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The Latest Breaking News from Specials

“It’s a strange little song. It’s weird and off its trolley - but people love it and everybody knows it”: We speak to The Selecter’s Pauline Black about their breakthrough 1979 single - and 2 Tone's moment as the sound of British youth culture

Pauline Black speaks to us about the origins of the Selecter, and how the group’s upbeat debut single ironically gained traction amongst the very DJs it was criticising

MusicRadar

“An evocative track reflecting the social and political unrest of Britain”: The Specials’ Ghost Town bass fetches thousands at auction – having been bought for just £200

Horace Panter used the Fender Precision to record The Specials’ timeless two-tone hit, and also featured in his supergroup, General Public

Guitar World

“This is a bass guitar that’s going to stir up quite a lot of interest among fans and collectors”: The bass used to record The Specials' gloomy political anthem, Ghost Town, is headed to auction

The Fender Precision was also used in Horace Panter’s supergroup with members of The Clash and Dexy’s Midnight Runners

Guitar World

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This Is the Coolest Ferrari You've Never Heard Of

Back in the 1980s, if you wanted a hotter Ferrari, you went to German tuner Koenig Specials. The company building potent versions of European luxury cars, including Ferraris, creating the rare Ferrari 512 BBi Koenig. The company made fewer than 30 of them, and this is your chance to own one of the unique cars.

Motor1

My cultural awakening: ‘The Specials helped me to stop fixating on death’

After several people close to me died I became obsessed with fitness and gripped by panic attacks. But then a ska cover taught me life doesn’t have to be serious all the time

The Guardian - UK

Charting protest pop: How music can bring about change

The 1980s was a period of profound popularity for political pop. Now, 40 years later, it’s what we desperately need again

The National (Scotland)

The Selecter's Pauline Black reveals her remarkable story, including why she changed her name to Black by deed poll as her feature-length rockumentary airs

In a feature-length rockumentary on Sky Arts, The Selecter's Pauline Black looks back on her life and music career

WhatToWatch

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Sleaford Mods, the 1975, Fred Again: the songs that sum up each year of Tory government

Dave’s lament for the Grenfell atrocity, Dua Lipa’s bedroom disco for a locked-down nation, Kneecap’s Badenoch-riling rap, Elbow’s hymn for asylum seekers … here are the tracks that defined 14 years of Conservative rule

The Guardian - UK

"I told my wife, 'When I die, bury me in those shoes.'": The Specials' Lynval Golding's emotional tribute to Terry Hall

Golding paid tribute to his old bandmate, who died a year ago this month.

Louder

‘Forty years on, nothing’s changed’: Fun Boy Three on The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum

‘Terry Hall was writing about nuclear war and Ronald Reagan, then the US president, the idea being that the world was being run by lunatics’

The Guardian - UK

‘I had to move my tent for Janis Joplin’s helicopter!’ Glastonbury stars on their most surprising festival moments

Debbie Harry, Alison Goldfrapp, Candi Staton, Billy Bragg and others look back at festival experiences they’ll never forget – including getting stuck in the mud and yearning to take off their clothes

The Guardian - UK

The songs of the Specials’ Terry Hall taught me about vulnerability – and that’s why I will always miss him

The singer showed me that burning bridges can be extraordinarily beautiful, from any vantage point – which is a good note on which to end my Name and Shame series

The Guardian - UK

Dance Craze review – thrilling documentary captures the explosive energy of 2 Tone

Joe Massot’s vivid 1981 film about the British ska scene brims with life, sweat and the faces of ecstatic fans

The Guardian - UK

‘I never got a chance to say goodbye’: Damon Albarn remembers The Specials frontman Terry Hall

The Gorillaz frontman recalled seeing the late singer perform for the first time when he was 14

The Independent UK

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Daily Mirror

The Specials frontman Terry Hall laid to rest as music icons unite to attend funeral

The Specials frontman Terry Hall's funeral took place on Tuesday with some huge stars in attendance, after the music world was left devastated over the legendary singer's death at the age of 63 last month

Daily Mirror

UB40 guitarist hits out at Tories and says country is like it was in the 1970s

Singer and guitarist Robin Campbell has hit out at the Conservative Government, claiming the country is in the same bad state it was when the band formed decades ago

Evening Standard

Terry Hall died from pancreatic cancer – what is the disease and what are the early symptoms?

The disease is the fifth-most common cancer in the UK and was initially thought to be just a stomach bug in the late The Specials’ frontman’s case

Manchester Evening News

Terry Hall's bandmate reveals cancer diagnosis after his death aged 63

Bassist Horace Panter described how 'everything turned to s**t' as Terry's health took a turn

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Evening Standard

The Specials singer Terry Hall died ‘after cancer diagnosis’, bandmate reveals

Bandmate Horace Panter emotionally recalled the moment he found out his friend was going to die

Wales Online

The Specials' Terry Hall was diagnosed with cancer shortly before death, says bandmate

Bassist Horace Panter said he wanted to keep it secret

The Independent UK

Terry Hall diagnosed with pancreatic cancer prior to death – Specials bassist

Horace Panter said the band had been due to record a new reggae album in Los Angeles in November this year.

Daily Mirror

Terry Hall's bandmate reveals his cancer battle as he recalls Specials' star's final days

The Specials' bassist Horace Panter has shared a moving and poignant tribute to his late bandmate, recalling Terry Halls' final weeks and the short cancer battle he faced prior to his death at the age of 63

The Independent UK

Terry Hall death: Damon Albarn posts touching piano tribute to The Specials

‘Terry, you meant the world to me. I love you,’ wrote the Blur frontman

Chicago Sun-Times

Terry Hall, lead singer of ska band The Specials, dies at 63

British singer-songwriter was the voice of hits including ‘A Message to You, Rudy’ and ‘Ghost Town.’

The Conversation

How Terry Hall defined the sound of youth and disillusionment in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain

Terry Hall, who has died after a short illness at 63, was the voice of The Specials, an iconic band that bridged the youth sub-cultures and mainstream pop of the late 1970s and early 1980s, embodying the sound of disaffection in Thatcherite Britain.

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