Do not operate this machine without wearing the correct safety equipment: the Coventry 2-Tone exhibition

"You've done too much / Much too young ..."

A 2-Tone exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry, eh? Part of its City of Culture offering? Hmm. 1979 ska revival. Fred Perrys. White socks. Loafers. Braces and Sta press trousers. Tonic suits and bloody pork pie hats. Yeah, stick 'em all in a museum alongside lots of photos of rampaging teenagers at Specials concerts and ... bob's yer uncle. Well, no, it'll be a lot more sophisticated than that. (I think). But ... I dunno. Does Coventry in 2021 need this stuff on Coventry in 1979? Feels a bit sepia-toned to me. Reaching back more than four decades for ... well, for stuff that's been pored over a lot already. Personally, I really like a lot of the music that 2-Tone brought out. The best of the slightly punked-up ska revival stuff is excellent, and the stranger, more experimental material (Ghost Town, War Crimes, The Boiler) is similarly great. I was a fan then and ... still respect the stuff now. But ... the times, man, the times. 

Yeah, OK. It's not exactly about the music per se - it's an exercise in cultural history (clue: it's in a museum). It might be wonderful - illuminating and surprising. And, coronavirus-permitting, I'll probably check it out during one of my frequent return visits to the city. But, as someone who's usually trying to find new music by new musicians, it doesn't exactly thrill me with excitement to see newspaper articles viewing Coventry's major year-long cultural event through a lens trained on something from so long ago. Music and museums. Not sure they really work (eg Syd Shelton's Rock Against Racism photos exhibition from a few years ago). Perhaps it's something to do with an inherent tension between music (especially music as lively as the early Specials material) and the fixed, curatorial milieu of a gallery space, however kitted out with videos, interactive elements or whatever else they may be. Oh dear, maybe I'm grinding my teeth over nothing? It'll be fine. My old home city will triumph - a phoenix rising from the ashes of these old musical scenes. That's right! Terry Hall's home sessions will unearth some fantastic under-appreciated music and the Coventry music scene will ... come alive. Maybe. Admittedly, though, I'm a non-festival type at the best of times. Major curated cultural events of almost any description fill me with a sense of dread. So, yeah, my reservations partly reflect an habitual mistrust of this stuff anyway (mark me down accordingly). That said, unless coronavirus succeeds in closing the whole thing down, I'll definitely be sampling a bit of the COC offering here and there (perhaps just the fringe elements). Yes, like my father, who worked as a tool-maker for more than 30 years at Alfred Herbert Ltd, the Coventry-based engineering giant which gives its name to the gallery hosting the 2-Tone tribute, I'll be interacting with this cultural jamboree in the only way I know how - at the edges, doing a bit of turning and trimming, turning and trimming. Minute steel shavings are sure to fly forth from my well-honed critical faculties, which (I like to think) operate like an expensive precision instrument. Danger! Do not operate this machine without wearing the correct safety equipment.