The Specials one of the most seminal, electrifying, influential and important bands of all time,have just released their first album of new music in 20 years. Entitled Encore, the February 1st, 2019 release also marks the return of original lead vocalist Terry Hall, who entered the studio with the band for the first time since 1981’s classic “Ghost Town”. Founding members Lynval Golding and Horace Panter are also back, with drummer Kenrick Rowe and Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Cradock rounding out the lineup.
Hall, Golding, and Panter produced the 10-track effort alongside touring keyboardist Nikolaj Torp Larsen. While eight of the songs are originals, two are covers: an opening rendition of The Equals’ “Black Skinned Blue-Eyed Boys” and a take on The Valentines’ “Blam Blam Fever” addressing gun violence.
The Specials’ comeback album arrives in a Britain riven by political crisis, racial tension and the rise of the far-right. The situation resembles the turbulent times of the Coventry band’s prime years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, back when they were one of the few multi-racial groups on the circuit, promoters of a powerful anti-racist message.
The Specials, who were true innovators in their field, began the British ska revival, combining the highly danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk’s energy and attitude, whilst taking on a more focused and informed political and social stance than their predecessors and peers.
Originally formed in Coventry in 1977 as the Coventry Automatics by Jerry Dammers (songwriter and keyboardist),
Terry Hall (vocals), Lynval Golding (guitar and vocals), Neville Staples
(vocals and percussion), Roddy Radiation (guitar), Sir Horace Gentleman
(bass), and John Bradbury (drums). Initially an opening slot for the
Clash stirred up interest with the major labels, but Dammers opted to
start his own 2-Tone label, named for its multiracial agenda and after
the two-tone tonic suits favoured by the like-minded mods of the 1960s.
The Dammers-designed logos, based in pop art with black and white
checks, gave the label an instantly identifiable look. Dammers’ eye for
detail and authenticity also led to the band adopting period rude-boy
outfits (porkpie hats, tonic and mohair suits, and loafers).
The Specials debuted with the ‘Gangsters’ single, which reached the UK Top 10 in 1979. Soon after, hordes of bands and fans followed in the same tradition and the movement reached full swing. Over the next several months, 2-Tone enjoyed hits by similar-sounding bands such as Madness, the (English) Beat, and the Selecter. Late in 1979, the band released its landmark debut album, The Specials, produced by Elvis Costello. They followed with several 2-Tone package tours and a live EP, ‘Too Much Too Young’. The title track, a pro-contraception song, was banned by the BBC but reached the No.1 spot in the UK. 1980 saw two further Top 10 hits with ‘Rat Race’& ‘Stereotype’.
The Specials released their follow up album, More Specials, with a new neo-lounge persona, bookended by nostalgia nugget, ‘Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)’. The group’s defining moment came during the long hot summer of 1981, courtesy of the eerily evocative ‘Ghost Town’, issued amid race-related unemployment riots in Brixton and Liverpool. The song spent a total of ten weeks in the UK Top 40 and three at No.1. By the end of the year the song had won over critics to be named “Single of the Year” in Melody Maker, NME and Sounds.
Following the release of 1979’s The Specials and 1980’s More Specials, and the recording of “Ghost Town,” Hall left the band ,which continued for one more album, In the Studio, under the Special AKA moniker. Between 1996 and 2001, reunited versions of the group, sans Hall released three covers albums (Today’s Specials, Skinhead Girl and Conquering Ruler), plus 1998’s Guilty ’til Proved Innocent!, which featured new songs by original and new members of the band.
Sadly the new release will arrive without founding member Jerry Dammers, but after their original bust up, which was so bitter, it was clear that he would never play with them again, steadfastly refusing to participate in any Specials reunions. After the original Specials split up, he carried on as the Special AKA, and dedicated himself to running the British arm of Artists against Apartheid, writing the iconic song Free Nelson Mandela. He has.steadfastly refused to participate in any Specials reunions but has continued releasing remarkable music with his wildy adventurous project the Spatial AKA Orchestra.Neither does it it feature Roddy Radiation and Neville Staple, who both left the reunited group in recent years to carry on releasing their own engaging music. Drummer John Bradbury died in 2015.
However “Vote For Me”, the first new Specials single released earlier this year fortunately addresses the same social
and political issues which were prevalent when the band formed in the
late ‘70s, in which Hall bemoans the state of the political class.The Specials debuted with the ‘Gangsters’ single, which reached the UK Top 10 in 1979. Soon after, hordes of bands and fans followed in the same tradition and the movement reached full swing. Over the next several months, 2-Tone enjoyed hits by similar-sounding bands such as Madness, the (English) Beat, and the Selecter. Late in 1979, the band released its landmark debut album, The Specials, produced by Elvis Costello. They followed with several 2-Tone package tours and a live EP, ‘Too Much Too Young’. The title track, a pro-contraception song, was banned by the BBC but reached the No.1 spot in the UK. 1980 saw two further Top 10 hits with ‘Rat Race’& ‘Stereotype’.
The Specials released their follow up album, More Specials, with a new neo-lounge persona, bookended by nostalgia nugget, ‘Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)’. The group’s defining moment came during the long hot summer of 1981, courtesy of the eerily evocative ‘Ghost Town’, issued amid race-related unemployment riots in Brixton and Liverpool. The song spent a total of ten weeks in the UK Top 40 and three at No.1. By the end of the year the song had won over critics to be named “Single of the Year” in Melody Maker, NME and Sounds.
Following the release of 1979’s The Specials and 1980’s More Specials, and the recording of “Ghost Town,” Hall left the band ,which continued for one more album, In the Studio, under the Special AKA moniker. Between 1996 and 2001, reunited versions of the group, sans Hall released three covers albums (Today’s Specials, Skinhead Girl and Conquering Ruler), plus 1998’s Guilty ’til Proved Innocent!, which featured new songs by original and new members of the band.
Sadly the new release will arrive without founding member Jerry Dammers, but after their original bust up, which was so bitter, it was clear that he would never play with them again, steadfastly refusing to participate in any Specials reunions. After the original Specials split up, he carried on as the Special AKA, and dedicated himself to running the British arm of Artists against Apartheid, writing the iconic song Free Nelson Mandela. He has.steadfastly refused to participate in any Specials reunions but has continued releasing remarkable music with his wildy adventurous project the Spatial AKA Orchestra.Neither does it it feature Roddy Radiation and Neville Staple, who both left the reunited group in recent years to carry on releasing their own engaging music. Drummer John Bradbury died in 2015.
Specials biographer Paul "Willo" Williams posted an exclusive, glowing preview of Encore, which he states picks up "where More Specials left off" (so there will be bits of rock, pop, and soul with your 2 Tone); and if "'Ghost Town' was the anthem of 1981, then Encore is the snapshot of the world today,-and on a global scale."
'B.L.M.' ( an acronym for Black Lives Matter) finds Lynval Golding telling the story of his own father arriving in the UK on the Windrush to help rebuild a war-torn Britain, and his own experience of racism in the UK and America.
Track 3 Vote For Me bemoans politicians 'drunk on money and power' with an atmospheric arrangement that draws comprisons to Ghost Town.
Terry Hall is open and confessional on the topic of mental health and his own life time battle with bi-polar disorder on the gently spoken ' The life And Times (Of A Man Called Depression) Showing such bravery in addressing this issue.
Saffiyah Khan, the anti-racist activist pictured in a celebrated news photograph confronting an English Defence League demonstrator in 2017, delivers a spoken-word feminist reworking of Prince Buster’s misogynist reggae song “Ten Commandments of Man”.
Embarrrassed By You is as ska reggae eant with Goding and Hall, covering kife crime, hoodies, moped gangs and misguided youth spilling on our streets.
“The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum” adds an enjoyable Latin flavour to a song by Specials spin-off group Fun Boy Three, it's message ever so relevant to the world that we are living in right now., as they were back in the day.
Breaking Point has a dark feel, combined with swirling keyboards. Lines like ' Social Media is a trend that'll send us all around the bend' gives you the theme of Hall's lyrics, in a world gone wrong.
The record ends with the glorious optimistic We Sell Hope for me a highight, a truly memerising haunting track, that is certainly made for these times, truly uplifting ' Looked all around the world, could be a beautiful place.' ' do what you need to do without making the world suffer,'
Needless to say, expectations had been running high for this release (fans have been clamoring for new material ever since the first few reunion tours, which started back in 2008!). Even without the genius of Dammers on board, one wonders what the record would have sounded like with his involvement, and minus a few other members, some people are questioning its authenticity, but I personally am glad it's out there and welcome the defiant angry message and glorius music contained within.The Specials will take to the road in the UK and abroad throughout 2019 in support of the new album.The CD edition of Encore also includes a live album called The Best of The Specials Live.
Encore is released by UMC https://store.universalmusic.com/thespecials/
Vote For Me
If we vote for you, do you promise
To be upright, decent and honest
To have our best interest at heart
You understand why we don't believe you
You're way too easy to see through
Not the best places to start
There are no rocks at Rockaway beach
And all that glitters isn't gold
You're all so drunk on money and power
Inside your Ivory tower
Teaching us not to be smart
Making laws that serve to protect you
But we will never forget that
You tore our families apart
There are no rocks at Rockaway beach
And all that glitters isn't gold
And all that glitters isn't gold
So if we vote for you, do you promise
To be upright, decent and honest
And take away all of the fear
You sit and wait for us to elect you
But all we'll do is reject you
Your politics bore us to tears
To be upright, decent and honest
And take away all of the fear
You sit and wait for us to elect you
But all we'll do is reject you
Your politics bore us to tears
There are no rocks at Rockaway beach
And all that glitters isn't gold
The Specials featuring Saffiyah Khan "Ten Commandments "
The Specials - The Lunatics
The Specials - We Need Hope
And all that glitters isn't gold
The Specials featuring Saffiyah Khan "Ten Commandments "
The Specials - The Lunatics
The Specials - We Need Hope
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