The Two Tone Tour - Brighton 1979
The first date of the Two Tone Tour was in Brighton, I went on the bus with the three bands, my old friend from my Thin Lizzy days, Frank Murray, was the Tour Manager and so I grabbed a ride.
There was a fabulous camaraderie on the bus, as there often is at he beginning of a tour, the musicians were all getting to know each other and we had the same coach as used on the legendary Live Stiffs Tour.
Because I had moved on from the NME to shooting record covers I felt no need to take that many photos and so I just settled in and enjoyed the atmosphere.
However, it did seem a good idea to take a photo of all the bands on Brighton beach. Trying to keep control of seven people, i.e. The Specials, was something I was used to, but now there were more than twenty musicians to keep track of, I tried in vain to organize everyone.
The Two Tone School Photograph idea lasted about a minute before someone spotted Specials Manager Rick Rogers calmly walking on the beach.
Suddenly most of the people in the photo jumped up and started chasing after Rick, he legged it as fast as he could but in the end they caught up with him.
The 'reason' for the chase was apparently that he was holding everyone's Per Diem's and they just wanted their readies.