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Encore (The Specials Album)
''Encore'' is the eighth studio album by the English ska revival band The Specials. It is their first studio album of original songs since 1998's ''Guilty 'til Proved Innocent!'', and their first new material with vocalist Terry Hall since 1981's "Ghost Town" single. The album features three covers of older songs; "Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys" (originally by The Equals), "Blam Blam Fever" (originally by The Valentines) and "The Lunatics" (originally by Hall and Lynval Golding's group Fun Boy Three, released in 1981 as "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)"). The Specials, in a different incarnation, previously released a cover of "Blam Blam Fever" on 2000's studio album ''Skinhead Girl''. The album entered at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart after its first week of release, falling to 5 the week after and spending 9 weeks on the charts. Track listing All tracks written by Terry Hall, Horace Panter, Lynval Golding, and Nikolaj Torp Larsen; except where indicated. # "Black Sk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Specials
The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English Two-tone (music genre), 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall (singer), Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Lynval Golding and Roddy Radiation on guitars, Horace Panter on bass, Jerry Dammers on keyboards, John Bradbury (drummer), John Bradbury on drums, and Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez (musician), Rico Rodriguez on horn. Their music combines the danceable rhythms of ska and rocksteady with the energy and attitude of punk rock, punk. Lyrically, they present a "more focused and informed political and social stance". The band wore mod (subculture), mod-style "1960s period rude boy outfits (pork pie hats, tonic and mohair suits and loafers)". In 1980, the song "Too Much Too Young", the lead track on their ''The Special AKA Live!'' Extended play, EP, reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1981, the recessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Town (Specials Song)
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by Allen H. Miner * ''Ghost Town'' (1988 film), an American horror film by Richard McCarthy (as Richard Governor) * ''Ghost Town'' (2008 film), an American fantasy comedy film by David Koepp * ''Ghost Town'', a 2008 TV film featuring Billy Drago * ''Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns'', a 2005–2006 British paranormal reality television series * "Ghost Town" (''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''), a 2009 TV episode Literature * ''Ghost Town'' (''Lucky Luke'') or ''La Ville fantôme'', a 1965 ''Lucky Luke'' comic *''Ghost Town'', a Beacon Street Girls novel by Annie Bryant *''Ghost Town'', a 1998 novel by Robert Coover *''Ghosttown'', a 2007 novel by Douglas Anne Munson Music * Ghost Town (band), an American electronic band * ''Ghost Town'', a 1939 b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Message To You, Rudy
"A Message to You Rudy" is a 1967 rocksteady song by Dandy Livingstone. Originally titled "Rudy a Message to You", the song later achieved broader success when, in 1979, a cover version by The Specials reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart. Composition and recording Livingstone came up with the idea of the song in about 10 minutes and recorded it a day or two later in about 20 minutes at Maximum Sounds Studio on Old Kent Road with engineer Vic Keary. Livingstone has said that he "had a very bad cold" on the day of recording and so it was suggested that he record the song as a guide vocal and then go over the vocals another day. However, everybody liked what Livingstone had done, so he didn't bother going back to sing over it. Whilst recording the song, Livingstone decided he wanted a trombone to feature in the song, so about a week after the recording session, he got trombonist Rico Rodriguez to play the intro melody. At the same time, he got a tenor saxophonist called Pepsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roddy Radiation
Roddy Radiation (born Roderick James Byers, 5 May 1955 in Keresley, Coventry, England) is an English musician who played lead guitar for The Specials, as well as many rockabilly bands such as the Bonediggers and the Tearjerkers. He wrote the Specials favourites "Concrete Jungle", "Rat Race" and " Hey, Little Rich Girl", later covered by Amy Winehouse. Currently, Byers leads The Skabilly Rebels, a band that mixes ska rhythms with rockabilly. Biography Byers' first real band was formed in Coventry in 1975 and were called The Wild Boys. It was in The Wild Boys that he started songwriting. His first was "1980's Teddy Boy", and later came "Concrete Jungle" which was recorded by The Specials for their debut album, '' Specials'' (1979). Byers joined The Specials when the band was called The Coventry Automatics and wrote several songs for the band. The most successful was "Rat Race", which peaked at number five in the UK Singles Chart in May 1980. Byers also wrote "Hey Little Rich ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bradbury (drummer)
John "Brad" Bradbury (16 February 1953 – 28 December 2015) was an English drummer and record producer. He is best known for having been the drummer in the English ska group the Specials. Early life and education Bradbury was born in Coventry, where his father, Bert, was a painter and decorator for the council, and his mother, Joan, worked first for GEC (she was a shop steward) and then at Walsgrave Hospital, where she helped with care in the maternity ward. She was staunchly anti-racist and concerned with immigrants’ rights, and her views had a powerful effect on her son. He became fascinated by drumming as a child, and when he was eight his mum bought him a drum kit. According to his sister, Jill, "she then put egg boxes on the walls to stop the sound reaching the neighbours". Bradbury had three elder sisters, and it was they who took him to clubs and first introduced him to northern soul. He attended Binley Park school in Coventry, and went on to study fine art at H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Dammers
Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers GCOT (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who was a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry-based ska band The Specials (also known as The Special A.K.A.) and later The Spatial AKA Orchestra. Through his foundation of the record label Two Tone, his work blending political lyrics and punk with Jamaican music, and his incorporation of 60's retro clothing, Dammers is a pivotal figure of the ska revival. He has also been acknowledged in his work for racial unity. Biography Dammers was born in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India, the son of Horace Dammers who was later Dean of Bristol Cathedral from 1973 to 1987. Jerry Dammers attended King Henry VIII School, Coventry. He left India at the age of 2, first living in Coventry, then moving to Sheffield at the age of 10. His initial music influences were 60's powerpop bands like The Who, The Small Faces, The Kinks, which made him want to be in a band, and he was also influenced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gangsters (song)
"Gangsters" is the first single by the English ska group The Specials. Recording and release "Gangsters" was recorded in January 1979 in Studio One of Horizon Studios in Coventry. Horace Panter recalls that the song "had so much bass on it that it had to be recut as the bass blew the needle out of the record's grooves" and that "to compensate for the low end, Jerry ammersoverdubbed a treble-heavy piano on". The vocals were created by Terry Hall singing a "bored" vocal and an "angry" vocal, which were then mixed together. Versions of "Nite Klub" and " Too Much Too Young" were also recorded, but it was decided they didn't quite work, so the band then had to find a B-side to "Gangsters". John Bradbury, who had only recently joined the band, replacing Silverton Hutchinson, suggested a instrumental track he had recorded in 1977 with Neol Davies, called "The Kingston Affair". Dammers asked Davies to put a ska rhythm guitar on the song and it was then retitled "The Selecter", becomi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neville Staple
Neville Eugenton Staple (born 11 April 1955), sometimes credited as Neville Staples, is a Jamaican-born English singer, known for his work with the 2 Tone ska band the Specials, as well as with his own group, the Neville Staple Band. He also performed with Ranking Roger in the supergroup Special Beat. Early life Staple was born in Manchester, Jamaica. He left Jamaica to live in the English town of Rugby, Warwickshire at the age of five but later moved to Coventry. Neville was a regular fixture at the Locarno Ballroom in Coventry, where he met the resident DJ there, Pete Waterman. Waterman briefly managed the Specials and would later write the foreword to Staple's 2009 biography, ''Original Rude Boy''. Staple's early vocal style was mostly " toasting"—or chanting over a rhythm—a forerunner of rapping brought to Britain in the 1960s by musicians from Jamaica. Staple honed his toasting skills in the sound system scene in Coventry during the 1970s, first on his cousin's "Messe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddy Grant
Edmond Montague Grant (born 5 March 1948) is a Guyanese-British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for his genre-blending sound; his music has blended elements of pop, British rock, soul, funk, reggae, electronic music, African polyrhythms, and Latin music genres such as samba, among many others. In addition to this, he also helped to pioneer the genre of "Ringbang". He was a founding member of the Equals, one of the United Kingdom's first racially-mixed pop groups who are best remembered for their million-selling UK chart-topper, the Grant-penned " Baby, Come Back". His subsequent solo career included the 1982 song " I Don't Wanna Dance", plus the platinum 1983 single "Electric Avenue", which is his biggest international hit. He earned a Grammy Award nomination for the song. He is also well known for the anti-apartheid 1988 song, "Gimme Hope Jo'anna". Early life Grant was born in Plaisance, British Guiana, later moving to Linden.Gregory, Andy (2002), ''I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays (previously Sundays). It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (top 5) and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or on UKChartsPlus as a Top 200, with positions continuing until all sales have been tracked in data only available to industry insiders. However, even though number 100 was classed as a hit album (as in the case of The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums) in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such as The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums book only including this data. As of 2021, the OCC still only tracks how many UK Top 75s album hits and how many weeks in Top 75 albums chart each artist has achieved. To qualify for the Offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skinhead Girl
''Skinhead Girl'' is a cover album by The Specials Released in 2000 (see 2000 in music). After a project backing ska legend Desmond Dekker on his 1993 album ''King of Kings'', producer Roger Lomas brought the band back into the studio to record covers of popular Trojan Records songs. Band member Lynval Golding left two weeks before the sessions,Original Rude Boy: From Borstal to The Specials by Neville Staple with Tony McMahon; Chapter 10: The Third Wave - America Revives Ska and was replaced by former Selecter guitarist Neol Davies on rhythm guitar. Track listing #"I Can't Hide" ( Ken Parker) - 3:32 #"Blam Blam Fever" (Carl Grant, V. Grant) - 3:25 #"Jezebel" (Wayne Shanklin) - 2:43 #"El Pussycat Ska" (Roland Alphonso, Clement Dodd) - 3:40 #"Soldering" ( Ewart Beckford) - 4:06 #"You Don't Know Like I Know" ( Isaac Hayes, David Porter) - 2:36 #"Memphis Underground" (Herbie Mann) - 3:56 #"If I Didn't Love You" (Eric "Monty" Morris) - 3:42 #"Them a Fe Get a Beatin'" ( Peter T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fun Boy Three
Fun Boy Three were an English new wave pop Fun Boy Three Allmusic bio/ref> band, active from 1981 to 1983 and formed by singers Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left the Specials. They released two albums and had seven UK top 20 hits. History Fun Boy Three reduced the ska sound that they and Jerry Dammers had crafted with great success with the Specials and initially took a more minimal approach with the focus on percussion and vocals.Green, Jim & Robbins, IraFun Boy Three, ''Trouser Press'', retrieved 27 January 2010 For their second album they assembled a six-piece backing group including a cellist and a trombone player, allowing the record to feature more diverse and expansive arrangements, and also enabling them to play live instead of being a purely studio group as previously. The band enjoyed six UK top 20 singles, starting with "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)" and including the top 10 hits "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
