The Specials

Wolverhampton Civic Hall

review by Andy Richardson, photographs by Richard Franklin

Reunions have become big business during the past decade. As increasing numbers of music fans seek to recapture their youth, bands of yesteryear are more returning to the stage with aplomb.

Reunion tours can broadly be divided into three categories.

There are those bands whose return is little more than a curiosity: think snarling middle-aged punks The Sex Pistols as your example.

There are those bands who should have accepted the game was up and sought gainful employment at their local branch of HMV: think Britpop underachievers Shed Seven.

And then there are those whose return is greeted rapturously with all of the excitement and passion that they brought to the fore the first time round: think The Specials.

The Specials returned earlier this year and, having been welcomed back so warmly, they decided to take to the road again. Over two nights, they wowed fans at Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall with their unique and influential blend of pop, Ska and reggae.

Terry Hall’s much-loved, multi-racial combo captured the zeitgeist of early eighties Britain, when city’s burned in race riots, workers protested against rising unemployment and social deprivation was the norm.

It’s telling that they’ve chosen to wait so long to return. For many of the social and political schisms that existed then have returned to the fore: Thatcher may have gone but unemployment is rising, workers are striking, the BNP is electable and inner cities are as desolate as ever.

The Specials charted such travails – as well as other contemporary mores – in such songs as Gangastas, Stereotype, Hey Little Rich Girl, Stupid Marriage, Rat Race and, of course, Ghost Town.

Their West Midlands roots gave the two shows an added poignancy, in many ways, they were preaching to the converted. Time has not dulled their musical prowess and it’s to be hoped we’ve not seen the last of them.