That summed it up for me. The man who wrote it wasnt there. It's hard to explain how powerful it sounded. The gangs were bigger, more organised, more vicious, more resigned to living outside of society; no explanations or excuses were needed nor offered. Ghost Town, though, felt properly revolutionary, the kind of record that no one had the right to expect anymore. The Guardian cites a statement released by the bands spokesperson praised the musicians influence on the 2 Tone scene. I was blown to pieces, He was open about everything: inside a new documentary Willie Nelson & Family. However, a . They didnt need to say anything, as it was implicit. The overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom. Jerry Dammers. Youth unemployment was rife as the country felt the bite of Thatchers cuts and riots were erupting all over the country, riots that appeared, with eerie synchronicity, at the same time as Ghost Town. During his formulative years Jerry was a mod, hippie and skinhead. I think it is good, but I want to give it my best shot. It was this event that started Dammers thinking of Ghost Town, a song that would go on to define him, his band, and two-tone in general. I laughed out loud when he spat the line, but youre still fucking peasants as far as I can see, from Working Class Hero. It was this tense environment that produced the extraordinary sound of Ghost Town. Contents Paul morley talks to jerry dammers Speaking ahead of the newly . He sought refuge in a (black) neighbours house, who promptly called out to the gang chasing him, who ran in and kicked the living daylights out of him. Explore Jerry Dammers Wiki Age, Height, Biography as Wikipedia, Wife, Family relation. Police aggression made everyone paranoid, and made people who had previously lived quite happily side by side turn against each other because it seemed like the safest thing to do. Why The Specials' Jerry Dammers was the Lennon and McCartney of ska, Why Swing Out Sister's Kaleidoscope World is an overlooked classic worth revisiting in 2020, Why Miles Davis' Bitches Brew is such an extraordinary record. That year, 28 September was a Saturday and having just come back from a trip abroad, I had spent the whole day indoors, transcribing tapes, writing, listening to music and cleaning the flat, not bothering to go outside for a paper or turn on the radio or TV. There was fighting at our gigs; there were lots of National Front people around. . Hand on my heart, this is what I feel is a bit sad for Jerry. I felt as though Id stepped out of one of those British TV science fiction programmes they made in the 1960s back in a land of bowler hats, umbrellas and red phone boxes those austere black and white ones when London had been the target of a neutron bomb, the ones that killed all the people but left the buildings intact. [18][19] Although initial reviews of the single in the UK music press were lukewarm, by the end of the year the song had won over the critics to be named "Single of the Year" in Melody Maker, NME and Sounds, the UK's top three weekly music magazines at the time. He is famous for founding 2 Tone Records and having his masterful skills on turntables and keyboards. And an activist. I saw it develop from a boom town, my family doing very well, through to the collapse of the industry and the bottom falling out of family life. The gentrification of London was continuing at an unusually fast pace, one that reflected the new money swirling around and rushing into the city and the way in which it was being used as an architectural hothouse; but what was rarely discussed was the divisive way in which we were all now being forced to live, the rich rubbing up against the poor and neither of them appreciating it very much. Born May 22, 1955 Add or change photo on IMDbPro Add to list More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Known for Mystery Men 6.1 Soundtrack ("Gangsters") 1999 Who died out of The Specials? Jeremy David Hounsell "Jerry" Dammers, (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who is a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry, England based ska revival band The Specials, The Special A.K.A. In South London, conflict gave an edge to every transaction in a corner shop, every late-night walk home. The 1981 riots happened just a quarter of a mile from where I lived in The Oval, while the 1985 riot happened right outside my front door. At the time, as far as music was concerned, there was nothing quite so au courant as nostalgia. Well, I had to put a piece of tissue under my chin because sweat was dripping off my face due to it being so scary one mistake and that would have been it! In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, "You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. I would regularly hitch up to Coventry to sit in sullen working mens clubs with him and his extraordinary circle of friends and acquaintances, discussing socialism (we differed), the provenance of Prince Buster and the validity of Heaven 17. Seventeen months separate The Specials' two No1 singles and a million musical miles, wrote Simon Price of the Independent On Sunday. Often squandered, but here it has found a very safe pair of hands. I spent the years between 1981 and 1987 knocking about in South London, living in various housing association flats in Brixton, Peckham, Herne Hill and The Oval. He is a composer and writer, known for Mystery Men (1999), Natural Born Killers (1994) and Sixteen Candles (1984). Amongthe others who have shared kind words and remembrances: Belinda Carlisle,Boy George, Rage Against the Machine,Dexy's Midnight Runners, Billy Bragg,Squeeze's Chris Difford, The Sleaford Mods, Ted Leo, Rancid, The Interrupters, Lush's Miki Berenyi, Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley, Everything But the Girl'sTracey Thorn, Less Than Jake,The Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe,Matt Sharp (Weezer, The Rentals), Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak>),The Charlatans' Tim Burgess, former Cure member Lol Tolhurst, The Mountain Goats, Michael McKean, Jon Cryer, Sparks, Mark McGrath, Frank Turner, Catbite, Shepard Fairey, director Tim Pope,and more. The forgotten riot is the one in Brixton that started on 28 September 1985. Oct 18 2019. They were gigs, after all. Bristol Beacon. My thoughts are with all his family.. The flat was right behind the Ritzy cinema, just off Coldharbour Lane, a first-floor, two-bedroomed housing association flat that backed on to a small courtyard and faced Brixtons Front Line. But apart from that, I have no idea why Jerry isnt doing it. Dammers record was an apocalyptic portrait of inner-city oppression set to a loping beat offset by an unsettling and vaguely Middle Eastern motif: Government leaving the youth on the shelf No job to be found in this country The single sounded like the fairground ride from hell, a snake charmer of a song, complete with strident brass, madhouse wailing and dub-style breaks. Added by koan Managed by Isa. Join Facebook to connect with Jerry Dammers and others you may know. At which point, the only honourable thing to do is shut up and move away., Massive Attack wrote, "The protest soundtrack to our youth & the blueprint of our band. Born on May 22, 1955, Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, India, Dammers had been in The Cissy Stone Soul Band, and later graduated from Coventry University. The recording of Ghost Town, which was the last time the original band were in a studio together, was so fraught and so obviously frustrating, that the guitarist Roddy Byers tried to kick a hole in the wall. From 2001 to 2012, the Afro-Caribbean population of Lambeth, the borough that houses Brixton, fell by eight per cent, even though the boroughs overall population rose by nine per cent. The ghost town is theirs to haunt., When I think about Ghost Town I think about Coventry, said the bands drummer, John Bradbury, who grew up in the city. 5th September 2015. Jerry Dammers experimented with lounge-noir on their second album, causing intra-band friction. Written by Specials keyboard player Jerry Dammers, "Gangsters" is a reworking of Prince Buster's 1964 ska classic "Al Capone." It samples the car sound effects that open the original song. [20], The summer of 1981 saw riots in over 35 locations around the UK. Hes missing out on being in this incredible band. Jerry Dammers will be playing a DJ set from his unrivalled collection of library music records,later in the night will be showcasing a new composition recorded by Jerry accompanying the paintings of Turner Prize-nominated Coventry artist George Shaw. We will try to find the right answer to this particular crossword clue. Glasgow were particularly bad. In Liverpool he saw shops closing down, more beggars on the streets, little old ladies selling their cups and saucers on tables outside their homes and he started to see the frustration and anger in the young faces of those who came out to see his band. By the end of the 1980s, those pockets of gentrification that had started to pop up around Central London would become so oversubscribed that those on the bottom rungs were pushed farther and farther out, so those previously out-of-bound areas east of the city villages that promised the sort of luxurious loft-living the young bankers in Docklands had been promised a decade before. [14] During this period Hall, Staple, Golding and Dammers all turned up at the house at various times to add further vocals. As we eventually moved out shipping out to Shepherds Bush, in West London so others took our place and a gentrification of sorts did occur, the kind that increasingly appealed to those who couldnt afford to get onto the housing ladder anywhere else. It was unbelievable. It is arguably one of the most effective political songs in pop history. Thank you Jerry Dammers for bringing this to the world. St Pauls was the first riot, so I was aware of the situation, he says today. Since the song had no proper beginning or ending during recording at Woodbine Street, Collins recreated the idea of fading in over a sound effect, which he had used previously on "Lift Off", the B-side of "At the Club". Always a proper gent to The Beat, our condolences to family and friends.". It is with deep regret that we say goodbye to our great friend, the world's greatest drummer, our beloved Brad. The Specials singer Terry Hall has denied the claims of founding member Jerry Dammers that he was kicked out of the band ahead of their forthcoming reunion. He then ran away, leaving the camera behind. We had almost been written off and then Ghost Town came out of the blue.. The single had two B-sides, each written by a different member of the Specials. Surrounded by a burgeoning new romantic movement, two-tone felt very council estate, very rough and very monochromatic. We had almost been written off and then "Ghost Town" came out of the blue. Urban deprivation for us was a backdrop to a new world, one in which we knew we were going to have to fend for ourselves. I'm begging you, free Nelson Mandela. I knew Dammers extremely well for about five years in the 1980s. No noise. However, there was a tense moment towards the end of recording when Dammers decided at the last minute that he wanted to add a flute to the song, and with no free tracks available Collins was forced to record the flute directly onto the track containing the previously recorded brass section, with the possibility that any error would have rendered the entire track unusable: The guy who played the flute was a member of the band King and we recorded him in the hallway with a microphone at the top of the stairs to get the natural reverb from the stairwell. Affiliation PRS Comments Keyboardist. Everywhere there was tension. Ghost Town. But a wicked sense of humour. But so embedded were these in the British psyche, that Dammers needed only a minimum of words to paint his picture. After becoming overwhelmed with the multitude of choices available in the 24-track studio used during the recording of More Specials, Dammers had decided that he wanted to return a more basic set-up, and after a recommendation from bass player Horace Panter who was familiar with the place, the band chose the small 8-track studio in the house owned by John Rivers in Woodbine Street in Royal Leamington Spa. I found myself being transfixed by the silence, alone in the vast city, padding around my own private video game. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. The song was as much about the dissolution of the band as much as deindustrialisation and the toxicity of the streets. An appreciation by Jerry Dammers, founder of The Specials and 2 Tone records. No sound. Jerry Dammers: How The 'Devil's Chord' Split The Specials In an exclusive MOJO interview, the architect of 2 Tone reveals how violence at the Ghost Town sessions finished off the group. When I rang my friend Robin, who lived up the road on Brixton Hill, and told him about the dozens and dozens of people still running by my window with enough stereo equipment to start their own branch of Currys, he laughed and rather unhelpfully suggested that I nip out and find something for myself (Dont you need a new stereo?). #jerrydammers #georgeshaw. [8], The tour for the group's More Specials album in late 1980 had been a fraught experience: already tired from a long touring schedule and with several band members at odds with keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammers over his decision to incorporate "muzak" keyboard sounds on the album, several of the gigs descended into audience violence. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? Club owners, club runners, DJs, bands, doormen, barmen, waitresses, bouncers and obviously the drug dealers. The genesis of the song started back in 1980, after Dammers had witnessed the St Pauls riots in Bristol. They originally met when she directed the video for his 1997 single Ballad Of A Landlord, but. For a short while, I felt as though I could have been the last person in the capital. Read those below. Like all great records about social collapse, it seems to both fear and relish calamity. And its sense of melancholy spoke clearly: there was the sus laws [the informal term for the stop and search law that enabled the police to stop, search andpotentially arrest suspects], inner cities not functioning, racism dividing the working class. It does not seem like he is in a relationship either. One afternoon that autumn, a few months after the 1981 riots, I had walked from a squat in Peckham up to The Oval and was just about to enter the Underground when I was approached by a gang of about a dozen skinheads. Fascinated by the record's sound, Dammers telephoned the song's co-writer and producer John Collins a few days later, although as Dammers first phone call was in the middle of the night, Collins initially took it to be a joke. "Why?" For most of the 1970s, St Pauls a predominantly black and white working-class area had been the victim of deteriorating housing, poor education services and an increasingly strong police presence. With all his DJing work cancelled for the time being, he is wisely using this period to try to finalise output hes been tinkering with for years. And it wasnt quiet, so much as mute. Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra. What many forgot about the peace process in Northern Ireland was that it was as much to do with prosperity as political and sectarian will. The fact that it became popular when it did was just a weird coincidence. He has hours of material in the can, as he says, but needs time to get it into shape. The family moved to England, and Jerry was raised and schooled in Coventry. Everything was based on cash, as there was no other currency. [22], The song experienced a thematic resurgence on music streaming platforms in 2020, after lockdown orders were placed following the COVID-19 pandemic. Having spent the last week or so working from home, trying to marshal the troops via Zoom, a few days before the lockdown I walked into the office to pick up some material I needed for a project we had just successfully moved to the autumn. The Broadwater Farm riot in Tottenham, in North London, a week later, was dominated by two deaths. 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