As JIMI HENDRIX once wrote, “I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me…Then I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors
And now the whole world is here for me to see”
I quote to illustrate how genius’s can be immortal by sharing their complex artistic personalities with us though musical expression. In recent times there have been fewer unexpected deaths than the sudden passing of the great TERRY HALL. I wouldnt want this collumn to seem mawkish or obsessive but really all five figures in this piece are such huge talents- particularly HALL that i feel compelled to share my musical memories and look back on the career of these mavericks. HALL however out of them all hit me the hardest. Probably the hardest loss since BOWIE. Perhaps HALL’s complex personality or life experiences with such a painful start in life and as it turned out a tragic end was reflected in the diverse outings throughout his career, expressed in song. He tended to concentrate on the alienated or the “different”, (the Racial issue made his take slightly different to the characters explored by the likes of RAY DAVIES) particularly in songs like the timeless GHOST TOWN (Britain in the last three years certainly is! The video was like a forerunner of a LOCK STOCK British Gangster movie) or FRIDAY NIGHT and later on with the FUN BOY THREE he explored his more poetic romantic preoccupations on unusual hits like OUR LIPS ARE SEALED or LUNATICS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM which seems more relevant than ever…THE SPECIALS recently did a new recording complete with missing horns and a new DUB reggae bass. Many’s a time i observe the asylum we inhabit called the UK…or world! A clever witty writer and rather underrated lyrical expressionist in the RAY DAVIES vein or perhaps NEIL INNES even or NEIL HANNON/DIVINE COMEDY in his humor which whilst not as obvious as MADNESS was there all the same. STUPID MARRIAGE even if not penned by him is an early example. Another healthy aspect was that to a child’s mind one didn’t think of the black or white issue at all. At least I didn’t , I was far too obsessed with the music. I’m talking about OUR LIPS ARE SEALED the evocative masterpiece of darkly gothic majesty replete with African rhythms wonderful harmonies and incredibly complex production on a classical George Martin style level with haunting strange lyrics. What do they mean ? Mysterious and moody it’s certainly unique. DAVID BYRNE’s production is key in taking HALL to AFRICAN influences. STEREOTYPES with its Spanish rhythms seems more like an influence you might expect with mid HC period Stranglers. Certainly the transition was interesting as LUNATICS is a wonderful companion piece to GHOST TOWN by the time HALL decided like so many artists of the era to branch out into different projects and away from DAMMERS for whatever reason. Depending on his musical mood he was a REGGAES SKA JAZZ or POP then INDIE misfit delivered wittily as something of a MCCARTNEY meets an artIt’s more like ROBERT SMITH.
As I write this, sat in a Glastonbury cafe I can share with you the fact I just met a lovely old fella who decided to chat with me about music and his adventures at festivals such as Glastonbury festival, seeing the likes of DYLAN and LED ZEP, at Knebworth Festival and when i mentioned HALL he replied:
“You know the singer Sofie Khan who sang on the last SPECIALS record 10 COMMANDMENTS song? i know her! She was thrilled…She’s like a model great she told me all about being on the new LP.. so sad about TERRY yes…nobody left these days they dont make Real bands how they used to anymore…”…and then he was gone in a dry cab in the rain…I had to share the coincidence…The funny thing is i only first heard the track over Xmas (on my headphones in Victoria Station to be precise!) for the first time and the fact she shared the same name as an ex boss of mine left me laughing at the irony. An irony now extended as I sit reflecting on the fact I just met briefly a friend of the SPECIALS knowing a member…he even met HALL…You couldnt write it…or maybe you could! As for the finale for HALL the classic SPECIALS lyrics spring to mind.
“Your wondering now what to do now you know this is the end”. Haunting fitting lyrics to relate in today’s context.
In later more recent times stories emerged of HALL’s childhood sex abuse and a SPECIALS without JERRY DAMMERS which though of some interest passed me by saved in my mind for a future time i felt, so his death led to the aforementioned future time and so made me explore the recent reformed offerings of the band all the more. ENCORE is diverse with unexpected FUNK outings and quirky cover versions. When you look at any artists body of work, its easy to overlook aspects or only concentrate on certain predictable well known periods of expression. For some WELLER or BOWIE took too many obscure or unexpected musical twists but HALL seemed more subtle in his transitions perhaps. When news of TERRY HALL’s passing hit the news we were only fresh from another four musicians who also had a varied hall of musical expression perhaps mirroring their inner turmoil as artists…particularly in HALL’s case. WiILCO JOHNSON of DR FEELGOOD, NIK TURNER of HAWKWIND JET BLACK of the STRANGLERS and NAZARETH’s DAN MCCAFFERTY all left us and all were intense unique artists.
HALL was tall and gaunt as a young man. JET BLACK on the other hand whilst also pale and interesting (with HALL maybe slightly in a CURE way) was an eccentric…rotund and menacing, a late bloomer and in many ways the heart of the group. I do hope despite the odd frosty impression given after HUGH left the band that JB and HC ended on good terms. I loved how he had a weight issue but it never held him back and his wonderful JAZZ percussion on GOLDEN BROWN is a joy to behold. He was delightfully realistic as a ancient Egyptian Archaeologist in the GOLDEN BROWN video dressed as one of Archaeologist HOWARD CARTER’s men in his spectacles. His death was inevitable, particularly to a STRANGLERS obsessive like me given the stories of many years of illness. When I saw the band in 2004 his drumming was every bit as powerful id imagine as in the early days particularly on NORFOLK COAST. BRIAN JOHN DUFFY was his real name and with songs like I FEEL LIKE A WOG, was at the front of the bands direction as it was he and HUGH C who started it all. His menacing stare at the start of the SKIN DEEP video is the visual image in my minds eye as I remember the late great drummer. An eccentric in every sense and a real man of depth complex diverse comedy and dark gothic menace, even horror in his urgent imagery painted by the pounding drums on tracks like NUCLEAR DEVICE and the iconic anthem NO MORE HEROES. His pounding live work on ALL LIVE has me thinking of the live version but he also often played with JAZZ preciseness and great skill. I saw him play live in 2004 on the NORFOLK COAST tour and he beat the skins as well as ever with great Power and deftness. He was far more powerful live than i had realized in many ways as the ALL LIVE AND ALL OF THE NIGHT recording showed he was very powerful but the studio recordings such as PEACHES perhaps never showed his power if it did his range. It seems that JET is credited with forming the STRANGLERS but id award that credit myself to HUGH CORNWELL as his band were already formed who JET subsequently joined, they changed the name to STRANGLERS from JOHNNY SOX and the band were born with JJ joining not long after. I do hope JJ and HUGH do a project. HUGH and JJ are unlikely to record or perform i would guess but its possible. Perhaps JJ and HC can get that spark back – i do like the current STRANGLERS singer BAZ WARNE but for me HUGH gets better and better solo so i do hope its possible. JET dressed as a Choirboy in the video for DUCHESS a timeless is hilarious image that will be my personal memory…and as his friendship with GEORGE MELLY showed JB was also a JAZZ fan like CHARLIE WATTS though in BLACK’s case he only really touched JAZZ as an influence unlike CHARLIE WATTS who outside of the STONES took his JAZZ to different levels. Having stayed recently in the GORE hotel in Kensington where THE ROLLING STONES stayed i do hope the rock gods blessed me.
In 2019 i saw HAWKWIND at the Royal Albert Hall and as the 50th anniversary gig it was fun however I partly went as compensation for spotting i had missed a date by the great NIK TURNER’s band in Bridgwater, a small Somerset town not that far from Glastonbury. TURNER’s Jazz Fusion Space rock really lit up albums like the ROBERT CALVERT dominated ASTOUNDING SOUNDS AMAZING MUSIC (1976) with its similarities to GONG and later act OZRIC TENTACLES.
NAZARETH were a 1968 Scottish band from Dunfirmline (like the SKIDS and the magnificent BIG COUNTRY founder STUART ADAMSON years later) I really got into them strangely in the States where i found an old scratched HAIR OF THE DOG which clearly influenced ACDC and GUNS AND ROSES as well as perhaps via THIN LIZZY and MIKE OLDFIELD a celtic twist that reminds me of that later classic STUART ADAMSON sound. DAN had a unique rasping style and is a sad loss.
WILCO JOHNSON was as influential as he was modest, brave and talented. Quirky and original his rifle shot guitar style was directly influential on THE JAM (WELLER) and many others. His documentary with JULIAN TEMPLE, (who i met briefly at a Somerset village hall showing of his COLERIDGE and WORDSWORTH poetry biopic) is included below and makes me want to explore my London roots in east anglia. JOHNSON also played with the legendary IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS. WILCO had a unique way of connecting with his audience and embraced life to the extent that he confounded the medical profession when he beat Cancer for many years. A disease that took HALL. Ironic that HALL wrote so many lyrics on the Covid period. A period all about fear as well as the Cancer issues that are complex and baffling. Cancer seems to be taking more than any other disease so for HALL to get through such a tough period to then hit a brick wall of illness must have been yet another bitter pill. But just as he overcame childhood trauma i think the music triumphs with all these artists as lasting musical epitaphs. TERRY will live forever however cliched it sounds. I shall never lose the sad novelty of the recent BOWIE, PRINCE era of deaths when i remember my own childhood when the only dead musical legends seemed to be the likes of WAGNER, BEETHOVEN or ghost like FOLK artists and songs or JAZZ SWING legends…or the ROCK AND ROLL losses such as BUDDY HOLLY. But the current daily wave of musical exits is painful to us all as well as a disturbing wake up call on mortality.
WELLER in the JAM was more of a storyteller like DAVIES as opposed to his later work…and this storyteller quality is shared by HALL with reflections on characters in tracks like STEREOTYPES (think DAVID WATTS or BRUCE FOXTON’s and WELLER’s SMITHERS JONES). HALL clearly found it therapeutic to share experiences from his youth which he shared in his later years candidly and tragically as a younger man but was expressed only in lyrics. Interviews at that time tended to be in the WELLER political “Spokesman for a generation” style but as with my own interviews its hard to discuss politics these days as opposed the TWO TONE era when politics was part of the music, which in itself it led to the self destructive LIVE AID or RED WEDGE projects and the flack the likes of BONO got years later perhaps. But its good to remind oneself of the honest accurate political views expressed in songs and 80s videos like HALL’s, THE MORE I SEE (included in this article below), which work so well.
TERRY HALL chose SKA as a forum for his ideas but as a niche field this perhaps meant some might not have discovered his more breezy pop and Jazzy more open musical canvasses as shown in his other work outside of the SPECIALS framework. Ska and Reggae in the SPECIALS sound (which was bridged with pop and rock like the POLICE did, with SKA rather than the POLICE’s Reggae). His transitions to other music styles seemed more subtle in some ways then PAUL WELLER’s various transitions. Its a crime to dismiss HALL as a TWO TONE act however brilliant the SPECIALS are (if SKA either is or isnt your scene), rather like the way an actor get typecast you cant simply pin HALL down to one genre which would be wrong. As it happens i treasure the memories of the era as a fan myself particularly of the BEAT (DAVE from the BEAT lived near me in the Cali and I missed them live but he lived locally to me and played small venues). I well remember playing singles by TWO TONE acts with that classic DAMMERS “WALT” character in the hat on the labels and sleeves. I even saw the SELECTER in Bournemouth in the 90’s minus the original backing band as PAULINE BLACK led a band seemingly as usual a bit bereft of original members, like so many reformed bands.
I own an original of the wonderful HALL’s COLOUR FIELD debut LP I found in the USA along with various battered TWO TONE / SPECIALS singles. COLOUR FIELD were so underrated and VIRGINS AND PHILLISTINES, I rate as up there with all my fave bands of the era such as ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN, THE CURE, THE SOUND, XTC, and TEARDROP EXPLODES as bands with similar sounds. BUNNYMEN producer IAN BROUDIE was a close friend of HALL’s and played a superb live version of SENSE which was written by HALL when i saw him live a couple of years back in 2019. Ive included TH’s original.
My first observation is that as a listener if you are not a REGGAE or SPECIALS fan then dont look on this as a reason to not look into HALL. FUN BOY 3, CF, TERRY, BLAIR AND ANOUCHKA all dabbled in POP, 60;s, INDIE, JAZZ and even MUSICALS in composition and style. ULTRA MODERN NURSERY RHYME” (Its certainly more cheerful than the COLERIDGE’s ANCIENT MARINER RHYME ive become obsessed with down the years!), seems straight out of a west end musical and FRIDAY NIGHT SATURDAY MORNING an early sixties Kitchen sink style CATHY COME HOME type of lyrical realism right our of a KINKS song. All my life i have longed for DAMON ALBAR to do a version and low and behold he has! One of my first memories is playing a C90 Recording of RAT RACE and so many of the lyrics have stuck with me in a wonderful way, however the idealism seems almost a luxury as so many artists have to knuckle down to conventional jobs to make ends meet regardless of politics. HALL had a ability to in a rather similar way in delivery or image to ROBERT SMITH or RAY DAVIES to paint poetically in a rich tapestry of musical vignettes illustrated with his wit and charming humor. The problem for some with WELLER in contrast was that perhaps PW’s core voice could be lost in over production during late STYLE COUNCIL or in the more STEVE MARRIOTT type direction of later work however clever that work may be. HALL n the same way embraced many genres but he never really changed as such in his core vocal delivery or personality, despite contrasting musical genres.
TERRY HALL never worked with JERRY DAMMERS in the end on the SPECIALS (as it turned out farewell projects). final recording we find HALL taking the band minus DAMMERS into a FB3 with horns project- which works great mostly but was slightly patchy perhaps if i was being harsh (BLM is a bit obvious and the occasional forays into Funk seem out of place though still fun). I enjoy EMBARRASSED BY YOU which has early hallmarks along with the wonderful cover of FRANK ZAPPA’s – TROUBLE EVERY DAY.
I am a fan boy of all these giants of music and below are some fun little fan interviews i did with cult indie band THE OTHERS. This year i plan to publish a 150 poem collection of my poems and lyrics so do look out for future news on this. I hope you have enjoyed reading my memories of these musical visionaries.
Ben Manning's Music + Arts 