July 1981, "Britain's nights of anarchy" erupted throughout cities up and down the country. London, Liverpool and Birmingham were amongst those to suffer the disturbances that resulted as a direct consequence of the Brixton riots in April, and further violence flared in South London a few days later.
TV coverage of these events was often accompanied by an eerie reggae based tune that seemed to relate directly to the images on screen. The song was of course 'Ghost Town', a UK chart No.1, and the last single by the most succesful line up of The Specials. By the time of these riots however, the band had collapsed. A stressful tour of America led to strained relations and constant bickering that eventually pulled the group limb from limb.
The group was the brainchild of one Gerald Dankey, better know to the world as The Specials toothless keyboardist Jerry Dammers, who had put the band together in 1978. Dammers, had served his apprenticeship in various bands on the Coventry scene since the early '70's, playing anything from soul to country & western music. With the arrival of punk, Jerry was inspired to try writing his own material, and evetually he started looking around to form a band to record a demo.
He enlisted the help of Neol Davis, a guitarist he knew from the Coventry scene, drummer Silverton Hutchinson, and a singer named Tim Strickland who he met in a Virgin record shop. The bass player was Horace Panter, whom Jerry new from his college days, where the two had produced an animation, which Panter added the reggae soundtrack to. Eventually the band took the name The Automatics, and Jamaican born Lynval Golding replaced Neol Davies on guitar.
The band played a mix of reggae and punk, that was not always well received by the audience. The most noteworthy event from this period was the band supporting Ultravox at Tiffany's night club, shortly before Tim Strickland left the microphone stand and headed into obscurity.
As chance had it, another Coventry band, The Squad, had just split, and Dammers remembered being impressed by their vocalist, 18 year old Terry Hall. Before long Hall was the offical voice of the Automatics, and the bands ranks were swelled further with the recruitment of lead guitarist Roddy Byers. Byers, who had previously played in his own band The Wild Boys, was inspired by the punk uprising to take the pseudonym Roddy Radiation, and his spikey hair, leather jacket and Doc Martens image was also a hang over from that period.
Dammers had met Roddy in a club called the Domino, and after much beer had been consumed, he talked Byers into going to London the next day to record a demo. Roddy was awoken the following morning from his hangover by the sound of Dammers wrapping at his door. Eventually Byers recovered enough to join the band, and they set off to the bright lights in search of fame and fortune. They found neither.In London, the band recorded a demo tape, and also filled a support slot at the Marquee in Charing Cross Road, but, short of cash, they had to borrow a tenner to get home.
Dammers sent a copy of the demo tape to John Peel at Radio 1, and also left a copy with a 'friend' of Johnny Rotten. After the demise of the Sex Pistols, Dammers had the idea of inviting Rotten to join The Automatics, but the demo tape never reached him, instead, it eventually fell into the hands of Bernie Rhodes, the manager of The Clash.
Rhodes set up a meeting with Dammers, and the eventual outcome was that The Automatics were given a support slot on The Clash's On Parole tour. At this point another band emerged who were using the same Automatics moniker, and as they had already secured a record deal, Dammers and co. had to change their name, first to The Coventry Automatics, then to The Special A.K.A. The Automatics. Eventually, The Automatics part was dropped all together, it was only tagged on the end to let those who already knew of the band exactly who The Specials were.
The tour was not a success for the band, their awkard mix of punk and reggae was not well received by the punk audience, and they were only being paid £25 by Rhodes, although this was later doubled on the insistence of The Clash. At one gig in Leeds, roadie Neville Staples started toasting along as Jerry played a version of The Maytals 'Monkey Man' on the keyboard. Staples was invited to add his chanting to the song on stage that night, and from then on became a permanent member of the band.
After the Clash tour, Rhodes took the band to London for 6 months, and then sent them away to France for a short period. On their return, Dammers sat up one night at Rhodes rehearsal room in Chalk Farm , and composed the song 'Gangsters' on Joe Strummers guitar. The song was based around Prince Buster's 'Al Capone' riff, and was a stab at people like Rhodes , and the music biz in general. The group were still struggling financially, and Rhodes didn't seem to be making much of an effort to promote them. Eventually, enough was enough for drummer Silverton Hutchinson, he had a family and mortgage to consider, and decided to head back to Coventry. The rest of the band soon followed.
Back in Coventry, the band found a practice room in the back of a pub, and set about knocking their sound into shape with regular rehearsals. Hutchinson, however, was often absent due to his search for regular employment, and eventually he parted company with the band. As luck had it, Dammers just happened to have a flat mate who was pretty mean with the drum sticks, and so John Bradbury was invited to sit in on a temporary basis.
Another reason for Silverton's departure was Dammers interest in mixing ska to the Specials ingrediant. Hutchinson saw himself as a reggae drummer, and didn't see any point in playing the long defunct Jamaican blend of r&b. It proved to be a masterstroke on Dammers behalf, however, and for the first time The Specials sound really came together. The final piece in the jigsaw was the bands image. On the Clash tour, he noticed that many punks were turning to the skinhead movement, with a worrying trend towards facism. Dammers liked the image, and thought the best way to eliminate the facist element would be to infiltrate their ranks, rather than preach to them from a podium.
Fed up with the treatment dished out by Bernie Rhodes, Dammers dream was to have his own record label, and with the bands music and image in place, he set about designing what was to become the famous 2-Tone records logo. Taking a picture of Peter Tosh from the cover of the Studio 1 'Wailing Wailers' album, Dammers traced the image, amended it to suit his needs and then added some black and white checks. The image became known as Walt Jabsco, and featured on the custom sleeve for all future releases on 2-Tone.
Scraping together money from family and friends, the band set about making their first 'professional' recording, which was aided further by a donation of £700 from a local business man. A no holds barred version of 'Gangsters' was duly recorded, to which Neville Staples added the "Bernie Rhodes knows, don't argue" introduction, but this left the band short of anything to put on the B side.
As luck would have it, John Bradbury, who was now permanatley seated behind the Specials drum kit, had recorded an instrumental with former guitarist Neol Davis a few years earlier. This was dusted off, remixed, titled 'The Selecter' and pressed up on the flip of 'Gamgsters'
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