In any history report you will find that most stories were told orally before they were written down and published. Recently the history of Ska music reached the tender age of 30 years.
Spin Magazine caught up with Jerry Dammers from The Specials and Dave Wakeling from The English Beat.
Here is what Dave Wakeling said about the history of two tone Ska.
DAVE WAKELING (singer-guitarist, the Beat): There'd been a West Indian community in Birmingham, where we were from, since the '50s. In postwar Britain, they sent out invitations to people living in other parts of the empire, saying, "Help rebuild England from the bombings and you can make loads of money and then go back home and build yourself a huge house." So a lot of people came over with that notion, but of course, there was never quite enough money for the boat trip home, and then people started having kids. So we grew up with the first set of those kids born in England. The first Jamenglish set, I suppose. So the early mods and the rude boys had been quite friendly [toward one another]. Both were dapper dressers. (entire article)
