For those who missed out (or refused to go) to the SPECIALS reunion/30th anniversary tour gigs, I can tell you that you missed on, well, not very much really. They/It (the gigs) were good and the songs sounded great as they were being played, yet, I can't put my finger on it, but something about the whole thing just didn't work.
It was good to hear the (mostly) original band again, but their sound was lacking something, maybe energy and.. the 'urgency' they had before, in part due to the situation of the times maybe, I'm not sure. But, being the good pedant I am, I reckon the absence of Jerry Dammers didn't do the gigs any good, he helped (if not created) the shape of band -and the Two Tone scene in general, he wasn't there just to pick horridly funny jumpers for the band on Top of the Pops for their Christmas appearances.
(CONTRARY TO PRESS REPORTS, TERRY HALL WAS ACTUALLY SAID TO BE RATHER SAD INSTEAD OF PLEASED AT THE THOUGHT OF LEAVING HIS HARVESTING JOB IN HORSHAM AT 'MAGGIE'S FARM'. HIS EMPLOYER MAGGIE WAS QUOTED AS "BEING RATHER SAD" THAT HE WAS LEAVING HIS JOB BECAUSE, IN HER OWN WORDS "AS WELL AS BEING A DAMN GOOD GRAFTER, 'EE WERE ALSO THE "THE BEST DAMN TRACTOR DRIVER I'VE SEEN IN MANY A YEAR, BUT I WAS PLEASED FER HIM THAT HE HAD REJOINED THAT `POPULAR BEAT GROUP' OF HIS, IT EVEN BROUGHT A SMOILE TO HIS OL' GRUMPY FACE AN-ALL", RECALLED FARMER MAGGIE FONDLY. SHE LEFT US WITH THE THOUGHT "ITS ALL QUITE SWEET REALLY THOUGH, INNIT", BEFORE RETURNING TO THE TENDING OF THE PIGS.)
It was not all bad though, for those who did miss the tour there was the free CD of the tour given away with the Sunday edition of the 'Times of London', the irony of the anti-'Rightist' band releasing a free CD of their 'greatest hits' in the paper that supported Thatchers ruinous policies more than anyone, and that it has, at times been a ravenous supporter of the two draining, vile wars we are currently involved in as a Nation wasn't lost on a great many people, and put a smile on quite a few groggy faces unusually early on a Sunday morning at least.
The CD....Hmmm. Well, the CD was (as I said) a 'greatest hits' set list recorded at different venues, but mixed as if one gig, the quality was typical of a middling quality mixing desk recording, a bit like the good quality bootlegs that are appearing nowadays, except there wasn't an imaginatively created cover to go with with the CD, not of bootleg standards anyway. If the cover has said 'ELKIE BROOKS on tour' on its front the effect would of been the same.
Then there is the inevitable Ebay auctions, it doesn't take much imagination to think of the numbers who went that Sunday to buy two versions of the Sunday Times, one to keep and one to flog on Ebay, "surely they gotta be worth something, their only available in the U.K. editions and the Specials are loved all over the world, I bet I'll get some decent wonga for the sale of one of those", 'geezers' the land over told their wives and lovers. The only problem with this is all the other 'geezers' who had the same idea, Ebay is full of copies of the CD, all being sold with earnest hope, and of course, being sold no doubt with the expectations of becoming modestly well off for a day or two. Despite that, the highest price I've seen for a copy so far was a sad 65p.
Maybe in ten years the CD might be worth a few quid, the CD itself is sadly, also about as far as I wish to get to seeing the reformed band play again.
Saying all that, I cannot deny that it is great fun going to see them and are a good night out.
MR 'B.A Humbug' esq.
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