RIP Terry Hall

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Vienna_70 said:
I’ve recounted this story on here before, but I think it’s appropriate to retell it here.

I spent a year in Finland from September 1981 to August 1982, but before travelling there, I had to visit the Finnish embassy to acquire my residence visa and work permit.

I went up to stay with my aunt and her family in Northamptonshire for a week in early July. On the Tuesday, I went to the Royal Show at Stoneleigh with my cousin and his then-girlfriend, and on the way back to his parents house, we listened to the repeat of the new chart, that had first been announced around midday, and I was delighted that Ghost Town was the new No. 1.

I travelled back to Cornwall on the following Sunday. I think I left around 6:00, and as I was driving down the A45 towards the M4, I saw a police car across the road and as I approached the vehicle, a policeman waved me down. He asked me where I’d come from and where I was heading.

After I’d explained, he told me that he and his colleagues were looking for the ringleaders of the riots, but I didn’t look the type and he allowed me to go on my way.

When I rang my auntie to let her know that I’d arrived home, she was intrigued to hear about my encounter with the law.
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I'd almost forgotten that the new charts used to be announced on a Tuesday rather than when the Top 40 was played on the radio on a Sunday evening.

Which conveniently brings me onto another Ghost Town story. Just 2 days before your incident I was listening to the Top 40 so it was the chart positions from the week before Ghost Town got to No.1. I was only 11 at the time and in my last days and weeks of primary school. Bad Manners were No.3 with Can Can and The Specials were No.2 with Ghost Town. What they did on Radio 1 that night was something that I could never previously recall with the chart countdown - normally they'd announce each song before they played it but on this occasion as Can Can was ending, they merged it with the opening bars of Ghost Town. It might sound like a nothing incident but for me it was a big thing, as it was for a few other classmates as we were giddily going on about it in school the next morning!
 
Sad news. RIP Terry Hall.

I live in Earlsdon in Coventry and about 100 yards down the road is a house with a blue plaque to mark where The Specials formed and composed much of their stuff.

The drummer, the late John Bradbury, used to work for my mum. I'd go into work with her during the school holidays and I'd play table tennis with him in every spare moment. Really nice bloke.

One of the band, possibly Jerry Dammers, rocked up at my dad's work, a Community Education project, and gave him the proceeds from the previous night's gig to support the work. Not asked for, just did it.
 
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mexico1970 said:
Loved the music they made but typical of Bragg to just not concentrate on the sound that everyone (well near everyone) liked. At the time I thought they were brilliant without the political angle and I still think they are brilliant.
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WTF are you on about? The band were very upfront about their cultural and political principles. Those principles drove everything they did. You can't mention The Specials, or Terry Hall, without mentioning the principles that drove them.
 
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