Jerry Dammers meets a gang of skinheads

A funny anecdote about the founder of The Specials and 2 Tone Records

🇮🇹 Attenzione! Questo aneddoto su Jerry Dammers è disponibile in italiano all'interno del seguente articolo: Jerry Dammers, gli Specials e le sottoculture.

Jerry Dammers and the “cocky little skinheads”

The text below is an excerpt of an old article written by Allan Jones for Melody Maker and then reproduced by Glasgow skinhead writer George Marshall in his first book, The Two Tone Story (1990).

The anecdote – which occurred in December 1979 – concerns Jerry Dammers, keyboardist of The Specials and founder of 2 Tone Records:

There were six of them, boisterous and laughing, coming down the road towards us.

Cocky little skinheads in Harrington jackets and Levi’s rolled up over the ankles of their DMs.

They were going to see The Specials at The Pavillion. Their leader had a snub nose and bad teeth.

«You goin’ to the concert?» he asked Dammers.

«S’pose so», said Dammers, as he turned to walk back with them to Hemel Hempstead.

«Where you from?» they asked him.

«Coventry», Dammers replied.

«You come all this way down from Coventry for the gig then?», they asked, amused.

«Sort of», said Dammers.

«Why?», they asked.

«I’m in the group», he said.

«The Specials?», they asked, excited now.

«S’right», said Dammers.

«Who are you then?», they asked. «Orace?»

«I’m Jerry», said Dammers.

«Jerry who?» they asked, laughing; a little suspicious.

«I don’t remember you on Top Of The Tops», said the young skinhead with the snub nose and the bad teeth.

«I was probably hiding», he said.

Originally published: April 18, 2018. Updated: March 11, 2019.