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Written by KZYR
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Monday, 25 January 2010 |
The Specials, the celebrated British band
that reformed in 2009 after more than two decades apart, will play its
first North American shows in nearly 30 years in April.
starting with
an appearance on NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on April 13.
The Specials are also one of the topped-billed bands for the first night of the 11th annual Coachella Music and Arts Festival
in Indio, Calif., on April 16, and have announced a New York club show
at Terminal 5 on April 21. Two more April shows are in the works as
part of the brief North American trek; a full tour is being eyed for
later in 2010.
The Specials played a sold-out 30th anniversary
tour of U.K. clubs in May 2009, marking the first time that the six
members of the ska band, including singer Terry Hall, had performed a
full set together since a Boston, Mass. show in 1981. Founding member,
keyboardist Jerry Dammers, is not participating in the reunion.
Subsequently, the group performed in front of more than 100,000 people
at the 2009 Glastonbury Festival, played the Summer Sonic Festival in
Japan, toured Australia and New Zealand for the first time ever and did
a second sold-out U.K. jaunt in November.
The band's
appearance on "Late Night" will be its first U.S. performance since
reforming. The Specials first appeared on U.S. national network
television on "Saturday Night Live" in 1980; the group launched its
reunion on the BBC's musical variety show "Later ... With Jules
Holland" in April 2009.
The Specials formed in 1977 in
Coventry, England, and its then-unheard-of mix of punk rock, Jamaican
rhythms, social and political commentary and pop sensibilities proved a
huge sensation in the U.K. and spawned an entire youth subculture that
encompassed both music and fashion.
Between 1979 and 1981, the
group scored seven consecutive top 10 singles in the U.K., including
the No. 1s "Too Much Too Young" and "Ghost Town." With its mixture of
musical styles and its multi-racial lineup, the Specials served as a
rallying point for British youth during a period of ethnic and
class-based unrest in the country.
The Specials' 1979 self-titled debut album was produced by Elvis Costello
and the band's music was released on its own self-started record label,
2 Tone. The label spearheaded a ska craze, releasing the first singles
from groups like Madness and the Beat (called the English Beat in the United States) and albums from the Selecter
and the Bodysnatchers. 2 Tone's iconic logo and black-and-white
checkered graphic style, along with the band's 1960s mod-style clothing
-- like porkpie hats, tonic suits and Fred Perry shirts -- remain
symbols of the British musical shift from punk to new wave in the early
1980s.
In the United States, the Specials rode in on the tidal
wave of their U.K. success, making its North American debut on Jan. 25,
1980, at New York's post-punk mecca Hurrah's. The band toured
extensively, including a four-night, eight-show run at L.A.'s
Whiskey-a-Go-Go and several arena gigs supporting for the Police. While
the band didn't enjoy the same level of success in the United States as
it did at home, its two U.S. tours are widely credited with kicking off
the later "third wave ska" scene and inspiring such bands as the Go-Go's, No Doubt and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
The band split acrimoniously in 1981 having released just one more
album ("More Specials") and an EP of new music, yet its single, "Ghost
Town" hit No. 1 on the U.K. just prior to the break-up. Hall, along
with vocalist Neville Staple and guitarist Lynval Golding, immediately
formed the Fun Boy Three and continued to top the U.K. charts; he has remained a fixture in British pop music ever since.
Dammers recorded a third album with several of his other Specials
bandmates under the band's earlier moniker the Special A.K.A., and his
1984 single "Free Nelson Mandela" became an international
anti-Apartheid anthem. He continues to perform with his jazz ensemble
the Spatial A.K.A. Orchestra but has publicly criticized the current
Specials reunion.
Despite recent tabloid speculation that a
reconciliation is forthcoming, subsequent reports have debunked the
rumor, suggesting that nothing has changed since the band first began
discussing the possibility of getting back together.
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