The Specials

The Specials spearheaded the 2-Tone movement which ska-ed up Britain in the late 70s and early 80s. Gerald Dankin, aka Jerry Dammers (keyboards), Lynval Golding (guitar) and 'Sir' Horace 'Gentleman' Panter (bass) formed a punk/reggae fusion band, the Coventry Automatics, in the summer of 1977. After incorporating ska into their sound, they changed their name to the Coventry Specials, and then to the Special AKA. By now, the line-up had expanded, with Roddy 'Radiation' Byers (guitar), former roadie Neville Staples (percussion/vocals), Silverton (drums; later replaced by John Bradbury) and Terry Hall (vocals).

Dammers was the man with ideas in the early years. He set up the band's own label in 1979 to record a debut single, "Gangsters" (the £700 loan could only stretch to one song, so the B-side was given over to soon-to-be label mates The Selecter), and designed the 2-Tone logo - a reference to the band's multiracial line-up.

London-based indie pioneers Rough Trade pressed and distributed "Gangsters" and it made enough of an impression for several major labels to approach the band. They settled for Chrysalis, who took 2-Tone on as a subsidiary - their roster including The Selecter, The (English) Beat, the Bodysnatchers, and, briefly, Madness. The re-released "Gangsters" (1979), now credited to The Specials, climbed to #6 in Britain. The follow-up, "A Message To You, Rudy" (1979), was another Top 10 hit, while their Elvis Costello-produced debut album, The Specials, got to #4. Jamaican-born trombonist Rico Rodrigues now became a permanent fixture in the band.

In February 1980, a live EP credited to the Special AKA gave them their first #1, with "Too Much Too Young" being the radio DJs' favourite track. More hit records followed: "Rat Race" (1980) and "Stereotypes" (1980) continued a run of Top 10 hits, and More Specials (1980) got to #5. Having single-handedly started a ska revival the previous year, More Specials saw the band venture into new territory - 'lounge music'.

The band and their label were the subject of Dance Craze, a film made in 1981, the year that brought the beginning of the end for The Specials, and ultimately for 2-Tone. Amidst the riots that flared in Brixton and Toxteth during the spring and summer, the lyrics of "Ghost Town" (1981) sounded eerily prophetic. It was their second #1, but their last hit together.

Hall, Golding and Staples left to form the Fun Boy Three. Byers formed Roddy Radiation & The Tearjerkers, while Panter left and later joined General Public before returning and quitting again. Dammers reverted to the old Special AKA name, and drafted in new members Gary McManus (bass), John Shipley (guitar), Egidio Newton (vocals), Stan Campbell (vocals) and Rhoda Dakar (vocals).

The Special AKA made a welcome return to the Top 10 with "Free Nelson Mandela" in April 1984, followed by the album In The Studio. The single marked an increase in the political side of Dammers' work, both on and off stage. In the years that followed, he took part in recording "Starvation" (one of several reggae equivalents of the Band Aid single), and in 1986 formed Artists Against Apartheid. Two years later, Wembley Stadium was the venue for one of the century's biggest birthday parties - the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, which Dammers helped organize, and for which "Free Nelson Mandela" was adapted as the theme song. The party returned to Wembley in 1990, this time with the freed Mandela as guest of honour.

Golding re-formed The Specials in 1995, in order to finance the home studio he had been building. Both Dammers and Hall declined to join, but Staples, Panter (who had become a teacher) and Byers accepted, and were joined by Aitch Hyatt (drums), Mark Adams (keytboards), Adam Birch (trumpet) and a brass section known simply as 'Four Bald Guys'. They signed to the Virgin-licensed Kuff label, owned by UB40's Ali Campbell, and in 1996 released "Today's Specials", a pleasing if not exactly earth-shattering covers album, taking in ska and reggae classics as well as songs by The Clash, The Monkees ("Little bit me") and Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town". 1998's Guilty Til Proved Innocent (MCA) was an album tailored to cash in on the late-90s US Ska boom with new material shown up as spineless and watery even when compared to the lacklustre versions of Concrete Jungle, Ratrace and Gangsters presented alongside.

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The Specials Singles (1991; Chrysalis). The definitive hit collection. Features the moody 'Ghost Town' and all those bounce-along ska tunes that never seem to age.

George Luke

Taken from the Rough Guide to Rock. © Rough Guides Ltd. First edition published Aug 96 / Nov 96 (USA). Distributed by Penguin.
 

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