LONDON, UK (Top40 Charts) Terry Hall, the frontman of socially conscious ska band The Specials, has died at the age of 63.
Known for his dour image and sharp wit, the singer found fame in the 1970s and 80s with hits like
Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much Too Young.
He left The Specials in 1981 to form Fun Boy Three with fellow-bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, scoring another run of hits.
The singer died after a brief illness, The Specials said in a statement:
"Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls," they wrote.
"His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love. He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity."
Biography:
Terence Edward Hall (19 March 1959 - 18 December 2022) was a British musician and the lead singer of the Specials, and formerly of Fun Boy Three, the Colourfield, Terry, Blair & Anouchka and Vegas.
He released two solo studio albums and also collaborated with many artists including
David Stewart, Bananarama, The Lightning Seeds, Sinéad O'Connor, Stephen Duffy, Dub Pistols, Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, D12, Tricky,
Lily Allen and Shakespears Sister.
Hall was born on 19 March 1959 in Coventry, England, where he was also raised. His father was of Irish descent. Hall was abducted by a paedophile ring on a trip to France at the age of 12. He left school before his fifteenth birthday, taking various short-term jobs, such as a bricklayer, quantity surveyor, and apprentice hairdresser.
Hall became an active member of the burgeoning Coventry music scene of the late 1970s, playing in a local punk band called
Squad and being credited as a composer on their "Red Alert" single.
Initially the frontman of 'the Coventry Automatics' in 1977-78, which became the Specials in early 1979, Hall first came to prominence in the UK in 1979 when BBC
Radio 1 disc jockey (DJ) John Peel played their debut single "Gangsters" on his show. The band then went on to release their debut studio album, The Specials, which also contained the hits "A Message to You Rudy" and "Too Much Too Young". In October 1980 the group released their second studio album, More Specials, which contained three more hit singles: "Do Nothing", "Stereotype" and "Rat Race".
The single "
Ghost Town", released in June 1981, spent three weeks at number one and ten weeks in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. The double A-side song, "Friday Night Saturday Morning", penned by Hall, described a night out at the Coventry Locarno.
After the Specials' single "
Ghost Town" was released, Hall left the band to start a new group called Fun Boy Three with two of his Specials bandmates, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple. Fun Boy Three's first hit single, "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)," was released in 1981 and was followed-up in 1982 with "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)," a duet with Bananarama. Fun Boy Three then provided guest vocals for Bananarama's single, "Really Saying Something." In the same year, Hall and his bandmates appeared in the music video for "Driving in My Car" by
Madness and released their debut studio album, Fun Boy Three, which reached No. 7 in the UK Albums Chart. In February 1983, Fun Boy Three released their second studio album, Waiting, which contained two Top Ten hits: "The Tunnel of Love" and "
Our Lips Are Sealed". The latter was a song Hall had written with Jane Wiedlin, who had already had success in the US with a version of the song by her group the Go-Go's.
Hall formed the Colourfield in 1984. The band released the 1985 studio album
Virgins and Philistines, which included the hit single "Thinking of You". The album spent seven weeks in the UK chart, peaking at No. 12. This new musical direction would culminate in collaborations with Ian Broudie and Hall contributing a number of songs to Broudie's albums as the Lightning Seeds. Hall also co-wrote the song "Smoke Ring" for Broudie's debut solo studio album Tales Told. The song was also released as the lead track on the Smoke Rings EP. A second Colourfield studio album, Deception, was released in 1987, reaching No. 95 in the UK Albums Chart.
Hall teamed up with American actress Blair Booth and jeweller Anouchka Grose and began recording under the moniker of Terry, Blair & Anouchka in 1989. After two singles which both scraped into the Top 80 of the UK Singles Chart, the trio released their debut studio album Ultra
Modern Nursery Rhymes, which failed to chart.
Hall joined forces with Dave Stewart of the
Eurythmics in 1992. The duo formed a band called
Vegas and released Vegas, a slick electronic pop album that was heavily promoted by their label BMG. It failed to chart. Only one of the three singles lifted from the album, "Possessed", managed to break the UK Top 40, reaching No. 32.
Hall began his formal solo career in 1994 with Home. The album was produced by his former collaborator Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds; it reached no. 95 in the UK Albums Chart. The album also featured ex-Echo & the Bunnymen bassist Les Pattinson. The highlight of the album was the single "Sense", which reached No. 54 on the UK Singles Chart. The following year, Hall released the Rainbows EP in collaboration with Damon Albarn of Blur and it climbed to no. 62 in the UK Singles Chart.
Hall followed up his debut studio album with Laugh in 1997. It remains his most successful solo album, reaching No. 50 in the UK Albums Chart. The album contains the Top 50 UK single, "Ballad of a Landlord". Both albums featured long-time collaborator
Craig Gannon.
Hall collaborated with Mushtaq of Fun-Da-Mental on the 2003 studio album The Hour of Two
Lights which contains contributions from Blur's Damon Albarn, a twelve-year-old Lebanese girl singer, a blind Algerian rapper, a Syrian flautist, Hebrew vocalists, and a group of Polish gypsies.
Hall appeared as a guest on the
Gorillaz and D12 collaboration single "911", a 2001 song about terrorist attacks in the US. Hall sings the chorus along with
Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn, while D12 rap their verses. Hall guested on the song "
Never Alone", which appeared on the 2003
Junkie XL studio album
Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin.
Hall was featured on the studio album True Love by Toots and the Maytals. The album won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album and showcased many notable musicians.
Hall provided vocals for several tracks on the Dub Pistols' 2007 studio album Speakers and Tweeters, after appearing on the band's song "Problem Is" from the studio album Six Million Ways to Live. Hall also appeared live at the Glastonbury Festival on the Pyramid Stage with
Lily Allen and his former Specials bandmate Lynval Golding. He also played on the Park Stage, once again with Golding and also Damon Albarn and beatboxer Shlomo, playing a version of the Specials' "A Message to You Rudy". Later that year, he appeared at GuilFest on the BBC
Radio 2 Stage, once again with the Dub Pistols and Golding.
Hall contacted his former Specials bandmates with the prospect of a reunion. He announced that the Specials would be reforming for tour dates and possibly recordings on 30 March 2008. Six members of the band performed on the Main Stage at Bestival as the surprise act on 6
September 2008. The Specials' original keyboardist and primary composer Jerry Dammers did not play at the festival and owns the trademark rights to the name "the Specials," so the group was billed as "Very 'Special' Guests". The Specials announced 2009 tour dates to celebrate their 30th anniversary on 2 December 2008. Dammers did not join the band on the tour, although relations between the two parties were reportedly strong. Hall was quoted as saying "the door remains open to him". Hall was still performing with the Specials in 2018, including a concert with the Rolling Stones, along with his original band members Lynval Golding and Horace Panter, and often DJed in various UK venues.
The Specials released a new studio album entitled Encore on 1 February 2019. Upon release it went straight to the number one spot on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the highest-charting album ever released by the Specials.
Hall had a brief romantic relationship with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos in 1980. They co-wrote the song "
Our Lips Are Sealed". Hall had two sons with his first wife,
Jeanette Hall, and another son with his second wife, Lindy Heymann.
Hall said that he suffered from lifelong depression after being abducted and sexually abused at the age of 12. He later became addicted to the Valium he had been prescribed. Following a suicide attempt in 2004, Hall was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Hall died on 18 December 2022 after a brief illness at the age of 63.
Discography:
1979 - The Specials (with The Specials)
1980 - More Specials (with The Specials)
1982 - Fun Boy Three (with Fun Boy Three)
1983 - Waiting (with Fun Boy Three)
1985 -
Virgins & Philistines (with The Colourfield)
1987 - Deception (with The Colourfield)
1990 - Ultra
Modern Nursery Rhymes (with Terry, Blair & Anouchka)
1992 -
Vegas (with Vegas)
1994 - Home
1997 - Laugh
2003 - The Hour of Two
Lights (Terry Hall with Mushtaq)
2019 - Encore (with The Specials)
2021 - Protest Songs 1924-2012 (with The Specials)
