On 4 May 1979, the country watched as a luxury Rolls Royce pulled into Downing Street in central London carrying the newly elected Prime Minister to No 10. When Margaret Thatcher got out of the car to address the assembled media and nation, she reassured them with a now famous St Francis of Assisi quote.
“Where there is discord, may we bring harmony”, she said. “Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.”
Thatcher came to power after a series of pay disputes between Jim Callaghan’s Labour government and the trade unions, leading to the infamous winter of discontent where public sector strikes led to rubbish remaining uncollected – famously building up above head height in London’s Leicester Square – and the dead remaining unburied.
A vote of no confidence was raised against Callaghan and his government which precipitated a general election and gave Thatcher a way in. Her victory was a seen by many as a step in the right direction in controlling the unions at a time when it was felt they were badly out of control, however many more feared for what was to come.
At the same time Thatcher’s ambitions were coming to fruition so were the somewhat more modest ambitions of Jerry Dammers. The son of the Dean of Bristol Cathedral, Dammers was middle-class, socialist and a huge music fan who had harboured ambitions of putting a band together for some time.
He had recruited Terry Hall (vocals), Lynval Golding (guitar), Horrace Panter (bass), Neville Staple (percussion) and Roddy Radiation (guitar) for his group The Specials (initially known as The Special AKA) mainly from covers bands doing the rounds in his native Coventry at time.
Dammers’ vison for The Specials was that they would be a socially and racially inclusive band which would fuse ska, punk, rock and reggae to create a new and vibrant sound which was unique to them. Inspired by The Clash, he wanted to take the do it yourself ethos of punk and apply it to a new sound.
“Punk was a bit of a musical dead to me”, he said. “I went to punk gigs but enjoyed the reggae they played between sets more. I thought the Sex Pistols played boring power rock, though I related to the punk lyrics and anarchic attitude. People felt able to write their own songs about their own lives”.
In the summer of 1978 The Specials had supported The Clash on their ‘On Parole Tour’ and quickly cemented a reputation of being a brilliant live act in the process. It also introduced the band to Bernie Rhodes, The Clash’s manager, who also set about running the affairs of Dammers and the rest of The Specials.
Dammers saw Ska as The Specials unique selling point. Ska had arrived in the UK in the 60s thanks to the huge amount of Jamaican immigrants in the country who first arrived in Britain as part of the Windrush generation in the 40s.
The UK government had encouraged immigration from countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth immediately after the second world war to help the country deal with labour shortages due to the heavy losses sustained during the conflict. Many from Jamaica took the opportunity to come to the UK for a better life and opportunities – bringing their culture and music with them.
In the early 1950s Jamaican DJ Duke Vin set up a his own sound system in Ladbroke Grove – arguably becoming the first mobile DJ in the UK in doing so. Not long after he encountered a rival in Count Suckle. Both were in huge demand, being hired by West Indians up and down the country to play the clubs and pubs. The music of choice for Vin and Suckle were mostly tunes from US R&B artists like Fats Domino, Shirley and Lee, Louis Prima and Smiley Lewis which were imported to the UK from Jamaica.
In May 1964, the Jamaican teenager Millie Small reached number 2 in the charts with her version of ‘My Boy Lollypop’. This gave many in the country their first taste of Jamaican Ska music, however many club’s in west and south London had already set up hugely successful Ska nights. These nights didn’t just prove popular with those who had made their way over from the Caribbean, but also with British Mods who took to enthusiastically collecting Prince Buster singles on the Blue Beat label, as well as taking tailoring tips from their new found Caribbean friends. This love of Ska in the UK was continued by the suedeheads and skinheads. Dammers’ vision for The Specials was that, in his words, they “continued the line”.
With a solid reputation as a live act established, Dammers’ next move was to release a single. Rather than wait on one of the current major or independent record labels, Dammers followed a route first tried by Buzzcocks with their ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP. Unable to secure a record deal, Buzzcocks founded the New Hormones label themselves to get their record on the shelves. Following this blueprint, Dammers formed the 2-Tone label to get ‘Gangsters’, the first single by The Specials, released and in the shops.
‘Gangsters’ is a reworking of Prince Buster’s 1964 record ‘Al Capone’, and is allegedly about an incident on a French tour when The Specials were held responsible for damage to a hotel which another band had caused. The song was a huge success and broke into the top 10 in August 1979. This gave Dammers and 2-Tone the foundation they needed. As well as 2-Tone giving The Specials the opportunity to record and release material, it would also be the label which introduced the country to Madness, The Beat, The Selecter and Bad Manners.
Madness would only have one release on 2-Tone before signing for Stiff Records, but not before being involved in the infamous 2-Tone Tour – a 40 night run which stretched through of autumn of 1979 which showcased The Specials, Madness and The Selecter.
Prior to that, in June, The Specials had entered TW Studios in Fulham to record their self-titled debut album. The process would last about month and was produced by Elvis Costello. The feeling was that all Costello needed to do was capture the sound and energy the band produced in a live environment onto vinyl.
The body of work that Dammers had compiled for the album was politically loaded and heavily promoted social and racial equality. This was reflected in songs like ‘It’s Up to You’, ‘Concrete Jungle’ and ‘Doesn’t Make it Alright’ which centred around race and racism, whilst tracks like ‘Too Much Too Young’, ‘A Message to You Rudy’ and ‘Blank Expression’ focussed on issues facing the working class youth at that time.
On its release on 19 October it was initially felt that Costello had failed in his remit of capturing the energy of The Specials live performances, with Melody Maker complaining of ‘missed potential’ in the final product. The songs felt slower in tempo and thinner in sound than their live compatriots, with the best example of this being ‘Too Much Too Young’. The released single version was a live version taken from a London show from the autumn 2-Tone Tour. It is punchy, danceable and ferociously upbeat compared to the slower, pedestrian and thinner album version.
But despite the perceived issues in the production many were pleased with the results, with NME stating: “Although the predominant musical influence is black (ska, bluebeat, reggae and soul), it’s wrapped in ferocious rock’n’roll: the kind of hybrid that so many other British bands have tried to contrive but, in comparison, failed to make convincing … This album embraces two decades of black and white music, gives it perspective and then goes on to reflect the modern rock’n’roll culture … It’s the kind of album that’s musically fathomless and it will probably establish The Specials as true hopes for the ’80s.”
The album should have been the starting point for The Specials as it had established them, and 2-Tone, as the pioneers and leaders of a philosophy and movement. As the 70s became the 80s there was never a stronger need for a band who promoted social and racial equality like The Specials, but the relentless schedule strained relations and the cracks were beginning to show by the time the band released their second album ‘More Specials’ in October 1980.
By 1981 the policies Thatcher and the Tories had set about implementing two years previously were starting to take effect. More than 2.5 million were unemployed, with 6,000 joining the dole queue on a daily basis, and race relations in the country had reached a low point culminating in riots in Brixton and Toxteth.
It was proving to be a difficult year for The Specials, too, with the band teetering on the brink of splitting up and in-house relations hitting rock bottom – with Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple in particular starting to feel they needed out. All three were already hatching plans to move on, and would go on to form Fun Boy Three, but not before contributing to The Specials greatest moment – ‘Ghost Town’.
‘Ghost Town’ is a remarkable record which skilfully and cleverly manages to capture the mood of bleakness that Thatcher’s industrial declined Britain had created in 1981. Dammers cites scenes witnessed whilst on the road touring More Specials as the inspiration for the song.
“You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible”, he said. “In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down … We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong.”
‘Ghost Town’ was released on 12 June 1981, and it acted almost as a social commentary as it rose to the top of the charts during a summer which witnessed some of the worst inner city rioting the UK had witnessed in years.
“When I think about Ghost Town I think about Coventry”, said drummer John Bradbury, who sadly passed away in 2015. “I saw it develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life. Your economy is destroyed and, to me, that’s what Ghost Town is about.”
‘Ghost Town’ would prove to be The Specials final act, and they self-imploded not long after. They reformed in 2009, minus Dammers, and have continued to tour since. Staple left in 2012, with Byers (aka Roddy Radiation) following suit and bowing out not long after. The death Bradbury in 2015 meant that on the latest tour earlier this year only Hall, Golding and Panter 
remained from the original line up.
Forty years on there is still much to love about The Specials and 2-Tone. The Specials created a sound that was unique to them, they wrote about political and racial issues which helped educate a generation and more. 2-Tone, meanwhile, gave a platform to bands like Madness, The Beat, The Selecter and more, it created a philosophy and movement that championed social and racial equality, and it even had its own dress code of pork-pie hats, Ben Sherman & Fred Perry shirts, Harrington jackets and Doc Martin boots.
But perhaps the most lasting legacy of The Specials is that their music is still relevant and still resonates today. It is hard to listen to a song like ‘Ghost Town’ and not apply it to modern day Britain, and if you listen to any given song from The Specials’ debut album then there is a good chance you will find yourself asking if things related to equality, race and class have improved any over the last 40 years.
If you’re like me you will probably come to the conclusion that they haven’t. But when you listen to The Specials you are also reminded that there are people out there fighting the good fight.
The Lower Third 