The 2 tone Trail

Who needs a holiday in the sun when there is Coventry? Anyone with an interest in ska may be interested in reading Pete Chambers’ ska-guide to Coventry, called The 2-tone Trail. To the dedicated ska-fan, this is one gem of a tourist guide to the city that gave birth to seminal bands The Specials and The Selecter as well as the 2-tone label.

The walk starts off by Lanchester Polytechnic where several members of The Specials once studied. It also is the place where the video to the song Rat Race was filmed (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4HltjRMxJI). Moving on, the walk takes you through Gosford Street, a place at one time lined with second hand shops and where the band members sought out the second-hand mod suits and 60’s skinhead attire so closely associated with the 2-tone ska image. The tour soon arrives at the canal basin where the Specials shot the band photos for their album covers. Now yuppified and restored, it’s quite a different experience walking here than the rubbish-tip it once was. Other landmarks on the tour include the toothless Jerry Dammers house and the 2 tone HQ (a dull Victorian house) and various pubs/clubs where the Specials played some of their earliest gigs etc. Every once in a while you pass through pockets of mainstream touristical interest such as the medieval Spon Street with bent, assymetrical building facades, and the Coventry cathedral.

Walking around a city that inspired such gloomy dark-as-dead songs like Ghost Town, Concrete Jungle, Friday Night Saturday Morning and Nite Klub one can’t help but feel that the place seems.. well, really not that bad. Rather, it comes across as quite an unlikely birthplace of a scene with such social signicance. Then again, Coventry was probably quite different in the 70’s, and the unusually large abundance of pubs and clubs must have bread a good live music scene.

Although following the 2-tone trail will probably only be of interest to the diehard 2-tone fan, this is a great initative from the author. The sights are nothing extraordinary - even for the die-hard ska fan - but the tour definitely was a pretty interesting 2-hour experience for a passing visitor like me. It also gives a great insight into how life may have been here in the 70’s. As a bonus, the book also offers a guide to several out-of-town sites but you’d have to be a real ska nutter to want to venture out to the sites of Horizon Studios (where The Specials recorded) or Nerve Boutique (where Horace Panter ran a clothes shop together with his wife). The 2-tone Trail is available through Waterstones bookshops and costs £5.00.