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When talking about music and football, the homogenised view would likely be that of the Stone Island swagger of Oasis. The current perception would have you believe this is the only band that has ever been played on the coaches to away ends up and down the UK, but the truth is miles away from that. Two-tone ska was the original soundtrack to the football casual, which contrasts dramatically with many peoples ideas of the inclusivity of seventies and eighties football.
Following the post-war influx of Commonwealth migrants into the rubble of a bombed-out Britain, a huge cultural clash was bound to occur. Racism was sadly alive and well within politics and society, but music and sport offered a solace. The genre of ska that blossomed in Britain in the golden era of English football was two-tone, which, like its birthplace of the West Midlands, was a mixture of origins and cultures. The working-class rock music of Britain combining with the ska, reggae and rocksteady from Caribbean immigrants was a solid formation for success. The music reflected a working class look at British decline and the prelude to Thatcher’s authoritarianism. The things that inspired bands like The Selector and the Specials resonated with the casual football fan who'd be found causing trouble outside every away end they visited.
"Government leaving the youth on the shelf" - Ghost Town, The Specials
The hooligan or firm scene was like any alternative scene or subsect of a community: it had a uniform, a style and a sense of unifying estrangement from society. These blokes would most often be found wearing designer European brands like Lacoste, and deliberately dressed sharply to separate themselves from the ‘shirters’, the supporters in replica shirts, who also attended each game. This was slightly different to just going to the football, where you might be able to take or leave the result. This was a full-time love affair with the clothes, the music, the violence and tribalism. It defined you, gave you a sense of identity and community, in a similar way to how punk provided a solace for the 'outcasts' of the late 70's and early 80's. What is possibly more noticeable is that this is actually a subgenre of a subculture.
For ska specifically, it was relatively rocking around the West Midlands, where the music represented even more tribalism to boast about. This was a class development as much as it was a regional element. The ska-listening football hard men’s demographic was similar to those joining punk or ska bands. So, when songs like 'Ghost Town' or 'Rat Race' came out, they were hearing their own thoughts from these stylish big-name performers, which is exactly why Oasis resonated so much in the 90's, and still do to this day. The football scene and ska was a way of escaping Britain’s grey dreariness in build-up and early years of Thatcherism.
"Just another day, with that endless grey drone" - Three Minute Hero, The Selector
Being a football fan in one of these firms was glamourous, exploring the country and maybe even Europe, not only wearing the brands you’d only seen tennis players on television wear but also being seen as a social pariah, you stood out like a punk on the street and middle England raised an eyebrow at you in public. If you wear a Lacoste polo and a Fred Perry tartan jacket today, it's not a million miles off of the two-tone rude boy look. You looked different to the other people around you, both in the street and in the stands, and everyone made quick prejudicial decisions against you in the same way they would for punks then or mods before them - it was as if Ska was destined for the early years of the football casual scene.
At this time, England was seeing the first full generation of black players, like Laurie Cunningham, and thus seeing its first proper set of black football fans. In the Midlands, some black fans were accepted into clubs casual scenes, and no better example could be found than the Birmingham City Zulus. The name came from racist chanting by Manchester City fans at Birmingham’s multicultural away following, but the name stuck after several altercations where black Birmingham fans fought bravely side-by-side with the multitudes of white men who otherwise may have seen them in the same racist light.
Birmingham wasn’t alone in having black fans - clubs like Coventry City, Ipswich Town and West Bromwich Albion all had a diverse fanbase with their music choice representing just that. Not everyone was as welcoming as the Zulus to non-white members though, with Leeds United and Chelsea being infamous for their fans' racism at this time. This led to crowd trouble when these sides played at St. Andrews or Coventry City’s Highfield Road, as black football fans were rightfully hurt by the neo-Nazi culture these clubs had adopted instead of ska. Ska was a subculture of a subculture, an alternative to the usual less-accepting football fandom.
"Policeman comes and smacks me in the teeth, I don’t complain, it's not my function" - Do Nothing, The Specials
The music fitted the mentality. It was not too alternative, it felt masculine, you didn’t have to dance or wear make-up. The fast beat meant you could just bob about to it or “have a fight to that type of music” as one former hooligan put it on the Real Football Factory documentary. Violence was far more commonplace at this time, both at football matches and at gigs, and sadly so was police brutality. The black community were regularly over-policed in Britain, and the firm hand of the law was never too far from the back of a football casual's head. Ska once again gave a voice to this in a way other genres music often failed to do. Ska and football became a merging off-shoot of both football hooliganism and music fans, a relative Venn diagram moment that has left a mark on football. Its heyday may well have long since passed, but ska still holds a place in football.
In the 2021-2022 season, Coventry City’s third shirt was hailed as a classic, using two tone designs with a nod to the iconic ska look of suspenders. On my last trip to St. Andrews, UB40's 'Food For Thought' reverberated round the venue, and all around that historic ground heads nodded as if it were any low-ceiling packed club back in the late seventies or early eighties. On a more official level, the pre-match anthem of West Bromwich Albion remains 'Liquidator' by the Harry J Allstars. It's amazing how one song can take someone to the calm Caribbean, as the song was intended, and simultaneously can transport another to those heated moments before kick-off, into that fever pitch of expectation and tribalism.
In the two-tone heartland of the West Midlands, ska is as much a part of football as a last minute winner or yelling at the referee for any decision that doesn't go your way. The drums and saxophone soundtracked as many incredible moments on the pitch as it did violent moments off it, and will forever be intrinsically linked to football.
Words: Dominic Allin
Cover Photo: Dominic Allin
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