Realising that he needed help to fulfill this agreement, Jerry soon made tracks to Rick Rogers, who had worked in PR at Stiff records, and was now running his own management agency, Trigger.

Dammers went to meet Rogers, and talked him into seeing the band play live in Coventry. Rogers was immediately struck by the bands energy and enthusiasm, and decided to offer his services as manager. 'Gangsters' was getting a lot of independent radio coverage, and Rogers soon booked the band to play a few gigs in London. The first of these was at The Hope & Anchor in Camden Town where a mere 30 people were in attendance , but soon the audiences started to swell, and a support slot at the Lyceum in April '79 gave the band greater exposure.

A Rock Against Racism gig saw the band return to The Hope & Anchor and in the audience this time around was a young Graham 'Suggs' McPherson, lead singer with another ska influenced band Madness. Suggs got talking to Jerry, and Dammers was amazed to find that there was another band playing the same blend of ska and new wave.

The gigs in London had caused quite a stir amongst the music press, and soon the shows were being attended by a flurry of record company representatives. A gig at The Moonlight Club on May 3rd (the day before Thatcher tragically won the election), was attended by Roy Eldridge, an A&R man for Chrysalia Records, and he was completely blown away by the band. Although The Specials were offered a lot more money by other labels, they had been unwilling to accept the 2-Tone label as part of the deal. Chrysalis on the other hand offered to release 10 2-Tone singles a year, each with a budget of £1,000, and also signed the Specials to a 5 album deal.

The Specials were definatley going places. On May 23rd, they recorded a 4 track session for John Peel's Radio 1 show, which was broadcast 6 days later, and Chrysalis re-pressed the 'Gangsters' single and gave it wider distribution. The single entered the UK national chart on July 28th 1979 eventually peaking at No.6, and the band set out on an eight week tour to promote it. On some of the gigs, the Specials were supported by Madness, whom Dammers had gone to see play live after his meeting with Suggs at the Hope & Anchor gig.

Madness had sent Dammers a copy of their demo tape, and, although not particulaly good, he knew from their live performance that they had potenial. Subsequentley, Madness became the first band Jerry signed to his 2-Tone label. Madness also supported the band at the Electric Ballroom, Camden on July 21st, a show billed as a 2-Tone evening. Also on the bill that night was a new band put together by Neol Davis. Davis formed the Selecter from a bunch of musicians he knew from the Coventry scene in a month and, the group fronted by Pauline Black, immediately gelled and became Dammers second label sigining.

The band set about laying down tracks for an album which were produced by Elvis Costello, who was an early fan of the group. After a brief tour of Europe, the band returned to the UK and released their second single, 'A Message To You Rudy', which was a cover of an old Dandy Livingstone song. The flip side was a favourite from the bands live set, 'Nite Klub', which was given double A side status.

Both tracks featured the legendary Jamaican trombonist Rico Rodriguez, who had played with many of the original ska artists such as Prince Buster, the Skatalites, and Derrick Morgan, as well as playing on Dandy's original version of 'Rudy, A Message To You' (it's original title). The single was the fourth on 2-Tone, following Madness' 'The Prince', and The Selecter's 'On My Radio', and now there wasn't anyone in the United Kingdom who had not heard at least one 2-Tone record. Dammers dream was now a reality.

The single, that peaked at No.10 in the UK chart, was taken from the debut album simply titled 'Specials'. The album was full of favourites from the bands live set, featuring original tracks such as 'Concrete Jungle', 'It's Up To You', and 'Blank Expression', as well as a few Jamaican classics like Prince Buster's 'Too Hot' and the Maytals 'Monkey Man'. The production was again by Elvis Costello, who basically just let the band play live, and the raw, powerful sound suited the songs perfectly.

By the time that the album was released, the Specials had set out on a 40 date UK 2-Tone tour, that also featured the Selecter and Madness, who had now left 2-Tone and signed to Stiff records, the label that launched the career of Costello. A week in to the tour however, disaster struck.

At a gig at the Hatfield polytechnic on October 27th, during the Selecter's set, 30 or so men broke through the fire exit after being refused entry, and started slashing at people with razors. The trouble occured in a bar, seperate from where the band were playing, and unaware of the incident the Selecter carried on playing. Eventually 11 people were arrested, and 10 casualties taken to hospital. Unperturbed, both Madness and the Specials played their sets. The press however, quickly latched on to the racist element in the audience, blatanly ignoring the 2-Tone message of racial unity, and started painting all 2- Tone fans as fascist thugs.

It was true that members of racist organisations, such as the National Front, were trying to recruit at 2-Tone gigs, but overall it was a very small section of the crowd that subscribed to such views. The fact was that there were almost as many black memebers of 2-Tone bands as white, the music they played originated from the West Indies, and the 2-Tone black & white checks was an obvious symbol of unity. As the skinhead saying goes, "if you don't know your roots, it's time to hang up your boots". The bands quickly distanced them selves from the racist element, and continued with the tour.

After the tour, the Specials played their last gig of the '70's, the UNICEF charity concert at the Hammersmith Odeon. Also on the bill were acts such as the Who, Queen, Wings and Ian Dury. A live album of the event was also released, and the Specials featured with one track, 'Monkey Man'. A BBC camera crew had also followed the band around for the previous few months, and the fruits of their work was aired on the program Arena in January 1980.

The third Specials single was also released that January. The EP 'The Special A.K.A. Live!', was recorded at the Lyceum at the end of the last tour, and gave the band their first UK chart No.1. The lead track was a high energy version of 'Too Much Too Young', which had originally appeared in extended form on the debut album. The live version was vastly superior, and side 1 of the EP also featured a wicked version of 'Guns Of Naverone', with Rico Rodriguez leading on trombone and Neville adding some typical toasting. As if that wasn't enough to have all rude boys reaching for their wallets, the B side contained the tremendous 'Skinhead Symphony', a medley of 'Longshot Kick The Bucket', 'Liquidator' and 'Skinhead Moonstomp' recorded at Tiffany's night club in Coventry.

After conquering the UK, the Specials then set off to Europe, first Germany, and then Holland, before crossing the Atlantic for a brief tour of America. Rick Rogers had to be carful what hotels he booked the band into, Dammers hated anything too flash, and Rico insisted on 24 hour room service. The first stop was Hurrah's in New York, where the band went down a storm, despite arriving on stage 2 hours late, and the boys then supported the Police for a spell at the Paradise Ballroom, Boston.

The Specials then blew the Police off stage at the Warehouse in New Orleans, and continued to do the same at other gigs on the itinerary, much to the displeasure of Sting and Co. The gig at the Commodore Hotel, Seattle sold out in 24 hours, and there was the a 3 day residancy at the Whiskey A Go Go club in Los Angeles. Some bright spark had the notion of painting the club exterior in black & white checks, to which the owner agreed, but when Dammers saw the finished paint job, he went ballistic, taking it as a typical piece of American tack.

The arduous journeys between shows was beginning to have a derogatory affect on some band members and the last stop of the tour, at the Diplomat Hotel Ballroom on March 1st 1980, couldn't come quick enough. There was a lot of controversy over the inflated $10 ticket price, the result of New York promoter Ron Delsener's involment, and as a result sales were very slow.

This obviously upset some Specials fan, as a week before the gig, official looking posters started appearing around New York, which carried an apology, supposedly from the band, about the ticket fee. The poster also stated that 500 tickets had been put aside for those not so well off, and all they had to do was 'phone one of the four numbers listed. The numbers given were those of the booking agent, the head of Chrysalis, and Delsener's home and office number. They were inundated with calls over the folowing week.

After a brief recovery period back home, the band dragged their weary bones to Europe. At one well documented gig at the Pavillion in France, they were subjected to severe provocation from some Parisian skinheads, who threw beer cans and spat at the band. At one point Neville Staples dived in to the crowd and attacked one of the offending skins who had continually spat at him. Some English fans were also attacked, and the merchandise stall was robbed and destroyed.

May 1980 heralded the release of 'Rat Race', the bands fourth single, and the tenth on 2- Tone. The song, written by Roddy Radiation, was a sharp stab at students, and was coupled with 'Rude Buoys Outa Jail', a Lynval Golding/Horace Panter collaboration. The video for 'Rat Race' was banned by the BBC, apparentley because the sight of a toothless Jerry Dammers in skirt and wig was too upsetting for small children.

The band then set off on the 12 day Specials Seaside Tour, which saw latest 2-Tone signing the Bodysnatchers join them on the road. On June 5th, the second day of the tour, the bands played at the Sands Show bar in Skegness. During the Specials set, the customary crowd invasion of the stage ended in near disaster. The stage gave way under the weight, and it was a minor miracle that no one was injured.

The friction between Roddy Radiation and Jerry Dammers had reached an all time worst. At one gig, after a heated exchange, Roddy smashed his guitar over Dammers keyboards, and apparentley he tried to push Dammers over a cliff during a photo shoot for the Melody Maker. Manager Rick Rogers did his utmost to restore calm, and an uneasy peace was eventually reached, allowing the band to resume work on their second album.

Following an appearance on American TV's Saturday Night Live, the Specials headed off to Japan for a jaunt around the land of the rising sun. Controversy continued to court the band, however, and the Specials ended up being confined to their hotel room after the first show in Osaka. The show was at an all seated venue, and the audience was forbidden by law to leave their seats. The Specials soon had the crowd up dancing, much to the dismay of the stage manager who pleaded with Rick Rogers to halt the stage invasion thatw as taking place. The club manager threatened to pull the plug, and Rick Rogers stopped him. The police were called and Rogers and the promoter spent the night in the cells.

A second Osaka show was cancelled, but after much consideration, the rest of the tour went ahead, fortuantely without further incident. Shortly after their return to the UK, Lynval Golding was attacked after attending a Modettes gig at the Moonlight Club. The attack, by racist thugs, left Lynval needing hospital treatment, fortunately though, he was fit enough to fly out with the band to the Montreaux Pop Festival a few days later.