Photograph: Jo Wiser, ANC's glory fades as South Africa's 'born free' generation votes, 'I'm more mature than South African democracy itself', Theborn free generation: 20-year-olds in South Africa prepare for first vote video, Jerry Dammers: how I made Free Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela: the triumph of the protest song. 'Ghost Town' wasn't a free-for-all jam session. Dammers was always a genuine bohemian and in a way it was no surprise to me the way his career panned out (DJing, production, forming various esoteric dance orchestras). [4] In response to the linking of the song to these events, singer Terry Hall said, "When we recorded 'Ghost Town', we were talking about [1980]'s riots in Bristol and Brixton. Refrigerators, dryers, you name it, said one observer. I even saw one lady hold up a piece of carpet and ask if anyone knew whether it was 6ft by 4ft.. Originally, the lead part was done on Jerry's guide organ before the flute was dropped in on the brass track. and The Spatial AKA Orchestra. We were 1970s bands in a time of two-man synth bands. I had already barricaded our own front door with various pieces of random furniture, although this was largely to try to appease my girlfriend, as I knew that any concerted push from the other side would have caused them to come tumbling down the corridor as the door flew open. When he was examined later Blakelock had 42 different wounds. "I never expected anything like this when I wrote the song," Dammers said. It even felt like a riot, or rather how a riot felt just before it kicked off, or maybe just after it, when all the dust had settled. Meta. [2] The song spent three weeks at number one and 11 weeks in total in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. Dammers was born in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India, the son of a clergyman who went on to become Dean of Bristol . Works . Bradbury joined The Specials in 1979, and continued with The Special AKA. I was aware that things were deteriorating. The single had two B-sides, each written by a different member of the Specials. Real name Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers Born May 22, 1955 Country United Kingdom IPI . London, Clapham Common. Nineteen-eighty-one was a desperate year in the UK. 197952 . More importantly, it was heard in South Africa where it was banned but became an anthem in the fight against apartheid. some of the tracks have been re-eq'd /tweaked, Really really nice repro collection just a few odd errors>, Two Tone Records Vinyl Treasures 7" Boxset, Ghost Town / Why? I had a friend who was chased down Gresham Road near Brixton Police Station by some of his black neighbours just because he happened to be white at the wrong time of day. Recording simply in mono really helped the instruments balance themselves." She was, though, when she claimed that money couldnt buy either trust or racial harmony. #jerrydammers #georgeshaw. The keyboard player wrote to The Guardian to dispute comments from singer Terry Hall regarding the band's upcoming reunion shows. We were watching a live TV broadcast of the Brixton riots and saw this bloke smash a camera shop window and grab the biggest camera he could find, which looked like a Nikon with a motor drive, says my friend Chris Sullivan, the former owner of the Wag Club. Apr 09 2010. [9] Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic notes the lyric "only brush[es] on the causes for this apocalyptic vision the closed down clubs, the numerous fights on the dancefloor, the spiraling unemployment, the anger building to explosive levels. Glastonbury, Worthy Farm. The recording of Ghost Town, which was the last time the original band were in a studio together, was so fraught and so obviously frustrating, that the guitarist Roddy Byers tried to kick a hole in the wall. Urban deprivation for us was a backdrop to a new world, one in which we knew we were going to have to fend for ourselves. Although there were only 80 arrests during the first riot, more than 5,000 people were involved, a massive groundswell of anger. The morning after the first 1981 riot was almost as bad as the riot itself, as the mess and the devastation made you feel as though you were living in a place that was never going to improve, that was only ever going to get worse. Enigmatic, certainly. Back in 1981, walking around Electric Avenue and Atlantic Road after the first nights disturbance was nothing if not surreal. View the profiles of people named Jerry Dammers. The invective, the flash of the eyes and yes, I have been on the wrong end of that once or twice. Especially as she was the one who had withdrawn them. I was friends with Brad and the two of us shared a house some time before the Specials . [18][19] Although initial reviews of the single in the UK music press were lukewarm, by the end of the year the song had won over the critics to be named "Single of the Year" in Melody Maker, NME and Sounds, the UK's top three weekly music magazines at the time. Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, although all three were cleared by the court of appeal in 1991 after it emerged evidence had been tampered with (Silcott remained in prison for the separate murder of another man, Tony Smith, finally being released in 2003). [12] Tensions were high during the recording of the single, with little communication between the band members, and at one point a frustrated Roddy Byers kicked a hole in the studio door, angering Rivers. Just over 30 years ago, in March 1984, Jerry Dammers released Free Nelson Mandela with his band the Special AKA, and this straightforward, cheerful but angry demand for the release of South Africa's most celebrated political prisoner became a top 10 hit in the UK, a bestseller across Europe and a no 1 in New Zealand. With all his DJing work cancelled for the time being, he is wisely using this period to try to finalise output hes been tinkering with for years. [8], The tour for the group's More Specials album in late 1980 had been a fraught experience: already tired from a long touring schedule and with several band members at odds with keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammers over his decision to incorporate "muzak" keyboard sounds on the album, several of the gigs descended into audience violence. Intelligent, observant and with a deadpan delivery second to none. It was hell to be around." And an activist. The news comes three months after the death of the bands trombonist, Rico Rodriguez. [24], In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs" at number 19, for "Lacing ska and reggae with the amphetamine edge of new wave". Yes, there was a royal wedding, in sharp juxtaposition to inner-city decay, a wedding that would produce a genuine royal superstar, yet the riots the worst for a century would resonate throughout the country for years. My condolences to his family and friends. The video's locations include driving through the Rotherhithe Tunnel and around semi-derelict areas of the East End as well as in Lothbury and Throgmorton Street in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend. I couldnt see it, couldnt smell it, but I just knew it was coming. In some respects 1981 was defined by the riots as much as by the music they inadvertently inspired. First we lose Lemmy, now news that Brad from the Specials has passed away. The genesis of the song started back in 1980, after Dammers had witnessed the St Pauls riots in Bristol. Im not a perfectionist but I want this to be good. The Human League, The Who, Lloyd Cole, Ultravox, Deep Purple, The Eagles, Golden Earring and Simply Red were all treading the boards again, seemingly regardless of how these opportunistic outings would ultimately affect their legacies. Jerry Dammers does not have a wife or a son. So the levels of anger were huge. Then, a few weeks later, in Toxteth, came the predictable sequel, followed by copycat riots in Southall, Moss Side, St Pauls, Handsworth and Chapeltown, in Leeds. As they travelled around the country the band witnessed sights that summed up the depressed mood of a country gripped by recession. Jerry Dammers also brought along several items as a gift to the 2-Tone museum. One policeman said it looked like World War III. Ghost Town initiated a strand of spooked British pop that has lived on in Tricky and Portisheads trip-hop and the dubstep of Burial and James Blake.. And I was thinking why doesn't anyone produce something equally as strong for Assange today? It was Tambo's son Dali, the founder of Artists Against Apartheid, who asked Dammers to start a British branch of the movement, which demonstrated against Paul Simon at the Royal Albert Hall during his Graceland tour for breaking the cultural boycott. That summed it up for me. He sought refuge in a (black) neighbours house, who promptly called out to the gang chasing him, who ran in and kicked the living daylights out of him. He has hours of material in the can, as he says, but needs time to get it into shape. Jerry Dammers has been out of the musical limelight since the mid-1980s Of all the band feuds in all the world, the fall-out between Dammers and his ex-cohorts has to be one of the worst. In March 1981, Jerry Dammers heard the reggae song "At the Club" by actor and singer Victor Romero Evans played on Roundtable, the singles review show on BBC Radio 1. The looters (even though they were ostensibly rioting, all they were really doing was stealing) did actually run up to the first floor, although they immediately headed back down again as the sound of sirens approached. And it wasnt quiet, so much as mute. Jerry Dammers has hit out at the Specials reunion, claiming he's been driven out of the band. I found myself being transfixed by the silence, alone in the vast city, padding around my own private video game. there were riots and civil disobedience all over the country. The Specials ' founder Jerry Dammers has revealed to Uncut that he recorded new Specials material with original members Horace Painter and Lynval Golding in 2003. Et alors que les 95 annes vcues par Nelson Mandela ont inspir de nombreux scnaristes et fait l'objet. "He'd say, run the checkerboard pattern right across, move this figure . Thatcher had a habit of invoking the pernicious legacy of the so-called permissive society whenever she was confronted with something she didnt understand. was sampled in. During his formulative years Jerry was a mod, hippie and skinhead. The first I knew something was up was around five oclock in the afternoon, when I started to hear screaming, windows being smashed and the sound of accelerated running past the window. Hearing of Brads death has been a great shock to me and it is a very sad day indeed, said Dammers in a statement. The camera was probably worth two grand, while the booze probably wasnt worth more than 100 tops. The video was just as bleak, featuring a road trip through some of the least salubrious streets of Central London. "Why?" Club owners, club runners, DJs, bands, doormen, barmen, waitresses, bouncers and obviously the drug dealers. Jeremy David Hounsell "Jerry" Dammers, (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who is a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry, England based ska revival band The Specials, The Special A.K.A. Free Nelson Mandela. [2] Jerry Dammers attended King Henry VIII School, Coventry. A premiere will be held simultaneously in London at Bafta. This is costly for our community reputation. It would have been difficult to imagine the residents displaying the same sentiments in 1981 or indeed in 1985. To the outside world it looked as though rioting was what any youth cult worth their salt did when theyd grown tired of posing for style magazines or making bad pop records. He left India at the age of 2, first living in Coventry, then moving to Sheffield at the age of 10. An indispensable tool in the arsenal of any would be singer-songwriter. The fact that it became popular when it did was just a weird coincidence. 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