“IT WAS A CELEBRATION”

Horace Panter on the homecoming…

"THE gigs in the cathedral ruins in Coventry – the European City Of Culture 2021, or the European City Of Low Self Esteem – were remarkable. It was a celebration of the band and the city, of course, but it was more than that – it was The Specials reconnecting with Coventry. It became an excuse for school reunions and the like – old fans turning up in mobs of half a dozen, teenage kids who grew up listening to the band. It held about a thousand people a night, so it felt big but also intimate. We did 80 concerts this year, including 65 at the start of the year in about 80 days. That’s hard work when you’re in your sixties!

“There was always a class divide in The Specials, which most people don’t recognise. Me and Jerry were art students from middle-class families, Brad was working-class but studied art, Rod and Terry’s dads were factory workers, and of course Neville and Lynval came over on the boat from Jamaica. There was also a bit of a drug divide – between those who wanted drugs to speed them up and those who needed drugs to slow them down. Me and Terry never really took recreational drugs.

“I’ve always thought there are two types of band. You get the gang of schoolfriends who learn instruments so they can hang out with each other. Then there are those that are the product of the guy with the grand plan. We looked like the former, but I think we were always the latter – Jerry had cherry-picked musicians from various Coventry punk bands and we were all flung together. The interpersonal relationships were built up on the road and in the studio. I never socialised much with the band initially. When we were on tour I’d go to bed early so I could wake up and go to an art gallery. Now we’re all much more mature, happy and comfortable in each others’ company. We’ve become friends quite organically. The atmosphere is terrific right now, better than it’s ever been.

“I was never much of a songwriter, more of a collaborator, but Terry’s encouraged us to write more. After our 2008 reunion, we needed to write new material to be more relevant and dynamic. John Bradbury’s death in December 2015 really knocked us back. It took us a good 18 months to get back on track. Where Encore was about exploring the grey areas in between the black and the white – which is why it was coloured grey – our next album is going to be filled with much more Caribbean colour. Lots of early-’70s reggae.”