Dammit dammit dammit!! R.I.P. Terry Hall

[www.theguardian.com]

Oh my gosh, no! NO!

Ohhh man ... this one really hurts ...

Wow! That came out of nowhere. Too darn young.

Holy crap...a shock indeed. He seemed so active in recent years. No word of illnesses.

When The Specials appeared on "Saturday Night Live" playing "Gangsters "and "Too Much Too Young," it was one of the most thrilling performances I'd ever seen. Bursting with so much energy, I couldn't believe it. I wondered: why isn't ALL music like this?

Got all Specials releases, then proceeded to Fun Boy Three, who I also really liked...and that was it. Didn't hear anything too thrilling from Colourfield, and then just kinda stopped paying attention. He'd pop up in various places, like I got a Toots & The Maytalls album with Hall guesting, and that was a treat - nice to hear that voice from the past.

I can't thank The Specials enough (and the Two-Tone crowd in general) for heppin me to the joys of Jamaican '60s music. I never tire of it.

His guest appearances on Tricky's Nearly God project were pretty great too. Here's a muddy version of the "Poems" video: [www.youtube.com]

If you're into the Tricky stuff, you'd probably dig The Hour of Two Lights with Mushtaq of Fun-Da-Mental, but you probably already do.

This is the saddest one in a while. Major part of my musical DNA. Loved all of it.
That Specials' s/t platter is maybe the greatest of debuts. Glad I got to see them.

I'm truly gutted by this news. The first Specials album had a tremendous impact on me. Like all the truly great musical artists, they sang about the pressing issues of their time and place -- racism, civil, unrest, dire economic problems, a government that didn't seem to care, and a future that looked more and more shaky, the longer they stared at it -- and set it all to music that was exciting, passionate, vital, and just plain unbelievably alive.

Their second album often has been cited as a sophomore slump ... and, granted, its more experimental tracks don't jump out of the speakers, the way nearly all of the debut does. But with just a couple of listens, it becomes more clear that this group simply isn't a one-trick pony. And "Ghost Town" may be the most powerful parting single by any band in history. (Any other nominees? Hello?)

I ended up seeing The Specials five times -- twice in Denver during the '90s, with the Roddy Radiation-led lineup, and three times since moving to Seattle, with Terry back in the fold. All of them thrilling, ecstatic shows.

Reading the Guardian obit, it becomes clear to me that Terry's life was much rougher than I knew. Makes me ashamed to think I wasn't aware of what he'd gone through. Knowing it now, it makes his success with The Specials that much more of a triumph.

Thanks for all the wonderful music, Terry. I hope the great beyond offers you all the peace that you couldn't find in this earthly life.

When I read this I kinda knew I wasn’t going to be the only one here hit hard by this. I don’t believe ANYONE I know personally has a clue who the Specials were… perhaps I need better friends… but I always knew there were a lot of misfits like myself who loved them.

Loved the rawness AND smoothness of the music, the clothes they wore, the graphics, the fact that there were both black and white members, the political stance of the lyrics, the whole deal. And of course Terry’s voice and look as a frontman.

When I got the news, the first video I turned to was “really sayin something”. Both acts were so new, so fresh, just being goofy, and it just took me back to a really happy place. RIP…

Perhaps my inability to "get" The Specials at first unnecessarily colored my relationship to Terry Hall, which was almost not there. I was cold to the Ska Revival at first; thinking it a backward looking nostalgia thing. But with such relevant lyrics, I finally came around, though mainly by latching on to The Beat instead. I would have a couple of Fun Boy Three and Colourfield singles, but that was it. Like Delvin I was shocked at the amount and depth of harshness in Hall's life once I read The Guardian's obit. It's to my detriment that I never really delved into his career much at all, as I think there's a lot there to appreciate.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

This is likely the best appreciation of Hall's life and career out there: Terry Hall was the self-assured eye of the Specials storm.

I'm putting together my annual Requiem episode of 20FR. It's another crowded year.

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Yep, just as I suspected. It's taking work to fit all of them in. If anyone else passes away between now and the 30th, I'll probably have to drop someone off the setlist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2022 06:42PM by Delvin.

And you'll have to add Duffy from Primal Scream/Felt.

For folks online Tuesday evening (now) DJ Jake Rudh is doing a Terry Hall tribute at [twitch.tv]

Heartbreaking indeed. This is from Horace Panter's account from his FB page:

The Specials. Terry. This is what happened.
We had it all planned out. Make the album we were going to do in 2020 – a reggae album.
Record in Los Angeles in November. We had the studio booked, flights paid for, accommodation sorted. Roger Rivas from The Agrolites was going to co-produce. Shepard Fairey was going to do the cover. Lynval, still recovering from his spinal surgery earlier in the year, was over in the UK and raring to go. Terry had the framework for 8 tunes. Confidence was high. We were set to meet up with Nikolaj and make magic. This was in September. Terry e-mails everyone and says he’s in bed with a stomach bug and can’t do the first week of pre-production sessions. No big deal, we can knock everything back a week. We’re not due to fly out until November 4th. The next week, Terry is no better and is in hospital. There’s not much we can do except wait for him to get better. Sunday October 2nd and I get a phone call from Manager Steve.
And everything turns to shit.
Terry’s illness is a lot worse than we thought.
He has been diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas which has spread to his liver.
This is serious. Like life-threatening serious.
He has developed diabetes due to his pancreas being attacked. This has to be treated first, then it’s a regime of chemotherapy.
There is nothing anyone can do. Everything is put on hold.
Terry is emphatic that no-one be told about this. If anyone asks, he’s managing his diabetes.
The chemo treatment starts favourably but it seems that it would be March 2023 at the earliest before we’d be in any position to work. He is in and out of hospital to stabilise the diabetes issue and also to manage pain.
It then goes quiet.
Beginning of December and reports are not good. Terry has lost a lot of weight and is very frail. His friend Ian Broudie visits and phones Manager Steve. He fears that Terry is slipping away.
15th December and Manager Steve drives up to London to visit. He calls me on his return journey and says things are not looking promising. Terry is dying. The next day he is put on morphine and is more-or-less unconscious for most of the time. I thought it would be best for me to go and visit but Lindy, his wife, advises against it. She has held her phone to Terry’s ear so that his sisters and Lynval can say their goodbyes. She suggests I do the same. So, I did. It was tough.
Terry died around half past 5 the next evening, Sunday 18th December.
The world has lost a unique voice and I have lost a good friend.
Horace.

OK. Just gonna put it out there: I had no idea of the diversity of Terry Hall's career after Specials. This Jake Rudh video special has been highly educational. Fun Boy 3, OK. I knew that. (Although I didn't know the version of "Our Lips Are Sealed.") But then Colourfield, his solo records, Vegas, collaborations with Sinéad O'Connor and others, lots of odd covers. I have learned a lot.

I couldn't find any posts on this, but over a year ago, the BFI put out an amazing Blu-ray/DVD edition of Dance Craze, which I had only been able to see via poor quality VHS copies uploaded to YouTube. I never thought it would get a decent release, much less the royal treatment of a full restoration, but I guess I underestimated how much the film was valued in the UK.

Bad news: the original film elements are lost and 35mm prints known to exist were in poor quality. The really good news: Joe Dunton (more or less the cinematographer) had an excellent, clean-looking 70mm print, which he's kept in good care and even projected at the Egyptian Theatre in L.A. over a decade ago. It's probably the only 70mm print that has really survived in this condition. I was astonished that they struck 70mm prints at all, but apparently it was done not for the picture but to present it with 6-track (magnetic) sound, a feature that wouldn't have been available on 35mm. This is what they scanned and from the raw samples that have been shown, there didn't seem to be much that needed to be fixed outside of color correction.

The restoration did get screened in some repertory theaters here in the U.S. like BAM in Brooklyn, but it was a bigger deal in the UK where they even had sold out IMAX screenings and invited many surviving members of the scene to participate in post-screening discussions. (In many ways, the reception there is similar to what's happened with the Talking Heads and A24's restoration of Stop Making Sense.)

Supposedly an American boutique label is working on a Blu-ray release, but 15 months later there's still no news of anything. If you have a region-free player, I highly recommend importing this from the UK. (It's likely the BFI's biggest selling title of the past year as they had to re-press it very quickly.)

Anyway, I decided to watch it this weekend after Gaps Hendrickson passed away and it really is stunning to watch on a large screen. (Helps when you have a narrow room that simulates a giant screen due to proximity, hah.) The quality is gorgeous but it's just beautifully shot. All the bands were at least enjoyable, but that's especially true of the Beat and the Specials.

Here's more info on this reissue, but FWIW, Rarewaves typically has sales and the best prices on imported Blu-rays and DVD's, and IIRC I got my copy for about $15 USD in an order that included several other items.

[shop.bfi.org.uk]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2024 03:32AM by belfast.

Thank you for sharing this info, Belfast! I've only seen Dance Craze on one of those poor-quality VHS tapes you mentioned. I'll have to check into this.

You’re welcome! Just realized, there’s probably a trailer where you can see how it looks - here it is!

[m.youtube.com]