“Nothing came close to the sensational Neville Staple Band who really got the party started and had the masses dancing along” Anita Merritt-Exeter Express & Echo.

Neville Staple, Legendary front man of The Specials, Fun Boy Three and Special Beat, also known as The Original Rude Boy, celebrates 40 years of his top music career, while celebrating 40 years since the beginning of the 2-Tone movement. He is credited with changing the face of pop music not only once but twice. His UK and International career in the music industry, is well documented and started out from the early days with Ray King, Pete Waterman, The Coventry Automatics and his Jah Baddis Sound System, before taking to the stage with The Specials on tour with ‘The Clash’. He has scores of musical awards including from MOJO, NME, Gold & Silver discs and a lifetime achievement award from his home city of Coventry (where the 2-Tone Movement was born), and where he is celebrated as their living legend.

“Out on his own, still pretty special” Record Collector

Neville states, “I remember the massive reactions to the hit songs like Ghost Town, Too Much Too Young and Gangsters and fans still write to me about my rugged, energetic and fun stage presence. The way we bring ska to the mainstream is by mixing Jamaican music with the English punky style. I love performing live and always include my hits with The Specials along with other career favourites. Every show is like a massive party where the brilliant fans love to, stomp or sing-along.”

Neville continues to write, perform, collaborate and produce new music, alongside his wife, Christine ‘Sugary Staple’, and his 2-Tone legacy is huge, the music that fused traditional Jamaican ska and reggae music with punk rock attitude, energy and musical elements. The movement helped to transcend and defuse racial tensions in Thatcher-era Britain and still resonates today. The actual black and white chequered imagery of 2 Tone has become almost as famous as the music itself. Neville has worked with top International & mainstream artists and on TV, Film and exhibitions, during his highly successful career.

“Nothing came close to the sensational Neville Staple Band who really got the party started and had the masses dancing along” Anita Merritt-Exeter Express & Echo.

Neville’s 2-Tone legacy is huge. 2-Tone fused traditional ska music with punk rock attitude, energy and musical elements. The movement helped to transcend and defuse racial tensions in Thatcher-era Britain. The actual black and white chequered imagery of 2 Tone has become almost as famous as the music itself. He has kept this Coventry phenomenon alive and kicking throughout the decades with several hit albums (with another brand new album released Sept 2018 with his wife ‘Sugary’), a top selling autobiography, International touring with his bands and a constant stream of new albums, videos, TV appearances and music writing and producing.

Neville was born in Christiana, Manchester, Jamaica. At the age of five, Neville left Jamaica to live in the English town of Rugby, Warwickshire, where he went to school but later moved to Coventry. He was initially active in the sound system scene forming his own crew called “Jah Baddis”. Neville was a regular fixture at the Locarno ballroom in Coventry where he met its resident DJ, Pete Waterman. Pete was heavily involved in the seventies reggae scene before going on to become a major pop producer in the 1980s. Pete has written the foreword to Neville’s biography – “Original Rude Boy” – and briefly managed The Specials.