The Specials

Last night I went to see The Specials at The Brighton Centre. Two years after their 30th anniversary tour I guess this was their 30th anniversary tour of breaking up as they split up in 1981 after only 2 very important albums. The Centre was rammed and the show started to deafening boo's as a photo of Margaret Thatcher appeared on screen. The slide show continued with photos of the miners strike and the 81 riots to a huge cheer as a front page headline Thatcher Quits and ended with photos of the recent riots and a picture of David Cameron. It doesn't take Kojak to work out there was a pattern emerging there.

The screen fell to show the 50 something band members and they started their show of incredible 30 year old songs. Terry Hall was as po faced as ever, not cracking a smile at all throughout the show but looking so cool. There were a lot more youngsters in the crowd than 2 years ago who seem to have discovered The Specials for the first time. There was still however the amusing sight of 50 year old men shouting Rude Boy non stop and dancing to Too Much Too Young and then probably waiting for their 30 year old children to pick them up outside.

The darkness in the lyrics reflects how Britain was in the early 80's and the deadpan way they are presented adds to that. The anti National Front message, unemployment and the ahead of it's time "Why Must You Record My Phone Calls" all added to a great evening. There were disco balls again for Nite Klub which started off really slow and then burst into the most energetic number of the night.

They came back to an encore of Ghost Town and Little Bitch and that was it. I hope their reunion is not going to only last 2 years as everyone needs some Specials in their life.