The Specials are a seven piece Multicultural Ska,Punk band from Coventry England The brainchild of Jerry Dammers who also founded the 2 Tone record label. between 1979 and 1981 the band had seven top 10 hits Including Too Much Too Young and Ghost Town both reached N0.1 in the UK Charts.
I think it was some time in early 1978 that Mike Horseman asked me to go with him to Coventry one evening to photograph The Specials AKA rehearsing at the home of Jerry Dammers.
I started to photograph as the other members of the band arrived and brought in their equipment. Previously known as The Coventry Automatics, The Specials consisted, at the time, of Jerry Dammers (keyboards and songwriter), Terry Hall (vocals), Lynval Golding (guitar and vocals), Neville Staple (vocals), Horace Panter (bass), Roddy Byers (lead guitar), and Silverton Hutchison (drums)
It was 1978, I think, and a short while after I photographed the rehearsal in Coventry that I photographed the Specials again. This time at Barbarella’s—the well known Birmingham nightclub. By now, Silverton Hutchison had left the group and had been replaced by John Bradbury on drums.
True innovators of the punk era, The Specials began the British ska revival craze, combining the highly danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude, and taking on a more focused and informed political and social stance than their predecessors and peers. By October 1981, constant touring and differences over musical direction saw the original band line-up split but they soon regrouped and reformed as The Special AKA and released their third album In the Studio in 1984.
The album was over two years in the making and featured the hit singles "Nelson Mandela" and "Racist Friend." Newly remastered and reissued on heavyweight 180g vinyl.
The Special AKA - In The Studio
Side 1
1. Bright Lights
2. Lonely Crowd
3. Girlfriend
4. House Bound
5. Night On The Tiles Side 2
1. Nelson Mandela
2. War Crimes
3. Racist Friend
4. Alcohol
5. Break Down The Door
Legendary keyboard player picks up one of music industry's most prized awards - and dedicates it to his mum
Legendary Specials songwriter Jerry Dammers has been named a music industry inspiration at a major awards ceremony.
The founding member of the Coventry 2-Tone group picked up the inspiration award at the 59th Ivor Novello Awards in London.
It came three decades after his song, Nelson Mandela, stormed the charts calling for the release of the anti-apartheid campaigner.
Dammers scored a top 10 hit with the track performed by Special AKA.
The song became an anti-apartheid anthem and Mr Mandela, who died in December, was eventually released in 1990.
The annual awards, known as The Ivors, are presented by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and are highly prized because they are voted for by songwriters and composers.
Dammers was presented with his award by former Clash guitarist Mick Jones, who described him as “the Tsar of Ska”.
Dammers - who no longer performs with the reformed Specials - revealed that he had almost missed the ceremony because his mother is ill, and dedicated his win to her.
Speaking backstage, the Ghost Town songwriter said he thought the idea of protest music was still thriving.
“I don’t think protest music necessarily has to have lyrics even,” he said. “You can have instrumental protest music, you know - jungle, dub-step, all of those are kind of abstract but still protest music like jazz was before.”
The Specials founding member Jerry Dammers has paid tribute to Nelson Mandela with a unique instrumental performance of his 1984 track, Free Nelson Mandela. The song, originally performed by The Special AKA, became a rallying call for the global movement demanding Mandela's release from prison, which was granted in 1990 amid civil unrest in his native South Africa.
Dammers gathered his current ensemble, the Spatial AKA Orchestra, to perform a special rendition of the track on Britain's Channel 4 news on Friday night, a day after the political hero passed away at the age of 95.
Writing in the Daily Mirror newspaper following Mandela's death on Thursday night, Dammers stated, "I hope Free Nelson Mandela is still a rallying cry and people can relate to what it stood for, because one of the best ways we could remember Nelson Mandela is to listen to what he actually said.
A lot of politicians are going to pay tribute to him, but if they actually listened to what he said, about freeing people from the prison of poverty, and acted on it, that would be the best tribute of all." The civil rights icon served 27 years in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government following a sabotage campaign calling for an end to apartheid.
Stan Campbell first came to prominence as the lead vocalist on the classic "Free Nelson Mandela" single by The Special AKA in 1984, one of the all-time great protest songs.
Having left the band, he was signed to a solo deal by WEA, and recorded this one album in 1987, a mix of originals and cover versions, with a large array of musicians (including members of The Selecter, The Ruts as well as the likes of Guy Chambers and Hugh Masekela), before he disappeared from public view.
In this edition, expanded to include the six non-album singles A- and B-sides, Alan Robinson's lengthy annotation tells the story.
The Original Album
01 Years Go By
02 Crawfish
03 Seven More Days
04 Save the World
05 Dancing Troupe
06 Little More Faith
07 You'll never Know
08 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
09 Can't Get Enough
10 Strange Fruit
"Bonus Tracks"
11 Crawfish (Extended Version)
12 Till We Meet Again
13 Years Go By (Extended Mix)
14 Inner City Blues
15 Mad Dog Days
16 Knockin' On Heaven's Door
