THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409230107
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE SMALLWOOD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
THOUGH THE Specials disbanded over a decade ago, their irresistible music has hardly been forgotten. In fact, demand for the band's spunky sound, which spearheaded a British ska revival in the late '70s, has been so great the last few years that the Specials have found themselves with a more-than-ready market.
``People in Japan and Europe, they wanted us to come and tour,'' vocalist/percussionist Neville Staples said with some astonishment from his home in Coventry, England. ``We was getting phone calls, `Are the guys working? Will the guys do a gig?' We just started getting offers for shows last year and we thought, `Well, we might as well go.' That's how it started.''
Not that Staples has been idle since the Specials' breakup in 1980. Last year, he toured on a package bill called Skavoovie as part of Special Beat (which included Ranking Roger from the English Beat and General Public), the Toasters, Skatalites and Selecter.
That tour and now the Specials' jaunt through America this fall - the group will stop at the Abyss in Virginia Beach Sunday night - reflects a renewed interest in the rebellious, cross-bred sound of ska, which the Specials and others developed on the heels of the punk rock movement.
``Ska is a form of reggae,'' Staples explained, ``reggae came from ska. The Americans play it different; the English play it different. The real ska is played slow. It's not got rock in it or anything; it's just slow reggae on the offbeat. It originated from Jamaica. They used to sing about things around them, anything they could think of or see they'd sing about. From ska came rock-steady, then blue beat, then reggae as it is now.
The multiracial, seven-man Specials ``played ska,'' continued Staples, ``but we put our own influence in it. The black guys, me and Lynval (Golding, guitar), we had that influence in it, then the white guys put the rock in it, the punkish rock. That's how we came up with our own brand of ska.''
In the ska universe of 1979, the rock and reggae worlds intertwined, which was most appealing to post-punk British youth. So appealing, in fact, that Specials keyboardist Jerry Dammers founded his own record label, 2-Tone, to release the music of his and other genre-bashing, prejudice-trashing bands like Madness, the English Beat and Selecter.
A young Elvis Costello produced the Specials' self-titled LP debut, Staples remembered, and crowds were ``a mixture, like punks - some people would dress semi-punk - and they'd get on the stage. But no violent stuff.''
Staples recalls those Specials' heydays with great fondness: ``I was so young and it was so exciting, I didn't absorb it in. Right now, I'm thinking, `Christ, it was brilliant.' If I could do it again, I would just savor every moment more.''
The nonstop excitement eventually took its toll, though.
``When we first started, we toured'' almost endlessly, the singer said, ``America, here, Australia, we played every night. For us, it was high energy all the time. We just burned ourselves out and we was getting on each other's nerves. We burned out on each other.''
While Dammers continued recording as the Specials AKA, Staples, Golding and vocalist Terry Hall formed Fun Boy Three, aiming for a sound that was ``more relaxed, and that it was.'' Fun Boy Three's second (and last) album, produced by David Byrne, featured a spectacular dirge-speed version of ``Our Lips Are Sealed,'' which Hall co-wrote with Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's.
When Hall left to form the stylish pop trio Colour Field in 1985, Staples focused on management and production work - particularly in bangara, which is Indian music played with Western influences - and, later, his work with the Special Beat.
Today, Staples is ecstatic about the growing hunger for the ska sound.
``It's huge in Europe,'' he said, ``and in Japan, it's like, forget it. When we go there, you see them in the 2-Tone things, it's like it's there again. England, it's more underground. There's a big following here, but it's like when it was starting again in England.''
The current incarnation of the Specials features a four-man core of original members - Staples, Golding, guitarist Roddy Radiation and bassist Horace Gentleman - along with veteran ska hands keyboardist Mark Adams, horn man Adam Birch and drummer Aitch Bembridge of the Selecter.
``We've got new stuff,'' Staples said of his new lineup, ``but right now we'll just do the old stuff'' in concert. The Specials are currently seeking a record deal for their new material.
``It's like starting over,'' Staples says. ``It's great fun.'' by CNB