Jerry Dammers was the founder and keyboard player of the Coventry-based punk reggae band the Coventry Automatics. They later changed their name to the Special A.K.A (later just The Specials). He also founded the Two Tone label, that dealt entirely with the new ska sound of the 1980s. He became a noted anti-apartheid campaigner, and wrote the song "Nelson Mandela" about the jailed South African ANC leader.
