TIME MACHINE
It’s a givin’ thing (clockwise from main): motivator Jerry Dammers gets on the blower in the Melody Maker offices; his Paris opposite number Manu Dibango; scenes from the Starvation video, with UB40 and sundry 2-Tone faces; the single.
Tom Sheehan, Ray Stevenson, Getty (4), Advertising Archives
FEBRUARY 1985
...2-Tone reunites for Ethiopia
FEBRUARY 26
The mid-’80s were a busy time for charity records raising funds for famine relief in Africa. Band Aid fired the starting gun at Christmas 1984. In February, with talents including Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Dylan and Springsteen, USA For Africa’s We Are The World was awaiting release. Also ready to go was Northern Lights’ Tears Are Not Enough, an all-Canadian affair with Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot and others. In a few months Stars, the all-star metal track billed as by Hear ’n Aid, would be recorded with Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford and Derek Smalls among the many hard rock luminaries.
On February 26’s Whistle Test, on BBC2, the promo clip for a new fundraising 45 was seen. Starvation was a cover of The Pioneers’ reggae song from 1970, played by a 2-Tone supergroup featuring members of The Specials, Madness and The Beat, plus spiritual brethren UB40, percussionist Gaspar Lawal, trumpet player Dick Cuthell, trombonist Annie Whitehead, vocalists Afrodiziak and The Pioneers themselves.