Note: A dj night of 2 tone/ska/reggae/dancehall/dub/rocksteady/groove/hip hop/funk & more





Jerry Dammers is the man responsible for a nations entire youth movement in the 80’s and for creating the highly acclaimed 2 Tone scene. 2 Tone was honed into a modern urban multi-racial sound and came in on the back of punk and radical new wavers with roots taken from Carribbean ska, rocksteady and reggae. Jerry Dammers could well be solely responsible for an entire generation’s musical education. Having grown up in the 60’s listening to the ska and heady reggae-infused pop of Toots, Buster and Drummond, Dammers and friends fell quite comfortably into setting the tempo themselves-forming The Coventry Automatics and then Special AKA. As The Specials (another move in changing the name), the band recorded hits like “Too Much Too Young”, “Gangsters” and “Ghostown” for Dammer’s newly formed 2 Tone Records (which also housed chart hitters such as The Beat and The Selecter and Madness amongst others).

As the Special AKA (reverting back to the original name), they (minus 3 members) recorded the anthemic “Free Nelson Mandela” which established itself as the worldwide anthem for the growing demand of the jailed African National Congress leader to be released by the South African authorities. Since breaking away from the Special AKA set-up, Dammers threw himself into such organisations as Artists Against Apartheid. He also organized the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday concert which was broadcasted worldwide from London’s Wembley Stadium. Dammers was also a member of the short lived post Madness band “The Madness”. Jerry then began to take the DJ booths by storm and the mixing desk on production scales. His DJ sets mixed up ska, reggae, funk, hip hop, dub and a few surprises to make everyone dance, dance and dance. His production credits consist of Robert Wyatt’s “The Wind Of Change” and Junior Delgado’s acclaimed “Fearless” album.

Presently, Jerry Dammers is working on his Orchestra project who are titled the Spatial AKA Orchestra. Playing his own compositions and tributes to Sun Ra and other experimental jazz artists, the band features established jazz musicians like Zoe Rahman, Larry Stabbins and Denys Baptiste. Those who have recorded a song written by Dammers include No Doubt, The Prodigy, Tricky, Carl Barat (Libertines) and Elvis Costello. Films/TV programmes that have featured songs written by Dammers include Absolute Beginners, Natural Born Killers, Snatch, Shaun Of The Dead, Fr Ted, This Is England.

Due to huge controversy, Jerry Dammers is not involved in the Specials reunion touring schedule as he does not believe it represents what the real Specials stood for, politically, or in terms of creativity, imagination or forwardness of ideas.

In April 2014, Dammers received the South African Companions of OR Tambo order in silver award (a national honour) for his role in the anti-apartheid movement.