Blue Beat Baby: The Untold Story of Brigitte

February 20, 2024 6:59 AM

Who was the woman who inspired ska's ubiquitous Beat Girl logo? Joanna Wallace found a picture of the woman who inspired Hunt Emerson's iconic logo, and it led her to start digging into the history and career of Brigitte Bond.

Interview with Joanna on 2 Tone Legacy.

A brief update on Joanna's research released this week

posted by ursus_comiter (14 comments total)

I believe the logo is shown here: http://englishbeat.net/presskit/
posted by wenestvedt at 8:13 AM on February 20 [4 favorites]

I partially knew Brigette's story, but this is incredible. Thank you! I love the fact that she chased Billy Graham out of Soho.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:33 AM on February 20 [7 favorites]

Two Tone's male icon, Walt Jabsco, was based on a photo of Peter Tosh of the Wailers and was designed in part by Horace Panter (Sir Horace Gentleman) of the Specials. Funny how both were based on real people.
posted by tommasz at 8:41 AM on February 20 [6 favorites]

And Walt lives on in all of your phones.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:43 AM on February 20 [8 favorites]

My estimation of Hunt Emerson just went up, did not know that he did this.

Also extremely cool story.
posted by Artw at 8:43 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

I expect we'll find out next that the person in the hat jumping on the cover of Operation Ivy's "Energy" is based on someone real, too.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:13 AM on February 20 [5 favorites]

And the Juggalo hatchet man
posted by migurski at 9:51 AM on February 20

That was really interesting. Thanks for posting!
posted by kirkaracha at 10:52 AM on February 20

Another great trans woman performer from approximately the same time period is the soul/R&B singer Jackie Shane, although she was an American who ended up mainly performing in Canada.

Jackie Shane performing Walking the Dog
posted by jonp72 at 11:32 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

great story - and I appreciate that her followup was basically - I have way more of the story, but I need to be careful about how to tell it.
posted by drewbage1847 at 1:12 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

It's funny, I saw the original Skatalites open for Bad Manners at the UW back in the 80s as described here. The Skatalites being the original Ska back in the 1960s as in That Chop on the Upbeat -- the origins of Ska.

Wherein 20 year lurk pointed out that after Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop took Ska transatlantic, among the first American covers of OG Ska was when Keith and Ken with Byron Lee and the Dragonaires -- Jamaica Ska was colonized by none other than Annette Funicello and Bob Hope. If that isn't profoundly something I don’t know what.

*shudders*

See also ska ska ska Jamaican ska
posted by y2karl at 7:56 PM on February 20 [3 favorites]

That was amazing, and now I want to know about Brigitte's second act! It's fantastic that so much of her ended up in archival form—kudos to Joanna for all the work that went into finding and compiling it.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 4:23 AM on February 21

among the first American covers of OG Ska was when Keith and Ken with Byron Lee and the Dragonaires -- Jamaica Ska was colonized by none other than Annette Funicello and Bob Hope. If that isn't profoundly something I don’t know what.

I knew Annette Funicello did Jamaica Ska in the 1980s movie Back to the Beach (with Fishbone no less!), but I didn't know she did it back in the 60s! There's also a bit part in the scene from Lori Loughlin a.k.a. Aunt Becky from Full House a.k.a. defendant in the recent USC bribery scandal.
posted by jonp72 at 9:41 AM on February 21

Someone get her into unicode, and not as a gendered ZWJ on🕴️.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:14 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]