Bad Manners - Don't Knock The Baldheads - ( Live The Fat Surfer, Grays Essex, 18th June 2004)

www.secretrecordslimited.com
Available on various formats including digital
When the original impetus of punk started heading into a cul-de-sac in the late 70s, a group of musicians decided to take the Clash and Ruts' flirtations with reggae a logical step further. Retaining punk's get up and go DIY ethic, but employing the aesthetics of ska performers such as Laurel Aitken and Prince Buster, the new hybrid was quickly moulded into a uniquely British take on Jamaica's rocksteady tradition. Their irresistible quick-punch tempos were retained and re-energised while the Specials, and later Madness, the Beat and Selecter, gave the results a British twist. Allied but distinct from that scene were a group of likeminded blue beat revisionists who significantly predated their peers but were paddling in roughly the same direction.