The first news I read this morning was about the passing away of Terry Hall. It’s been a while since I listened to his music, so it was bittersweet to watch and hear so many favourites shared online today.

I learned from this obituary on BBC that he was abducted and sexually abused at the age of 12 which I didn’t know before and made me feel even sadder. (Update Dec 22: Terry Hall was diagnosed with cancer before his death)

In an interview from a few years ago on Fred Perry’s Subculture, Terry Hall was asked how should his music be listened to. His answer, “My band records (The Specials & Fun Boy Three) should be played loud with gay abandon and my solo / personal records need to be listened to with a healthy dose of melancholy & self pity.”

RIP Terry Hall (19 March 1959 – 18 December 2022)

The following are links and videos I collated for this post:

Coventry & A Spirit Of Unbelonging: Terry Hall Remembered By Neil Kulkarni

I have a theory about love. It’s not about taste, or compatibility or about ‘fitting’ with someone. It’s about finding someone who has a mix of hope and hopelessness that matches your own. Find someone too cynical, and you will feel foolish, hopeful, idealistic. Find someone too hopeful, and you will feel too bitter, pessimistic, needlessly doomy. Either way someone will be always playing catch-up. But when you find someone whose querulous blend of hope and hopelessness perfectly balances your own? So their hope matches your doom and their hopelessness forces you to find hope for them? That’s love.
And that’s what I felt about Terry Hall and The Specials.

Terry Hall was the self-assured eye of the Specials storm by Alexis Petridis

There was something unblinking and mournful about his voice, too. Hall never tried to imitate the old Jamaican ska vocalists, even when he was essaying their material. Instead, he sang in a cheerless, unaffected British voice – you could occasionally catch a hint of the Midlands about his vowels – that could rise to a wail if needed.

This is a short conversation between Terry Hall and Tim Burgess from 2016 that I found quite endearing.

Terry Hall is very funny and brutally honest in this interview with Richard Herring. I laughed several times hearing his opinions and feelings towards certain singers, and Coventry.

Hall also mentions the abduction and sexual abuse twice, and it sounds like this may have been the first time he talks about it publicly because it felt like Herring was caught off guard and the discussion was handled a bit awkwardly.

A selection of favourite songs and lyrics in reverse order starting from the 1990s.

Terry Hall - Ballad of a Landlord (Laugh, 1997)
Where once hearts rested
Now there's nothing
But a hole

Terry Hall - I Saw the Light (Laugh, 1997)
And I ran out before
But I won't do it any more
Can't you see the light
In my eyes, in my eyes

Terry Hall - Forever J (Home, 1994)
And she says kiss me, kiss me, kiss me

Terry Hall - Sense (Home, 1994)
I'm standing high on tiptoes looking over fences
Waiting for somebody like you to kiss me Senseless
I've had a bellyfull of faces drawn in sadness
I want to jump deep into tides of loving madness

Vegas - Possessed (Vegas, 1992)
It feels good
I'm flying high again
Spinning round and round again
I even like myself again

Terry, Blair & Anouchka - Missing (Ultra Modern Nursery Rhymes, 1990)
Since you've been gone
Life just sort of carries on
But it's not that much fun

The Colourfield - Castles in the Air (Virgins and Philistines, 1985)
Each drop of tenderness you give
Would be another reason why i'd want to live
Would be another chance to sit beneath the stars
And whisper to each other in the dark

The Colourfield - Thinking of You (Virgins and Philistines, 1985)
We should take a bus
To somewhere else to something new
Thank God we're alive
And bite off more than we can chew
Do the things that just don't matter
Laugh while others look in anger
Stumble over four leaf clovers
And say goodbye to lonely banners

Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed (Waiting, 1983)
It doesn't matter what they say
In the jealous games people play

Fun Boy Three - It Ain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It (1982)
I thought I was smart but I soon found out
I didn't know what life was all about
But then I learned I must confess
That life is like a game of chess

The Specials - Ghost Town (1981)
This town is coming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry

The Specials - Enjoy Yourself (1980)
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as you wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

The Specials - Too Much Too Young (1980)
Ain't you heard of the starving millions
Ain't you heard of contraception
Do you really a program of sterilization
Take control of the population boom
It's in your living room
Keep a generation gap
Try wearing a cap!