#80s Ska

[aprofessionalprotagonist]

DBD Fic

I'm working on a fic about Charles and music. Read what I've got so far below the jump. If you're more knowledgable than me about 80's British Ska, feel free to chime in with advice.

The first time Charles Rowland visited The Small Back Room, he was thirteen and definitely not supposed to be in Soho. He’d told his parents he was going to be playing footie in the park with some mates, but instead took three buses to end up in an area of London where his parents probably thought he’d be instantly murdered, or worse. 

But he’d been willing to risk it on a quest for what George had called ‘brills music.’ George was the seventeen-year-old, amazingly cool, older brother of one of Charles’s mates. He was tall with a bit of stubble and wore suspenders with jeans. Charles had listened enraptured while George had explained all about the bands, and how Soho was where all the real record stores could be found. (Freddie, the brother Charles was purportedly mates with, got so bored during this as to actually break out his maths revision.)

So Charles found himself walking through Soho gawking. A man in tiny shorts and a crop top roller skated down the road, weaving in and around irate drivers. There were dirty alleys and shops blatantly advertising peep shows. He walked past a bookshop just as a white haired man loudly slammed the door and declared the place closed. 

Then he heard a trumpet backed by guitar coming from the open doors of a shop. The Small Back Room was small indeed, positively crammed with shelves of records. The shoppers were browsing elbow to elbow and not a one of them dressed in anything like what his father would have called an acceptable manner. Charles asked a man in a t-shirt that said ‘Rude Boy’ what was playing. The man looked Charles up and down, a mildly disdainful look at either his age or school jumper, and answered “The Specials.”

Charles spent over an hour in The Small Back Room. The music changed frequently. Some of it, like the Bowie, he recognized from the radio. His favorite was the upbeat, brassy music he learned was called Ska. He had enough money for two records, and debated until finally selecting one by The Specials and another by The Beat. At the counter, a small blond girl sat coloring next to the man running the till. She smiled at Charles, a bright, glowing welcome.

“Here,” she said, handing him a small white pin with ‘SKA’ in black letters, “make your jumper better.”  

“Stop giving away the merchandise, Maggie,” the man said, his words chastising, but his tone fond. “Enjoy your records, kid.” The man smiled at Charles in an echo of the girls.

As Charles headed home, he rubbed his little button, smiling brightly as well.

[ubiq80]

Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders), Pauline Black (Selecter), Debbie Harry (Blondie), Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex), Viv Albertine (The Slits), and Siouxsie Sioux (Siouxsie & the Banshees), London, 1980

[captainfantasticalright]

The patches and pins on Charles Rowland’s coat!

I didn’t do a whole breakdown of his outfit, but know that he wears red because Charles' hero color is very much red, in honor of his comic book counterpart's red sweater.

Also his whole outfit is inspired by mod and ska subcultures. From the chain, to his earring, to his shoes. Everything is reminiscent of the 80s.

And he maintains the red throughout all the season, to a burgundy polo in ep.3 to suddenly a black one to reflect his turbulent emotional state. Finally coming back to red eventually.

[marian-1122]

The Clash in a New York taxicab , 1982 . 

©️ Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

[haledamage]

newest in the long line of reasons I love Charles Rowland: I'm rediscovering just how much I fuckin love ska music

[myvinylplaylist]

Oingo Boingo: Good For Your Soul (1983)

I.R.S Records

[randomthrills]

NO DOUBT DEMO TAPE ART by Eric Stefani (1989)

[the-other-nightmare-people]

Johnest reaction

[causeagainstloneliness]

Fun boy three & Bananarama in 1982

[highbrow-hepcat]

[alienwizkid]

"Let's run away together, you and me. Forever, we'd be free. Free to spend our whole lives running from people who would be the death of you and me."

[bclaymoore]

Favorite bands? Madness is near the top for me. Always were for their fantastic 80s output (leaking into the 90s), but recertified when they re-emerged about a decade ago with The Liberty of Norton Folgate, which I think is their best album, and subsequent releases and tours.

Why be an oldies act when you've still got so much life left in you?

One thing I love and loved about the Nutty Boys is their understanding of the visual appeal of seven (sometimes six) lads with personality posing (or walking!) together as one mashed-together entity.

Plus Chas Smash skanking like mad:

And the eternal dry cool of Suggs:

Plus? "Drip Fed Fred" (with aging Ian Dury) is my favorite video in the history of videos:

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔅𝔬𝔟 𝔐𝔞𝔯𝔩𝔢𝔶 & 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔚𝔞𝔦𝔩𝔢𝔯𝔰 - ℜ𝔢𝔡𝔢𝔪𝔭𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔖𝔬𝔫𝔤

[guerrilla-operator]

OPERATION IVY

[marian-1122]

The Clash performing live at the Vorst Nationaal , Forest , Brussels-Capital Region , Belgium , 1979 .

©️ Gie Knaeps/Getty Images

[nightisthenotion]

Operation Ivy - St. Louis, 1988