Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who was a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry-based ska band the Specials (also known as the Special A.K.A.) and later the Spatial AKA Orchestra. Through his foundation of the record label Two Tone, his work blending political lyrics and punk with Jamaican music, and his incorporation of 1960s retro clothing, Dammers is a pivotal figure of the ska revival. He has also been acknowledged in his work for racial unity.
Biography
Early life
Dammers was born 22 May 1955 in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India, the son of Horace Dammers who was later Dean of Bristol Cathedral from 1973 to 1987. Jerry Dammers attended King Henry VIII School, Coventry.
He left India at the age of 2, first living in Sheffield, then moving to Coventry at the age of 10. His initial music influences were '60s bands like the Who, the Small Faces and the Kinks, which made him want to be in a band, and he was also influenced by soul music.
Dammers was a young mod in the 1960s while at school then became a hippie, before becoming a skinhead. Dammers decided at the age of 10 he was going to have a band, and spent his teenage years learning music and writing songs. He played in a range of bands, from reggae punk, to country and western. He studied art at Coventry's Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University), where he met Horace Panter. He formed the band, initially called the Coventry Automatics, with vocalist Tim Strickland, guitarist/vocalist Lynval Golding, drummer Silverton Hutchinson, and bassist Horace Panter in 1977. He then asked Terry Hall to join. Hall was performing vocals with Squad and Roddy Radiation, both of whom were part of the local Coventry punk scene. Until this time, white British people mainly played rock, blues and jazz, while black British people played reggae, jazz, and soul. The Specials was an opportunity to have black and white people in the same band, something not common at the time, through playing ska. After talking their way onto a tour with the Clash, then a better-known group, Dammers pushed the Specials to adopt the mod/rude boy fashion sub-culture, Neville Staple, Terry Hall and Lynval Golding at this point left the band to form Fun Boy Three.
The Special AKA and "Free Nelson Mandela"
The band changed its lineup and rebadged as the Special AKA, releasing another album and the single "Free Nelson Mandela". Dammers then dissolved the band. "Free Nelson Mandela" had a role in the downfall of apartheid, as it raised awareness of the issue, and became an anthem of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The Guardian referred to it as "one of the most effective protest songs in history."
Dammers at times attempted to rejoin the re-formed Specials, but in 2008 he stated that things had not worked out, and his attempts were not welcome.
2 Tone Records
He founded 2 Tone Records, as a ska version of the Motown label, the main label that kick started the ska revival of the late 1970s/1980s. Dammers got graphic artists to produce specific art for the label, including the iconic man in the suit graphic, which was based on a photo of reggae musician Peter Tosh. The label was a sub-label of Chrysalis Records, but still independent. The era saw a lot of racism, and 2 Tone Records was a bulwark against that, celebrating racial unity and combating the rise of the National Front. The whole two-tone scene took off, and the label released early singles that would end up becoming major hits for bands including Madness, the Beat and the Selecter. The Selecter left the label, and Dammers strayed from the ska influence to bring jazz influences, most particularly on the album More Specials He got into a lot of debt, and towards the end of the label he had to stop recording because of a lack of funds. Dammers finally shut down the label in 1985, though the message of racial unity imparted to its many followers had a positive effect on society. and the two tone ska/punk sound specifically.
After Two Tone
He became an anti-apartheid campaigner, helping to create Artists Against Apartheid in the US, and writing the song "Free Nelson Mandela" about the jailed African National Congress leader in South Africa. In 1985, in the wake of the Band Aid single, he organised the recording and release of the "Starvation" single, a version of the Pioneers' 1969 song, in aid of famine relief in Africa, featuring members of the Special AKA, UB40, Madness, the Pioneers, and the Beat.
In early 1986, Dammers took part in the Billy Bragg-fronted Red Wedge tour that also featured the Style Council, the Communards, and Junior Giscombe. He also introduced Simple Minds to producer Tony Hollingsworth and they became the first major act to agree to perform at the Anti-Apartheid Movement's Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, which Hollingsworth was contracted to produce, which was broadcast worldwide from London's Wembley Stadium, on 11 June 1988. That same year, he briefly played with the re-formed Madness on their single "I Pronounce You" and its attendant album, The Madness.
Spatial AKA Orchestra
In 2006, Dammers started his new band, the Spatial AKA Orchestra, playing his own compositions and tributes to Sun Ra and other experimental jazz artists. The band generally features up to 20 musicians on stage, with Dammers asking various people to join, including established jazz musicians Zoe Rahman, Larry Stabbins and Denys Baptiste. They perform in elaborate Ancient Egyptian and outer space-themed costumes, and share the stage with bizarre props such as model alien heads and mummy sarcophagi. Trombonist Rico Rodriguez also featured in a number of shows. The band plays new material, as well as some of Dammers' Specials songs.
Work with other artists and solo work
In November 2006, Dammers was awarded an honorary degree from Coventry University, celebrating by DJing at the launch party of the Coventry branch of the Love Music Hate Racism organisation. In the same month, he attended a private viewing of a Harry Pye curated art exhibition in east London that featured paintings of bands and singers that had once been championed by the late BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel. Dammers read out a four-page poem, in which he thanked Peel for helping his own band, and for supporting black musicians.
Carl Barât of the Libertines included a Dammers composition, "Too Much Too Young", on his personal compilation album Under the Influence. Pete Doherty, former member of the Libertines, namechecked "What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend" on Down in Albion, the first Babyshambles album. The song "Merry Go Round" contains the lyrics "He says, 'What I like most about you, Pete/Is your girlfriend and your shoes.'" Those who have recorded songs written by Dammers include Tricky ("Ghost Town"), the Prodigy ("Ghost Town") and Elvis Costello ("What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend").
Dammers has produced singles for Robert Wyatt, the Untouchables, UB40 and Junior Delgado. He contributed "Riot City" to the soundtrack of the Julien Temple film, Absolute Beginners, and "Brightlights" to the compilation album Jamming: A New Optimism.
Dammers still regularly DJs in English nightclubs.
Awards
Dammers has been recognised widely by his peers and music critics for his role in making ska music popular in the 1980s, his creation of ska/punk fusion, and for his role in race relations and the anti apartheid movement. Mojo magazine referred to him as "The Ska Punk Wizard", while the Clash's lead singer, Joe Strummer, referred to him as the Tzar of Ska. GQ magazine referred to Dammers as the Paul McCartney/John Lennon of Ska.
- Radio 1 DJ Award, for his work with 2 Tone Records and the Specials (1979)
- Honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University. (November 2015)
- Q magazine's Q Merit Award at London's Park Lane Hotel. (October 2000)
- Ivor Novello Inspiration Award (May 2014)
Solo discography
- "Riot City" (8:29) – on Absolute Beginners (Songs from the Original Motion Picture) (LP, Virgin V-2386, 1986)
- "Solitary Tower" (3:50) – on Monsterism Night (CD, Lo Editions LOCD-22, 2009)
- "Free Nelson Mandela" (with Simple Minds) – on Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (VHS/Secam, CMV Enterprises 49011, 1989)