R.I.P. Terry Hall, lead singer of The Specials
The English singer of such classics as “Ghost Town” was 63
Terry Hall, the singer of the influential English ska band The Specials, has died. As confirmed by the band, Hall’s death followed a brief illness. He was 63.
“Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls,” the band’s statement reads. “His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humor, 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. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… ‘Love Love Love’”
Born in Coventry, England, on March 19, 1959, Hall was abducted by a sex trafficking ring when he was a child. “At 12, I got abducted by a pedophile ring in France, and that was a real eye-opener,” he told Richard Herring on a podcast in 2019. “I was sort of drugged up then on Valium for about a year and I didn’t go to school.”
Hall dropped out of school at 14 and found himself in the English punk scene, joining a band called the Squad. But in 1977, he joined The Coventry Automatic, the first incarnation of The Specials. Melding the British punk of the late-70s and Jamaican ska of the 60s, the band broke through, inspiring a new wave of bands to pick up horns. The band released their debut self-titled album, The Specials, in October 1979.
The record peaked at number 4 in the U.K. Hall remained with the band through their subsequent two releases, including the More Specials LP and the “Ghost Town” single. Released in 1981, “Ghost Town” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the U.K. chart and would become one of the band’s signature songs.
The band broke up shortly after the success of “Ghost Town,” and Hall formed Fun Ball Three and, later, The Colourfield. Though Hall did not partake in the first Specials reunion between 1993 and 1998, he rejoined the group in 2008. The band would release two more records with Hall as frontman: 2019’s Encore and 2021’s Protest Songs 1924–2012. Encore hit No. 1 in the U.K.
From their multi-racial band members to their melding of punk and reggae, Hall and The Specials influenced a generation of anti-racist punk and ska bands. With classics like “Ghost Town” and “Doesn’t Make It Right,” the band captured the “impending doom” that was Britain in the early 80s, and it resonated with angry, disaffected, and marginalized people around the world. The music, as Hall said, is a “cry for us to respect each other and show each other love, really, because that’s all we got.”
Hall is survived by his wife, Lundy Heymann, and three sons.