The Specials/Special AKA

By 1979 punk was nothing but a parody, yet in the post-industrial Midlands of England, a new beat was emerging - a heady Jamaican brew of riffs, rhythms and street style that arrived in Britain with the first wave of Caribbean migrants. Straight out of Coventry, and stridently anti-racist, The Specials' live gigs were the stuff of legend, and producer Elvis Costello captured something of the band's raw pulse on old school ska classics like Dandy Thompson's 1967 anthem A Message To You Rudy.

But The Specials' finest studio performances were invariably sparked by their own material; In the three short minutes of Nite Klub, bassman Horace Panter (aka Sir Horace Gentleman) deftly shifts from dead-on ska  through a dub reggae bridge to Larry Graham-style funk.

Formed in 1977 as the Coventry Automatics, The Specials were the brainchild of Jerry Dammers and Lynval Golding, who sought to blend punk and reggae. In 1978 the band were approached by The Clash's manager Bernie Rhodes with an offer of management. Rhodes moved the group from Coventry to London where he rehearsed them intensely. Tiring of the "interminable" period of rehearsals, Dammers took his band back to Coventry and severed all ties with Rhodes.

After a short but hugely successful career as Britain's leading ska band, The Specials broke up in October 1981 after one final triumph. Ghost Town was prompted by a stop the band made in Liverpool on their final UK tour. The shuttered shops and palpable sense of hopelessness brought home the horrific Northern inverse of the South-Eastern Thatcherite dream - and The Specials set that slide into social collapse to a fabulously malignant skank.

Released in June 1981 - and reaching the top of the UK charts shortly after - Ghost Town was the 2-Tone ska party abruptly cut short by the most depressing Number 1 single of all time. And it reflected the national mood in ways few pop records are able to. 

Neville Staples, Lynval Golding and Terry Hall celebrated the success of the single by forming a new band called Fun Boy Three, while Jerry Dammers and John Bradbury stayed together under the name Special AKA, releasing the single Free Nelson Mandela in April 1984. The political anthem, which demanded freedom for the imprisoned South African ANC leader, went Top 10 in the UK.