Later Developments
Since the breakup of the original line-up, various members of the band performed in other bands and have reformed several times to tour and record in Specials-related projects. However, there has never been a complete reunion of the original line-up. In the 1980s, Hall, Staple and Golding founded the pop band Fun Boy Three and enjoyed commercial success from 1981 to 1983 with hits such as "Tunnel of Love", "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)". From 1984 until 1987, Hall fronted The Colourfield, with some commercial success. After they disbanded, Hall pursued a solo career, working mostly in the New Wave genre. He co-wrote a number of early Lightning Seeds releases. He also performed some vocals for a Dub Pistols' album.
Roddy Radiation fronted and worked with several bands including The Tearjerkers (a band that he had begun in the last months of The Specials), The Bonediggers, The Raiders and Three Men & Black which included of Jean-Jacques Burnel (The Stranglers), Jake Burns (Stiff Little Fingers), Pauline Black (The Selecter), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), Dave Wakeling (The Beat, General Public) and Nick Welsh (Skaville UK). He also fronts The Skabilly Rebels, a band that mixes rockabilly with ska.
In the early 1990s, members of The Beat teamed up with members of The Specials to form Special Beat. The band toured and released some live albums. In 1996, with ska enjoying a resurgence in mainstream popularity on North American radio and MTV, several members of The Specials reunited to record Today's Specials, a studio album mostly of reggae and ska covers. This was followed in 1998 with an album of originals, Guilty 'til Proved Innocent!, featuring guest vocals by Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen of Rancid. The band toured heavily in support of both releases. These albums were followed by Skinhead Girl in 2000 and Conquering Ruler in 2001. Notably absent from these records and tours were Hall, Bradbury and Dammers. In 1992, ex-Specials bassist Panter quit the music industry to train as a primary school teacher at the University of Central England in Birmingham. He later resumed his musical career.
In 2007, Hall teamed up with Golding for the first time in 24 years, to play Specials songs at two music festivals. At Glastonbury Festival they appeared on the Pyramid Stage with Lily Allen to perform "Gangsters". In May 2009 Golding claimed that Allen's reuniting him with Hall played a "massive part" in the groups later reformation. Later the same day they played on The Park Stage, with Damon Albarn of Blur on piano and with beatboxer Shlomo providing rhythm, to perform "A Message To You, Rudy". At GuilFest, Golding joined the Dub Pistols to again perform "Gangsters". In 2007, Golding regularly performed concerts and recorded with Pama International, a collective of musicians who were members of Special Beat.
Read more about this topic: The Specials
Famous quotes containing the word developments:
“I don’t wanna live in a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light.
Freedom from labor itself is not new; it once belonged among the most firmly established privileges of the few. In this instance, it seems as though scientific progress and technical developments had been only taken advantage of to achieve something about which all former ages dreamed but which none had been able to realize.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)