2 Tone Records and its distinctive black and white design was the brainchild of Jerry Dammers, founder member of Coventry-based band The Specials.

His intention was to create a British equivilant of Tamla or Stax, to provide an outlet for ska music in this country. Twenty five years on some of 2 Tone's original songwriters and band members have reunited to put on an informal acoustic performance of songs and reminisce about their time together.

Bands signed to the label like The Selecter, The Beat and Special AKA used politicised songs to make social comment on the disaffected times of the early Eighties. Classics like Too Much Too Young and Free Nelson Mandela may have resonated with the times and the turbulence of Thatcher's Britain, but do lyrics about racism and unemployment still strike a chord with today's generation of MTV teens?

Pauline Black, lead singer of the Selecter, thinks so. "There's still a lot of disaffected youth out there who aren't into the Karaoke age we live in now," she says. "They're looking for something that's more relevant.

"Although you have to go back a long way to get anything with a social commentary attached, kids are inspecting the tone of music again.

"And racism hasn't just hung up its hat and gone away. It's even more of a problem now. It might manifest itself differently, but it's definitely still there.

"I am still politically motivated and I still write songs about socially relevant issues."

When The Selecter began, Pauline was an openly opiniated black female in what was then - and largely remains - a white male-dominated industry.

"It wasn't like I was out there shining a beacon or anything," she reflects. "But being black and female made me an unknown quantity. I think that seeing rude girls was a rude awakening for lots of people!

"I mean you only had us Pauline and Rhoda Dakar of The Special AKA and the Three Degrees. I don't think we were ever going to become Prince Charle's favourite. Although you never know...he's into some pretty radical things at the moment."

Joining Pauline in her trademark fedora on her trip down Ska memory lane is fellow Selecter band member Nick Welsh, Dave Wakeling, songwriter and singer of The Beat, and Roddy 'Radiation' Beyers from The Specials.

Although there'll be new material aired, rudeboy diehards will relish old favourites like Ghost Town and Tears Of A Clown.

"Lots of people coming to the gigs are after a slice of nostalgia," Pauline admits. "It would be churlish not to play them."

Starts 7.30pm, Tickets £12, Tel 01273 736222