Remember the Specials? Ghost Town? A defining band for the late Seventies – a Coventry take on the old punk-reggae connection. Free Nelson Mandela even, though that was more a Jerry Dammers thing.
A couple of surviving members, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter, are interviewed in the Times:
What’s next? Panter has a second career as a visual artist and Golding is working on an autobiography. Carpal tunnel syndrome in his wrist means he can’t play guitar any more but, “I do enjoy going around singing.” Both are doting grandfathers and both are worried about the political situation in the UK. “I feel the divide. And the divide is ugly,” Golding says. Bands such as Kneecap and Bob Vylan, he thinks, have picked up the Specials’ baton of raucous resistance. “I love the energy, I love the spirit, I love the political views.”
Oh dear. Ghost Town vs. “Death, death to the IDF”? Supporting Hamas and Hezbollah? Doesn’t really compare, does it? “Raucous resistance” is now just about hating the Jews. It’s a long way down….
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