Your Local Arena: Rudies Come Back or The Rise and Rise of 2-Tone

With its home in Coventry, its roots in reggae and its multiracial bands, 2-Tone was a British musical phenomenon. As part of Black History Month, this Your Local Arena special screens Rudies Come Back, the energetic 1980 BBC Arena film made by Jeff Perks right at the moment that 2-Tone was emerging, capturing its unique blend of 1960s blue beat and ska with 1970s reggae, soul and punk. The film will be followed by a panel discussion. Guests include: legendary reggae musician and producer Dennis Bovell, drummer June Miles-Kingston from the Mo-dettes and Fun Boy Three, author, artist and music expert Zoë Howe, and filmmaker Jeff Perks. It promises to be an unforgettable evening highlighting the racial unity sparked by the 2-Tone movement, which stood in direct opposition to the Far Right in the late 1970s and early 80s.

Born in Barbados in 1953, Dennis Bovell MBE is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, composer, band leader and producer. He came to London when he was twelve and has been in bands since his schooldays. He formed Matumbi in 1970, whose songs include the top ten hit ‘Point of View,‘ and produced Janet Kay‘s huge single ‘Silly Games.’ He has worked with artists as diverse as I Roy, Steel Pulse, Bananarama, Fela Kuti and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Dennis continues to release his own music.

June Miles-Kingston is a singer and drummer, best known for co-founding the post-punk band The Mo-dettes (1979–1982).Throughout the 1980s, she lent her drumming and vocal talents to an array of notable British artists across genres like post-punk, new wave, and pop, collaborating with acts such as The Communards and Everything but the Girl.

Jeff Perks wears two hats – artist and filmmaker. He graduated from the National Film and Television School in 1978. He has produced and directed films for the BBC’s Omnibus and Arena programmes on artists, cartoonists, punk bands and women comediennes. When Channel Four started, he formed Riverfront Pictures and went on to make over forty films for the new channel. As an artist, his work has appeared at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Battersea Arts Centre and his first one-man show was at Stockport Art Gallery. His current exhibition John Bull, a collaboration with Michael Rosen, is running at The Green Man Gallery.

Author, visual artist and sometime musician Zoë Howe has produced acclaimed biographies of The Slits, Poly Styrene, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Wilko Johnson, Stevie Nicks, Florence + The Machine, Lee Brilleaux and others. Zoë was part of the founding team behind the award-winning documentary Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, and she has made radio programmes for Absolute Radio, Resonance FM and Soho Radio amongst others; she currently presents the Rock ’n’ Roll Witch show on Soho Radio. Musically, Zoë has worked with Viv Albertine, Helen McCookery Book, Steve Beresford, Mick Jones & others. Zoë is a Royal Literary Fund writing Fellow at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, and her debut novel Shine On, Marquee Moon was shortlisted for the Virginia Prize for Fiction in 2016. Her next book Witchful Thinking (a handbook for the modern Wise Woman) was published by Llewellyn in 2022.

*These are difficult times. We know some people may struggle to afford full price tickets. If you would like to attend this event but can't afford to, please contact [email protected]. All queries will be treated in confidence.

Your Local Arena is a unique project featuring iconic films from the archives of BBC TV’s Arena, the pioneering cultural documentary series. It includes new poems inspired by the Arena films and panel talks to explore the continuing relevance of the Arena archives today. The Your Local Arena concept was developed by Lucy Hannah and Speaking Volumes, with Arena’s award-winning director/editor Anthony Wall as creative consultant, and funded by Arts Council England.

Your Local Arena is a Lucy Hannah & Speaking Volumes co-production

featuring BBC Arena’s film archive. Funded by Arts Council England.

Host or Publisher Writing on the Wall