On the eve of their first album in decades, 2 Tone’s finest talk to Miranda Sawyer and, further down, answer questions from readers, and famous fans including Richard Curtis and Lauren Laverne
In an east London photographer’s studio, one man is dancing and two men are not. Beres Hammond is playing over the speakers and the dancer – Lynval Golding, guitarist – freeze-frames for the camera shutter, but otherwise is in constant motion. Bassist Horace Panter, determinedly non-dancey, stands dead still, chin jutting, as though he’s ready to punch you if you get too cheeky. And in between them is singer Terry Hall, who doesn’t move much. Hall’s face, though, is always changing, flicking between exasperation, resignation, wry amusement and a withering teenage side-eye. His left hand sticks out. It looks as though there’s a gap for a cigarette in between your fingers, I say, and Hall says “You’re right”, and goes outside to smoke.
These three men are the Specials, 2019. The Specials started in Coventry in the late 1970s, a mixed-race ensemble playing a thrilling mixture of ska, reggae and punk, with pointed, politically sharp lyrics. Originally, there were seven members – the three here today, plus band founder/songwriter/keyboardist Jerry Dammers (creator of the 2 Tone record label, to which the Specials were signed), as well as singer Neville Staple, guitarist Roddy Radiation and drummer John “Brad” Bradbury. Much of the Specials’ impact back then was collective: a group of street-tough individuals, the band as gang. Their gigs were raucous, confrontational affairs, occasionally marred by far-right elements wanting to cause trouble with a group that had both black and white members.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2HQqAuD
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