BAD MANNERS Vinyl & CDs

Review: Two-tone ska scallywags Bad Manners ruled the chart roost throughout the 1980s, racking up nine Top 40 hits and 111 weeks on the charts, fueled by a vary many memorable TotP appearance. By the late 80s, their chart success faded but they kept busy with Eat The Beat (1988), a collection of rarities and a standalone take on the 1969 Symarip track 'Skinhead Girl.' Later in 1989, Bad Manners offshoot Buster's All Stars released 'Skinhead Girl' with a fresh live ska twist, and this incurrent reissue of that flashpoint now also unveils the never-heard-before 'Skinhead Boy', which debuts in a foldout sleeve with liner notes by Lee Morris. Both songs are rife with nostalgia for a subculture mired in historic complication, and at times it's hard to distinguish whether the object of affection so considered is a real person or a representation of a genre and point in time: "she wore braces and blue jeans... she was mine."