The Specials

The Specials were an English band who spearheaded the ska revival in the UK in the late Seventies. Their agenda of racial harmony and social inclusion was pursued through their music, and came to be described as the Two Tone movement.

The Specials formed in 1978 in Coventry, England, having previously been the Automatics and the Coventry Automatics. Jerry Dammers designed a look for the band based on the Jamaican rude boy of the 60s: the style was adopted by the genres followers. He extended this look to the Two Tone record label, formed for their own and similar bands’ music. Their Two Tone debut, “Gangsters”, made the Top 10 in the UK, and heralded several years of ska music in the charts. They had top ten places for their first two albums, and the single “Too Much Too Young” made the No.1 slot.

As the ska revival waned, three of the band decamped to become the Fun Boy Three, and the music changed, along with the name. As Special AKA, they released In The Studio which incorporated some jazz and lounge elements, the album’s best known single “Nelson Mandela” is unlike the other tracks.

The band spilt in 1984, with some of the ex-members joining with members of The Beat, another ska act, to form the Special Beat who toured and released three live albums. When the third wave of ska revival happened in the mid-Nineties, the Specials came back (without Dammers), although the albums they released were not as highly regarded by the fans of the original band.