Native of Coventry, the emblematic singer of the British group, pioneer of the Raven Ska and the most innovative interbreedings in the late 1970s, died at the age of 63.
by Stéphane Davet
His white voice, strangely distant, associated with that, soul and warm, of Neville Staple, against the backdrop of jaman dances mixing Jamaican ska and punk emergency, had embodied within the most exciting music contrasts children childish by England Métisée from the late 1970s. English singer-songwriter Terry Hall, who was also the singer of groups such as Fun Boy Three or The Colorfield, died on Sunday, December 18, at the age of 63.
announced, on December 19, by a Tweet of the Specials, which Hall had reformed in the late 2000s with the singer-guitarist Lynval Golding and the bassist Horace Panter, his death caused countless messages of condolences of condolences Artists of the British scene – Boy George, Elvis Costello, The Coral, Billy Bragg… -, recalling how the singer marked his time.
If Jerry Dammers and Horace Panter, the co -founders of the specials, had met in an art school, their principal singer, son of factory workers, had left school at 14 years old. He was born on March 19, 1959, in Coventry, gray city of the West Midlands, martyred by bombing during the Second World War, then by the crisis in the automotive industry, where his mother and father of Gypsy origin worked.
Her parents unable to assume his secondary studies, this football enthusiast, a time approached by the professional team of West Bromwich Albion and life supporter of Manchester United, lives odd jobs: mason, hairdresser assistant … “My generation seemed to have no future, he remembered in 2019, in an interview with the world. The resentment accumulated. Fridays and Saturday evenings, we found ourselves in the city center with neighborhood gangs. “
The impact of the punk movement
In young people, Terry Hall discovers music of Jamaican origin. “I grew up with it,” he explained, “because it was the music played on the sound systems. They went from old very dancing tubes to ska or rocksteady, like those of Prince Buster or skatalites, and also reggae Slower rhythm, which became the dominant style after the success of Bob Marley. Many Jamaicans had settled in the midlands. I lived in a Coventry district where a Caribbean community lived. There was also a lot of Indo-Pakistan . In my school, there must be 70 % black for 30 % whites. We were friends, without color problem. “
He also loves David Bowie, but it is the uninhibited impact of the punk movement which releases his desires to put himself in singing. He joined a first group, Squad, under clash influences and sex pistols, before crossing the road, in 1977, of the Automatic, the reggae-punk training just launched by Jerry Dammers and Horace Panter. Having become the Coventry Automatics, then The Special Aka and finally The Specials, the group focuses on the angular rhythms of the ska and the Blue Beat, ancestors of the reggae prized of mods, skinheads and other harsh boys from the 1960s.
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