The Specials are no more! Horace Panter remembers days when it was ‘like walking on air’

The Specials have officially disbanded, bowing out with a swansong album recorded in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral in 2019. Horace Panter looks back at the first shows they played - when Jim Callaghan was still PM! - and the rigours of mastering ska when some of the group thought it was “old man’s music”. Along with …

… the dignified way for any band to retire

… the 2-Tone tour of 1979 – “like a school trip with no teachers”

… bonding with Terry Hall over comedian Ken Platt: ‘I won't take me coat off, I'm not stoppin'!"

… the day Jerry Dammers came to rehearsal with Prince Buster’s Greatest Hits – “for all your rebellious needs!”

… the poignancy of playing in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral when you start the set with an air-raid siren

… seeing the Faces and Mott the Hoople, “once in my school uniform”

… the sensory overload - “The space! The volume!” - of Led Zeppelin at the Albert Hall when you’re 15 and from Kettering

… “strange to think few people under 60 have ever seen the Specials”

… the bassist he pretended to be when posing in the mirror

... the Bilzen Festival in 1979 “when the chain-link fence was broken down and I came offstage like I was walking on air”

… and creating the 2-Tone look with ex-Mod tonic suits

Order ‘Live From The Cathedral’ here: shop.thespecials.islandrecords.com
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