Terry Hall of The Specials has died aged 63

The music world is mourning the passing of Terry Hall, lead singer of the multi-racial ska band The Specials.

In the late 1970s and earIy '80s, The Specials shot up the UK charts, notching seven consecutive top 10 singles, including "Ghost Town" and "Too Much Too Young." Hall sang lyrics that conveyed the band's commitment to anti-racism, and to documenting unemployment and urban decay in the early years of the Margaret Thatcher government.

Hall left The Specials in 1981 to form new wave outfit Fun Boy Three with fellow-band mates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, registering several more hits.

The Specials, which Hall cofounded in his hometown of Coventry in 1979, said in a statement on Monday that the singer died after a brief illness. The cause of death was not specified.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, following a brief illness, of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced," they wrote on Twitter.      

"Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls," the band said. "His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humor, the fight for justice, but mostly the love."

Childhood abuse and depression

By his own account, Hall was kidnapped by a teacher at the age of 12.

"I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days," he said in an interview with The Spectator in 2019. "And then punched in the face and left on the roadside."

He subsequently left school at the age of 14 and struggled with depression and addiction. He worked in a stamp shop until he teamed up with Jerry Dammers, who wrote the lyrics to "Ghost Town," to form The Specials in 1979.

The band became leaders of the British two-tone music subculture of the time that combined Jamaican ska music with mod and punk rock musical aesthetics.

But the group especially addressed discrimination in Britain and the decay of cities and social structures in the 1970s and 1980s.

Over the course of his career, Hall collaborated with various other musicians, including Bananarama, the Gorillaz, Dub Pistols and Lily Allen.

'Lovely, sensitive, talented and unique'

He also had a brief relationship with Jane Wiedlin of band The Go-Go's, with whom he co-wrote the band's smash hit, "Our Lips Are Sealed."

"He was a lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person," Wiedlin wrote in Twitter. "Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song Our Lips Are Sealed, which will forever tie us together in music history."

British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg also gave tribute to Hall and his impact with The Specials — with whom the frontman began to tour again in 2008. 

"The Specials were a celebration of how British culture was invigorated by Caribbean immigration but the onstage demeanor of their lead singer was a reminder that they were in the serious business of challenging our perception of who we were in the late 1970s," Bragg wrote on Twitter.

"Terry's voice was the perfect instrument for the true and necessary songs on 'The Specials'," wrote singer Elvis Costello. "That honesty is heard in so many of his songs in joy and sorrow."

Hall performed at the 2012 London Olympics closing concert and in 2019 released a new album with The Specials, "Encore," which gave them their first ever number one.

After COVID-19 halted a tour to promote the album, Hall decided to record an album of covers inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Released in October 2021, the record titled "Protest Songs" featured new versions of Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up" and "The Staples Singers' "Freedom Highway," among others, and charted at number two.

sb/mg (dpa/AFP)