Terry Hall, frontman for the ska band The Specials, has passed away
Singer Terry Hall, who fronted the English 2 tone and ska revival band The Specials, has passed away.
In a Facebook post, the band announced Hall’s death and said he passed away “following a brief illness.”
“His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but most of all the love,” the post reads, calling Hall “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters, and lyricists this country has ever produced.”
Hall is said to have passed away at the age of 63, leaving behind his film producer wife Lindy Heymann and their sons Leo and Felix.
The Specials formed in Coventry, England in 1977, and their self-titled debut album became a hit in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Soon after the foundation of The Specials, Hall stepped in to replace Tim Strickland on vocals. Other founding members included Jerry Dammers, Roddy “Radiation” Byers, Neville Staple, John Bradbury, Dick Cuthell, and Rico Rodriguez.
Famous songs by The Specials include “Gangsters” and “Ghost Town,” the latter of which spent three weeks at the top of the UK charts in 1981 and another ten weeks in the top 40.
In addition to being outspoken critics of racial injustice, the band frequently offered commentary on political and social reform in England and beyond. According to the band’s official website, “Forty years ago the Specials embodied the state of the nation — seven voices as one from a typically dispossessed UK town.”
In addition to his solo work and contributions to the bands Fun Boy Three (1981) and The Colourfield (1984), best remembered for their single “Thinking of You,” Hall has also been involved in a number of other musical projects during his career.
The Specials had reassembled in the ’90s without Hall’s participation, but he eventually brought them back together for a tour and new music in 2008. Lynval Golding, Horace Panter, John Bradbury, Neville Staple, Roddy Byers, and Nikolaj Torp Larsen were some of the more recent members of The Specials.
The eighth studio album by The Specials, titled “Encore,” was released in 2019, and it featured the first new material with Hall as vocalist since 1981’s “Ghost Town.”
Posts on social media on Monday remembered Hall by saying he “often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… ‘Love Love Love’.”