Stephen Shafer

During the 1990s, Stephen Shafer was the director of promotions, marketing, and production for Moon Ska Records, the leading independent ska label in the U.S. He supervised the production of over 90 albums and produced nine compilations, created and signed bands to the Ska Satellite budget imprint, and shot and directed the label's first music video for The Toasters ("2 Tone Army"), which premiered on MTV's 120 Minutes and was regularly aired on MTV and M2. In late 1999, Steve founded 7 Wonders of the World Music, the first digital download-only ska and reggae label, which featured releases from two dozen bands from around the globe, and sold digital music online two years before the iTunes store launched. After taking a few years off from the music industry, Steve started The Duff Guide to Ska blog in 2008 and began reviewing ska records, concerts, books, and films—and hasn't stopped writing about ska music since. Steve is the author of "The Duff Guide to 2 Tone," which features over 70 reviews of reissues of 2 Tone albums from The Specials & The Special AKA, The Selecter, The Beat, Madness, The Bodysnatchers, and Bad Manners, as well as write-ups of their more recent records, gigs, books, and movies. With a foreword by Gaz Mayall (The Trojans, Gaz's Rockin' Records, Gaz's Rockin' Blues, and co-writer of The Bodysnatchers' "Ruder Than You"), The Duff Guide to 2 Tone draws from over 12 years of Shafer’s reviews from his Duff Guide to Ska blog.