FUN BOYTHREE AND TERRY HALL
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A MAN CALLED TERRY
IN DECEMBER, WE LOST ONE OF BRITISH POP’S MOST SIGNIFICANT FIGURES WITH THE SAD PASSING OF TERRY HALL. SHOOTING TO FAME WITH THE SPECIALS, HE ALSO BROKE THE MOULD WITH HIS NEXT BAND, TOO. WE CELEBRATE HIS LEGACY AND, WITH THE HELP OF NEVILLE STAPLE AND LYNVAL GOLDING, TAKE A LOOK BACK AT HIS INNOVATIVE WORK WITH FUN BOY THREE...
DAN BIGGANE
Much Too Young: The late Terry Hall (centre) with ska legends The Specials in a promotional shot, circa 1978
© Getty
Fun Boy Three (L-R): Neville Staple, Lynval Golding and Terry Hall
© Brian Aris
Fun Boy Three pictured in 1982 (L-R): Lynval Golding, Neville Staple and Terry Hall
© Getty
On 18 December 2022, British music mourned the loss of one of its most endearing and iconic stars when it was announced that the singer of ground-breaking Coventry collective The Specials and founding member of Fun Boy Three, Terry Hall, had died at the age of 63 after a short battle with cancer.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists that this country has ever produced,” stated The Specials via social media. “Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest and most genuine of souls.”
Just 11 days previous, Classic Pop spoke to Hall’s former Fun Boy Three cohorts, guitarist Lynval Golding and vocalist Neville Staple, to look back and celebrate the trio’s oft-overlooked body of work. During our conversation, Golding describes Hall as a “very quiet and private man,” before telling us how he was, “a very bright and highly intelligent intellectual,” praising him for his songwriting talents for which the guitarist believed he was deserving of more recognition.
Following the announcement, Staple paid his respects online: “I was deeply saddened to hear about Terry Hall’s passing... We knew Terry had been unwell but didn’t realise how serious things had become until recently.”
“In the music world,” Staple continued, “people have many ups and downs, but I will hang on to the great memories of Terry and I, making history fronting The Specials and Fun Boy Three together.”
DAWNING OF A NEW ERA
Born in Coventry in 1959, Hall joined The Specials as their vocalist shortly after the band was formed by Jerry Dammers in 1977. Combining the abrasive attitude of punk with the spirited danceability of ska, the group enjoyed success with a string of hit singles on Dammers’ independent record label, 2 Tone.
Scoring UK Top 10s with Gangsters, A Message To You Rudy, the Too Much Too Young EP, Rat Race, Stereotype and Do Nothing, alongside two Top 5 albums, Specials (1979) and More Specials (1980), the band’s legacy would be cemented forever with their haunting chart-topper, Ghost Town. Hall had once said that he didn’t believe music could change anything, stating: “All you can do is put your point across”, but in one politically charged standalone single, The Specials had encapsulated the absolute despair which existed within a deeply divided Britain under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
“All three of us had the freedom to do whatever we wanted, everything was equal” – Neville Staple
© Getty
“I will hang on to the great memories of Terry and I, making history fronting The Specials and Fun Boy Three together”
NEVILLE STAPLE
The Telephone Always Rings: Fun Boy Three burnt short but bright between 1981 and 1983
© Davies Starr
SEALING THEIR PLACE IN THE POP PANTHEON
Formed by vocalist Belinda Carlisle and guitarist Jane Wiedlin (pictured), The Go-Go’s supported both Madness and The Specials on their home turf of Los Angeles, the group were invited to join the latter’s Seaside Tour of the UK in 1980.
“It was an amazing time,” recalls Lynval Golding. “Those girls were so lovely, and we had an absolute riot on the road with them.”
While The Go-Go’s would regularly receive negative responses from certain violent, misogynistic aspects of the audience on stage, behind the scenes an on-tour affair developed bet ween Terry Hall and Wiedlin, which would be chronicled in the hit song Our Lips Are Sealed.
Wiedlin told Classic Pop in Issue 73: “Terry and I had a little bit of a tour romance. When I returned to California, we continued to write each other little letters. He would send me lyrics and said: ‘Someday I’m going to have my own band and it’s going to be great.’”
Based around the words Hall had sent, Wiedlin co-wrote Our Lips Are Sealed, which gifted The Go-Go’s a Top 20 US hit. When Hall formed that ‘great band’, he’d previously mentioned, they recorded a significantly more sombre take and it would prove to be Fun Boy Three’s last hit, peaking at No.7 in May 1983. “It’s funny,” admitted Wiedlin, “I think most people over there thought their version was the original! I loved what they did – it sounded so different.”
The admiration is mutual. Golding says: “I loved their version, it’s really nice, so clean and so American.”
Reacting to Hall’s passing, Wiedlin posted: “He was a lovely, sensitive, talented, and unique person... Our Lips Are Sealed will forever tie us together in music history.”