Thread by @TheWrongtom

Ok, Ghost Town thread. Get comfy...

40 years ago on June 12th, this spectral beauty was released into the wild. A lot has been said/written about it since, often full of myth and hyperbole, but it's hard to argue that it's the greatest UK number 1

The roots of this song can be found on the road in 1980 when the band were touring their More Specials LP. Shops were shuttered. Violence errupted at a few gigs. Terry Hall and Dammers were arrested at one for inciting a riot when they were attempting to stop the fighting!

It's assumed that Coventry was the titular ghost town but Glasgow was a major influence, said Dammers "there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods". But the key to the song's success was it's ambiguity. Any town could be a ghost town.

Dammers spent the best part of a year trying to write the music for Ghost Town. He had something going on with the C minor/diminished chord but couldn't finish the verse, eventually giving up and staying on it to the end of the verse and the "too much fighting on the dancefloor"

There's a great breakdown of this by @rhodri here if you fancy a listen

However...

I've never seen this conformed but I think it's safe to assume this Prince Buster production from '67 was an influence on the Ghost Town melody

And let's not forget that during their debut single Gangsters - based on another Prince Buster single, Al Capone - Dammers pretty much plays the same 7 Wonders organ riff. Head to the 40secs after "can't fight corruption with con tricks"

Jump to early 81 and the band were exhausted from touring. Most of their 2 LPs were made up of covers or written by Dammers. A more democratic approach to the songs was on it's way. An EP was proposed with Dammers, Hall and Golding all penning a track each.

Now let's head over to a living room in Tottenham where a guy called John Collins was working on a few DIY lovers rock tracks with local friend Victor Romero Evans. Their single At The Club made it onto R1's Round Table and Dammers was listening

Sometime in the middle of the night John's phone rang. It was Dammers asking if he'd like to produce a new Specials single. He thought it was a joke so they invited him to a rehearsal in the function room of (I think) The Binley Oak in Coventry. All 3 songs were pretty much ready

The studio was booked. The band had gone big on More Specials so they downsized to the 8 track at Woodbine Studio in Leamington Spa in the basement of engineer John Rivers' house. A step down for the band but an upgrade for John Collins and his home 4 track set up

Collins speculates that a gig with Steel Pulse, where The Specials hadn't gone down as well as usual with an older more dedicated reggae audience, was why Dammers had enlisted him. He brought a copy of Gregory Isaacs "What A Feeling" for their reference

He especially wanted drummer John Bradbury to adopt a more minimal approach, using Sly Dunbar's spacious technique as an excuse to strip JB's kit down to just kick, snare and hi-hat for the recording. RIP JB!

At the same time as the recording session, a riot kicked off on Railton Road in Brixton. Overzealous revisionists have claimed Ghost Town was the soundtrack or theme tune of the riot, but it was over before they'd finished recording. This Ole House by Shakin' Stevens was number 1

Nearly a fortnight later the 3 songs were in the bag and ready to be mixed by Collins who took the tapes home to his living room set up. Yes, the greatest UK number 1 was mixed down in a living room in Tottenham on borrowed gear. Here's a snap I took of John and his reel to reel

Collins continued his minimal approach, stripping back the tracks, removing busier bits of guitar, ditching a section of toasting by Terry (which I'd love to hear!), and dropping the "this town..." chant in and out and onto the fade. He got them to record it throughout the song

But Ghost Town still had no real intro or outro, just a few bars of JB on his own at the beginning, so Collins fired up his kit built Transcendent 2000 synth and created that haunting wind effect. This is the actual synth, currently on display at Coventry Music Museum

For his own reference, Collins flipped over his At The Club single, and based Ghost Town's intro/outro on what he'd done with this slice of semi-synthetic dub featuring Transcendent 2000 in action recreating a space ship taking off. Watch yer bass bins...

And so the EP was mixed, Ghost Town was chosen as the A-side, and it hit the shops on June 12th. Collins had edited down the 7" version which worked it's way up the charts, but also mixed a 12" version featuring an extended Rico trombone solo. RIP Rico!

Ghost Town hit the charts at number 21, just after it's release. In 3 weeks it had made it to number 2. Here's DLT with the TOTP chart rundown from July 2nd 1981 featuring the likes of Third World, Tom Tom Club and Quincy Jones

The next day in Toxteth, young photography student Leroy Cooper was arrested for supposedly attacking police. Their heavy handedness sparked an angry crowd of onlookers. The rioting continued through the weekend. Leroy missed it. He was held on remand for the next 6 weeks

Here's Leroy a few years back. After prison he continued his photography documenting the many sides of Liverpool which normally get overlooked. He wrote a long piece about his experiences, the riot, dada, James Vanderzee, Man Ray etc etc the-dots.com/projects/the-s…

And while Leroy was banged up, and the riot was still raging, on the Sunday Ghost Town knocked Michael Jackson off the number 1 spot. The following Thursday the band appeared on TOTP introduced by a vile degenerate and Adam Ant on the show's 900th episode

Here's the full performance, sans Savile thankfully, and featuring The Bodysnatchers' Rhoda Dakar in the expanded lineup

Meanwhile the rioting continued across the UK. Handsworth next, then Leeds, Moss Side, and then smaller disturbances in Southall, Stockport, Southampton etc etc etc

It seemed like the song had predicted the summer of insurrection, but Dammers had been watching things develop

Coventry wasn't left out by the way. In fact things had blown up there in May after the murder of Satnam Singh Gill, a young man stabbed to death in broad daylight by 2 white teenagers. The Face reported on it in this Ghost Town related piece soon after theface.com/archive/this-t…

The Specials responded by organising an anti racism concert at Butts Stadium in Coventry on June 20th. Fear of racists kept audience numbers down but film students Kim Longinotto and Lizzie Lemon were there to capture the event. Here's a clip of Why?

In fact you can watch the whole film Underage for £2.50 on the @BFI Player player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/w…

Talking of filmmakers, let's take a look at the video. Shot by graphic designer and sometime pop promo director Barney Bubbles. You'll probably recognise a fair few of his record covers

Barney ventured out to the deserted streets of the City Of London, stuck a camera to the bonnet of a borrowed Vauxhall Cresta and let the band do their thing

Photographer Chalkie Davis was along for the ride. He captured the band down by the edge of the Thames as they shot the final scene tossing stones into the water. According to Chalkie it was the last time they were all photographed together as a unit.

Barney Bubbles would go on to shoot the debut video for Terry, Lynval and Neville's post Specials group Fun Boy 3

Bubbles killed himself in '83. He was only 41. RIP Barney!

Speaking of designers I can't leave this without giving the Ghost Town sleeve a nod. Dammers had his hand in 2 Tone's design, with the aid of graphic artists John Sims and David Storey. This one was no exception. It's sleeve is iconic but what's the story behind the skeletons?

In 1966, the Minneapolis label Soma, probably best know for Surfin' Bird by The Trashmen, released this horror sound effects album, and lo and behold...

Had the 2 Tone team seen this cover? Maybe, but more likely they picked up the photo from London's venerable Mary Evans Picture Library. The photographer is unknown but I believe it's from the 1930s, and possibly Belgian (feel free to correct me here)

And I'll call this thread a day here because I should be working on *something* related to all this rather than giving my research away for free to you lovely people. You know the rest, the band broke up and they all went off to make loads more amazing records.

Now please stand for our national anthem.

Just spotted the reissue is now at number 1 in the vinyl singles chart!

Grab it here if you haven't already thespecials.lnk.to/GhostTown40th