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Having survived a tough childhood in Coventry, Hall became one of pop’s defining voices at the turn of the 80s, chronicling British decline and disfranchised youth with the 2 Tone band
As the pioneering 2 Tone band’s lead singer, Hall’s impassive style made him a star – and helped him weather the vicissitudes of fame, the changing charts and British decline
How The Specials’ Ghost Town became the anthem of ‘a country falling apart’
Forty years ago, as violence and poverty menaced their hometown, The Specials set out to unite the races. Then the National Front arrived
The Specials in Coventry in 1980
Credit: Eugene Adebari/Shutterstock
Coventry-formed ska band The Specials wrote Ghost Town in a pressure cooker – one that you could measure as barely six-foot-high. “I’m not going to say too much because I don’t want to upset anybody,” says the track’s producer, John Rivers, reflecting on the 11-day recording session that took place in his tiny basement studio in Leamington Spa.