It was with great anticipation that I waited the weeks it took from ordering to this being dropped on the doorstep. 'The Specials Live From The Cathedral', definitively the last album from The Specials, one of the greatest bands to have come out of the UK, is what I am talking about here. With this album the band come full circle from the city's pubs and clubs of the late 1970's to the majestic ruins of Coventry Cathedral in 2019. And this is the bit that really hurts, Gunta and I missed it. She is a Cov girl (with German and Latvian thrown in too!) and our son is christened Rudi ('It's an international name' we told our parents... of course our friends all knew where we were coming from!). I would have given my right arm to be amid the ragged masonry for one of these dates.
The paradox of The Specials is that as the standard bearers of the 2 Tone label and all of the founding principles behind it, they were at times one of the most volatile bands that ever shared a stage! This was seemingly totally at odds with their consistent message of tolerance and unity! If the tensions that led to the demise of the original band in 1981, they were never far from the surface even after they came back together in 2008, after a 27 year absence from our lives. In many ways they just started up again from where they left off! But, this of course is what made The Specials well... special. Songs like 'Concrete Jungle', 'Too Much Too Young' and 'Why?' absorbed that tension and converted it into creative brilliance.
In 2019 The Specials enjoyed their first Number 1 album (whatever that means in this day and age!!) and it is fitting that these cathedral gigs gave the material from that album, 'Encore' a good airing, offering a brilliant counterpoint to the angry punk/Blue Beat mix of the first album. As an aside, to the detractors of 'Encore' who bemoaned the fact that the album was no 'Specials', Terry Hall responded with 'Did they not listen to 'More Specials'?'
On this final recording, Coventry boys Terry and Lynval take the lead on the mike between songs. It is clear that they are revelling on the warm welcome that the band received during these shows. 'This is the first time I've ever dedicated a song to a chip shop.... this is for the Parson's Nose' says Terry before launching into his musical autobiography of his youth in the city, 'Friday Night, Saturday Morning'.
Listening to this, yes I am angry with myself for the fact that we weren't there but I am equally thankful that we had the opportunity to see then a dozen times or so between 2009 and 2021. If the music changed with time the message remained the same, unbendingly so.
Every time I have been to that city and passed the 'Welcome to Coventry' signs I wonder just how much longer it will take before Walt Jabsco will appear on the sign to add his own skankin' welcome!
It still amuses me to think that in the early '80s I was sitting in classrooms in a funny little school in Lewes High Street, two doors up from the Con Club, decorating the back pages of my exercise books with band logos. At that time, nothing ever happened in Lewes, the sleepy county town of East Sussex. In 1264, rebel baron, Simon de Montfort clipped Henry III's kingly wings and forced constitutional reform, oh and each 5th November Lewes hosts a famous Bonfire Society parade through the town. Other than that nothing ever happened. However, a few short years ago, the Con Club in the High Street started putting on the very same bands that we were all talking about in class 45 years ago!
Here we have one such band, Chelsea in a recording courtesy of the Acid Drops blog site (see 'Other Blog Sites of Distinction' section in the right hand panel of the site.
Chelsea are currently doing the rounds marking the 50th anniversary of the band and punk rock - Chelsea were there are the beginning. However, it is a Gene October-less band on the road right now as the singer recuperates from major surgery.
Here is a great quality recording of The Specials in Berlin promoting the 'Encore' album. There was an occasion when I saw them play at The Troxy in 2014. It was a gig I came away from absolutely crestfallen. I said at the time that it was like watching a band that had had the heart ripped out of it (of course there are some who say that with Jerry Dammers absent The Specials reformed had no heart to start with ... I was not one of those). However, the Troxy gig was a low for me after the thrilling five years of gigs that preceded it. At that time, Neville had gone and so had Roddy and it was clear where the band were trying to fill in the substantial gaps left in their wake.
After lockdown or during one of the brief windows of lockdown respite, I can't remember which, The Specials returned, playing the Roundhouse in September 2021. I was apprehensive with memories of the night at the Troxy still in my head. If anything, there was the potential for things to be even worse (in the interim we had lost Brad)... but it didn't turn out that way at all. Since 2019, the band had released a second album of new material, 'Protest Songs'. Thus with two albums worth of new material, the gig was out of this world. Despite the fact that the six originals of 2009 were now down to three, the inclusion of new material propelled the band into a new era of lyrical defiance of many of the world's injustices. Sadly this new era was short lived as Terry Hall succumbed to cancer little over a year later in December 2022.
I am so glad that the Specials and I parted on such a high since, regardless of my love of The Stranglers, The Specials remain as the most important band to have emerged through the '70s and early '80s.
Thanks to the original uploader on 'Live Bootlegs'.
MP3: https://we.tl/t-xEyYqJd0oN
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-0xk3Jb7VSo
Many thanks to Yesican for this upload to Dime some years ago. A welcome return to one of my favourite venues in the UK. Set interesting for the inclusion of 'Ice Queen' (one of my favourite tracks from 'Aural Sculpture') and Hey! Rise of the Robots. Will 'Pay Day' appear in a set again?
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-N73euWiNpb
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-b1mFs8KStl
So then, on to 2026 and another year of gigs. First of the year tonight and would you believe it... it's 999! This is a big year for the band as 2026 is the band's 50th anniversary. It has been said many times in the past, but who ever could have even entertained the notion that the horrible genre of punk rock could have lasted half a century!
It was 2019 and another foray into Northern Europe on a Wonky Bus, number 7 no less. Three gigs in France on this occasion. The footage shows a number of the party in the customary 'tour' shirt..... in BLUE!! Well, as I recall, the official rationale for this fashion departure was that 2019 marked the 40 anniversary of the release of the very pro-European 'Euroman Cometh' album from the gallic one. Unofficially, 2019 saw the UK in a ferment of protest and counter-protest as the Government tried to push through Brexit, so the shirt featuring the Council of Europe's flag featuring the 12 gold stars, the symbol of the European Union, was for some on the trip something of a two fingered salute to the jingoism that gripped many at the time back home.
Anyway, back to the video clip above, found upon setting up a new work phone and transferring data from the old. The venue was heaving, so much so that it was nigh on impossible to get into the auditorium in what is a pretty small venue, so for want of a better plan we took over the bar/merch area and made it our own.... I think drink had been taken!
MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/t-KHaGz9PHO5
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-x1y7VU9fRT
As part of this disastrous renovation that we have embarked upon I have been trying to consolidate my bootleg recordings as I am a bit disorganised in that respect. In doing so I stumbled across this gem which I had forgotten that I even had. Apologies to the kind soul that sent it to me as I can't remember the source.
It's a great little recording of a short set that was culmination of for me and Gunta a highly emotionally charged night. There were the highs, a chance to see The Rich Kids for the first and probably only time, and clearly The Stranglers playing after receiving the best band of 2019 award and the lows... we lost Pete Shelley the previous December (Pauline Murray paid great tribute to him) and just a week or so previously The Beat's Ranking Roger succumbed to cancer. Regular visitors to this site will be aware that I hold 2 Tone very dear and The Beat were a very important band for me.
WAV: https://we.tl/t-WWBIMzD0Le
Sleeve: https://we.tl/t-Y12aj3LdP4
01. Intro and Award Presentation
