Terry Hall

Terry Hall, lead singer of the English 2 tone and ska revival band The Specials, has died.

The band, also known for its staunch opposition of racial injustice, frequently commented on politics and social reform in England and beyond. The Specials are known for tracks including “Gangsters” and “Ghost Town,” the latter of which remained at No. The post called Hall “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced,” going on to say that “his music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life…

Terry Hall, the longtime voice of legendary ska group The Specials has died after what the band termed a brief illness. He was 63.

In 2019, the band released a new studio album entitled Encore. In February 1983, Fun Boy Three released their second studio album, Waiting, which contained two Top Ten hits: “The Tunnel of Love” and their version of the aforementioned “Our Lips Are Sealed.” The band’s haunting hit single, “The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum),” was released in 1981 and was followed-up in 1982 with “It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It),” a duet with Bananarama. Hall went on to stints with the Colourfield, Terry, Blair & Anouchka and Vegas before releasing two solo studio albums. They were at the vanguard of the the 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s in Britain, which fused Jamaican ska rhythms and melodies with faster tempos and a harder edge influenced by punk rock. It was named “Single of the Year” by all three of the major UK music magazines.

Terry Hall, the frontman for English ska-New Wave band the Specials, has died at 63 after 'a brief illness.'

[also noted that the Go-Go's](https://twitter.com/belindacarlisle/status/1604993543759503365) are "forever bound in music history" with Hall. Fun Boy Three originally recorded the song, but Wiedlen, who had a fling with Hall, [told songwriter website Songfacts.com](https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/jane-wiedlin-from-the-go-gos) that Fun Boy Three’s was “a lot gloomier than the Go-Go’s version.” and Europe in the 1980s alongside like-minded outfits Madness and the English Beat, with songs including “Gangsters,” “A Message to You, Rudy” and “Ghost Town” among their darkly springy hits. In 1984, the Specials’ “Free Nelson Mandela” reached No. [English singer-songwriter-activist Billy Bragg](https://twitter.com/billybragg/status/1604989343218929664) posted a tribute, writing that the band, “were a celebration of how British culture was envigorated by Caribbean immigration” and Hall’s performances “a reminder that they were in the serious business of challenging our perception of who we were in the late 1970s.” [with guitarist Jane Wiedlin](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/10/26/go-gos-reflect-legacy-rock-and-roll-hall-fame-induction-foo-fighters-jay-z-carole-king-tina-tuner/8544035002/) after the all-girl band supported the Specials on a 1980 tour of England.

Terry Hall, the singer of the influential English ska band The Specials, has died. As confirmed by the band, Hall's death followed a brief illness.

With classics like “Ghost Town” and “Doesn’t Make It Right,” the band captured the “impending doom” that was Britain in the early 80s, and it resonated with angry, disaffected, and marginalized people around the world. Hall dropped out of school at 14 and found himself in the English punk scene, joining a band called the Squad. Though Hall did not partake in the first Specials reunion between 1993 and 1998, he rejoined the group in 2008. The band broke up shortly after the success of “Ghost Town,” and Hall formed Fun Ball Three and, later, The Colourfield. “At 12, I got abducted by a pedophile ring in France, and that was a real eye-opener,” Terry Hall, the singer of the influential English ska band The Specials, has died.

Singer with the Specials whose chart-topping Ghost Town evoked the sense of social collapse gripping Britain at the turn of the 80s.

In 2021 they released [Protest Songs 1924-2012](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/26/the-specials-protest-songs-1924-2012-review-genre-hopping-calls-to-action), a collection of cover versions of famous sociopolitical songs down the decades, which reached No 2. [Thinking of You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=178ojX0Q4QA) made much impression on the charts. “A lot of the stuff I’ve done is pretty much a wind-up,” Hall admitted. [Really Saying Something](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_gzzCLSct4), which also reached the Top 20 of the American club chart. He left school at 14 and undertook a string of temporary jobs, including as a bricklayer and a trainee hairdresser, before joining the punk band Squad as lead singer. During the 1990s he used drinking as a crutch and slipped into alcoholism. [The Specials](https://www.theguardian.com/music/the-specials), which reached No 4 on the UK chart. Hall was born in Coventry, where his father worked at the Rolls Royce aeronautics factory and his mother at a Chrysler car plant; he had two elder sisters. He wrote about the episode in the song Well Fancy That, a track he recorded with Fun Boy Three in 1983. Hall and the band’s keyboards player, Jerry Dammers, were both arrested when they waded in to try to break up fighting between fans and security guards at a gig in Cambridge. Hall had brought them on board after seeing them featured in the Face magazine. Famously deadpan, dour and slightly menacing, Terry Hall, who has died aged 63 after a short illness, shot to fame at the end of the 1970s with Coventry’s groundbreaking multi-racial band the Specials.

Having survived a tough childhood in Coventry, Hall became one of pop's defining voices at the turn of the 80s, chronicling British decline and ...

“It felt like a vindication of everything the band had set out to do,” Hall said. And a gorgeous, kind, down to earth man.” Badly Drawn Boy called him [“a musical hero”](https://twitter.com/badly_drawn_boy/status/1604973753099816965), while [Sleaford Mods](https://twitter.com/sleafordmods) said Hall was “King of the Suedeheads. [Rowetta](https://twitter.com/Rowetta) remembered him as “one of the greatest frontmen from one of the greatest bands. “The Specials was this big hole which took up four years of my life,” Hall would form another band, the Colourfield, in 1984, which had a hit with Thinking of You. “It felt like the perfect moment to stop the Specials part one,” Hall said. So there’s always been a bit of that kicking around in the back of my mind. “Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. I always admired and envied his sweep of the pen”, while It remained at No 1 for three weeks, spending 10 weeks in the Top 40, and is widely considered one of the greatest pop records of all time. They released their debut single, Gangsters (a reworking of Prince Buster’s Al Capone) in 1979, which reached No 6 in the UK singles chart. Hall joined the first incarnation of the Specials – then called the Automatics – shortly after the Coventry band formed in 1977, replacing vocalist Tim Strickland.

Terry Hall, lead singer of The Specials, has died. With its mix of Black and white members and Jamaica-influenced fashion style, the band became leaders of ...

Hall's bandmates said he was "a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. Most of the original Specials reunited in 2008, staged a 30th-anniversary tour in 2009 and in 2019 released an album of new material, "Encore," which became the band's first U.K. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials' life-affirming shows with three words... Hall joined the band that would become The Specials in the English Midlands city of Coventry in the late 1970s, a time of racial tension, economic gloom and urban unrest. music charts in the summer of 1981 as Britain's cities were erupting in riots. The band announced late Monday that Hall had died after a brief illness.

Terry Hall, the frontman of influential U.K. ska band The Specials and later a member of new wave pop act Fun Boy Three, has died. He was 63.

Hall also featured on The Specials’ album Encore, the first time he had recorded with the band since “Ghost Town” in 1981. The late 80s and the 90s saw Hall collaborate with a number of artists to varying degrees of success. After two albums, Fun Boy Three was no more, with Hall starting a new band, the Manchester-based pop band the Colourfield with ex-Swinging Cats members Toby Lyons and Karl Shale. “Gutted to hear of the passing of #terryhall. The song, a sardonic ode to a broken Britain, captured the zeitgeist and spent three weeks atop the U.K. “Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song “Our Lips Are Sealed,” which will forever tie us together in music history. As the lead singer of the politically and socially conscious Specials, Hall achieved U.K. Signed to Chrysalis, and with a much obviously commercial and pop direction, Fun Boy Three released their eponymous first album in March 1982. [said a tweeted statement from the Special’s official account.](https://twitter.com/thespecials/status/1604969543184564234) “Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. ska band the Specials and later a member of new wave pop act Fun Boy Three, has died. Hall was traumatized as a schoolboy after he was abducted by a paedophile ring at age 12 and taken to France where he was sexually abused and later abandoned. Terry Hall, the frontman of influential U.K.

The band announced late Monday that Hall had died after a brief illness. It called him “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, ...

Hall’s bandmates said he was “a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. Most of the original Specials reunited in 2008, staged a 30th-anniversary tour in 2009 and in 2019 released an album of new material, “Encore,” which became the band’s first U.K. “He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… Hall joined the band that would become The Specials in the English Midlands city of Coventry in the late 1970s, a time of racial tension, economic gloom and urban unrest. music charts in the summer of 1981 as Britain’s cities were erupting in riots.

Hits like Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much Too Young soundtracked British life in the late 1970s and early 80s. Tributes came from UB40, Boy George and Elvis ...

[Dexy's Midnight Runners said](https://twitter.com/DexysOfficial/status/1605027233101647873) they were "very sorry and shocked to hear the sad news about the lovely, and brilliant Terry Hall". [The Proclaimers described him](https://twitter.com/The_Proclaimers/status/1605170152840261632) as "a quite brilliant, singer, songwriter and lyricist with profound humanity". [Former Bros singer Matt Goss said](https://twitter.com/mattgoss/status/1604986163441598464) The Specials were very important because they "made you feel alive" and Ghost Town was "a masterpiece". "And [they] turned us on to a trend that was an all encompassing movement of music and fashion SKA!!... It was a horrible time to be in the city but they gave us hope. That was the thing that it was. Carole Donnelly, a friend of Hall's, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "He was kind, witty, but a very shy man. Bringing the idiosyncratic and ironic songs to life beautifully." Together with the band, he was very vocal about racism and injustice in general," he added. Take care on the steps above young man." "There was so much turmoil going on in the country at that time… [Leftfield wrote on Twitter](https://twitter.com/Leftfield/status/1604981531818213377) that Hall was "such an amazing singer", adding: "He sang about real people and real issues.

LONDON — Terry Hall, the British musician and lead singer in the late 1970s' ska-punk band the Specials, has died at the age of 63, the group announced ...

[“Well Fancy That!,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=IxLmxZixVXk&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&feature=emb_logo) recorded in 1983 by Fun Boy Three. It was heartbreaking, the last thing we wanted to see.” “We were playing with Madness in a university town somewhere, we walked offstage and there were casualties all over the dressing room. The trauma left him in a state of depression and addicted to Valium, which he had been prescribed. He held odd jobs, including apprentice hairdresser, before deciding to pursue music after seeing the Sex Pistols in concert. “It got really extreme,” Mr. “Our country’s in a mess, do you like my gold record? Hall performed with bands Fun Boy Three, the Colourfield and Vegas. It was a haunting soundtrack to the summer of riotous unrest that gripped the country’s inner cities one month after its release. “We were expected to get a gold disc for that record, but I found that pretty horrible. It felt like the perfect moment to stop.” Why do we need that reward?” Mr.

The band's albums were landmarks of the interracial '2-tone' scene that swept England and beyond in the late '70s and early '80s.

“Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… Terry Hall, frontman for the English ska-punk band the Specials, has died.

Terry Hall, singer of the ska revival band the Specials, has died at 63, his band announced. The Specials found hits in the U.K. by bringing back ska in the ...

In 2008, he reunited the Specials with a lineup including Golding and Panter. While Hall went on to form other bands, including the Colourfield in the mid-1980s and Vegas with Eurythmics musician Dave Stewart, he also had a solo career. The band released another album, More Specials, in 1980, and had a U.K. That album featured covers of Jamaican artists like Toots and the Maytals and Dandy Livingstone, along with political messages about racism and violence, and it became a key album in the ska revival in the U.K. The band soon opened for the Clash on tour after Joe Strummer went to one of their gigs and released their self-titled debut album, produced by Elvis Costello, in 1979. After dropping out of school at 14, Hall eventually joined a band called the Coventry Automatics in his late teens.

Go-Gos guitarist Jane Wiedlin — who sang backing vocals on the Specials' 1980 album More Specials — paid tribute to her friend in a touching tweet. “Gutted to ...

Though The Specials formed and reformed a number of times over the years with a wide variety of lineups, Hall will be remembered for the indelible mark he left on the band’s first two albums and the long tail of influence in its music, message and style, which was carried on in spirit by everyone from Fishbone to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, Blur, Sublime and Operation Ivy/Rancid. at the time, the band members made a statement in their rude boy two-tone suits and porkpie hats and blasted out of the gate on their Elvis Costello-produced self-titled debut on their 2 Tone label, which featured their signature cover of Dandy Livingstone’s 1967 single “A Message to You Rudy.” Hall then formed the group The Colourfield in 1984, releasing two albums with that project before pivoting to release an album with his trio featuring actress Blair Booth and jeweler Anouchka Grose: Terry, Blair & Anouchka. He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity.” His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… “Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls.

Hall died “after a brief illness,” according to The Specials. Band members remembered him as “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant ...

Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. “His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… “Terrible news to hear this.” His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… “Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls,” the group said. Hall died “after a brief illness,” according to The Specials.

Terry Hall, the lead singer of English ska band the Specials, has died at the age of 63, the band announced on social media.

“’Love Love Love’,” the band’s statement concluded. The band’s final record with Hall, “Protest Songs 1924-2012,” was released in 2021. Their other notable songs included the cover “A Message to You, Rudy” and “Doesn’t Make it Alright.”

Musician Terry Hall, who helped create some of the defining sounds of post-punk Britain as lead singer of The Specials, has died. He was 63.

Hall’s bandmates said he was “a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. Most of the original Specials reunited in 2008, staged a 30th-anniversary tour in 2009 and in 2019 released an album of new material, “Encore,” which became the band’s first U.K. “He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… Hall joined the band that would become The Specials in the English Midlands city of Coventry in the late 1970s, a time of racial tension, economic gloom and urban unrest. music charts in the summer of 1981 as Britain’s cities were erupting in riots.