Specials

Product Information

Two-Tone Records (or 2 Tone Records ) was created in Coventry, UK in 1978 by Jerry Dammers who apart from being the songwriter and music director for bands ‘The Specials’ and ‘The Special A.K.A’ was also the Chief Executive of the label and responsible for signing artists such as Madness, The Selecter, The Beat and The Bodysnatchers.

Matrix / Runout (Side A, stamped / etched, variant 2): CHR TT 5003 A // 3 ▽ E C R S TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN 1 1 5 CHR-TT 5003A3 √ANOS Ghost Town/Why?/Friday Night Saturday Morning". "Billboard". 8 August 1981. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012 . Retrieved 14 August 2011.Ghost Town" is a song by the British two-tone band the Specials, released on 12 June 1981. [2] The song spent three weeks at number one and 11 weeks in total in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.

The summer of 1981 saw riots in over 35 locations around the UK. [4] In response to the linking of the song to these events, singer Terry Hall said, "When we recorded 'Ghost Town', we were talking about [1980]'s riots in Bristol and Brixton. The fact that it became popular when it did was just a weird coincidence." [21] The song created resentment in Coventry where residents angrily rejected the characterisation of the city as a town in decline. [3]

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Jo-Ann Greene. "Ghost Town - The Specials | Listen, Appearances, Song Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 29 March 2014. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). Australian Chart Book. p.286. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. The label started things off with the classic ‘Gangsters’ shortly followed by Madness’ ‘The Prince’ (a tribute to Prince Buster and the Jamaican Ska scene in general) and The Selecters’ ‘On My Radio’ Other classics which followed included ‘Too Much Too Young’ and The most famous 2 Tone release of them all; ‘Ghost Town’. Despite popular belief the single Ghost Town was not criticism of Racial tension on a national scale; mainly a broadside at the thuggery that existed within Coventry. Infact many of the Specials songs were about life in Coventry. 'Concrete Jungle', 'Dawning Of A New Era', 'Stereotypes' etc. The overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom. There were weird, diminished chords: certain members of the band resented the song and wanted the simple chords they were used to playing on the first album. It's hard to explain how powerful it sounded. We had almost been written off and then "Ghost Town" came out of the blue. [3] In March 1981, Jerry Dammers heard the reggae song "At the Club" by actor and singer Victor Romero Evans played on Roundtable, the singles review show on BBC Radio 1. Fascinated by the record's sound, Dammers telephoned the song's co-writer and producer John Collins a few days later, although as Dammers first phone call was in the middle of the night, Collins initially took it to be a joke. [12] [13] Following further conversations with Dammers, Collins travelled up from his home in London to meet the Specials at their rehearsal studio and agreed to produce their new single.