“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke
29th August 2020 -
First things first. I am not a skinhead - the ageing process might have bestowed that title upon me but I am not an adherent to the cause.
Nevertheless, the skinhead music of ska provided me with my formative musical and political education, with Jerry Dammers and Co showing me the way to the music of Jamaica and more importantly teaching me how to use my ears and brain at a very early age.
I had only just hit double figures when I first heard A Message To You Rudy, it's original and cover genius embellished with the languid, laid back beauty of Rico Rodriguez's trombone. As a result I immediately became a The Specials devotee which in turn inspired in me a parallel and life long love of Jamaican music and hatred of racism.
The first single I ever bought with my own money was Rat Race, and although I grew up in an area which was far removed from the melting pot of culture that was Coventry, I found like minds in my hometown who had also been captivated by the 2-Tone vision. From the lyrics of the songs to the stark colours of the label and sleeves to the band themselves, the message couldn't have been simpler; black and white can come together and through music and intellect can make something beautiful.
A year or so ago, the wonders of social media alerted me to the existence of the Coventry Music Museum and after discovering a brief BBC News clip on the place I vowed to visit. My summers are normally satisfied in sunnier climes, but this being lock-down and after my usual bout of prevarication and Oblomov-like indolence, I found myself getting off my (not insubstantial) arse and making my way down to the Detroit of Britain otherwise known as Coventry, to remind myself of what it was all about...and more importantly what it is all about (more of which later).
The M6 journey is not the greatest and after Birmingham you expect Coventry to be just around the corner. It isn't, it is about another forty minutes away. I passed the currently redundant Ricoh Arena (football-wise anyway) and skirted along Jimmy Hill Way before finally hitting the Coventry Ring Road. Any casual visitor to Coventry having read those last three words will now have a countenance not unlike that of Edvard Munch's The Scream.
I choose not to have a Sat-Nav because I believe when getting lost you discover new places, however, having traversed around Coventry's Circle of Doom in it's entirety a couple of times before stopping to ask directions (twice also), I am now seriously considering getting a Tom-Tom or Garmin (follow signs for the Hospital was the best advice I received, though still not faultless).
Due to my circumnavigation I discovered where I was meant to be about thirty minutes later than I should have. I found parking down a side street and headed up the the half hidden but well signposted (Ring Road planners take note) 2-Tone Village which is exactly that; an enclave of shops, restaurant, bar, music venue. My brief walk made me consider the area of Ball Hill a suitable location for the museum judging from the delightful multi-ethnic make up of this suburb of Coventry.
I headed down the narrow alleyway and straight for the Museum where I encountered Julie at the front desk who is the wife of curator Pete Chambers. Charging me the ridiculously under-priced entry of £3 (that's less than a Hot Chocolate with cream and marshmallows at Costa Coffee) she made me feel very welcome and I headed upstairs to be greeted by Jim who immediately took me under his wing, offering to take photographs and bombarding me with a wealth of first-hand information. A,s with all of the volunteers, they were here when it all happened and as such can provide a living history and testimony alongside the many wonderful artefacts that have been collated in this mecca to 2-Tone. The piece-de-resistance is the front section of the 1961 Vauxhall Cresta Ghost Town car complete with the vehicle registration details asserting it's authenticity. I sat in the passenger seat and then the driver's seat as Jim snapped away, graciously asking if the pictures were good enough. He gave me the feeling, as did everyone else at the Museum, that they could not do enough for you, and all the staff were charm personified. He told me about the history of the car and how it had been rescued and arrived back home, here in Coventry.
At this point I have to be honest and explain that The Specials were my band and that is what I was here for. I like odd tracks from The Beat and The Selecter, view Madness as something of a comedy act from darrn sarrff, but Jerry Dammers and the boys have been lifelong companions as opposed to other 2-Tone visiting guests. That said the 2-Tone label would not have been quite so iconic if it had only housed The Specials.
There is an astonishing collection of vinyl artefacts in one display cabinet including the ultra rare one off collectable resulting from Neol Davies reversing the text on the hand-stamped Specials AKA Gangster v Selecter single, as well as the master tape of Kingston Affair (the original title of 'Selecter').
Silver and Gold discs donated by Jerry Dammers and Horace Panter adorn one cabinet that testifies to the early, immediate whirlwind success of The Specials whilst Jim was on hand to put me on the cover of the Too Much Too Young single next to some currant buns. Confused by what I mean? Well dig three quid out of your pocket and go and ask him yourself!
Further The Specials artefacts include one of the gone far too early John 'Brad' Bradbury's cymbals next to a lovely collage of the much missed drummer. Similarly, Rico Rodriguez (a legend of Jamaican music before The Specials brought him into their fold) is represented by the Rastafarian hat he wore and some of his trombone mouthpieces, making this museum a far more thorough archive than I initially though possible. The love that Pete and co have for all things 2-Tone (and Coventry music generally) is evident in the lengths they have gone to unearth fascinating artefacts to tell the story.
The Rude Boy Bedroom will be familiar to anyone who was 2-Tone infatuated because I spotted a number of articles in there that were plastered on my bedroom wall or resided next to tools of my youthful music playing life.
Pic by Pete Chambers
At this juncture we were interrupted by the visit of a man bearing gifts for the Museum. It was Marc Griffith, cool and fabulous tailor to the reformed The Specials who was dropping off a suit, shoes and pictorial evidence of his work with the band.
I then heard that Roddy 'Radiation' Byers was in the house and given he authored Rat Race I had a quick few words with him, in particular about my very first single buying experience and he told me that the ex-college students in the band were not too keen on the lyrical content therein!
Back to the Museum and the second most important artefact here is surely the very organ that Ghost Town was written and recorded on, loaned to the Museum by Jerry Dammers himself. Given the social and cultural significance and the enduring legacy of that song, the keyboard is a unique bona-fide piece of, not just musical history, but history itself since it was the soundtrack to the unrest and riots that saw people of colour take to the streets to make it clear that they had had ENOUGH!
Pete Chambers was on hand to guide me through the second part of the display which included, tickets, set lists, signed guitars, merchandise, band worn suits, and perhaps the most important section that I alluded to earlier. At the beginning of this piece I suggested I was visiting Coventry "to remind myself of what it was all about and more importantly what it is all about". Well sadly, the Museum and the message of the bands has again become entirely relevant. The rise of the far-right in the UK once more, emboldened by the thinly veiled racism of the current Prime Minister and his Government, means that the Coventry Music Museum now serves as a very important educational function for young people as well as old. There is a six panel explanation of the manner in which The Specials in particular tackled racism which includes reports of the two racist assaults Lynval Golding suffered and a history of Jerry Dammers incredible efforts to pressure for the release from jail of Nelson Mandela. To bring it right up to date, there is a picture of Saffiyah Khan being lead away by police (that's right, her, not the EDL hate monger she challenged) and of course Saffiyah is now a part of The Specials history due to her fantastic performance on the dubtastic 10 Commandments from 2019's Encore. Once more, The Specials caught the zeitgeist and have returned at just the right time as their prophetic BLM track from last year attests.
One of the final The Specials exhibit was to illustrate what has become of some of the famous 2-Tone locations in the city, and I made a mental note to seek a couple out before my return home.
For fans of The Selecter, The Beat and Madness there are equal amounts of artefacts of interest, including The Beat's Saxa's tenor saxophone and The Selecter's Pauline Black's sheepskin coat. For fans of other Coventry acts (Frank Ifield, King, Hazel O' Connor, The Enemy) there are smaller exhibits dedicated to them whilst there are also a few artefacts of interest dedicated to non-Coventry musicians such as Johnny Rotten's Vivienne Westwood created Destroy shirt and Peter Green's harmonica. Ian showed me around the last section of the tour and showed his high level of knowledge also because I was still bombarding him with questions about 2-Tone whilst we perused the last few exhibition cases.
At this point can I just remind you: £3.
I had a fantastic time reminiscing about the past whilst also learning lots of new information too in what I won't hesitate in calling the best music museum I have been to. What Pete Chambers and the staff have done for Coventry, especially in the light of the city's forthcoming crowning as City of Culture 2021 is something very special (pardon the pun). I am jealous of the locals who can pop along any time to re-visit their city's musical heritage and I could have stayed much longer. I am sure I will return but I had other pressing matters...like food.
With my tour done and having not eaten for seven hours I sought out good food and didn't have far to look, because the Simmer Down Restaurant next door gave me the choice of English or Jamaican. Breakfast was long gone so I settled on Rice and Peas, Plantain and Callaloo (the latter being the best I have ever tasted). Just like in the Museum; the Restaurant waitresses and chef Angela were chatty, hospitable and kind, the latter explaining to me what she had done to give the Callaloo such a kick, the former helping me with directions to other sites in the city. As if to prove the point, Jim from the Museum joined me and we chatted for half an hour about music, Coventry and an amalgam of the two.
I made a couple of purchases from Leonie Kearns Two Tone Corner clothes store and Suky Singh's excellent memorabilia store (you might notice I know everyone's name - there is a real community vibe here) and then headed into Coventry city centre via the uber-trendy FarGo Village (Coventry's mini Camden Market). I had spires in my sights and so the first visit of note was to the Cathedral which is an awesome and eerie site, it's near total destruction the result of approximately 450 Nazi bombers raining down deadly carnage on the city on 14th November 1940.
I then sought out the Lady Godiva statue that I had seen most recently on the riotous day of celebration when Coventry City F.C. gained promotion to the Championship. As I made my way down there I was pleasantly surprised by the number of quaint and historic buildings dotted around the city centre. When I told people I was coming to Coventry the reaction was predominantly negative which was not my experience at all. I like the city and the people very much. It was drizzling by now and when I found Lady Godiva she looked in need of a good jumper and a raincoat. A further stroll brought me out quite accidentally by Coventry's Public Library which is not too much changed from its days as the The Locarno, immortalised in Friday Night Saturday Morning and immediately recognisable from the Museum's archive picture of it.
As the rain fell heavier I worked my way out of the centre, up Walsgrave Road and back to my car, missing a couple of important The Specials sites because, despite my having bought Pete Chambers excellent musical guide to the city, I didn't want to get it wet!
My final stop was going to be the Canal Basin. A quick perusal of Google Maps told me the dreaded Ring Road would need to be tackled once more and despite a few erratic swings of my car at various junctions I found it with relative ease. Initially I puzzled over where it was that the iconic photographs for The Specials first album must have taken place. A Two-Tone Trail plaque told me I was in the correct location but I just couldn't visualise it, so I took a few random shots (in between chatting to a former member of Coventry's Murder Squad - not a band but the police - not The Police the band but... you get my drift) and then I returned to my car. As it happens, by pure luck my picture quest was successful.
Chalkie Davies iconic picture
My own far from iconic picture
I then began a slightly melancholic journey home. You see, a little part of me had fallen in love with Coventry. I was expecting something quite different and was pleasantly surprised by both the people and places.
I hope that the city and its people and especially the quite wonderful Two Tone Village and Coventry Music Museum make the most of their City of Culture year in 2021 and it does for them what it has for the likes of Liverpool. I hope fans of Coventry City enjoy life in the Championship again, and I hope that in these scary and worrying times when racism seems to be being normalised and legitimised by the Government, that good people will not stand idly by and allow it to once more blight society.
But, most of all, I hope to return.
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