Home of the Hits
The sharp eyed among you will have noticed a BBC Archive “On This Day in 1980” post on March 12 when NME music Journalist Adrian Thrills visited “Home of The Hits” Coventry for the BBC2 Arena documentary “Rudie’s Come Back”.
In it. he looked to discover what made Coventry tick, and discover more about the 2-Tone phenomenon that was sweeping the country. The interviewer was greeted at 2-Tone HQ (51 Albany Rd) by the Specials and roadies Trevor Evans and Rex Griffiths, plus gathered friends and guests.
This was Jerry Dammers’ Earlsdon flat. Nowadays it has a commemorative plaque on the building. Back then it was just the main base of Coventry’s brand new musical heroes, who I may add looked painfully awkward being interviewed and were obviously playing it for laughs as they showed Adrian “around the office”.
Jerry now lives in London and the flat looks a lot different today, but it lives again at The Coventry Music Museum, as a reproduction of the flat will be revealed on Saturday March 23 by Jerry Dammers himself, who promises to tell us about that day and about the things you can spot during the programme. All part of our 40 Years of 2-Tone campaign.
This is our downsized tribute of the main front of the area, but many items on show on TV have been faithfully reproduced here. The suits (a nice piece of Mohair and ours don’t fall down), posters, records, beer cans, even the record player and that LP that Brad ‘gave’ (lent) Jerry.
The Yamaha organ is there the one he would write and record Ghost Town on. There is artwork on the wall, a gift from Jerry and painted by him. Listen, and you can hear the guys talking, take it all in and image what it was like to be in this room in 1980 at the height of 2-Tone.
Following the room opening, Jerry will do a DJ set in Knights venue. Going to be a special night.
Dill
Gods Toys legend Dill has just released his new album, “I Wondered Lonesome as a Crowd”. Number 5 in the series, he has included the Wordsworth Poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” ( the Daffodil song )”.
Born In The Eye of The Storm” is a cracker, “Eye ‘n Eyes” is fun, while “The Kingdom of Heaven” is a beauty of a track. Half this album does Dill’s spiritual side. It’s released on various Digital platforms inc Spotify / Apple / Deezer etc and they should be available to stream.
