Terry Hall

The band announced late Monday that Hall had died after a brief illness. It called him “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, ...

Hall’s bandmates said he was “a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. Most of the original Specials reunited in 2008, staged a 30th-anniversary tour in 2009 and in 2019 released an album of new material, “Encore,” which became the band’s first U.K. “He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… Hall joined the band that would become The Specials in the English Midlands city of Coventry in the late 1970s, a time of racial tension, economic gloom and urban unrest. music charts in the summer of 1981 as Britain’s cities were erupting in riots.

The singer's musical free spirit scored him hits with everyone from the Specials and Fun Boy Three to collaborations with the Go-Go's and Bananarama.

[the Face](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jul/11/how-we-made-the-face-nick-logan-neville-brody-magazines) and suggested they do a song together. [the Specials](https://www.theguardian.com/music/the-specials) and the 2 Tone label to the nation. It’s a lovely tune and devotional message to someone who has walked away: “If you ever think of me / I’ll be thinking of you … too much fighting on the dancefloor”), unemployment had rocketed (“Government leaving the youth on the shelf”) and decay was everywhere (“All the clubs have been closed down / This town is ’coming like a ghost town”). Hall and guitarist and vocalist Jane Wiedlin’s brief romance on that tour resulted in this supreme example of catchy 80s pop, which subsequently became a hit for both their bands. Their first single – and first hit – finds Hall using his most eerily becalmed, conversational delivery to warn that political leaders will lead us into Armageddon.

With ska-punk group The Specials, he laid the foundations for the multicultural sound of today's UK charts.

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Their line up of black and white musicians was a mission statement for a fractured nation, while Hall's doleful vocals starkly illustrated the politics of ...

He was an active collaborator with likes of Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics and Damon Albarn throughout the 1990s and 2000s before a reformed version of The Specials (minus Dammers) began touring and releasing new music in 2008. As before, though, pop sensibilities were shot through with a heavy measure of irony and lyrical bite, like on their debut single The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum). But Hall’s political commitment was a strand that ran throughout his career, from his initial shock that some working men’s clubs in Coventry employed a colour bar – only admitting white people – in the 1970s, to the reflective elements of latter-day Specials albums. Hall recounted having to leave the stage to stop fights, and “ [casualties all over the dressing room](https://www.ft.com/content/1404021a-23fb-45cc-b399-b0950d53f39d)”. There were goodies, and there were baddies. And while Dammers would resurface with The Specials AKA, the trio launched as Fun Boy Three, enjoying another string of chart hits. At the peak of their initial success, things fell apart. He went on to form Colourfield in 1984 producing a hit with Thinking of You. The mixed-race aspect of The Specials and, latterly, Fun Boy Three was more than just an element of their sound. 2 Tone referred to the genre fusing ska, reggae, punk and new wave – of which The Specials were among the primary exponents – but it was also the name of their record label, founded by Dammers. By 15 he had left school and drifted through a series of jobs, including bricklayer and hairdresser, before gravitating towards music, first punk and then ska. Born and raised in Coventry, Hall brought a distinctive stance, and sound, to British pop.

Hall, who was the lead vocalist of the British ska-punk band, died following a “brief illness.” His band shared the news of his death in a statement on social ...

Among the Specials’ greatest hits are songs such as “Ghost Town,” “Gangsters,” and “Too Much Too Young.” The group had several revivals, for which Hall returned in 2008. “Gutted to hear of the passing of #terryhall. Hall also presented Albarn with a Songwriter of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards. On Tuesday, the Gorillaz musician posted a video of himself playing piano to the Specials’ “Friday Night, Saturday Morning” as a tribute to Hall, who died Monday at age 63. “Terrible news to hear this. “I love you.”