Clash caught up with the reformed Specials in the May issue of the magazine (Read interviews with Terry Hall and Johan ‘Brad’ Bradbury and Jerry Dammers here.) but if you aren’t so familiar with their legacy (shame on you) check out our handy timeline of the band below.
1977 – Jerry Dammers forms The Automatics with himself on keys, Horace Panter on Bass, Lynval Golding on Guitar, Silverton Hutchison on drums and Tom Strickland on vocals. The bands mixture of punk and reggae, both protest genres in their own right, attracts a local following on Coventry’s pub scene.
Strickland is replaced on vocals by Terry Hall, former front man of cult Coventry punk band The Squad and Dammers recruits lead guitarist from The Wild Boys, Roddy Byers, later to become Roddy Radiation. The band record a demo at Berwick Street Studios in London with none other than then Coventry based DJ Pete Waterman. The tape is knocked back by numerous record labels and overlooked by John Peel.
1978 – Now named The Coventry Automatics – later The Special AKA The Coventry Automatics, later the Special AKA – the band secure a support slot on The Clash’s ‘On Parole’ tour but the reggae infused punk does not sit well with the predominately white drunken pogo punters and the Automatics are pelted with bottles and cans.
Under the guidance of Clash manager and notorious punk scamster Bernie Rhodes, the band head off for a Paris residency to tighten up and while there get into a scrap over confiscation of Golding’s guitar. The heavies from the club get Lynval’s telecaster back and the incident gets immortalised in the lyrics of Gangsters, The Specials’ first hit single – ‘Can’t interrupt while I’m talking / Or they’ll confiscate all your guitars.’
1979 – Jerry Dammers forms the 2 Tone label. The iconic artwork drawn from an early Peter Tosh album cover and The Special AKA record ‘Gangsters’ using their own money, then convincing Rough Trade to press 5000 copies. Airplay of the tune and killer live performances in the capital entice Chrysalis to sign The Special AKA along with the 2 Tone label and after a stomping Peel Session ‘Gangsters’ reaches Number 6 in the charts and the band perform on Top of the Pops.
Sales of Harrington Jackets, Doc Martin’s and tasselled loafers rocket across the country as Dammers bases The Specials’ image on the West Indian rude boy and 2 Tone make their first signings in The Selecter and Madness.
The Specials cut their first album with production from Elvis Costello, a big fan of the group who was himself at the time enjoying massive success with ‘Oliver’s Army’ and the album Armed Forces. ‘Specials’ enters the British album charts at number 7 and ‘A Message to You Rudy’ is released as a double A side with ‘Nite Klub.’
In the same month the first 2 Tone tour kicks off featuring the Specials, Selecter, and Madness, and selling out gigs across the Country. While a success, the tour is marred by violence as the National Front and the British National Party attempt to recruit skinheads at the shows.
1980 – The 2 Tone label achieves national recognition with the production of a BBC documentary about the bands and the scene. The Specials release, arguably, the best single of the label’s history with ‘Too Much Too Young,’ a storming 5 track E.P. including the ‘Skinhead Symphony’ recorded live at Tiffany’s, Coventry.
The band’s version of The Pioneers’ classic ‘Longshot Kick De Bucket’ and the picture sleeve of the single, featuring the Tiffany’s crowd of smiling Rude Boys and Rude Girls, captures the essence of the scene and the time, reaching Number 1 in the singles charts and converting a whole swathe of British youngsters to the music and the fashion.
The band head to the States to capitalise on British and European success and while they are well received Dammers is not impressed with the record company hype that is preceding them, disgusted that the famous Whiskey A GoGo in Los Angeles has been painted with black and White 2 tone checks.
In May The Specials release ‘Rat Race’ with the B side ‘Rude Boys Outa Jail’ but on the summer ‘Seaside Specials’ tour tensions mount with Radiation and Dammers falling out both in private and in public. However, the band complete the tour and jet off to the States to give a triumphant performance of Gangsters on the legendary ‘Saturday Night Live Show.’
September 1980 sees the release of ‘Stereotype,’ the first single from the second album ‘More Specials.’ The single reaches Number 6 in the charts but the band’s shift away from their signature sound of punked-up rockin’ ska toward a more ironic, mellow reggae sound is not so well received by the more die-hard Rude Boy element of their fan base. The album still manages to reach number 5 in the UK chart.
The ‘More Specials’ tour late in the year is again marred by violence and Dammers and Hall are arrested on suspicion of inciting public disorder. The band, however, amid the problems, continue to release brilliant singles and the Lynval Golding penned skank classic ‘Do Nothing’ comes out in time for Christmas.
1981 – In June The Specials release what was to be their final E.P., ‘Ghost Town.’ The song’s lyrics, with Neville Staples’ immortal line, “Too much fightin’ on the dance floor,” capture perfectly, not only the band’s misfortune at attracting trouble at their gigs, but also the turbulent mood of Britain in the early Thatcher years of race riots in Brixton and Toxteth.
The end of the year sees the end of the band and Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples make it official by forming The Fun Boy Three and releasing ‘The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum.’
