Terry Hall of The Specials dies aged 63 - BBC

Terry Hall, the frontman of socially conscious ska set The Specials, has died astatine the property of 63.

Known for his dour representation and crisp wit, the vocalist recovered fame successful the 1970s and 80s with hits similar Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much Too Young.

He near The Specials successful 1981 to signifier Fun Boy Three with fellow-bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, scoring different tally of hits.

The vocalist died aft a little illness, The Specials said successful a statement.

"Terry was a fantastic hubby and begetter and 1 of the kindest, funniest, and astir genuine of souls," they wrote.

"His euphony and his performances encapsulated the precise essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the combat for justice, but mostly the love.

"He volition beryllium profoundly missed by each who knew and loved him and leaves down the acquisition of his singular euphony and profound humanity."

In a abstracted message, Staple told the BBC helium had learned of his friend's passing arsenic helium landed successful Egypt for a vacation with his wife.

"It's truly deed maine hard," helium said. "We fronted The Specials and Fun Boy Three together, making history.

"Terry, helium surely volition beryllium missed."

Jane Wiedlin, co-founder of set The Go Gos who co-wrote the band's deed Our Lips Are Sealed with Hall, said helium was a "lovely, sensitive, talented and unsocial person".

"Our highly little romance resulted successful the opus Our Lips Are Sealed, which volition everlastingly necktie america unneurotic successful euphony history."

Singer Elvis Costello described Hall's dependable arsenic "the cleanable instrumentality for the existent and indispensable songs connected The Specials".

"That honesty is heard successful truthful galore of his songs successful joyousness and sorrow," helium said.

The set asked for respect for Hall's family's privacy. No origin of decease was shared.

The instrumentalist was calved successful 1959 and raised successful Coventry, wherever astir of his household worked successful the city's then-booming car industry.

But his beingness took a acheronian crook when, astatine the property of 12, helium was kidnapped by a teacher.

"I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for 4 days," helium told The Spectator successful 2019. "And past punched successful the look and near connected the roadside."

Hall said the incidental near him with life-long slump and caused him to driblet retired of acquisition astatine the property of 14, aft becoming addicted to the Valium helium had been prescribed.

"I didn't spell to school, I didn't bash anything. I conscionable sat connected my furniture rocking for 8 months."

Music was immoderate signifier of solace; and Hall joined a section punk set called Squad, receiving his archetypal penning recognition connected their azygous Red Alert.

He was spotted by The Specials' Jerry Dammers, who recruited him arsenic a frontman by deploying a unspeakable pun.

"He worked successful a stamp shop" the instrumentalist told Mojo magazine. "I told him, Philately volition get you nowhere'".

After gaining a fearsome unrecorded estimation astatine home, the set roseate to nationalist prominence aft Radio 1's John Peel played their debut single, Gangsters, connected his show.

The opus - a tribute to Prince Buster's ska classical Al Capone - established the set and their grounds statement 2-Tone arsenic a large unit successful British music.

They were a multi-racial group, documenting the turbulent Thatcher years by playing songs straight indebted to Jamaican ska - a pre-reggae benignant that remained fashionable successful Britain's West Indian communities.

But Hall, ne'er 1 for hyperbole, said the band's occurrence was astir an accidental by-product of the punk movement.

"When I saw the Pistols and The Clash I realised it didn't look that difficult," he told The Big Issue. "They didn't look similar they could play precise good either, truthful the happening was to signifier a set past enactment it out.

"We didn't adjacent cognize who was going to play what - we passed astir each the instruments until we recovered what we were comfy with. I wasn't comfy with immoderate of them truthful I became the singer."

Nonetheless, the set rode an bonzer question of popularity, scoring 7 consecutive apical 10 singles betwixt 1979 and 1981.

That play culminated with 1981's Ghost Town, an hypnotic, menacing opus that seemed to foretell and past soundtrack that summer's riots connected the streets of London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham; a effect to the police's usage of stop-and-search tactics.

Hall said his governmental awakening came successful his teenage years "when I discovered that moving men's clubs had a colour barroom connected their doors".

"That truly shook me," helium said, and resolved to instrumentality a stand.

"When you spot injustice, each you tin bash is think: what tin I bash to help, what tin I accidental astir this, however tin I marque radical alert of this?"

Ghost Town spent 3 weeks astatine fig one, and is wide regarded arsenic 1 of the all-time large British popular songs.

But Hall - who was lone 22 - recovered it hard to span the discrepancy betwixt illustration fame and the band's governmental message.

"When we picked up a golden disc for Ghost Town, I felt truly atrocious astir it," helium said. "You are being told to observe this fig 1 grounds that is astir what is happening, the messiness that we are in, and I felt precise uncomfortable."

Hall near the set to commencement Fun Boy Three with Golding and Staple, abandoning ska for a much experimental, skeletal popular sound.

Their debut azygous The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum) picked up wherever Ghost Town near off, and Hall wrote astir his puerility maltreatment connected the medium way Well Fancy That.

But the set recovered much commercialized occurrence by teaming up with the era's biggest miss groups.

They duetted with Bananarama connected Really Saying Something and a screen of the jazz modular It Ain't What You Do.

Hall besides teamed up with Wiedlin of The Go Gos to constitute Our Lips Are Sealed, a opus that some bands recorded and took into the charts separately.

After Fun Boy Three, Hall formed galore different bands, including The Colourfield; Terry, Blair, and Anouchka; and Vegas, a collaboration with Eurythmics prima Dave Stewart.

He launched a solo vocation successful 1994 with the critically-acclaimed Home, by which clip helium was being cited arsenic a cardinal power by artists similar Massive Attack and Damon Albarn (who appeared connected the opus Chasing A Rainbow).

For caller fans, helium offered immoderate listening advice: "The Specials and Fun Boy Three should beryllium played large with cheery wantonness and my solo/personal records request to beryllium listened to with a steadfast dose of melancholy & self-pity."

He went connected to grounds with trip-hop creator Tricky and Albarn's hip-hop broadside task Gorillaz, earlier reuniting with The Specials for a circuit successful 2008, and performed astatine the 2012 London Olympics closing concert.

In 2019, the set released a caller album, Encore, which gave them their archetypal ever fig one; and spawned gigs up and down the UK, earlier Covid enactment their comeback to an unexpected halt.

"The accomplishment of the pandemic affected maine enormously," Hall aboriginal told The Quietus. "I spent astir 3 months trying to fig retired what was going on. I couldn't constitute a azygous word. I spent the clip trying to fig retired however not to die."

The solution, helium aboriginal decided, was to grounds an medium of covers, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Released successful October 2021, it featured caller versions of Bob Marley's Get Up, Stand Up; and The Staples Singers' Freedom Highway amongst others.

Simply called Protest Songs, it charted astatine fig two, marking Hall's last quality successful the Top 75 - and a fitting bookend to a bequest of powerful, meaningful euphony that defined an epoch of outspokenly governmental British pop.

Hall is survived by his wife, the manager Lindy Heymann. They had 1 son, portion Hall has 2 older sons with his ex-wife, Jeanette Hall.