The Specials, who are enjoying an unexpected second coming after achieving their first ever No. 1 album, have announced a follow-up.
Encore was released in 2019, 40 years after they exploded onto the music scene and launched the 2-Tone movement.
Now a new album, Protest Songs – 1924-2012, will see the ska legends make a timely return.
Released on September 24 through their new label Island Records, the album features 12 takes on specially-chosen protest songs.
Still angry
They show The Specials still care, are still angry and still relevant. And they will prove it on a month-long UK tour.
The Specials emerged from Coventry in the late 1970s as the multi-racial figureheads of a movement which also included Madness, The Selecter and The Beat.
They sang about racism, unemployment and injustice, making clear political statements every time they stepped on stage.
It’s fitting that in 2021, at a time when the world is riven with social, racial and political unrest, that The Specials have made this album of Protest Songs.
They’re again reflecting the society we live in and taking a stand against all forms of injustice.
Bass player Horace Panter – one of three original surviving members – said: “People have been using music as a vehicle for protest since time immemorial. Injustice is timeless.”
In February 2020, Panter, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and co-producer Nikolaj Torp Larsen gathered to begin work on a reggae record, the follow up to Encore.
Protest Songs
Then Covid-19 hit and plans were put on hold. When George Floyd’s murder sparked waves of protest around the world, Hall suggested they make a different kind of record.
The trio started by picking some personal favourites. The Mothers of Invention’s Trouble Every Day (Panter), Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows (Hall), while Golding was keen to sing Bob Marley’s classic rebel song Get Up, Stand Up.
Related: Staring At The Rude Boys rounds up the best and the rest of the ska revival
Other selections include songs by Talking Heads, Big Bill Broonzy, The Staple Singers and the Dixie Jubilee Singers, among others.
The album was recorded in a West London studio in May this year with regular bandmates Nikolaj Torp Larsen on keyboards, Kenrick Rowe on drums and Steve Cradock on guitar.
Influential band
Hannah Hu, a young singer from Bradford, fronts one track and sings backing vocals on two more.
The Specials are one of the most influential and important bands of all time. The new record and success of Encore prove they are every bit as relevant as they were in 1979.
You can see The Specials live on The Protest Tour, which begins in Margate on August 28, ending in London on September 25. View the dates HERE.
Protest Songs 1924-2012 can be pre-ordered from all good record stores now, or via the band’s website HERE.
