Trying To Explain The Specials

I was trying to explain why I cared about The Specials to Surreal Girl the other day. Looking back, they were probably my first exposure English Hoodoo music; Two Tone was a united black and white protest voice against the greying onslaught and polarisation of Thatcherism blighting England. Listening to Ghost Town on Top Of The Pops planted hints that would take years for me to start consciously thinking about.

Talking about The Specials made me really understand just how important they were. At a point in time where it was not just Christian cults, but also the National Front who used to wait outside the school gates preying on the impressionable and handing out leaflets, The Specials mattered. Two Tone mattered. The whole ‘ska revival’ mattered.

With children dancing to Ghost Town at their first school disco, their pop heroes of the moment praising Prince Buster and Neville Staples as important in the band as Terry Hall, the NF were fighting for children’s souls against impossible coolness odds. There is no way you are going to fall for any racist spiel - however seductive - when you are singing along to A Message To You, Rudy.