The Richard Spooner Column: A Specials kind of legacy�
Cancel culture was alive and kicking long before today 's fad for the mass shaming of celebrities on social media.
As long ago as 1981 celebs were being outed on a whim in some circles but not, of course, with the sort of global audience the phenomenon has today.
This thought came to me when I heard that Terry Hall, front man of The Specials, had died this week at the age of only 63.
The ska legend grew up in Coventry, where the band was created in the late seventies. For the uninitiated, ska is music created in Jamaica in the 1950s as a form of reggae characterised by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the offbeat. So now you know.
This led to the 2-Tone movement, a reference to the multi-cultural nature of The Specials, founded by art student Jerry Dammers, who to this day is the keyboard player and primary song writer.
It was Dammers who wrote The Special 's greatest hit Ghost Town, released in 1981 and went on to become the 12th best-selling single in the UK that year.
It was a biting commentary on the global urban decay of the age. It alluded to rising unemployment which had sparked inner-city riots.
The “club ” referred to in the song was the Locarno Ballroom in central Coventry - “all the clubs have closed down - this place is coming like a ghost town ”, wrote Dammers.
Most listeners knew that the lyrics could be applied to any city/town in the modern world. But not the burghers of Coventry.
They condemned the song as being a slight on Coventry and they were joined in the general approbation by the senior suits at the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
In fact, they were so keen to show their support for the Establishment that in a move rather like the cancel culture of today they banned mention of The Specials from their columns. For a while, none of the stories about their chart success and global acclaim reached their readers.
I like to think I played a small part in restoring The Specials to their rightful place in the city where they were created.
When I was appointed to a fairly senior position at the Telegraph, myself and the editor immediately reversed the decision to blacklist The Specials in their home town.
Thankfully, The Specials now regularly appear in the Telegraph and its online cousin Coventry Live. And they, along with media outlets around the world, paid glowing tribute to Terry Hall, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer before he died.
And his family can take comfort in that the genius and legend of The Specials ' front man will live on - despite the efforts long ago of the very Establishment figures he railed against�
JL