Shropshire Star

Terry Hall of The Specials talks ahead of Birmingham gig

You can probably count on one hand the number of times Terry Hall has spoken to the media in the past ten years. His only interview this year was with – wait, we’re going to blush – us. And though it took a couple of years to get, the frontman with The Specials was more than worth the wait.

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Terry Hall of The Specials talks ahead of Birmingham gig

Terry will lead his band, The Specials, at the Genting Arena tonight, with support from Toots And The Maytals.

Their recently-revised line-up, featuring Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller guitarist Steve Craddock and Libertines drummer Gary Powell will feature.

Gary joined following the tragic loss of founder member John (Brad) Bradbury who died at the end of 2015.

He says: “It is with deepest gratitude that I state what an honour it is to be asked to perform for The Specials. Brad was a unique performer and his style and ability was definitely one of the defining factors that helped to create The Specials sound, and it is with great humility that I will be doing these tours and carrying on his legacy.

“The Specials are one of the UK’s most important bands so I am also very excited at the prospect of performing such a great catalogue of music with some of the most important characters in English music folklore.

“Again I cannot thank The Specials enough for believing in me to take on such a heady task.”

Terry says Steve and Gary have given the band new impetus.

“Gary’s done a really lovely job. He’s a lovely bloke and easy to get on with.

“The new members keep it fresh. They bring something to it. Steve Cradock has brought a totally different thing to it. He’s got free reign to do what he wants. There’s a total mutual respect. We’re not here to tell him, what to do. It’s nice to have people involved who we can trust and not say ‘here’s the chord sheet’.”

He’s pleased to be playing his own back yard, having articulated the frustrations of West Midlanders throughout his career. The Specials formed in Coventry in 1977, combining ska and rocksteady with a dose of punk attitude.

The initial line-up featured songwriter/keyboardist Dammers, vocalist Tim Strickland, guitarist/vocalist Lynval Golding, drummer Silverton Hutchinson and bassist Horace Panter (a.k.a. Sir Horace Gentleman). Strickland was replaced by Terry Hall shortly after the band’s formation.

They played on Rock Against Racism bills and later wrote about the way Thatcher’s Britain had decimated the West Midlands.

Terry says: “I’m looking forward to it because it’s near where I grew up and Birmingham and Coventry are areas I know really well. I spent a lot of my youth in Birmingham and it’s always been difficult finding the right venue, in Coventry. So when this NEC thing was added we were pleased. It’s an outdoor thing, so it should be good fun. I’m not sure where at the NEC we play. It’s outdoors. I don’t know where. The car park?”

Music was an enormous part of his life during those early years in Coventry. Music was played day and night. My two elder sisters made sure I grew up on Motown and reggae and glam rock.

“My father worshipped Edith Piaf and my mother loved big band music. There was never a shortage of music in the house. I adored the whole Bowie/Roxy Music scene, but had no idea how bands worked until I saw The Clash and the Sex Pistols – ping.

“I grew up in an environment where you didn’t really know where you were from. Coventry was built on immigrants. It was an industrial city looking for cheap labour. I don’t think it’s an accident that a group like The Specials came out of that.”

The Specials were imperious from 1979. Their debut single Gangsters, a reworking of Prince Buster’s Al Capone, was a top ten hit. A year later, the EP Too Much Too Young went to number one. The following year, Ghost Town, a non-album single, was another number one. They chronicled the times better than any other band.

Terry adds: “It was pretty amazing. I was a 19-year-old unemployed city kid and then the singer in a band travelling the world. It sort of whizzed by but I still hold great memories. Even the bad times were good.”

And yet it might all have been so different. Had Hall not made it as a singer, he might have pursued another love – football. “I let go of professional football at 13. I had successful trials at Wolves and West Brom but then discovered girls and cider . . .”

He thinks it’s inevitable that the band fell apart after so much success in their early years. They, quite literally, embodied Too Much Too Young.

“We didn’t have a plan when it ended. We’d all started to drift apart and it just stopped itself, really. It fizzled out after Ghost Town. That was such a huge thing for us and where could we go from there? The internal wrangling was too great.”

While other bands – from Paul Weller to Johnny Marr, or James to U2 – continue to make new music, he’s content to play songs that fans love.

“We never know whether we’ll do new music. People love our set. If you go and see a band you do want to hear the songs you know. I’ve seen bands who’ve reformed and played stuff that nobody wants to listen to. So you have to be realistic. The defining moment for me was seeing The Pixies performing Doolittle, that’s what I wanted and I never got to see it the first time. Another time, I saw Patti Smith performing Horses. It’s a generational thing, whether we’re in the UK or America and Japan.

“It’s not just this generation. The kids get into it, or not, it’s up to them. I’ve been really happy being part of The Specials again.”