LONDON (Reuters) – Terry Hall, lead singer of British ska band The Specials whose often political singles in the late 1970s and early 1980s included “Gangsters” and “Ghost Town” has died at 63. Died at age, his former band members said.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most wonderful singers, songwriters and songwriters this country has ever produced,” he said on Twitter.
Hall joined the band in 1977 in his central English home town of Coventry. With a mix of black and white members and a Jamaican-inspired sound, they became a symbol of Britain’s new multicultural identity in a time of racial tension.
“The special was a celebration of how British culture was boosted by Caribbean immigration,” singer Billy Bragg, part of the same wave of artists, tweeted in response to the news.
“But their lead singer onstage performance was a reminder that they were in serious business of challenging our notions of who we were in the late 1970s.”
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Hall was famous for his deadpan delivery, looking emotionless at the television cameras as he sang while the rest of the band galloped along behind him, dressed in their trade-mark suits, pork-pie hats and loafer shoes. Were.
His song “Too Much Too Young”, a critique of teen pregnancy, reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 1980, and he repeated the feat in 1981 with “Ghost Town”, a protest against urban decay under the former’s government. A protest by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Hall left the band in 1981 to form another group, the Fun Boy Three, with two other former Special members. He re-joined The Specials – also known as The Specials AKA – and performed with them as recently as this year.
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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