Punk Rock Dad Guitar Punker Rocker Ska Band Tattoo Father Sweatshirt

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Panter: When we played our last [2 Tone line-up] gig at the Carnival Against Racism in Leeds we were barely speaking. I think of Ghost Town as a triumph of will, that Jerry managed to get everyone in the same place to record it.

Panter: That first 2 Tone tour was 40 people on one bus for 40 nights. It was like a school trip with no teachers. Davies: Two thousand people plus, every night. Fire limits obviously being exceeded. Such a thrill. Dakar: I’d written The Boiler for the Bodysnatchers. A friend had been raped in different circumstances to the song, but the lyrics reflected her fear and terror. Some idiot on Capitol Radio played it at 9am on a Saturday. Complaints flooded in. It was taken out of shops but reached No 35. Jerry fiddled with The Boiler for a year, and he did the same thing with Ghost Town. It was more than perfectionism – I think it was performance anxiety. He was worried about failing, not being the best, but to his credit, he had much more of a sense of posterity than anyone else. One day Jerry came into the rehearsal room with a chorus, “Free Nelson Mandela …” I phoned Artists Against Apartheid to get information about Mandela and came up with: “Shoes too small to fit his feet, he pleaded the cause of the ANC.”

Dammers: I wanted 2 Tone to be semi-independent and launch other acts, so signing the label to Chrysalis let us do that. When the Selecter adopted ska rhythms and clothes I felt put out, but realised we could support each other. This tattoo, perfectly suited for females, is an embodiment of the bold side of her character, which is fearless and undaunted alongside the soft and meek aspects (reflected by the rose on her hair and the tears from her eyes). This particular punk art is proof of the fact that the lamb and the tiger coexist in every woman, and when the circumstances demand, she awakes up the fierce tiger in her, ready to wreak vengeance on every wrong done to her.

Tone: Lives & Legacies is at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, from 28 May to 12 September. The 40th anniversary half-speed master of Ghost Town is released on 4 June . The Madness docuseries Before We Was We is released on 1 May on AMC and BT TV. The Selecter’s 3CD Too Much Pressure box set is out now on Chrysalis. The current Specials and Selecter lineups tour this summer. One among them is the idea of a punk tattoo, which originates from the 1970s and has been evolving since then. Punk trait tattoos are most prominently used to express a subculture’s symbols and signs.The scene starts to fall apart amid band squabbles and music scene shifts, but a legacy has been built that stretches from generations of global ska-punk bands to the end of apartheid. Rhoda Dakar with the Bodysnatchers on the second 2 Tone tour. Photograph: Virginia Turbett/Redferns Neol Davies: Rough Trade pressed the single for us and we rubber stamped 5,000 copies in Jerry’s flat. After John Peel played it, Rough Trade couldn’t keep up with demand.

The Beat including Everett Morton (left), Saxa (with fluffy toy) and Ranking Roger (wearing hat). Photograph: Fin Costello/Redferns This is one of the best punk tattoos one could opt for if one has great enduring power and has really artistic and marvelous punk art ideas to adorn their body. The best spot to get this elaborate tattoo on is the thigh. Costello: After one gig on the south coast we ended up on a beach with a bonfire and their fans, like a kinder version of Lord of the Flies. We recorded [the Specials] debut in a little place under a launderette. Cramped. Fetid. Ideal. There was just enough space outside the control room to jam the band and all their friends together with a beer and the lights off to do the crowd noise for Nite Klub. When Chrissie Hynde did the heavy breathing for Stupid Marriage the band were cheering like kids. We’d been at the vodka gimlets. We had to stop one session when Neville fired a blank round at me and the engineer – our ears were ringing all day.

The era of chart domination begins. The Specials, Madness and the Selecter appear on the same episode of Top of the Pops and a national tour is triumphant as two-tone mania sweeps the UK. Costello: The run of singles [as new incarnation Special AKA] leading up to the In The Studio album – War Crimes, The Boiler and Racist Friend – were extraordinary and uncompromising.