Two Too Much Pressure! The Two Tone Story with Pauline Black, Daniel Rachel and Cheri Amour
Foyle Rooms
Lead singer and songwriter in The Selecter, Pauline Black, and musician-turned-author Daniel Rachel, talk about their pivotal roles within the two-tone movement.
In conversation with author and journalist Cheri Amour, Pauline and Daniel reflect on identity and belonging against a backdrop of racial tensions in 1970s England, and how they continue to share their stories through their work to the present day.
2 Tone exploded into the national consciousness in 1979. Records by The Specials, The Selecter and Madness burst onto the charts and a youth movement was born – 2 Tone was black and white, a multi-racial force of British and Caribbean island musicians singing about social issues, racism, class and gender struggles
Pauline Black, lead singer and songwriter in The Selecter, is an undisputed icon of British music and recipient of an OBE for her services to entertainment. Supporting and campaigning for racial equality throughout her work, Pauline is also the author of Black by Design, her story of music, race, family and roots.
Daniel Rachel is the author of Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters – a Guardian and NME Book of the Year. His latest book, Too Much Too Young (A Times / Sunday Times Book of the Year) maps out the journey of 2 Tone Records, one of the UK’s most influential record labels, which shook up the nation with its rebellious spirit.
Cheri Amour is a freelance writer, editor, and author championing underrepresented voices on air, online, and in print. Her 33 1/3 book, Come Away With ESG, is out now via Bloomsbury.
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