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The Specials
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
The Specials came from Coventry, an industrial city in the English Midlands. The band began in 1977, first as The Automatics and then as The Coventry Automatics. The keyboard player Jerry Dammers was the driving force. He founded the label 2 Tone in 1979, and The Specials became the figureheads of the movement named after that label. The line-up was deliberately mixed, with Black and white musicians, at a time when the far right was looking for new members among unemployed young people.
Music and breakthrough
The band played ska from Jamaica, but faster and with the energy of punk. In 1979 the first single, Gangsters, and the debut album The Specials, produced by Elvis Costello, were released. The vocals were shared between Terry Hall and Neville Staple, and horn players such as the trombonist Rico Rodriguez gave the sound its Jamaican colour. In 1980 the EP Too Much Too Young was at number 1 in England. Ghost Town was released in June 1981 and spent three weeks at number 1, in a summer of riots in English cities. It was the last single by the original line-up.
Influence
Immediately afterwards Hall, Staple and the guitarist Lynval Golding left to start Fun Boy Three. Dammers continued as The Special AKA and had a hit in 1984 with Free Nelson Mandela. Without him the band returned to the stage in 2009, and the album Encore reached number 1 in the British album chart in 2019. Terry Hall died in 2022. The influence reached the Netherlands too: Doe Maar took over the ska of 2 Tone and sang it in Dutch.
Listening
Ghost Town · The Specials, 1981Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1979Specials
- 1980More Specials
- 1984In the Studio
- 1993King of Kings
- 1996Today’s Specials
- 1998Guilty ’Til Proved Innocent!
- 2000King of Ska
- 2000Skinhead Girl
- 2001Conquering Ruler
- 2009Ghost Town
- 2019Encore
- 2020Protest Songs 1924–2012
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 2: Youth Cultures 1950-1980NL Reader
- Mixtape 11: NederpopNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- 2 Tone Genre
In 1979 Jerry Dammers founded the label 2 Tone in Coventry, with deliberately mixed bands that played ska with the energy of punk: The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat.