The Uptones were formed by nine high-school students in 1981, and such was their musical synergy that they started writing songs and playing live shows the same year.

Band members Eric Din, Paul Jackson, Ben Eastwood, Erik Rader and Charles Stella were attending Berkeley High School and Cazadero Performing Arts Camp at the time.

[1] According to Din, another main influence was the documentary Dance Craze, “...basically a bunch of concert footage of the English two-tone bands.”[4] Writing original songs throughout the Reagan era, The Uptones were a dance band with a political bent, covering topics such as the Cold War and the increased militarization of the U.S.[5] One of their first public gigs in 1981 was at Barrington Hall in Berkeley with MDC headlining.

San Francisco gigs took place at the On Broadway, The Farm, the Old Waldorf, The Stone, the Kabuki, and Wolfgang's, which sold out to large audiences consisting mainly of high school students.

[citation needed] Rock promoter Bill Graham took note and started booking the band as support for major acts such as the Go-Go's and UB40 at the Greek Theater in Berkeley; X, Madness and the English Beat at the Kabuki; Oingo Boingo at the Warfield; General Public at the Henry J. Kaiser Center; and Billy Idol at the Oakland Coliseum.

Despite starting out in their teens and breaking up before they could record a substantial discography, The Uptones were highly influential players in the early 1980s underground music scene.

The band currently plays live shows throughout the Bay Area and was featured in a cover story in the San Francisco Chronicle Datebook in March, 2008.

[16] On November 5, 2017, The Uptones played a benefit concert at the Ashkenaz in Berkeley to raise money for the Northern California fire relief effort.

[5] In 2019 Berkeley Cat Records released a digital reissue of the OUTBACK six-song EP, including the original version of Burning Sky which had been a hit on KITS "Live 105" commercial alternative radio in San Francisco in 1987 and remained in rotation through the 1990s.

San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joel Selvin wrote of the Uptones in San Francisco Chronicle's list of top 100 Bay Area bands: "Along with Operation Ivy, the Uptones formed the core of the Berkeley ska-punk scene that paved the way for the likes of Rancid.