THE BOILER - The Special AKA featuring Rhoda Dakar - Two Tone Records.

This music video was commisioned by Jerry Dammers, recorded with The Special AKA, featuring Rhoda Dakar ( former Bodysnatchers.) It was devised and directed by myself, Lizzie Soden, assisted by artist Steve Binnion. Jerry decided it would be inappropriate to make a traditional ’pop video’ but more a film about the subject matter, i.e. rape. This was situated within the context of the prevailing gender roles, where women were perceived as passive, with men as having a right to sexualise them. However rape is also about the power the rapist gets when using, frightening and humiliating people. The collaging sections using popular imagery and TV reflected this. In 1982, the issue of date rape was taboo, and Rhoda powerfully and bravely dealt with it in this track. It was a low budget production made with Nottingham Film Workshop’s crew, shot in Coventry Precinct and one of the nightclubs in the precinct. If anyone remembers the name of the club let me know! All characters/extras were friends of ours from the Coventry Two Tone scene. Shot on 16mm film which has been stored in a suitcase, I have now digitised it and remastered it and spruced it up to bring it back to its former glory, but have left the wear and tear of the original film. The sound has been remastered too. The single was banned from Radio 1 due to the disturbing content. When the film was shown on Tyne Tees TV there was a problem with the copyright from the TV images I literally filmed direct from the telly, and they were threatening to sue Two Tone, but luckily I owned the copyright and was a poor student at the time, so they didn’t pursue it. The original story boards are reproduced in the book “Too much Too Young“ The 2 Tone Records Story by Daniel Rachel, as are more details about the making of the film. NB I have taken down the old VHS copy of the video which had accumulated a great deal of views.