One in every of British pop’s best, Terry Corridor helped pioneer a complete new motion with The Specials earlier than utilising his famously deadpan skills in quite a few equally intriguing bands, facet tasks, supergroups and solo releases
The Specials – Specials (1979)
Previously often called The Coventry Automatics, The Specials turned their West Midlands hometown into an unlikely cultural hub in direction of the tip of the 70s, infusing the music of Jamaica with a distinctly British punk spirit to pioneer the sound that grew to become often called 2 Tone.
That includes the guitarists Lynval Golding and Roddy ‘Radiation’ Byers, bass participant Horace Panter and, finally, drummer John Bradbury, in addition to roadie-turned-singer Neville Staple and poker-faced vocalist Terry Corridor, the band had been fashioned by chief songwriter Jerry Dammers with the intention of placing Coventry on the map. And after being found by Joe Strummer, resulting in a assist slot on The Conflict’s Out On Parole Tour, the seven-piece quickly achieved their objective.
In fact, The Specials didn’t all the time paint the town in probably the most flattering mild, nearly all of their authentic materials reflecting on the hardships of suburban life in the course of the early years of Thatcherite Britain. Concrete Jungle was written by Byers about being chased by the Nationwide Entrance, whereas It’s Up To You and Doesn’t Make It Alright each additional deal with the band’s experiences of racism head on. And Too A lot Too Younger, a reside recording of which might later give the band a controversial No.1, is a kitchen sink vignette during which the band present their blatant disdain in direction of an adolescent mom.
A Message To You Rudy
Though The Specials had been admirably eager to name out society’s prejudices, this rhetoric may typically tip over into sexism. Amid the chatter and chinking glasses of Nite Klub, Corridor declares “All the ladies are slags,” for instance. And Little Bitch is downright nasty, berating a younger lady for her look, bed-wetting tendencies and suicidal cries for consideration. It’s little surprise the group quickly dropped the observe from their set.
Whereas not the entire band’s lyrical themes have aged notably effectively, a telling signal of their late teenage years, the music nonetheless stays positively thrilling. The Specials had been notably skilful in adapting ska classics for the New Wave crowd, with Silly Marriage downgrading the homicide expenses of Prince Buster’s Choose Dread to vengeful vandalism (with a little bit assist from Chrissie Hynde besides) and Do The Canine turning Rufus Thomas’ authentic right into a commentary on the rising ranges of subcultural violence.
Elvis Costello, in the meantime, was the right alternative of producer, his unfussy strategy brilliantly recapturing the uncooked power of the band’s reside exhibits. As opening mission statements go, this was fairly particular.
The Specials – Extra Specials (1980)
As its title advised, The Specials’ second LP initially gave the impression to be extra of the identical. Facet One was bookended by repurposed covers, with music corridor normal Get pleasure from Your self become a pogo-inducing ska anthem concerning the rising chance of nuclear assaults and the kitsch Northern Soul of Sock It To ’Em J.B. updating the James Bond references of Rex Garvin’s authentic.
The gloominess of life below a Tory authorities was nonetheless the default theme. Terry Corridor’s first writing credit score Man At C&A ramped up the Chilly Warfare paranoia additional. Hey, Little Wealthy Lady charted the fortunes of a younger girl whose huge metropolis goals are exploited by the porn business. And in case you continue to hadn’t twigged that the Coventry outfit weren’t the image of contentment, Pearl’s Cafe, a collaboration with future The Particular AKA member Rhoda Dakar – explicitly declared “It’s all a load of bollocks.”
Get pleasure from Your self
Nonetheless, with Dammers itching to broaden the group’s horizons – “I didn’t need us to finish up like Dangerous Manners,” he instructed Uncut – Facet Two knocked everybody, together with his personal bandmates, for six. Impressed by the resort foyer music that grew to become an inadvertent soundtrack of their earlier tour, Dammers pursued an intriguing melting pot of simple listening kinds worlds other than the two Tone that had gone earlier than.
Stereotype/Stereotypes Pt.2 throws in every little thing from bossa nova to Bach whereas depicting how a median man’s life descends into STD-contracting, alcohol-heavy and police-evading chaos. Worldwide Jet Set ventures into Center Japanese psychedelia, concluding with the harrowing last cries from a passenger airplane about to crash land. There’s even a calypso instrumental, Vacation Fortnight.
Extra Specials has been credited with each pioneering trip-hop and foreshadowing the lounge music revival, whereas it additionally repeated the High 5 success of its predecessor. But it proved the loss of life knell for The Specials’ authentic incarnation. Pissed off at Dammers’ “my means or the freeway” strategy and the pressures of the business treadmill, the band splintered shortly after the era-defining single Ghost City gave them a second No.1.
Enjoyable Boy Three – The Enjoyable Boy Three (1982)
“The sound of three individuals despatched psychological by being in The Specials,” was how Terry Corridor described the 1981 offshoot he fashioned with Golding and Staple to The Guardian in 2009. Enjoyable Boy Three’s self-titled debut album does certainly have a One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest vibe, from the deranged assortment of animal noises and soccer whistles that pervade Funrama 2 to the truth that its lead single – an assault on both the Thatcher/Reagan particular relationship or their new musical foe, Jerry Dammers, relying by yourself interpretation – was titled The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum).
However there was additionally methodology to their insanity, with the trio – now sporting Persil-white singlets somewhat than two-tone fits – firmly subscribing to the idea that much less is extra throughout 11 tracks, eclectic as they had been sparse.
Though its musical palette, co-produced with common Specials cohort Dave Jordan, not often expands past primitive percussion, inexpressive chants and Sprechgesang, The Enjoyable Boy Three nonetheless manages to each intrigue and innovate.
Taking Over …
Religion, Hope And Charity finds the boys tiptoeing onto the dancefloor with a rhythmic mix of metallic funk, distinctly British hip-hop, and early minimalist techno. I Don’t Consider It adopts nursery rhyme melodies and paranoia-soaked reggae to rally towards the surveillance of Black Britain, whereas Finest Of Luck Mate is a dub poem a couple of debt-ridden man whose makes an attempt to flee poverty are thwarted by his each day journeys to the bookies.
In fact, Enjoyable Boy Three’s most invaluable contribution to the popular culture of the early 80s was its introduction of the period’s greatest girlband. Bananarama, found by Corridor because of an article in The Face, lend their nonchalant tones to 4 tracks together with the haunting Gregorian vibes of opener Sanctuary and world-weary nearer, Alone. Nevertheless it’s on the playful cowl of High 5 hit T’aint What You Do (It’s The Manner That You Do It), a jazz normal recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, the place Siobhan, Keren and Sara make their presence identified. “The place can we go to from right here?/ What sort of sound can we observe?” FB3 ask on Manner On Down. Minimalistic, mysterious and mischievous pop gave the impression to be the reply.
Enjoyable Boy Three – Ready (1983)
After returning the favour on Bananarama collab Actually Saying One thing and in addition protecting the George Gershwin normal Summertime, Enjoyable Boy Three dramatically ended their run of 5 straight High 20 hits with The Extra I See (The Much less I Consider), a bleak meditation on The Troubles that facetiously completed with the punchline, “Does anybody know any jokes?”
Fortunately, the trio’s second album had a number of extra bankable hits up its sleeve, particularly the surprising tango of The Tunnel Of Love and, most notably, Our Lips Are Sealed. This co-written gem with The Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin, with whom Corridor had a short-lived romance, went on to be successful for her personal girlband, too.
Helmed by David Byrne, apparently the group’s second alternative of producer after Brian Eno turned them down, Ready isn’t as huge a leap ahead as its predecessor.
Homicide She Stated finds the trio paying homage to the theme from Margaret Rutherford’s Miss Marple movies of the 60s, maybe an indication Dammers’ penchant for simple listening had rubbed off greater than they’d admit. The Strain Of Life (Takes The Weight Off The Physique), in the meantime, harked again to the bouncy ska of The Specials’ debut.
Maybe aware they’d run their course, Terry Corridor once more moved on, leaving Enjoyable Boy Three as one of many decade’s most curious two-album wonders.
The Colourfield – Virgins And Philistines (1985)
Named after a mid-Fifteenth century type of summary art work, The Colourfield (initially The Color Discipline) noticed Terry Corridor distance himself barely from the monochromatic persona that had guided his earlier two outfits to chart success. He may nonetheless rival Morrissey when it got here to lyrical bitterness, after all. “However me and the cat personal the lease on the flat and nothing you do will ever change that,” he sneers at an ex-girlfriend for having the audacity to depart on Take. And he can hardly comprise his resentment on the animal activism of Merciless Circus (“Fur coats on ugly individuals/ Expensively dressed as much as kill/ In a sport that’s authorized/ Throughout the minds of the mentally unwell”).
Nonetheless, joined by guitarist Toby Lyons and bass participant Karl Shale, who’d each plied their commerce in one other Coventry-based ska act, The Swinging Cats, Virgins And Philistinesadditionally gives some mild to go along with all of the shade. “I don’t detest every little thing, simply most issues,” Corridor stated on Music Field TV, arguably the closest he ever got here to expressing a way of optimism.
Pile On The Agony
Album opener Considering Of You, which options backing vocals from huge fan (and apparently studio cleaner) Katrina Phillips, surrounds its pleas for a misplaced love with the type of orchestral pop that made Burt Bacharach and Hal David probably the most in-demand songwriters of the 60s. Castles In The Air combines open-road gentle rock with prospers of flamenco, whereas Hammond Track turns people rock trio The Roches’ authentic right into a lushly harmonised affair that’s paying homage to classic Simon And Garfunkel.
Though a lot of Virgins And Philistines harks again to the sounds of Corridor’s youth, there are shades of the jangle-pop motion that only a 12 months later would coalesce on the C86 cassette, maybe an indication that Hugh Jones had extra of an affect than fellow co-producer Jeremy Inexperienced.
Showing to consider this was one musical reinvention too many, a choose few Corridor followers reacted to The Colourfield’s first reside exhibits with fixed heckles. A philistine response, you could possibly say, to an album which painted the everlasting miserabilist in refreshingly expressive strokes.
The Colourfield – Deception (1987)
Terry Corridor had known as it a day along with his earlier two outfits at a degree during which audiences had been left wanting extra. The truth that The Colourfield’s tough second album barely scraped the UK’s High 100 and, in a profession first, spawned zero High 40 singles means that the musical wanderer ought to have pressed the cease-and-desist button even earlier third time round.
The band appeared to have been simply as dissatisfied as their followers. Shale left the mission halfway by way of recording, whereas Corridor failed to ascertain a reference to each the session musicians introduced in as his alternative and producers Jeffrey Lesser (The Chieftains) and Richard Gottehrer (Blondie).
Deception’s troubled backstory, due to this fact, means that it’s an album of automotive crash proportions. However whereas it’s undoubtedly slicker and glossier than something its frontman did earlier than – and after, too – it additionally boasts a number of tracks worthy of gracing a Corridor Finest Of.
Confession, one of many two tracks on the LP that function Tears For Fears’ Roland Orzabal, and Coronary heart Of America each echo the well-crafted pop that may flip cult heroes Aztec Digicam and Prefab Sprout into chart issues only a 12 months later.
Operating Away
Including to Corridor’s checklist of unlikely cowl variations, the emphatic funk of Sly And The Household Stone’s Operating Away proved he may nonetheless push himself out of his consolation zone. And Miss Texas 1967 is a gorgeously melancholic piece of lounge pop about an old-school magnificence queen, which means that the nice pessimist Corridor was an ardent viewer of prime-time tv cleaning soap opera, Dallas.
There are indicators elsewhere, nevertheless, that Corridor had misplaced his mojo, and never simply the glum entrance cowl portrait, both: the album’s anodyne cowl of The Monkees’ She, for instance, or the artificial soul of Digging It Deep which succumbed to all of the worst excesses of late-80s productions in addition to the ‘moon in June’ strategy to lyrics (“Oh how I want I beloved the human race/ Oh how I want I had a reasonably face… I’m glad and lazy/ And also you’re unhappy and loopy”). After six albums in eight years, Corridor maybe properly took a prolonged break towards the tip of the last decade that he’d helped to outline.
Terry, Blair & Anouchka – Extremely Trendy Nursery Rhymes (1990)
For “individuals who can hum a tune while hoovering”. That’s how Blair Sales space, who, alongside future psychoanalyst and author Anouchka Grose joined Terry Corridor’s most carefree facet mission, described their sole album Extremely Trendy Nursery Rhymes.
It’s a good remark. Bonded by their love of 60s pop – their first single was a canopy of Captain & Tennille’s Love Will Preserve Us Collectively – Terry, Blair And Anouchka served up a sound as refreshingly easy as their moniker and sometimes, each bit as catchy because the Shake’n’Vac jingle.
The opening title observe, for example, is a reassuring piece of fatherly recommendation on the pressures of life which threatens to burst into the theme to Pink Dwarf. Lead single Lacking is the type of witty kitchen sink portrait The Stunning South topped the charts with that very same 12 months. And Three Cool Catz is a doo-wop tackle Leiber & Stoller’s normal whose title basically sums up the entire mission.
Certainly, so out of the cultural loop, Anouchka initially thought it was Jerry Corridor who needed a guitarist and declined. Blair, who would later kind Break From The Outdated Routine hitmakers Oui 3, was impressed that she didn’t know who Terry was. Nonetheless, collectively they seem like having a blast on a retro flight of fancy which charms and delights in equal measure. And remarkably, so does Terry.
Vegas – Vegas (1992)
Out of all Terry Corridor’s many artistic endeavours, Vegas seems to be the one misplaced to time. Solely a handful of its 10 tracks have racked up various thousand Spotify streams, and it’s largely been inconceivable to acquire a bodily copy since its 1992 launch. That’s a little bit shocking contemplating it did spawn his last UK High 40 hit (Possessed) and was spearheaded by a person who, again within the early 80s, had finished for synth-pop what Corridor had finished for ska.
Vegas was born out of a songwriting session with Dave Stewart for the Ramones, however there’s little in the best way of primitive rock’n’roll on an album which is extra Caribbean island than CBGBs.
Stroll Into The Wind is a hushed reggae quantity which reunites Corridor with Siobhan Fahey to haunting impact. Smart Man evolves from stately chamber music to beachside dub full with a chuckling toaster pontificating on the fleeting nature of fame. Whisper it quietly and Take Me For What I Am may even be mistaken for UB40 again of their chart-topping prime.
Extra in line with Stewart’s Eurythmics days, the squelchy electronica of The Thought Of You and a curious rendition of Charles Aznavour’s traditional chanson She seem to have wandered in from a special facet mission altogether. However whereas hardly Corridor’s most important album, Vegas nonetheless strikes it wealthy.
Terry Corridor – House (1994)
After 15 years and 5 totally different group tasks, Terry Corridor lastly determined to go solo in 1994, albeit with a little bit assist from a lot of his friends. Certainly, House’s credit learn like a who’s who of Eighties guitar pop, with Nick Heyward, The Smiths’ Craig Gannon in addition to XTC’s Andy Partridge all becoming a member of producer Ian Broudie on songwriting duties and The Icicle Works’ drummer Chris Sharrock and Echo And The Bunnymen’s bassist Les Pattinson lending a hand within the studio.
The Britpop motion, that within the wake of Positively Perhaps and Parklife was quick reaching its business zenith, was additionally eager to get on board, too. Blur’s Damon Albarn guested on Chasing A Rainbow, the hovering indie-pop quantity added to its particular version a 12 months later, whereas Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker remixed opening lead single Without end J, a bittersweet paean to Corridor’s soon-to-be ex-wife Jeanette which instantly set the classicist pop tone.
Regardless of its star-studded pedigree, the LP as soon as once more noticed Corridor languishing within the decrease reaches of the UK’s High 100, maybe the largest chart injustice of the journeyman’s profession contemplating how effortlessly it aligned with the Cool Britannia period.
The Extra You Get, The Extra You Need
Sense, a barely grittier model of The Lightning Seeds tune he had co-written two years beforehand, was additionally robbed of a High 40 place. However the album’s true highlights are elsewhere: the sweeping cinematic energy pop of What’s Improper With Me, the ode to loneliness of grammatical nightmare I Don’t Received You, the bitter kiss-off I Drew A Lemon during which Corridor proves he’s not totally averse to the odd dad joke (“I believed we’d final ceaselessly/ However you drew the curtains/ And pulled your self collectively”).
The coquettish feminine harmonies that permeate No No No and First Assault Of Love recall to mind the vocal interaction of The Human League. Whereas You boasts one in every of Corridor’s best zingers (“If ifs and ands had been pots and pans, you’d be a kitchen”). On paper, House is simply a minor footnote within the stressed artistic’s profession, and but, as his most constantly sturdy physique of labor, it’s arguably one thing of a misplaced traditional.
Terry Corridor – Chortle (1997)
Having waited such a very long time to go it alone, Terry Corridor struck whereas the iron was comparatively sizzling by releasing his second solo album simply three years after his first. Co-produced with Craig Gannon along with future Rolling Stones cohort Cenzo Townshend, the ironically-titled Chortle is a bit more downbeat than its predecessor, little question reflecting the actual fact the star was nonetheless recovering from a painful divorce.
Including The Excessive Llamas frontman Sean O’Hagan to his spectacular checklist of collaborators, Pleased Go Fortunate is a mournful piece of chamber pop which performs out like a relationship autopsy. Channelling Pulp of their Britpop prime, Ballad Of A Landlord is a scathing riposte to a former lover who’s found that the grass isn’t all the time greener on the opposite facet (“How I lengthy to style the secrets and techniques/ Out of your land of phoney tears”). The title of Damon Albarn co-write A Room Full Of Nothing, an unhinged waltz which captures the Britpop comedown as successfully as Blur’s self-titled LP from earlier within the 12 months, says all of it.
I Noticed The Mild
Even the songs which on the floor seem like filled with hope are, in truth, drenched in despair. The Byrds-esque Summer season Follows Spring sound is tailored for a romantic stroll within the park, however is yet one more smackdown to a dishonest ex. And the equally jangly Sonny And His Sister, co-penned with long-time fan Stephen Duffy, is a couple of man left so adrift by a break-up that he seeks recommendation from a teen journal’s issues web page.
Chortle does finish on a barely extra optimistic notice, a buoyant cowl of Todd Rundgren’s gentle rock serenade I Noticed The Mild which is completely in line with the album’s traditional radio vibes. However failing to seek out catharsis in such soul-baring (“I believed, ‘Why am I placing myself by way of this?’” he later instructed The Guardian. “I imply, I can keep away from doing this”), Corridor acknowledged that the singer-songwriter strategy wasn’t for him. Certainly, though Chortle grew to become his highest-charting LP since The Colourfield’s debut, his solo profession met the identical two-albums-and-out destiny, now his forte.
Corridor & Mushtaq – The Hour Of Two Lights (2003)
Maybe impressed by common collaborator Damon Albarn’s world music ventures, in 2003 Terry Corridor teamed up with Mushtaq of ethno-techno outfit Enjoyable-Da-Psychological for an audacious East-meets-West affair launched by way of the Blur frontman’s Sincere Jon’s label.
The Hour Of Two Lights additionally roped in everybody from 12-year-old Lebanese singer Nathalie Barghach and 70-something clarinettist Eddie Mordue to Algerian blind rapper Oujdi and Polish gypsy folkies Romany Rad on 11 eclectic tracks residing as much as the “up to date nomad music” promised by the duo.
Corridor sometimes takes centrestage, as on A Story Of Woe, a sardonic oompah band ditty about life below an oppressive regime, and the brooding trip-hop of Stand Collectively, which exemplifies the pair’s idealistic strategy to world politics. Nevertheless it’s the globe-trotting visitor vocals – Abdul Latif Assaly’s haunting cries on The Silent Wail, specifically – in addition to Mushtaq’s multi-cultural manufacturing that leaves a long-lasting impression.
Subsequently, Corridor usually finds himself within the uncommon place of being a supporting participant on his personal LP, the final to bear his identify for 16 years. Nonetheless, this daring collision of sounds proved that just about a quarter-century into his profession, he was nonetheless something however predictable.
The Specials – Encore (2019)
After they reunited – with out their founding member Jerry Dammers, after all – in 2008, The Specials spent over a decade traversing down reminiscence lane earlier than realising, as Horace Panter succinctly put it to Bass Participant journal, they “had been in peril of turning into the Finest Specials Tribute Band In The World.”
2019’s Encore was the treatment, a hotchpotch of canopy variations, re-recordings and originals which added to their discography for the primary time since 2001’s Conquering Ruler.
Solely Panter remained from that album’s equally trimmed-down line-up, with Terry Corridor and Lynval Golding changing Neville Staple and Roddy Byers on 10 tracks which unexpectedly returned Coventry’s best to the highest of the charts. Whereas the general public welcomed Encore with open arms, Dammers was removed from comfortable, believing that any contemporary materials not blessed by his presence would destroy the ska legends’ legacy.
Embarrassed By You
With a number of new songs that may sit comfortably on any best hits assortment, that definitely didn’t turn into the case. As its identify suggests, B.L.M. is a strong anti-racism anthem which finds Golding reflecting on his father’s experiences as a Windrush immigrant. 10 Commandments solutions again to Prince Buster’s same-named show of misogyny with defiant spoken phrase from Saffiyah Khan, the political activist who famously rallied towards an EDL demo sporting a Specials T-shirt.
In the meantime The Life And Occasions (Of A Man Referred to as Melancholy) sees Corridor dissect his personal psychological well being on a woozy mixture of spoken phrase and 60s lounge.
Other than the taut funk of The Equals’ Black Pores and skin Blue Eyed Boys, the extra acquainted choices are much less inspiring. Renditions of Enjoyable Boy Three’s The Lunatics… and The Valentines’ Blam Blam Fever, the latter already tackled on the band’s earlier LP, counsel they had been cherrypicking from a restricted songbook, too.
But there’s nothing right here to besmirch The Specials’ identify. Certainly, as nearer We Promote Hope, a wistful reggae quantity which basically summarises their entire ethos (“We’ve gotta deal with one another/ Do what it is advisable to do/ With out making others undergo”) attracts to an finish, all however their former chief could be left shouting “Encore”.
The Specials – Encore and Protest Songs 1924–2012 (2021)
After the double whammy of author’s block and the worldwide pandemic put paid to a deliberate album of roots reggae, The Specials as a substitute selected to observe their unlikely studio comeback by basically holding up a set of musical placards.
In contrast to Chumbawamba’s equally themed 1988 album English Insurgent Songs, the trio principally appeared throughout the pond for protest inspiration: therefore campfire religious I Don’t Thoughts Failing In This World sits alongside Bob Marley and The Wailers’ call-to-arms Get Up, Stand Up, Rod McKuen’s anti-Vietnam Warfare story Troopers Who Need To Be Heroes and The Staple Singers’ gospel traditional Freedom Freeway.
The Specials’ “urge to rail towards what’s flawed with the world” additionally veers into some unlikely locations. Fairly how Jerry McCain’s My Subsequent Door Neighbor, a primary slice of rockabilly whose solely gripes concern the borrowing of family home equipment, suits the theme stays anybody’s guess. In the meantime, Leonard Cohen’s All people Is aware of, handled to a smoky jazz rendition right here by Corridor at his most debonair, is simply right here attributable to its prominence in an Australian anti-smoking advert.
Ain’t Gonna Let No Hatred, Flip Me ’spherical
Protest Songs works greatest when it gives a component of shock: the band have by no means sounded as energised as on the easy storage rock of Bother Each Day, Frank Zappa’s dissection of the Watts Riots in Los Angeles. Bradford vocalist Hannah Hu helps flip the anti-imperialism of Speaking Heads’ Listening Wind right into a ghostly blues-folk quantity which evokes PJ Harvey at her most intense.
And the oldest composition right here, civil rights favorite Ain’t Gonna Let No person Flip Us Round, is given the handclap a capella remedy earlier than being skanked up midway by way of.
Tragically, this century-spanning affair ended up serving as Terry Corridor’s swansong: 14 months on, he died from pancreatic most cancers at simply 63, forsaking a exceptional physique of labor that was frequently shifting in scope and sound. “Our stunning good friend, brother and some of the good singers, songwriters and lyricists this nation has ever produced,” remarked Golding and Panter in a tribute that few may protest.
Learn Extra: Celebrating 2 Tone Information with those that made it occur
