Dave Wakeling was the front man of the British ska combo The Beat and here is a self-portrait he penned when the band was at the height of its fame
Dave Wakeling was the front man of the British ska combo The Beat and here is a self-portrait he penned when the band was at the height of its fame
1979 and 1980 were the glory years of the so-called “second wave” of ska music – first wave in Jamaica twenty plus years before and now the 2Tone wave came crashing out of Coventry. The Specials seized the charts by the scruff of the neck with a string of hits. And even WH Smith felt …
The movie Back to the Future featured a DeLorean car but behind that story was a real-life scandal in Northern Ireland as Tony McMahon discovers
The Northern Ireland troubles reached a fever pitch in 1979 with the assassinations of Airey Neave and Lord Mountbatten
In 1981, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher caved into the miners but was simply biding her time for a future showdown
1979 saw Tory leader Margaret Thatcher defeat Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan in a stormy general election as Tony McMahon remembers
The 1980s gay skinhead scene involved both an element of cosplay but also some individuals who were neo-Nazis and LGBT
Night clubs still operating a race bar in the 70s and 80s
The 1970s and 1980s saw some bigoted judges make outrageous comments on homosexuality, race and trades unions as Tony McMahon reports
The 1970s were a stormy decade in politics and music and Tony McMahon sets out to find how the 1970s died