2-Tone – Before, During & After Fanzine
You would think, in these days of technology and online publishing, that physical fanzines would be consigned to history. Not so!
Whilst the niche market for fanzines has shrunken over the years, there are still a few that have survived and thrive. Rarely though, do you hear of a new one emerging.
Not that this deterred Lee Morris, author of the book ‘2-Tone Before, During and After’. Seemingly not satisfied by his very well received and thorough account of the label none of us need an introduction to, he decided to follow this up with a fanzine of the same name, launching in 2021.
I recently got hold of all 11 issues that have been published so far and thought I’d let you all know what they’re about and if it’s worth picking up copies. Spoiler alert: Yes!
Issue One covers all the latest 2-Tone related releases, a look at the 2-Tone Lives & Legacies exhibition in Coventry, a number of gig reviews and a comprehensive list of upcoming (at least, they were at the time) gigs. Issue Two has a similar type of content but also reviews the BBC West Midlands documentary ‘2 Tone – The Sound of Coventry’ and has a chat with Glenn Bettell, who appeared on the front of The Specials Too Much Too Young EP! Obscure and interesting stuff.
A fascinating insight into the 2-Tone supergroup ‘The 2 Tone Collective’, written by the keyboard player, Justin Dodsworth is offered up in Issue 3 , followed by an interview with Alan Perry of Bad Manners & Too Many Crooks in the following issue.
Continuing the interviews with the many people who have surrounded the Two-Tone train over the years, the fanzine talks to Hannah Hu, support vocalist the The Specials, Barry Jones, who played the trombone on the instrumental track ‘The Selecter’, John Shipley of The Swinging Cats, Roddy Byers, Tim Strickland, James Mackie (The Selecter), Neol Davies, Dave Wakeling, Rhoda Dakar and David ‘Blockhead’ Wright of The Beat amongst many others.
Along with all the chat, there are features on The Dirt Road Band, the 2-Tone/Jive Bunny link up, Stan Campbell and tributes to Winston Bazoomies of Bad Manners and the late, great Terry Hall.
The fanzines, as with the book are an interesting and insightful look into the world of Two Tone and all the people that surrounded it and are well worth the cost. For £20 you can get issues 1 to 10 and the latest issue is only £2. With postage, that means you can get all issues so far for less than £30 in the UK!
Get your copies now at:
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