The first record I ever bought was 'A Message To You Rudy by The Specials', it was a Christmas present for a school friend and in return he bought me 'On My Radio by The Selecter'. I would have been about 12 years old and I was just about to discover the phenomenon that was Two-Tone. Not long after this I purchased my second single which was 'Rat Race by The Specials'. I then bought The Specials first LP which at the time seemed to be owned by everybody at school, well anyone at school who had a harrington jacket and tonic trousers and a pair of Doctor Martins on their feet. This in turn led me into buying any record that was released on the Two-Tone label that I could get my hands on.
I then went onto purchase singles by Madness, The Selecter and The Beat due to their release on Two-Tone. There was also one other band at the time (who are still performing today) that I particularly liked and that band was Bad Manners. Now Bad Manners at the time didn't actually release any singles on Two-Tone their records were released on the Magnet record label, although they did have a couple of tracks on the Dance Craze LP. At every school disco they would play the Can Can by Bad Manners and you would have all the boys trying to kick lumps out of one another whilst dancing to it (happy days).
The Too Much Too Young EP by The Specials containing live versions of Longshot Kick The Bucket, Skinhead Moonstomp and Liquidator, as well as Madness's version of One Step Beyond got me interested in the original songs. Luckily at the time Trojan records seemed to be releasing the Trojan Explosion EP's so I was able to buy these songs as well as others recorded by the original artists such as Harry J Allstars, The Pioneers and Prince Buster amongst others. Trojan records release of LP's containing original songs by the original artists enabled me to collect even more previously unheard tracks. These included songs like Wet Dream by Max Romeo, 54-46 Was My Number by Toots & The Maytals and Return of Django by The Upsetters all skinhead classics. Other original singles I managed to acquire were records such as Double Barrel by Dave & Ansel Collins, You Can Get It If You Really Want It by Desmond Dekker as well as One Step Beyond by Prince Buster.
Like northern soul, ska was heavily played on scooter runs so I was able to enjoy myself at most do's on the runs. It was also at the runs that I was able to see Desmond Dekker (Great Yarmouth 86?) perform as well as witnessing Bad Manners play at DISC 85. I must get myself another scooter.
About 1989/1990 there were a couple of records released by Longsy D - This Is Ska and Double Trouble by Rebel MC both of these were a mixture of ska and I suppose you could call house music. About this time I purchased a 12 inch single containing a Prince Buster medley/remix of tracks (see scanned image) with One Step Beyond and Texas Hold Up on the B side, which I have never heard played anywhere else but in my living room, but I am sure others must have copies of this somewhere.
About 5 years ago during my time working as a lorry driver part of my rounds used to be Brixton in South London, it was here that I went into a record shop and bought Jamaica Ska by Byron Lee. I had never seen it for sale on 7 inch vinyl before then, nowadays it seems to be on most reggae compilation CD's. I am amazed that my 9 year old daughter always asks me to put this on when we are driving in my car, still if she prefers listening to it than S Club 7 or Steps that can only be a good thing.
I have recently purchased a couple of Trojan boxed sets of 3 CD's, these are the Ska box set & the Jamaican Hits box set. These have led to a renewed interest in ska and 2-tone records, leading me into buying a double pack of the first 2 Specials albums on CD (with video's of Gangsters, Too Much Too Young, Rat Race & Ghost Town). I think I must be going through some sort of mid-life crisis! Either that or all the songs currently in the charts are utter shite!