Spending an evening spinning all my (English) Beat records. Love lots of that era and style. What are some of all your favorites?

the specials. i'll take the beat over them any day, but they are way more significant, at least in england.

another one i like a lot that i never hear anyone talk about are the bodysnatchers.

aye, the beat, and the specials.

Id add The Selecter and Madness and the Toasters.

Its been a long time. I have to find those tapes (yeah, tapes)>

We have Two Tone to thank for this....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F6fQnTyEn ... re=related

Nice one.

I actually like some Bad Manners. Besides, find me a genre that hasn't spun off some awful crap.

I like me some Specials.
But I do need to dig in more.

in moderate doses that stuff is lots of fun...though I don't have very much of it.

If you're not familiar with the music, there is an out-of-print brief compilation that I've seen around for cheap that is a good introduction and goes a bit into a few lesser known bands as well called This Are Two Tone.

thanks nobody, i'm def. gonna check that out. i love the beat and the specials (thanks to my oldest bro), but i've never really heard anything beyond those two....

Apart from the Beat, the Specials, and Madness there really wasn't much worthwhile to 2-Tone. The Selecter got hyped for about a week, but Pauline Black's voice wasn't up to the style (plus their songs kinda bit). The Toasters were okay if 2nd tier. Everything else has mercifully been lost in the fog of bad memory.

But yes indeed The Specials were special.

Not a lot else that consistently rose to the top, but there were other groups around who were able to put out a good song here and there. But, yeah, I never felt the need for full albums by any outside The Beat, The Specials, Selector and Madness.

Just saw the Toasters last week. I'd definitely consider them second-tier, but they were still nice to hear, especially in comparison to the bands that followed in the wake.

It'd be hard to pick a fave out of the big three though, but for individual albums there's not much can touch Just Can't Stop It.

Just Can't Stop it, One Step Beyond by Madness and the self-titled Specials album are all pretty great. Guess this is really a bit of a silly question as it would be odd indeed for someone to have a favorite past those. You just never know what someone else will be really into that maybe I should have paid more attention to.

I'd have to say that i prefer the Beat as well and Just Can't Stop It is a stone colded classic.