{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"","title":"The Specials are no more! Horace Panter remembers days when it was ‘like walking on air’","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/1784055935467-98ef9f5b-7537-499f-be5a-44fa5fa22514.jpeg?height=200","description":"

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: https://shop.thespecials.islandrecords.com/

","author_name":"Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold"}