By Jill Lawless | Associate Press
LONDON – Musician Terry Hall, who helped create some of the defining sounds of post-punk Britain as lead singer of The Specials, has passed away. He was 63.
The band announced late Monday that Hall had passed away after a short illness. It called him “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced.”
Hall joined the band that would become The Specials in the late 1970s in the English Midlands town of Coventry, a time of racial tension, economic gloom and urban unrest. With its mix of black and white members and Jamaican-influenced style of sharp suits and porkpie hats, the band became leaders of the anti-racist 2 Tone ska revival movement.
With Hall’s deadpan vocals setting the tone, The Specials captured the uneasy atmosphere of the time in songs like “A Message to You, Rudy,” “Rat Race,” and “Too Much Too Young.”
The band’s most iconic song is the melancholic, menacing ‘Ghost Town’, which topped the UK charts in the summer of 1981 as riots broke out in British cities.
The Specials had seven UK Top 10 hits before Hall and fellow band members Neville Staple and Lynval Golding left in 1981 to form the electro-pop group Fun Boy Three. It scored hits like “It Ain’t What You Do (It’s The Way That You Do It”) and “The Tunnel of Love”.
Hall later formed The Colourfield and other bands, and collaborated with artists such as The Go-Go’s – co-writing the group’s 1981 debut single, “Our Lips Are Sealed”, which was also recorded by Fun Boy Three.
Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin remembered Hall as “a beautiful, sensitive, talented and unique person.”
“Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song Our Lips Are Sealed, which will forever connect us in music history. Terrible news to hear this,” she wrote on Twitter.
Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello also offered his condolences, saying, “Terry’s voice was the perfect instrument for the real and necessary songs on ‘The Specials.’ You can hear that honesty in so many of his songs in joy and sorrow.”
Most of the original Specials reunited in 2008, staged a 30th anniversary tour in 2009 and released an album of new material, “Encore”, in 2019, which became the band’s first UK No. 1 album. A sequel, “Protest Songs 1924-2012”, was released in 2021.
Hall’s bandmates said he was “a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, most genuine souls.” His music and performances capture the essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but above all, love.”
“He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him and he leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and deep humanity. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… ‘Love Love Love.’”