I keep getting Emails from people asking me to re-upload the links and music etc. I think people are just getting to those particular pages so are not reading the reason for the dead links.
So I am putting this in place so hopefully people will read it and stop Emailing me about it.
The reason the links are dead is that my account with Media Fire has been closed with all 11,000 files lost. That is why you can not download the things and No I can not re-upload them.
Eventually I will start doing that again when I have found something suitable. In the meantime this blog will be information only blog.
Thank you all
Michaael
New Blog Forum
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Dance Craze is a 1981 British documentary film about the English 2 Tone music genre.
The film was directed by Joe Massot, who originally wanted to do a film only about the band Madness, who he met during their first US tour. Massot later changed his plans to include the whole 2 Tone movement. The film, shot in 1980, comprised performance footage of Madness, The Specials, The Selecter, The Bodysnatchers, The Beat and Bad Manners on tour throughout the United Kingdom.
A soundtrack album of the same name was released the same year, featuring fifteen of the songs that were featured in the film
Tracklist: 01 - Concrete Jungle – The Specials 02 - Mirror In The Bathroom – The Beat 03 - Lip Up Fatty – Bad Manners 04 - Razor Blade Alley – Madness 05 - Three Minute Hero – The Selecter 06 - Easy Life – The Bodysnatchers 07 - Big Shot – The Beat 08 - One Step Beyond – Madness 09 - Ranking Full Stop – The Beat 10 - Man At C and A – The Specials 11 - Missing Words – The Selecter 12 - Inner London Violence – Bad Manners 13 - Night Boat To Cairo – Madness 14 - Too Much Pressure – The Selecter 15 - Nite Klub – The Specials
'Ghost Town' is the title of a 1981 song by the British ska band, The Specials. The song is currently ranked as the 90th greatest song of all time, as well as the best song of 1981, by Acclaimed Music
The song was written in response to Margaret Thatcher's policies which the band believed would increase the large-scale unemployment already present in United Kingdom, particularly in Scotland and England's industrialised north and Midlands regions. This was highly relevant to The Specials as they formed and lived in Coventry and saw the effects of the policies first-hand, as their city experienced some of the UK's worst unemployment at levels of 20%. It was also the summer of large-scale riots in Brixton, London and Toxteth, Liverpool amongst others, where there was alleged heavy-handed police treatment of young black men.
Indeed the single was unusual in that it hit the top of the UK Top 40 at the exact time that riots occurred on the streets of Great Britain. The music thus reflected the social spirit of the country. The song spent three weeks at number one and ten weeks in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart overall. The track was recorded at the Woodbine Street Recording Studios in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
Despite being a song about Coventry, the band chose to film the video of themselves driving a Vauxhall Cresta around some empty London streets.
Ghost Town was at number one in the UK charts during the run-up to the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer amid much royalty-inspired patriotic rejoicing. This ironic juxtaposition is similar to the notorious events of the Silver Jubilee of 1977 when the Sex Pistols version of 'God Save the Queen' was widely believed to have been the rightful number one during the week of celebrations despite being officially eclipsed by Rod Stewart.
The club referred to in the lines "All the clubs are being closed down" and "Too much fighting on the dance floor" was The Locarno - later Tiffanys - which was also the club setting the scene for the b-side song, 'Friday Night Saturday Morning'. It is now Coventry Central Library.
Click the link below to download the following: Video TOTP Performance Single Version Extended Version 1991 Dub Version Chimical Submission Mix Why - B-Side Friday Night, Saturday Morning - B-Side
The Special AKA Live! was a live EP by The Specials, released in 1980.
Renowned for their live shows, The Specials released a 5-track live EP in January 1980 as the third single by the band. The EP featured 'Too Much Too Young' (originally recorded on the album Specials) with 'Guns of Navarone' recorded live in London; and 'Skinhead Symphony' - a medley of 'Long Shot Kick De Bucket', 'The Liquidator' and 'Skinhead Moonstomp' - which was recorded at Tiffany's in Coventry.
Lead track 'Too Much Too Young' is based on the 1969 song 'Birth Control' by Lloyd Charmers. It is sometimes wrongly stated that the song was banned by the BBC due to mentions of contraception in the lyrics. This is not true - however, when the song's promotional video was featured on Top of the Pops, it was cut off just before reaching the final line, "try wearing a cap".
The song topped the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in January 1980. It became only the second EP to top the chart after 'The Demis Roussos Phenomenon EP' in 1976, and was also the first live recording to top the chart since Chuck Berry's 'My Ding-a-Ling' in 1972. It was the shortest song to reach number 1 on the UK Singles Chart in the 1980s at 2:04.
Rico Rodriguez played trombone on 'Guns of Navarone' and 'Long Shot Kicked De Bucket', and Dick Cuthell played flugelhorn on 'Guns of Navarone'.
Click the link below to download the following: The Old Grey Whistle Test - Performance Single Version Skinhead Symphony - B-Side
Link removed due to DMCA notice
The Specials - The Old Grey Whistle Test - Performance
'More Specials' is an October 1980 album from the ska band The Specials. The album was the band's second, after their self-titled debut, and expanded the group's 2 tone sound to include lounge music and other influences. It includes collaborations with The Go-Go's, Rhoda Dakar from The Bodysnatchers and Lee Jay Thompson from Madness. The lyrics, like the previous album, were often intensely political.
On the charts, the album hit the Top Five in the UK, where 'Rat Race', 'Stereotype' and 'Do Nothing' hit the Top Ten. 'Rat Race' hit number 89 on Billboard Music Chart's (US) Club Play Singles chart, while the album as a whole hit number 98 on Billboards Pop Albums chart.
More Specials was a hit in the two-tone movement, a late-1970s revival of Jamaican ska from the 1960s. Along with bands like the Bodysnatchers and Madness, The Specials would go on to be a leader in this revival, and later heroes for two further ska-punk revivals on the opposite side of the Atlantic: the late 1980s Southern California scene (NOFX, Operation Ivy) and the mid-1990s "third wave of ska" (Sublime, No Doubt) which popularised the mixture.
The Track 'Hey, Little Rich Girl' has been covered by Amy Winehouse
Tracklisting: 01 - Enjoy Yourself 02 - Rat Race 03 - Man at C & A 04 - Hey, Little Rich Girl 05 - Do Nothing 06 - Pearl's Cafe 07 - Sock It to 'Em J.B 08 - Stereotype/Stereotypes, Pt. 2 09 - Holiday Fortnight 10 - I Can't Stand It 11 - International Jet Set 12 - Enjoy Yourself (Reprise)
'Specials' is the debut album by British ska revival band The Specials.
Released in 1979 on Jerry Dammers' 2Tone label, the album is seen by some as the defining moment in the UK ska scene.
Produced by Elvis Costello, the album captures the disaffection and anger felt by the youth of the UK's "concrete jungle" - a phrase borrowed from Bob Marley's 1972 album 'Catch A Fire' but equally apposite used here to describe the grim, violent inner cities of 1970s Britain.
Musically, the album encapsulates the wave of British ska, greatly reworking the original sound of 1960s Jamaican ska. The music shares the infectious energy and humour of the original sound, but injects new-found anger and punk sensibility. The resulting sound is considerably less laid-back and "Caribbean" sounding than original ska, and dispensed with much of the percussion and the larger horn sections used in the older variety. The Specials also brought guitar to the front of the mix; it had often been a secondary instrument in Jamaican ska. The album features a mixture of original material and several covers of classic Jamaican ska tracks, a debt which went uncredited on the 1979 vinyl release.
Many songs on The Specials' debut album were covers of older ska songs. 'Monkey Man' had been a hit for Toots & the Maytals in 1969, 'Too Hot' was a Prince Buster original from 1966, and the opening track, 'A Message to You, Rudy' was a Dandy Livingstone single in 1967. 'You're Wondering Now' was originally performed by The Skatalites; a vocal version was recorded by duo Andy and Joey in 1964. Other tracks are reworkings of Jamaican originals; 'Too Much Too Young' was based on Lloyd Charmers' 'Birth Control', 'Stupid Marriage' draws heavily on the Prince Buster hit 'Judge Dread'.
A live version of 'Too Much Too Young' was later released on a five track EP, The Special AKA Live, which went to number 1 on the UK charts. A Message to You Rudy/Nite Klub was also released as a single.
Trombonist Rico Rodriguez, who performed on many 50s and 60s Jamaican recordings before moving to London in 1962, played on the band's version of 'A Message to You, Rudy', as he had on the original recording fifteen years previously. As a former member of the legendary The Skatalites, a band that helped define the sound of ska and reggae, Rico's appearance on the album considerably added to the album's credentials.
In 2000 Q magazine placed Specials at number 38 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
A digitally remastered edition also featuring promotional videos to 'Gangsters' and 'Too Much Too Young' as enhanced content was released by EMI in 2002.
Tracklisting: 01 - A Message to You, Rudy 02 - Do the Dog 03 - Gangsters 04 - It's Up to You 05 - Nite Klub 06 - Doesn't Make It Alright 07 - Concrete Jungle 08 - Too Hot 09 - Monkey Man 10 - (Dawning of A) New Era 11 - Blank Expression 12 - Stupid Marriage 13 - Too Much Too Young 14 - Little Bitch 15 - You're Wondering Now
The Specials (sometimes called The Special AKA) are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combined a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups.
After being formed in 1977 by Jerry Dammers, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter (also known as Sir Horace Gentleman), the band was first called The Automatics, and then The Coventry Automatics. Terry Hall and Roddy Byers (also known as Roddy Radiation) joined the band the following year, and the band changed its name to The Special AKA The Coventry Automatics, and then to The Special AKA. Joe Strummer of The Clash had attended one of their concerts, and invited The Special AKA to open for his band in their On Parole UK Tour. This performance gave The Special AKA a new level of national exposure, and they briefly shared The Clash's management.
The Specials began at the same time as Rock Against Racism which first gathered in 1978. According to Dammers, anti-racism was intrinsic to the formation of The Specials, in that the band was formed with the goal of integrating black and white people. Many years later Dammers stated, "Music gets political when there are new ideas in music, ...punk was innovative, so was ska, and that was why bands such as The Specials and The Clash could be political."
Having been rejected by numerous record companies The Specials decided to release a self-financed single after Dammers decided to set up his own record label called 'Two Tone'. If the legend is to be believed the single was recorded for a mere £700 financed by a ‘sort of’ local businessman by the name of ‘Jimbo’. It is said that a piano part on the track took up most of the studio time and as a result only one track, Gangsters, was recorded.
Needing a b-side the band turned to an instrumental track Noel Davis had recorded two years previously in 1977 with drummer John Bradbury and trombonist, Barry Jones. Originally titled ‘The Kingston Affair’ the track got a slight reworking and was re-titled The Selecter. The track also came complete with it's own unique catalogue number, which may seem unusual but was actually quite common with old ska and reggae singles.
The single was initially distributed via Rough Trade Records, who persuaded the band to produce 5000 copies, twice what the band had originally intended. The single was issued a plain white sleeve stamped by the band themselves with the words THE SPECIAL A.K.A 'Gangsters' Vs THE SELECTER. The band then signed to Chrysalis Records, who were more than happy to sign both The Specials and the 2 Tone label. Chrysalis pressed up more copies of the single in the now familiar 2 Tone sleeve resulting in the single making it to number 6 in the UK Singles Chart and the biggest selling independent single of the year.
Original Specials drummer Silverton Hutchinson had left the band just prior to the recording of Gangsters and was replaced by John Bradbury, and as a result Bradbury was the only person to play on both sides of the labels debut single.
Click the link below to download the following: Live Tube Performance Single Version The Selector - The Selector - B-Side
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