Johnny Moped Club Casbah Blackpool 4th August 2022

Here's one more from last summer's Rebellion Festival. Recorded at Club Casbah on 4th August. Thanks to Peter for sharing this one! Johnny Moped were one of the proto-punk bands of the British scene. Like Doctor Feelgood Moped laid down some of the key elements of what became the '77 London punk scene. Unlike Doctor Feelgood they brought a sense of chaos to proceedings! Hailing from Croydon Johnny's friendship with the Burns' brothers gave rise to Johnny Moped a band that started the process of ripping up the rock 'n' roll rule book that The Damned would continue to do a year or so later, when they took the musical chaos theory on to the next level.

In addition to the Captain, a young Chrissie Hynde also passed through the band's ranks, one of many relationships she had with the early London based punk bands whilst enroute to forming her own band, The Pretenders.

Johnny Moped's contribution to the rock 'n' roll canon is I think rather well summed up by this quote from the 'Great Indie Discography'...

‘Moronic punk ‘n’ roll fusing future Chiswick label-mates Motörhead with the manic humour of John Otway’

You can't say fairer than that!

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Liverpool Royal Court 10th June 1995

 

This one is fulfilling a request and thanks to Malcolm769 for the original upload. This sees the band poll into Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre on the 'About Time' tour in the summer of 1995.

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01. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
02. Golden Boy
03. Bring On The Nubiles
04. Money
05. Nice'N'Sleazy
06. Face
07. Golden Brown
08. Paradise Row
09. Laughing At The Rain
10. Straighten Out
11. Still Life
12. Lies And Deception
13. Goodbye Toulouse
14. Sinister
15. 5 Minutes
16. Something Better Change
17. Duchess
18. Nuclear Device
19. Go Buddy Go
20. All Day And All Of The Night
21. English Towns
22. Choosey Susie
23. No More Heroes

Fun Boy Three Mayfair Suite Newcastle 23rd March 1983

 

There are not so many recordings of Fun Boy Three gigs in circulation, just a handful really and this is one of the better ones from the promotional tour for the second album 'Waiting' in Newcastle. Thanks to the original Dime uploader elegymart. Further details on the recording can be found in the info file in the download folder.

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01.  Introduction

02.  Faith, Hope And Charity 

03.  The Pressure Of Life (Takes The Weight Off The Body) 

04.  The Telephone Always Rings 

05.  The Farmyard Connection 

06.  Best Of Luck Mate 

07.  Going Home 

08.  The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum

09.  Things We Do 

10.  Alone 

11.  Well Fancy That! 

12.  Summertime 

13.  Our Lips Are Sealed 

14.  The Tunnel Of Love 

15.  We're Having All The Fun 

16.  Gangsters 

17.  It Ain't What You Do 

18.  Murder She Said 

19.  The More I See (The Less I Believe) 

20.  You're Wondering Now 

Fun Boy 3 - Having All The Fun?

 

Fun Boy 3 on The Tube (Channel 4) in June 1983

It do not suppose for a minute that when The Specials recorded 'Too Much Too Young' it crossed their minds that the stark message to the young mum of the song could be equally applied under different circumstances to The Specials themselves.

For all of Jerry's meticulous planning of the 2 Tone brand from label, to look to sound, I am sure that even he did not imagine that the band's flame would burn so brightly but for such a relatively short period of time. Such were the pressures on the bands associated with the 2 Tone label that none of them (Madness being an exception) enjoyed any prolonged success. As leaders of the 'movement', Jerry Dammers and The Specials felt those pressures more keenly than any of their label mates, including those that moved away from 2 Tone early on, but still flew the flag so to speak. 

The heavy touring schedule across the globe, violence at gigs and personality differences within the band (it was prickly on stage and in the studio) did little to bring longevity to the career of The Specials.

Legend has it that as The Specials appeared on one of their two Top Of The Pops appearances with the seminal 'Ghost Town' the band were in the process of splitting up in one of the BBC dressing rooms. In fact something of a coup was announced when members of the band not in the know were informed that three members, Terry, Neville and Lynval had already split off to form Fun Boy Three.

This 'Specials spin-off' trio it should be remembered were also rather successful, 'enjoying' no less that two top 20 albums (they only released two!) and seven top 20 singles in their short career. The music they produced was rather different from that of The Specials but in fairness that was only to be expected. Since Steve Strange had delivered 'New Romanticism' into the charts things became pretty superficial pretty quickly. At the height of the FB3 success in '82 and '83 they were competing on the record buying front with the likes of Wham and Culture Club! Nevertheless, I have argued it previously on this site that much of the material recorded by the band very much carried on the themes that lay at the heart of The Specials world view. 'The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum' is a natural successor to 'Ghost Town' whilst 'The Tunnel Of Love' echoes 'Too Much Too Young in every respect! Sure, there were lighter moments that perhaps the General would not allowed to appear on a 2 Tone release.... but the subject matter of 'Well Fancy That' is about as bleak as it gets.

A common theme in the bands material is how far removed is the perception of the pop star lifestyle from the reality! Terry sings in 'We're Having All The Fun':

'I live in a flat, I like Manchester United

I live with my girlfriend and my cat, we're really happy

I like watching television wearing pants and moccasins

Eating crispy pancakes and having Monday haircuts that we've done'

How glamorous is that?! But that speaks volumes about Terry Hall as a person.

So whilst many of the glowing obituaries and tributes to Terry gloss over his career beyond The Specials in both their initial and later incarnations, we should not overlook what he did in the interim!

The Specials - Reaction to the Debut Album - The Critics Thoughts

 

The Specials: Specials (Two Tone) *****

Garry Bushell Sounds November 1979.

“All you punks and all you Teds/National Front and natty dreads/Mods, rockers, hippies and skinheads/Keep on fighting till your dead/Who am I to say?/Who am I to say?/Am I just a hypercrite/Just a piece of your bullshit?” (‘Do The Dog’)

This is the album that proves The Specials really are as special as our pumping purple hearts would have us believe. Its got the lot: the tunes, the exuberance, the beat, and the philosophy, god-dammit. This is an important record from an important band, a band that stands for something – and something a bit more than getting wrecked and shagging around.

There are fourteen songs on The Specials’ debut album – five covers, nine originals. But each and every one of them is shot through with invigorating energy and irresistible excitement.

It’s been a mighty long wait down rock ‘n’ roll since their first debut gig supporting The Clash at Aylesbury Friar’s Club last summer, via Bernie Rhodes and the Paris debacle but it’s been worth it. Some of the credit has to go to producer Elvis Costello, but we all know that the real kudos belongs to Jerry Dammmers for making this dream happen and for having the brains to make it mean something.

Jerry’s themes often boil down to a simple Oi, You, The Teenage Person Lurking At The Back, Think About What You’re Doing. ‘Just because you’re a black boy/Just because you’re a white/It doesn’t mean you’ve got to hate him/Doesn’t mean you’ve got to fight, run his lyrics on ‘Doesn’t Make It Alright.’

It’s an attitude spelt out with perfect clarity in the album’s opening track, Dandy Livingstone’s sixties classic ‘A Message To You Rudy’ (‘Stop your messing around/Better think of your future/Time to straighten right out/Creating problems in town… better think of your future/As you wind up in jail…’).

Keyboardist Dammers credits ‘Do The Dog’ to Memphis soul legend Rufus Thomas but he’s taken the song and twisted it like a pretzel until he could have almost claimed it as an original, Jerry’s ‘(Dawning Of A) New Era’ continues the friendly hectoring which feels close to lecturing on ‘Too Much Too Young: ‘You’ve done too much, much too young/Now you’re married with a kid/When you should be having fun with me.’ It’s friendly advice – don’t waste your life - delivered by a mate with a marked anti-social streak: ‘Call me immature/Call me a poser/I’d love to spread manure in your bed of roses…’

Musically the album sounds sparse but as tight as an assassin’s garrotte. The Specials are now a seven piece with brass supplied by Dick Cuthell on flugelhorn and trombonist Rico Rodriguez who by coincidence played on the 1964 original version of ‘A Message To You, Rudy’. Horace’s bass playing gives the whole enterprise pace; the guitars are simple but effective; the vocals a mix of scowling punk and howling rude-boy.

All of the band’s originals are by Dammers except for the short, sharp ‘Concrete Jungle’ – a phrase taken from Bob Marley’s Catch A Fire – which was written by Roddy Byers, aka guitarist Roddy radiation. There isn’t a duff track on here. Even the live highlight – the band’s cover of ‘Monkey Man’ (a hit for the Maytals in 1969) loses none of its sweaty enthusiasm in a studio setting.

The album married clear and glorious echoes of the past (Toots, Prince Buster, Lloyd Charmers and The Skatalites) without ever sounding naff or retro-escapist.

We know the formula for the Specials success: old-time ska meets today’s punk attitude. We knew it worked live. What we didn’t know was how good it could work in the studio; how it would turn out to be the soundtrack to life in a decaying modern Britain.

Other bands have tried to combine reggae and punk before – from the rowdy Chelsea Shed singalongs of The Members to the classier driving power of The Ruts (Fuck The Police!) But none have got the formula as right as The Specials have.

Record Mirror 27TH October 1979

MADNESS: 'Onel Step Beyond' (Stiff SEEZ 17)

SPECIALS: 'Specials' . (2 Tone CDL TI5001)

"DON'T WATCH that, watch this!" as Chas Smash, lead dancer and rabble - rouser of Madness, would say. You may have read one or two primary school essays elsewhere in the music press recently, clumsily slagging the Specials in particular. Take no heed of these nauseating little toadies, boys (rude or not) - they're just showing symptoms of critical paranoia, which is where The Hack scrabbles desperately to be the first to put down a success story – any success story, to maintain his own dodgy credibility. It makes you sick. Enough about the problems that plague the pen though, Let's talk about two bands who spell ACCESSIBLE in 15 foot letters.

'The Prince' and 'Gangsters' respectively drew Madness and the Specials into the limelight, with the requisite appearance on 'TOTP' easing them into the mass-popularity market. We are now presented with debut albums from two bands who have built up a following through consistently playing the most enjoyable gigs around. None of yer arty-farty nonsense with all that beating off and around the bush, but straight ska/bluebeat with careful attention to fashion applied. (And there's nothing wrong with that, you stinking elitists.)

'One Step Beyond' is the opener on Madness’ LP of a like name, and immediately lets you know what to

expect: heavy, nutty monster music. Entirely instrumental, apart from Chas' intermittent interruptions, with fat sax contributions from Lee Thompson. It's a brillo dancing record - no party will be complete

without this, as it's the current single as well.

Vocalist Suggs likes to spin a tale or two in the course of a song. For instance, 'Night Boat To Cairo' is a song for chuffing across foreign seas to middle eastern shores with some rising and falling sax almost bringing on seasickness. 'Land Of Hope And Glory' isn't the same unless performed before a live audience, even Suggs' fine growling vocals can't do themselves justice, 'The Prince' you all know about. A classic in honour of the original father of bluebeat, Prince Buster.

Mike Barson and Dan Woodgate should get a mention for their fine contributions on keyboard and drums respectively on 'Bed And Breakfast'. Barson's piano on 'Razor Blade Alley' gives it the hazy, run- down feel of a backstreet club. 'Swan Lake' is the only mistake on the LP. Yes, its the original tune by the Big T and I never could stand it – reminds me of hours of piano practice by other kids at school. 'Rockin' In A Flat', Mummy's Boy' and 'Chipmunks Are Go' rectify the situation. But sitting on your bum and trying to listen to a dance band is next to impossible, so if you'll excuse me... ('Chipmunks Are Go'? Wot a stupid title)… madness, they call it, madness...

Coventry's other rude boys are like Madness' older, more responsible brother. They've got a social

conscience, see, they worry about kids getting into a 'Stupid Marriage', and heavies like 'Gangsters' and even living in a 'Concrete Jungle'. The Specials rely heavily on the trumpet and those distinctive post – punk vocals by Terry. The competition is hot - Selecter are breathing down their necks with 'On My Radio'.

Where they score over Madness is the greater vocal flexibility they have in their power. Terry shares

the vocal work with Neville ("Don't call me scarface") resulting in their own special (whoops) sound.

Elvis Costello plonked himself smartly behind the mixer for this one. Not surprising really: this lot display the reggae/ska/bluebeat/rock blend that he's been chasing through numerous albums and here it is in black and white. The production, mercifully, is faithful to their live sound.

'Nite Klub' is an anthem to the essence of the band - sweaty, cramped, good – time music. Whether or not the Costello control is responsible for it, no one can really say, but this is a consistently taut effort and for a debut, to use the vernacular, shit hot.

Whereas Madness are plagiarists, this lot are purists. This is really how bluebeat should be played, if it's going to be played at all, and what a perfect alternative to John Travolta!

'(Dawning Of A) New Era' has Terry singing through a rolled – up newspaper. The boy would make a wonderful pixie with looks like that.

The Specials don't take everything seriously though: they laugh at themselves, at their race (whatever

that may be) and things in general. 'Too Much Too Young' contains a wistful invitation to a pert young married, who could be having fun as a Special instead.

Specials keep a hold on your interest, Madness let it slip. They are both prime cuts live, but when they

come in a black, flat round shape, the Specials take the prize.

:So  *** and ***** respectively.

SIMON LUDGATE

Smash Hits 1st November 1979

THE SPECIALS: The Specials (2 Tone)

Sick of overnight ska trendies? Me too. But hang on – this album is actually very good with The Specials showing enough genuine talent to outlast any passing fashion. Good balance of old and new songs, some excellent original touches (especially the very strong lyrics), first rate production by Elvis Costello, fourteen tracks – a very promising debut and highly recommended. Best tracks: ‘Too Much Too Young’, ‘Doesn’t Make It Alright’. (9 out of 10).

 

The Specials - Reaction to the Debut Album - My Thoughts

 

It is true that debut albums can be hit and miss sometimes. Little or no studio experience and/or no clear establishment of the band's distinctive sound can make for a lacklustre first album. It can be the case that that first album that a band produces is a bit of a let down or at least falls short of the fans and critics expectations. This was a definite risk for The Specials who had become a tight, high octane live outfit by the time they entered the studio to record their debut. However, with Elvis Costello at the production helm and General Dammers keeping a watchful eye on progress, nothing was lost in the studio environment.

The album is now 43 years old having been released in October 1979 and unlike many of its contemporary releases it has aged like a fine wine. Perhaps it is the content, in terms of the style of the music. Take sixties Bluebeat infuse it with the snarl of punk and its a kind of future proofing. Produce something that contains a strong element that is already ten years old and you almost protect it from aging. Conversely, listen to some of the over produced shiny hits of the '80's and they can be instantly placed as products of that particular OTT decade. But it's not just the sound of the album that must be considered here, it is equally the message that it conveys that has stood the test of time and the reason is pretty straight forward. 'Specials' held a mirror up to societal environment in which it was written and recorded. British heavy industry was in a steep decline, death throes even, unemployment figures were huge and as ever, in this set of circumstances, the far right flourished. The music of 1979 has rarely been bettered but gigging and going to gigs could be a perilous affair as different youth cultures clashed, be it for reasons of fashion and/or politics! The material on 'Specials' echoes all of these issues, albeit in a particularly lively and upbeat manner. The message that pervades both sides of this remarkable piece of vinyl is that yes, things are shit, but you have one run at this life.... don't waste it. 

'Specials' is just 10 years younger than me but as I listen to it now as I am writing this at the end of 2022, there is so much of that message that resonates today. The reflection from that mirror held up in 1979 is not so different from this year's reflection. Roddy's 'Concrete Jungle' includes the lines 'I have to carry a knife/Because there's people threatening my life'. In 1981, guitarist Lynval Golding was set upon by three men in a racially motivated attack in London, an incident which was immortalised in the song 'Why?'. A year later, he was slashed with a bottle in an incident in Coventry that nearly cost him his life. Fast forward to 2018 and vocalist Neville Staple's grandson was fatally stabbed outside of a Coventry nightclub.... things don't seemed to have moved on so much in the intervening years. As in 1979, our young people are on the receiving end of a new raft of issues.... a cost of living crisis, Brexit, a European war and let's not forget our friend, COVID-19.

Perhaps digital copies of 'Specials' should be co-prescribed with the anti-depressants that now seem to be given to young people at the drop off a hat. 

The Specials Santa Cruz 16th February 1980

 

And here they are on that first US tour with a set built around the first album and the early singles.

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01. Dawning Of A New Era

02. Do The Dog

03. It's Up To You

04. Monkey Man

05. Rat Race

06. Blank Expression

07. Rude Boys Outa Jail

08. Concrete Jungle

09. Too Hot

10. Doesn't Make It Alright

11. Stupid Marriage

12. Too Much Too Young

13. Guns Of Navarone

01. Little Bitch

02. A Message To You Rudy

03. Nite Klub

04. Gangsters

05. Long Shot Kick De Bucket/Skinhead Moonstomp

06. Madness

07. You're Wondering Now

08. Monkey Man

09. Man From Wareika

The Specials Interview - Record Mirror (2nd February 1980)

In late January 1980, The Specials were on the verge of becoming a very big band indeed. This interview with Record Mirror's editor Alf Martin in the freezing Lowlands took place days before the band headed to America for their first US tour.

Sixty Minute Men

Alf Martin hits the land of cheese, clogs, windmills and dope dealers to track down some very Special boys.

One hour. Sixty minutes. 3600 seconds.

Anyone and everyone connected with a working band lives and breathes for that one solitary hour in the day when the lights, PA and adrenalin are turned on.

The Specials are no exception, only seeing them before any gig in their normal clothes, you'd never think they'd get it together.

Amsterdam on a cold day. Canals frozen solid. Feet and hands turning blue. Enter the hotel. Various  members of the band pounce when told we have all of that week's music papers. Starved of any stimulation that day they devour the contents, passing round interesting stories.

Out of a corridor appears Jerry Dammers, leader and keyboards player of the Specials. Now. I've seen some unlikely looking rock stars in my time but he beats the lot. For a start there's the famous Dammers teeth. or lack of them. Just a huge gap at the front where they should be. When he talks he tends to splatter you with saliva. Lucky he doesn't talk that much.

He's wearing an old and shabby suede coat, and hanging from the arms of the coat are a pair of gloves,

attached to a piece of elastic that runs up one arm, across his back and down the other. Perhaps he  loses a lot of pairs of gloves or he's just a kid at heart. All this is topped off with a scarf, wrapped around his neck and a black and white peaked cap on his head. Other members of the band are just as suitably attired .

Suddenly we're surrounded by people and trying to fathom out who's in the band and who isn't gets pretty difficult. Including the horns men, there're nine people in the band.

This is a story starring Jerry Dammers, keyboards; Roddy 'Radiation' Byers, lead guitar; Lynval Golding, rhythm guitar; Neville Staples and Terry Hall, vocals; Horace Panter, bass and John Bradbury drums. Plus supporting cast and bit - part actors.

First on the agenda is a trip to the town centre to catch Monty Python's 'Life Of Brian'. Because we're late we're pushed into front row seats, meaning that you have to lie almost vertically, to watch the film.

I'm not sure if this was some Monty Python joke but when the show ended, all the lights in the house

went out and the doors stayed locked.

Onto the Milkweg Club, a hangover from the sixties with dope, space cake, films, theatre, music and general "stoned - ness" . . . in that order. It causes great amusement to all those present, but you soon get bored .

Then another club but the party is depleted. 'Rapper's Delight' by Sugarhill Gang comes over the

speakers and Jerry Dammers is bopping away to It. He tells me that the Specials appeared on a TV

programme with them and he was amazed how professional those guys were. "Word Perfect." he

splutters at me.

By 5 O'Clock a few decide to go. Drummer John Bradbury has been hoarse all night. His throat is gradually packing up. As we walk out with manager Rick Rogers, John says he knows the way to go. One

hour later we are still walking, totally lost. Hugh, the record company's PR vainly tries to stop a car ...

only to end up being driven down the road on top of the bonnet.

I ask Rick Rogers how he gets the Specials going in the morning. He gives the obvious answer: "I tell

them to be ready two hours before we're leaving and we usually end up at the right time." 

Jerry Dammers was the last to go to bed and, in the morning’ the last to get on the coach. We're travelling to the South of Holland, Sitvaard and 80 miles down the road I join the coach. Jerry's back in Slumberland.

Bass guitarist Horace Panter is huddled in a corner with  his coat and hat on. The heater doesn't work. "We were told this would be a luxury coach," he moans "But look at it." He seems the quiet and sensible member of the group. As he looks the studious type I ask him if he has any hobbies part from the group.

"I was thinking of taking up a hobby but that has to be something you like and music is the thing I like. I'm in a job I enjoy doing, I can travel and I get paid – probably about as much as your average teacher - for it."

Horace takes pride in telling you about his stereo system as though it's his pride and joy. "It isn't

expensive but it's beautiful." he says with a glint in his eyes. He doesn't want anything else but: "One dav I'd like to buy a house and maybe alittle car."

Being the quiet one in the group I asked how he got on with the others. "Well, there's enough of us to form different groups at different times. If you want to be on your own you can and if you want to party you can.

"Robert Fripp once said you need three things to make a group – a love of music, to like one another

and to like money. If you have all those or at least two. it should work."

One thing that strikes you about the Specials is they may not look like regular rock stars, or act like

shrewd businessmen, but when you talk to them about 2-Tone, their own record cop3any, there's no flies on these boys.

"I'm not sure if it's too early for some of the groups." says Horace. " Sometimes I get a bit worried . Like if we sign the Bodysnatchers, what are we letting them in for?

At the moment we're sticking to the people we've got. Later we might expand. "

Enter Sitvaard. Hotel, and soundcheck. The gig is next door to the hotel.

The gig. This is what it's all about. That one hour in the day which the band and anyone connected with

them has been waiting for. The transformation of tired, bored, sleepy - eyed scruffs into a pulsating rhythm machine. The clothes, the hair and the vitality are all geared for this moment.

Dressed in their best outfits - flashy glasses, ties and shiny shoes - they are greeted with shouts of

"Rude Bwoys". They open with 'Dawning Of A New Era' and continue into 'Do The Dog'.

How can anyone play that much good music while concentrating on superb dancing as well? Neville

Staples' muscular body gets into action and never stops. He toasts (although it sounds like singing to

me) along with Terry Hall and sweats bucketfuls. Throughout the set he climbs over the amps, hangs

from the balcony and falls all oyer the stage.

He even cuts a chunk out of his face when he drops his monitor onto himself. "It happens all the time," he says later.

The gig was one of the hottest, tightest, energy - packed sets I've ever seen. Praise should definitely go to drummer John Bradbury for pushing and holding the whole thing together; not forgetting horn me  Rico and Dick for adding the extra oomph.

With the Specials you don't just listen to their very catchy songs, you want to dance with them as well. Especially when vocalists Neville Staples and Terry Hall try to out-dance one another on 'Night Club'. One line in the song says: "I wouldn't dance in a club like this." Well, no one’s listening because the mass is definitely moving.

Their hits, other hits, and five encores ending with 'Madness', make it a superb night. Jerry Dammers even jumps headlong into the audience to finish it off. Then the change takes place again.

Back to being tired and scruffy. .. off-duty Specials.

At the hotel three British guys who are in the RAF have travelled from Germany to see them. A

drinking session starts and the small hotel is going crazy with about 30 orders all coming up at once. Perry. chief fan from Britain supplies sweets and someone shouts the news that Coventry have beaten

Liverpool 1-0.

"Oh well." says Rick Rogers. "That's the last time John Peel plays any of our records."

It’s getting like Barnum and Baileys circus now with people milling about all over the place. Terry Hall is about to do an interview over the phone with American radio. He's kept his moody. straight faced look for the whole of the time I've been there but when he comes back and says the name of the girl that interviewed him a smile cracks his face. Jane Hamburger. The smile soon goes as he sits down on his chair, topples over and falls flat on his back.

I turn to Neville, who has had problems with the law in the past, and ask if music had kept him out of

prison. "Well, it was music that got me in there in the first place. I had my own sound system and wanted to build my own speakers. I nicked some wood from a yard and got .caught!"

Jerry Dammers wants to know more about America. Is it possible to get around there by travelling in

the truck instead of flying? "I'm scared," he says, "I even used to get nervous in cars ." But he knows that on some of the gigs he's got to fly, so there's nothing he can do about it.

The drinking' continues. The eyes get blurry. No wonder they look tired the rest of the time. Apparently

John Bradbury and Jerry Dammers stay up all night.

They're off to America now, and I'm sure, in the daytime, they'll be just as tired. But I bet the Specials, and everyone else involved with them will still have every ounce of stamina for that one hour that matters.

Terry Hall Obituary The Guardian 20th December 2022

Singer with the Specials whose chart-topping Ghost Town evoked the sense of social collapse gripping Britain at the turn of the 80s.

Famously deadpan, dour and slightly menacing, Terry Hall, who has died aged 63 after a short illness, shot to fame at the end of the 1970s with Coventry’s groundbreaking multi-racial band the Specials. They emerged in the aftermath of punk, with a fizzing, politically charged mix of ska and new wave, and enjoyed instant success with their debut album, The Specials, which reached No 4 on the UK chart. For a time, the Specials’ 2 Tone Records operation became the UK’s most successful record label, with releases from Madness, the Beat and the Selecter alongside the Specials’ own.

Their second album, More Specials, featured a broader and jazzier musical palette and scorched to No 5. The band scored Top 10 singles with Gangsters, A Message to You Rudy, Rat Race, Stereotype and Do Nothing, peaking with their chart-topping classic Ghost Town in 1981.

Hall commented that “I don’t believe music can change anything” because “all you can do is put your point across”, but the Specials caught the fraught and dangerous atmosphere of the turn of the 1980s with an eerie intensity. Ghost Town in particular chillingly evoked the sense of social collapse and economic decline gripping a riot-torn Britain.

The Specials found themselves in the eye of the storm, with neo-Nazis frequently targeting their gigs. Hall and the band’s keyboards player, Jerry Dammers, were both arrested when they waded in to try to break up fighting between fans and security guards at a gig in Cambridge. They were found guilty of “incitement to riot” and fined £400 each.

However, when recording Ghost Town for an appearance on Top of the Pops, Hall and his bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding announced they were leaving the band, as the result of internal personality clashes. They went off to form Fun Boy Three.

Building on the ska legacy of their former band, Fun Boy Three hit the UK Top 10 with their eponymous debut album (1982), and scored a Top 5 hit single with the infectiously catchy It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do it), its chart-friendliness much enhanced by the addition of the female trio Bananarama. Hall had brought them on board after seeing them featured in the Face magazine.

The same combined team enjoyed a further Top 5 hit with Really Saying Something, which also reached the Top 20 of the American club chart. After a second album, Waiting, and Top 10 hits with The Tunnel of Love and Our Lips Are Sealed, Fun Boy Three split up following an American tour.

Hall was born in Coventry, where his father worked at the Rolls Royce aeronautics factory and his mother at a Chrysler car plant; he had two elder sisters. Though he showed academic potential, passing his 11-plus exam with ease, and was skilled enough at football to be invited for a trial at West Bromwich Albion, he was given little encouragement in either direction by his parents.

His childhood was scarred by his experience of horrific sexual abuse. When he was 12, he was abducted by one of his schoolteachers and delivered into the clutches of a paedophile ring in France. He wrote about the episode in the song Well Fancy That, a track he recorded with Fun Boy Three in 1983. It included the lyrics: “On school trips to France / Well fancy that / You had a good time / Turned sex into crime”. Hall commented that “the only way I could deal with the experience was to write about it, in a song. It was very difficult for me to write, but I wanted to communicate my feelings.”

The traumatic events resulted in Hall being put on valium at the age of 13, and the effects of these experiences would continue to haunt him. During the 1990s he used drinking as a crutch and slipped into alcoholism. In 2004 he tried to kill himself and he was subsequently diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which had to be controlled with anti-psychotic medication.

He left school at 14 and undertook a string of temporary jobs, including as a bricklayer and a trainee hairdresser, before joining the punk band Squad as lead singer. Hall described the band dismissively: “It was just like 1-2-3-4 then make a noise for two minutes, and then stop and say 1-2-3-4 again.” When Squad supported an early incarnation of the Specials, then known as the Automatics, Dammers was impressed and invited Hall to join them. Hall liked the Automatics’ songs enough to accept, though it would take some honing and refining before the distinctive Specials sound emerged.

Hall’s post-Fun Boy Three career found him hopping between a bewildering variety of projects. In 1984 he formed the Colourfield with Toby Lyons and Karl Shale, which produced the Top 20 album Virgins and Philistines (1985) and a string of singles, of which only Thinking of You made much impression on the charts. Hall also undertook songwriting collaborations with Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds, before forming Terry, Blair and Anouchka in 1989, alongside Anouchka Grove and the American actress Blair Booth.

The trio were united by their fondness for cheesy 60s pop, and they covered the Captain & Tennille’s hit Love Will Keep Us Together, but their solitary album Ultra Modern Nursery Rhymes failed to chart, and a couple of singles did little better. “A lot of the stuff I’ve done is pretty much a wind-up,” Hall admitted. “Terry, Blair and Anouchka was completely taking the piss out of us and everyone else.”

Another project was Vegas, a collaboration between Hall and the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart. Their solitary album fared poorly, though their version of Charles Aznavour’s She reached the Top 50. He undertook further collaborations with Tricky, Lily Allen, Shakespears Sister, Nouvelle Vague and Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz, and with Mushtaq (from Fun-Da-Mental).

He was also part of the Specials’ various reunions post 2008, one of only three original remaining members. The band’s comeback album Encore (2019) topped the UK chart. In 2021 they released Protest Songs 1924-2012, a collection of cover versions of famous sociopolitical songs down the decades, which reached No 2.

Hall is survived by his second wife, Lindy Heymann, and their son, Orson, and by two sons, Theo and Felix, from his previous marriage, to Jeannette, which ended in divorce.

 Terence Edward Hall, singer and songwriter, born 19 March 1959; died 18 December 2022.

Adam Sweeting

Terry Hall R.I.P.

 

It's another bad December, echoes of 2016 all round. Terry hall, one of this country's best front men has left the stage at just 63. Whilst this site was set up as a vehicle for my passion for The Stranglers, The Specials mean the world to me as well. A band with such spirit that picked racism up by the braces and showed it for what it was and sadly still is.... bullshit!

You will I hope forgive me if over the next week I indulge myself with a few Terry/Specials related posts.

R.I.P. Terry Hall, the world is a poorer one without you.

Vanian Inked.... again.

 

'We're just having some fun

Messing round with a gun

Don't get excited

I'm just killing some time

It's a fantasy crime

And I'm living it again.'

Dave Vanian of The Damned

A4 linoprint

Black ink on dreadnaught grey art card.

Jet Black Obituary The Guardian 12th December 2022

Founding member and drummer of the Stranglers who set up the group after a business career in home-brewing and ice-cream.

The Stranglers rose to prominence alongside the mid-1970s punk movement without ever being part of it, being a little older and more musically seasoned than bands such as Clash or the Sex Pistols.

Pivotal to the Stranglers’ development was their drummer and founder member, Jet Black, who has died aged 84 of respiratory problems. As well as being a musician who had grown up with jazz rather than rock’n’roll, Black was also a successful entrepreneur who had built his own home-brewing empire and enjoyed a lucrative career in the ice-cream trade. He later also managed to invent the patented Jet Black Power Bass Drum Pedal, allowing the drum to be played remotely.

In 1977 the Stranglers achieved immediate success with their debut album, Rattus Norvegicus, which reached No 4 on the UK album chart and delivered the Top 10 hit Peaches. Despite Peaches’ provocatively sneering, sexist lyrics, it became an enduring favourite, frequently used in TV shows, movies and video game soundtracks. Black’s jazz background had given him a level of expertise and flexibility that enabled the band to stretch out experimentally, as with their improvisatory revamp of the Dionne Warwick hit Walk On By or the prog-rock perambulations of Genetix.

Their most successful single, Golden Brown (1982), was conceived by Black and the keyboards player Dave Greenfield, and featured a quasi-baroque harpsichord part as well as a distinctively stuttering time signature. “It all took place in about 30 minutes, so it was very unusual,” said Black. The song reached No 2 on the UK chart, despite their then-record company EMI’s apathetic promotion of it. They belatedly sent the band a case of champagne after it zoomed up the charts.

Black played on all the Stranglers’ albums up to Giants (2012), and expressed a particular fondness for The Gospel According to the Meninblack (1981), the band’s enigmatic concept album about alien invasions, among other things. The recording sessions were fraught with problems and pitfalls. “It seemed that we’d touched something very occult with that album, and the day we finished it all the problems ended,” said Black. “We feel it’s stood the test of time and a lot of people think it’s our most interesting work.”

Black was born Brian Duffy in Ilford, Essex. His father, who had come to Britain from Ireland as a young man, was a headteacher who later became a private tutor, and his mother was a milliner. He recalled that “my mother was non-musical and my father, I think, actually hated music”, yet he found himself having piano lessons at the age of five. However, he displayed little aptitude for the instrument, and his musical progress lay dormant until he was sent to the Holy Cross Residential Open Air school in Broadstairs, aged 10. He suffered from asthma, and it was felt that the sea air of the Kent coast would be beneficial.

He described his time as a boarder at the school as the happiest time of his childhood, since it was an escape from the “domestic warfare” of his parents’ unhappy marriage. It was there that he also discovered an unsuspected gift for playing the violin – “within a short time I was the best in the school” – but when he left the lack of support at home deterred him from pursuing his violin studies.

Later, however, a visit to an Essex jazz club fired his interest in jazz drumming, and he formed a band with a group of fellow enthusiasts. As he pointed out, he grew up before rock’n’roll had been invented, and his idols were jazz players such as the drummer Buddy Rich. Unable to afford a drumkit, he initially had a go at playing the clarinet, but ended up behind the drums after stepping in to replace the band’s original lacklustre sticksman. Once he secured an apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker in London he was able to buy the drumkit.

The band performed regular gigs and cut a four-track EP under the name of the Omega Dance Orchestra. Black then branched out on his own as a semi-professional musician, playing regularly until his seven-year apprenticeship came to an end. Deciding against trying to become a full-time musician, he worked at a series of temporary jobs before getting involved in the ice-cream business. Initially he drove an ice-cream van, and was then offered a job as a depot manager in Guildford, Surrey, responsible, among other things, for organising ice-cream supplies to events such as the Farnborough airshow and Royal Ascot. He recalled how, in that period, he informally played drums at house parties thrown by Barbara Andrews, a veteran pianist and music-hall entertainer who was the mother of superstar Julie Andrews.

Black then then diversified further by pursuing an interest in brewing his own beer, and made a deal with a brewery to acquire a large building in Guildford with an off licence, The Jackpot, on the ground floor. He renovated the premises and installed his own brewing equipment, and was soon reaping rapidly escalating profits, developing a successful international wholesaling operation. However, his fixation on his businesses caused the collapse of his first marriage. After a bout of self-examination, he concluded that “I ought to be back in music! Music is where I belonged.”

After a period of experimenting and auditioning musicians, he met the guitarist and vocalist Hugh Cornwell, who had been in the Anglo-Swedish band Johnny Sox, and they were joined by bass player (and classically trained guitar player) Jean-Jacques Burnel as well as the keyboards player Hans Wärmling (also from Johnny Sox). In 1974 they named themselves the Guildford Stranglers – of various nicknames they took, Jet Black stuck – and played middle-of-the road pop, travelling to gigs in one of Black’s ice-cream vans. Wärmling was unhappy with the musical direction and quit the following year, to be replaced by Greenfield, establishing the classic Stranglers lineup.

Black stopped performing live with the Stranglers in 2015, having suffered various chest problems as well as an episode of atrial fibrillation (heart arrhythmia). He died at his home in Wales.

He is survived by his wife, Ava Rave, and their children, Charlotte and Anthony.

 Jet Black (Brian John Duffy), musician and businessman, born 26 August 1938; died 6 December 2022.

Adam Sweeting.

Jet Black 1938 - 2022

 

Early evening my Facebook newsfeed went into overdrive for all the wrong reasons. It was May 2020 all over again and once again, it was our daughter Mo who broke the news which a note on Messenger, 'Sad news about Jet!'. So the thing that we all knew would happen some day has happened. Knowledge of the ill-health that Jet has endured over many years now does not counter the shock of him finally going. These people that we have grown up with, admired and looked up to, musicians, actors, comedians, even politicians, that we always known to be there, are slipping away. In the case of someone like Jet Black, he was a part of my life, admittedly from afar, for more than 40 years, that is incredibly more than three quarters of my life... and I certainly wouldn't consider myself to be a spring chicken!!

Jet was the elder statesman in a band of elder statesmen who had become considerably older still by the time that Jet reluctantly passed on his sticks and his stool (that sounds wrong!) to a younger man. Sure,  he retained an omnipresence in the band even when he wasn't physically present. But he did more than simply guide the band and steady the Stranglers' longship on what were more often than not extremely turbulent and choppy waters. His interest in several esoteric topics, perhaps most notably the UFO story and even more niche, the phenomena within a phenomena of 'The Men In Black', gifted us some of the quirkiest, madcap, brooding and sinister music of the early 1980's. Porky meat sandwich anyone?

I always loved in issues of 'Strangled' that this band of four independent thinkers would address issues that in some way shaped the music of the band and in this respect Jet was always very articulate in presenting a given case. A point in case, although not within the pages of 'Strangled' was the BBC West piece that Hugh and Jet collaborated on about the significance of the colour black and its use as a tool of control and intimidation.... I have worn nothing but black since first seeing it... but I cannot carry off the intimidation part of it!

I am glad that Jet is no longer locked in a head to head battle with failing health, but of course feel greatly for Ava and his family for their loss. But I also think that it is fair to say that Jet, in exactly the same way as his band brother Dave, lived a full life and they lived it well. To be in a band is the dream of many. To be in a band that has success is something that is enjoyed by few. To be in a ground breaking band having one or more of their songs known and loved globally is wonderful. To have lived a life doing something you love across the globe for over 40 years is a rare, yet deserved, privelige.

So thank you Jet Black for the beat and the great memories.

Pete Shelley 6th December 2022 - 4 Years Gone.

 

So, another run up to Manchester to visit Mo and to fulfill her request for us to bring up some warmer clothes as for once the rain has abated and the weather seems to be perishingly cold, although this may be related to the unseasonably mild weather that has bathed the UK for the past few weeks.

Saturday morning is bright and cold, the best weather that a British winter can offer. After 30 minutes or so of wandering around Manchester Cathedral, we boarded a V1 bus that would take us out of Manchester, through its little sister of Salford to Leigh. The reason for this diversion from the metropolis? Why, Pete Shelley of course!

The town of Leigh is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is the birthplace of Peter McNeish, universally better known, to my generation at least, as Pete Shelley, the enigmatic singer and songwriter of Buzzcocks (but there's now need for me to you that is there!). Earlier this year I made a promise to myself that the next time we were on family business in Manchester we would make the pilgrimage to view the exceptionally good mural painted in his honour on the gable end of a property in the centre of town. A truly huge canvas! 

Of course I have seen many online photographs of the work from its early execution through to the unveiling in July 2022. However, a still image viewed on a computer screen is no substitute for a up close and personal encounter of the mural! This Malcolm Garrett design was realised by acclaimed Manchester artist, Akse P19. However in contrast with other Akse works (Ian Curtis and Marcus Rashford) that are in black and white, the first thing that impresses upon the viewer of the Shelley mural is the vibrancy of the colours involved. The red and blue intensity of the Garrett heart motif leaps out from the brickwork, whilst the sky blue background illuminates the work whilst providing a stark contrast to the monochrome portrait of a young Pete staring intensely into the lens of photographer, Chris Gabrin's, camera.

I am so glad that the Andrews family, minus one, made the journey to say hello to Pete. I felt quite emotional standing before it I must say. I just hope that it is respected and that money is available to ensure that it is maintained such that its impact is not lost for future visitors. The fact that Pete's family have been involved in the project from the beginning gives me hope that this will indeed be the case. After all, the Manchester climate is no respecter of art exposed to its elements!