One afternoon that autumn, a few months after the 1981 riots, I had walked from a squat in Peckham up to The Oval and was just about to enter the Underground when I was approached by a gang of about a dozen skinheads. I laughed out loud when he spat the line, but youre still fucking peasants as far as I can see, from Working Class Hero. is a plea for racial tolerance and was written by guitarist Lynval Golding in response to a violent racist attack he had suffered in July 1980 outside the Moonlight Club in West Hampstead in London, which had left him hospitalised with broken ribs. First we lose Lemmy, now news that Brad from the Specials has passed away. The riots would eventually end, although not before The Specials themselves collapsed. Wrong! Amongthe others who have shared kind words and remembrances: Belinda Carlisle,Boy George, Rage Against the Machine,Dexy's Midnight Runners, Billy Bragg,Squeeze's Chris Difford, The Sleaford Mods, Ted Leo, Rancid, The Interrupters, Lush's Miki Berenyi, Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley, Everything But the Girl'sTracey Thorn, Less Than Jake,The Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe,Matt Sharp (Weezer, The Rentals), Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak>),The Charlatans' Tim Burgess, former Cure member Lol Tolhurst, The Mountain Goats, Michael McKean, Jon Cryer, Sparks, Mark McGrath, Frank Turner, Catbite, Shepard Fairey, director Tim Pope,and more. Published Dec 10, 2008. The founding member of the 1970s ska group, who will not be part of their 30th anniversary shows, released a statement claiming the band are trying to "rewrite history". Works . On Tuesdays doing the door at a West End nightclub (where essentially you let in your friends for free and drank the profits) and on Wednesdays waking up with enough time to sign on. Now I was attuned to everything, including the sound of looters breaking in through the front door of our building. And, unlike Orpheus, without looking back. [12], As it had not been decided where exactly the backing vocals would be used, Terry Hall, Staple, Golding and Dammers sang a full backing vocal track throughout the song, which Collins used to his advantage as the lyric "this town is coming like a ghost town" had become like a "hypnotic chant" by the end of the song. There would be no woolly thinking in Mrs Thatchers government. [9] Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic notes the lyric "only brush[es] on the causes for this apocalyptic vision the closed down clubs, the numerous fights on the dancefloor, the spiraling unemployment, the anger building to explosive levels. Scroll Down and find everything about the Jerry Dammers you need to know, latest relationships update, Family and how qualified he is. Jerry Dammers, the founder and main songwriter of The Specials, has denied claims made by his former bandmates in a recent interview. In an interview in 2011, Dammers explained how witnessing this event inspired his composition: The overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom. Meta. Coventry, The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. Jerry Dammers at Rock Against Racism, Leeds, in 1981. Subscribe to Uncut today and never miss an issue. He left India at the age of 2, first living in Coventry, then moving to Sheffield at the age of 10. I had already barricaded our own front door with various pieces of random furniture, although this was largely to try to appease my girlfriend, as I knew that any concerted push from the other side would have caused them to come tumbling down the corridor as the door flew open. Spent an afternoon listening to these without disappointment. Northampton, Derngate Theatre. Facebook gives people the power to. We had both lived in Brixton for some time and had become almost immune to the attritional nature of the place. Terrible news to hear this. Then, a few weeks later, in Toxteth, came the predictable sequel, followed by copycat riots in Southall, Moss Side, St Pauls, Handsworth and Chapeltown, in Leeds. Internal tensions within the band were also coming to a head when the single was being recorded, resulting in the song being the last single recorded by the original seven members of the group before splitting up. Just over 30 years ago, in March 1984, Jerry Dammers released Free Nelson Mandela with his band the Special AKA, and this straightforward, cheerful but angry demand for the release of South Africa's most celebrated political prisoner became a top 10 hit in the UK, a bestseller across Europe and a no 1 in New Zealand. At 9.30pm police constable Keith Blakelock was trapped by a gang of local balaclava-clad boys, blowing whistles and ringing bells, who tried to decapitate him using knives and machetes. "What made 2-Tone different to everything else at that time was that Jerry directed all the visuals," confirms Storey. "[10] The club referred to in the song was the Locarno (run by the Mecca Leisure Group and later renamed Tiffanys), a regular haunt of Neville Staple and Lynval Golding,[3] and which is also named as the club in "Friday Night, Saturday Morning", one of the songs on the B-side. Dammers, who is not touring as part of the band's 30th anniversary shows, has issued . The January 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK featuring Paul Weller, David Bowie, Best Of 2015, Roger Waters, Father John Misty, Pere Ubu, Robert Forster, Natalie Prass, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Sunn O))), Jonny Greenwood, Arthur Lee & Love, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and more. The first I knew something was up was around five oclock in the afternoon, when I started to hear screaming, windows being smashed and the sound of accelerated running past the window. By the end of the 1980s, those pockets of gentrification that had started to pop up around Central London would become so oversubscribed that those on the bottom rungs were pushed farther and farther out, so those previously out-of-bound areas east of the city villages that promised the sort of luxurious loft-living the young bankers in Docklands had been promised a decade before. Dammers was born in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India, the son of a clergyman who went on to become Dean of Bristol . They're the backbone of a reggae song. Following his long music career, the artist also received Ivor Novello Inspiration Award in 2014. Quotation Biography. For a short while, I felt as though I could have been the last person in the capital. Surrounded by a burgeoning new romantic movement, two-tone felt very council estate, very rough and very monochromatic. and The Spatial AKA Orchestra. and The Spatial AKA Orchestra. some of the tracks have been re-eq'd /tweaked, Really really nice repro collection just a few odd errors>, Two Tone Records Vinyl Treasures 7" Boxset, Ghost Town / Why? Founding Specials member Jerry Dammers has hit out at his bandmates' reunion next year. [12][13] Following further conversations with Dammers, Collins travelled up from his home in London to meet the Specials at their rehearsal studio and agreed to produce their new single. No noise. Musician and arranger Delia Derbyshire, who died in 2001 and musician Ray King were also honoured with plaques. While punk was largely a cultural insurrection, repeatedly using thematic working-class imagery the brutalist modern tower block being the most obvious manifestation of this, a symbol of post-war progress that very quickly became a totem of social deprivation Ghost Town was a direct response to the urban distress that The Specials leader, Jerry Dammers, saw around him. [5][6][7] It was the 12th-best-selling single in the UK in 1981. Accustomed to low-level civil unrest, nothing had prepared the police for confrontations involving rioters using axes, sledgehammers and even cars as weapons. The camera was probably worth two grand, while the booze probably wasnt worth more than 100 tops. I would regularly hitch up to Coventry to sit in sullen working mens clubs with him and his extraordinary circle of friends and acquaintances, discussing socialism (we differed), the provenance of Prince Buster and the validity of Heaven 17. In some respects 1981 was defined by the riots as much as by the music they inadvertently inspired. Added by koan Managed by Isa. Like all great records about social collapse, it seems to both fear and relish calamity. Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers GCOT (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who is a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry, England, based ska revival band The Specials, The Special A.K.A. The band had already had huge success as the standard-bearers of the multiracial 2 Tone organisation (which included the likes of Madness, The Selector and The Beat) and had had hits with Gangsters, A Message To You Rudy and Rat Race, among others. The plaque mentions "Ghost Town" was recorded there. Apr 09 2010. Born 22 May 1955 in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India. The looters (even though they were ostensibly rioting, all they were really doing was stealing) did actually run up to the first floor, although they immediately headed back down again as the sound of sirens approached. Jerry Dammers has hit out at the Specials reunion, claiming he's been driven out of the band. Apart from penning the song, Dammers also stopped seeing this "friend" - an approach echoed in the song's chorus: "If you have a racist friend/ Now is the time, now is the time/ For your friendship to end." But for Dammers, who confesses he is "not a confrontational person", the song was substitute for a . Hearing of Brads death has been a great shock to me and it is a very sad day indeed, said Dammers in a statement. Beyond our punky start on stage, it was in the studio with Elvis Costello producing, where Terry was able to sing quietly, that I think his hidden strength came out, a delivery which brought out the melancholy in some of The Specials songs, and which I think a lot of people could relate to. Dammers recalls: "Terry was given to performing with his back to the audience. They didnt play Ghost Town, but then how could they? I knew Dammers extremely well for about five years in the 1980s. Back in 2009 I wrote sleevenotes for the rerelease of his solo album Laugh. A year after Brixton Village opened in 2011, just as the 2000s ended, house prices had risen by as much as 20 per cent, in a market where residential property was largely flat. Inspired by Live Aid, this song ultimately led to the Mandela Seventieth Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in 1988 and helped add to the groundswell of support that led to Mandelas release from prison in February 1990. Rhoda Dakar, of 2 Tone group The Bodysnatchers who also dueted with Terry on The Specials "I Can't Stand It" andsang with offshootThe Special AKA, wrote: Terrys gone, he died just after the football on Sunday. Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, although all three were cleared by the court of appeal in 1991 after it emerged evidence had been tampered with (Silcott remained in prison for the separate murder of another man, Tony Smith, finally being released in 2003). There was frustration about two-tone falling apart. "Ghost Town" is a song by the British two-tone band the Specials, released on 12 June 1981. RICO RODRIGUEZ Deceased 4th September 2015. His father (Horace) became Dean of Bristol Cathedral. [2] Jerry Dammers attended King Henry VIII School, Coventry. Jerry Dammers is born Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers on 22 May 1955 in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India. The 1980s riots were devoured so much by the international media that the burning oil drum became as much a part of modern British iconography as the white suits in the 1981 television adaptation of Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited and for a while seemed to appear in any film about the British underclass, surrounded by a gang of Rada-trained professional cockneys and a smattering of generic gangsters, drug dealers and punky fishnets molls. 10th December 2008. Around the same time, if you had been reading the small ads in the arts pages of your favourite national newspaper, you would have seen that revival tours were all the rage. She was, though, when she claimed that money couldnt buy either trust or racial harmony. Well, I had to put a piece of tissue under my chin because sweat was dripping off my face due to it being so scary one mistake and that would have been it! 10 of the best GQ-approved first watches money can buy, Mushroom coffee is the latest obsession in the great shroom boom, How to really get rid of those forehead wrinkles, NFL star Efe Obada's fitness diary: Your mindset is everything it's your windshield, Simone Rocha is the incumbent Cool Guy brand, The 2023 GQ Food & Drink Awards shortlist, 37 clothing essentials for every mans wardrobe, The alternative guide to travelling in Europe this year, Print copies & Digital access for only 1. I said free Nelson Mandela. The resulting report into the riots concluded that they were due to complex political, social and economic factors that had created a disposition towards violent protest due to racial disadvantage, inner-city struggles and the attrition between the local communities and the police. And I was thinking why doesn't anyone produce something equally as strong for Assange today? Photograph: Jo Wiser, ANC's glory fades as South Africa's 'born free' generation votes, 'I'm more mature than South African democracy itself', Theborn free generation: 20-year-olds in South Africa prepare for first vote video, Jerry Dammers: how I made Free Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela: the triumph of the protest song. Jerry Dammers has paid tribute to John Bradbury, the drummer with The Specials, who has died aged 62. My condolences to his family and friends. For me and for so many others at the time, my support network was the black economy, acting as a cocktail barman at Brixtons chi-chi nightclub The Fridge one minute and bunking the tube the next. With its melancholic wailing, its hypnotic lope, its ominous organs and The people getting angry chant, there is no better mirror to the societal privations of 1981, a year that often felt on the brink of collapse. He taught me so much about what a proper musician is supposed . Hes missing out on being in this incredible band. Glasgow were particularly bad. In Liverpool he saw shops closing down, more beggars on the streets, little old ladies selling their cups and saucers on tables outside their homes and he started to see the frustration and anger in the young faces of those who came out to see his band. To achieve the effect he wanted, Collins utilised a kit-built Transcendent 2000 synthesiser to create a "ghost" sound, which he used to fade in and out at the beginning and end of the track.[12][13]. 00073107204 15 works 00073107302 17 works. "He'd say, run the checkerboard pattern right across, move this figure . Equally, Thatcher dismissed the idea that racism, heavy-handed police tactics and unemployment were behind the Brixton disturbances even though police brutality and continual harassment of young black men has been one of the prime motivators behind the riots saying Nothing, but nothing, justifies what happened What aggravated the riots into a virtual saturnalia was the impression gained by the rioters that they could enjoy a fiesta of crime, looting and rioting in the guise of social protest. Some thought this was progress, although what was rarely advertised in the Sunday Times Home section was the fact that most of these new developments were nothing less than gated communities. We wanted to play 2,000 to 3,000-sized venues. The Specials are due to play a series of 30th anniversary gigs in the spring of 2009, with the tour being billed as a full reunion. Terry Hall reacts to main songwriter's statement. was sampled in. The worlds defining voice in music and pop culture: breaking whats new and whats next since 1952. Billy Bragg paid tribute to Bradbury, writing on Twitter: A bad day for good music. Odd jobs were essential to supplement what you got from the government: film extra work, a spot of photography, retail conference stewarding, modelling for friends who couldnt find anyone else. We had some really great times together and it is truly tragic that he has died so young. Not only was this one of the most important records of the early 1980s, it remains one of the most evocative, provocative singles of all time, a prime piece of agitprop that still has the power to shock. To check the availability of The Specials tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/GIGS now, or call 0871 230 1094. Unemployment was heading for three million and it was a very worrying time., It wasnt a surprise when it went to No1 most things two-tone became hits, said Pauline Black, the lead singer of fellow 2 Tone band, The Selector. People at the time would pay good money to see bands they enjoyed in their youth, sometimes regardless of how many original members they contained. "It's a fantastic honour and it's amazing that it's remembered in South Africa. [Terry] Halls chirpy memories of the good old days, Rico Rodriguezs long elegiac trombone solo and that ghastly chorus of taunting wraiths. Jungle Music (1982) by Rico Rodriguez and The Special AKA Producer credit: Jerry Dammers. It was a boys jolly., In Toxteth, eye-witnesses recalled the brazen calmness of the looters, In Toxteth, eye-witnesses recalled the brazen calmness of the looters, who were almost using the rioters as a human shield. I could see them then trying to form the words that would make me understand what they had just asked me. The keyboard player wrote to The Guardian to dispute comments from singer Terry Hall regarding the band's upcoming reunion shows. The fact that it became popular when it did was just a weird coincidence. Terry Hall and Jerry Dammers, musicians with the New Wave/Ska band The Specials, are shown seated behind a microphone, wearing suits. Enigmatic, certainly. They were all over the place at the time, although they tended to leave Brixton and its immediate environs alone, so whenever you saw them in the area you suspected there might be trouble. I knew the enemy was out there, just as it had been nearly 40 years ago. Motivated by racial tension, a perception of inner city deprivation and heat, the defining factor was the ongoing war of attrition between the black community and the police. Their records defined a slice of a generation who werent sure they wanted to be defined in the first place. He also founded 2 Tone Records. Dammers said: "I was watching the news one day and they showed a football match in South Africa where the song was being played on the loudspeakers. The news comes three months after the death of the bands trombonist, Rico Rodriguez. Of course large-scale investments would have helped Brixton, although the more disquiet there was, the more unlikely any investment seemed. Jerry Dammers was born on 22 May, 1955 in Ooty, India, is a Keyboardist, songwriter, DJ. I was thinking about Ghost Town the other day as I walked home, lost in reverie, but oh-so-aware of everything around me. Who died out of The Specials? Police aggression made everyone paranoid, and made people who had previously lived quite happily side by side turn against each other because it seemed like the safest thing to do. News of the drummer's death was announced earlier today. I saw the reformed Specials support Blur at their gig in Hyde park in 2012 and the band looked like a bunch of fiftysomething cab drivers and sounded like the musical equivalent of a Sunday morning football match. All the way to Brixton. Its only the most extreme people who appear to still be out there. The Specials ' founder Jerry Dammers has revealed to Uncut that he recorded new Specials material with original members Horace Painter and Lynval Golding in 2003. Gentrification continued apace, as Lambeth Council spruced up the area, preventing the conversion of houses into flats to attract middle-class house buyers and transforming the old covered market into a shopping mall with upmarket cafes and restaurants. 29th December 2015. To me, Dammers was the Lennon and McCartney of ska, one of the most important voices of the postpunk movement, a man who always appeared to be carrying his generation's hopes and dreams on his. Spotify. Contents Paul morley talks to jerry dammers Racial tension was high, as the Afro-Caribbean community felt victimised. 2018 Aug 31 Sep 02 2018. And so you started treating the place with the same disdain; what was the point of throwing an empty cigarette packet in a bin if the bin was going to be thrown through the off-licence window later in the day? And the faster I started to walk, the slower I became. Everything was based on cash, as there was no other currency. Dubbed Bloody Saturday by Time, the main riot took place on 11 April, and resulted in a mass confrontation between the mob and the Metropolitan Police. Read those below. This situation was particularly fraught in the London borough of Lambeth, where over a quarter of the population were black, while 40 per cent of those were under 19. [17] The original Ghost Town car can be seen (and sat in) at the Coventry Music Museum. Inspired by punk, they had their own grudges to articulate and they were doing it through the medium of ska. Im not a perfectionist but I want this to be good. Not only that, but they came from Coventry, Britains very own answer to Detroit, the epitome of the post-war urban wasteland, the quintessential concrete jungle, and felt they had a right to bleat about anything they wanted to, especially the determined onslaught of Thatcherism. He was an integral part of the Specials re-forming in 2008, and [he] toured with them extensively up to the present day. Dammers said, "People weren't cooperating. Sites: jerrydammers.com, Wikipedia In Groups: Jerry Dammers' Spatial A.K.A Orchestra, Starvation, The Coventry Automatics, The Special AKA, The Specials, Tone Productions, Visionistics Variations: Viewing All | Jerry Dammers I remember Lynval rushing into the control room while they were doing it going, 'No, no, no, it sounds wrong! Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who is a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry, England, based ska revival band The Specials, The Special A.K.A. After becoming overwhelmed with the multitude of choices available in the 24-track studio used during the recording of More Specials, Dammers had decided that he wanted to return a more basic set-up, and after a recommendation from bass player Horace Panter who was familiar with the place, the band chose the small 8-track studio in the house owned by John Rivers in Woodbine Street in Royal Leamington Spa. Deliaphonic x Boudica presents Stealing Sheep's Wow Machine Jerry Dammers. Not funny peculiar, funny ha ha. He is famous for founding 2 Tone Records and having his masterful skills on turntables and keyboards. [3], In the 1990s the song was featured in an episode of the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted. I don't know how they did it but it was amazing to see.". Its strange times.. The Specials & 2 Tone Records founder Jerry Dammers, who didn't take part in band's reunion, wrote, "Terrys death is very shocking, horrible and tragic news," continuing, "Terry was so young and I feel very sad. Jeremy David Hounsell "Jerry" Dammers, (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who is a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry, England based ska revival band The Specials, The Special A.K.A. The video's locations include driving through the Rotherhithe Tunnel and around semi-derelict areas of the East End as well as in Lothbury and Throgmorton Street in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend. He was a lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person. The family moved to England, and Jerry was raised and schooled in Coventry. As the Economist pointed out at the time, this was largely due to black flight. [12] Tensions were high during the recording of the single, with little communication between the band members, and at one point a frustrated Roddy Byers kicked a hole in the studio door, angering Rivers. It was easier for her to stand back, aghast. Free Nelson Mandela. But a wicked sense of humour. However, I also thought he might turn out to be our generations John Barry, scoring important movies with solemn yet iconic orchestral themes, balancing Jacques Derrida with Francis Lai, Scott Walker with Dr John. No, really. When he was examined later Blakelock had 42 different wounds. There were weird, diminished chords: certain members of the band resented the song and wanted the simple chords they were used to playing on the first album, Its hard to explain how powerful it sounded. The worst were in Brixton, on 10-12 April. Theyd been looting in and around the shops in Brixton market and in a second I realised I was in the middle of a full-scale riot. We were 1970s bands in a time of two-man synth bands. The streets werent just empty of people, they were empty of life. The Specials & 2 Tone Records founder Jerry Dammers, who didn't take part in band's reunion, wrote, "Terry's death is very shocking, horrible and tragic news," continuing, "Terry was so young. He was butchered to death. However, the song was hailed by the contemporary UK music press as a major piece of popular social commentary,[3][4] and all three of the major UK music magazines of the time awarded "Ghost Town" the accolade of "Single of the Year" for 1981. What had the rioters got against carpet shops? You got . It was last seen in British general . Yup, well they were probably back too, playing the Shepherds Bush Empire the night after Joe Jackson and probably supporting Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark or The Happy Mondays. A premiere will be held simultaneously in London at Bafta. We will try to find the right answer to this particular crossword clue. RIP https://t.co/05ULhUjqS9, Billy Bragg (@billybragg) December 29, 2015. Ghost Town. Jun 26 2010. Recording simply in mono really helped the instruments balance themselves." It's hard to explain how powerful it sounded. You got to free. It was clear that something was very, very wrong."[4]. It even felt like a riot, or rather how a riot felt just before it kicked off, or maybe just after it, when all the dust had settled. I felt as though Id stepped out of one of those British TV science fiction programmes they made in the 1960s back in a land of bowler hats, umbrellas and red phone boxes those austere black and white ones when London had been the target of a neutron bomb, the ones that killed all the people but left the buildings intact. The forgotten riot is the one in Brixton that started on 28 September 1985. It was hell to be around." Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez had already gone back to London, and I had to record that flute by actually dropping in. He also founded 2 Tone Records. English Ska musician Jerry Dammers, of the group the Specials, during the Red Wedge Re-launch at Ronnie Scott's, London, 7/6/1987. . Rest in power Terry Hall.". However, a . He nicked as many bottles of booze as he could carry. He wanted to do one date, in (the bands native) Coventry, in front of 30,000 people, at the football stadium [The Ricoh Arena], added Hall. Please enjoy your records. Affiliation PRS Comments Keyboardist. The kaleidoscopic Ghost Town didnt offer balm for a world-weary pop-culture; rather it was a political exhortation. His contribution to the world of music can not be understated and he will much missed by family, friends and fans alike.. Seventeen months separate The Specials' two No1 singles and a million musical miles, wrote Simon Price of the Independent On Sunday. They didnt need to say anything, as it was implicit. 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