Terry Hall, frontman for British ska icons The Specials, dies at 63

Terry Hall, lead singer of hugely influential British ska band The Specials, has died. He was 63.

No cause of death was reported, though it reportedly comes following a ‘brief illness’.

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His band reported Hall’s passing in a statement on Twitter this morning, Australian time.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, following a brief illness, of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced,” the band wrote.

“Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love.

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“He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity. Terry often left the stage at the end of The Specials’ life-affirming shows with three words… ‘Love Love Love’.”

Hall joined the band in 1977 and was there for their iconic first two albums, 1979’s The Specials and More Specials.

Those albums featured a bevy of now legendary songs such as ‘A Message To You, Rudy’, ‘Ghost Town’, ‘Concrete Jungle’, ‘Too Much, Too Young’, ‘Gangsters’, ‘Stereotype’, and ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning’.

The band were the biggest force in that era’s two-tone genre, a new style that blended Jamaican ska with the nascent punk and new wave genres of the time.

When The Specials were on tour with The Go-Go’s in 1980, Hall and Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin had “a kind of romance”. When Wiedlin returned to the US, Hall sent her the lyrics to ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’.

“It was kind of about our relationship, because he had a girlfriend at home and all this other stuff,” Wiedlin told the website Songfacts.

“So, it was all very dramatic”.

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The Go-Go’s version of the song became a massive hit in Australia, peaking at number two on the charts. It also remained on the US Billboard charts for over 30 weeks and is a regular on ‘best songs of all time’ lists and classic hits radio.

Along with bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, Hall left The Specials in 1981 to form a new offshoot called Fun Boy Three.

That band enjoyed success with a string of singles through the 80s, including two collaborations with Bananarama that landed the band in the top five of the UK charts.

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After that band ended in 1983, Hall busied himself with various musical projects such as The Colourfield, Terry, Blair and Anouchka, Vegas (with Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart), and a solo project.

He appeared on ‘911’, the 2001 collaborative song by Gorillaz and D12, and a few singles from British electronic group Dub Pistols before reforming The Specials in 2008.

The band went on to tour extensively, their last Australian tour seeing them play shows at the Golden Plains and WOMADelaide festivals in 2017.

In 2019, The Specials released a new album called Encore, the first Specials album in 38 years to feature Hall. It was well received critically and became the band’s first ever number one album.

They followed it in October 2021 with Protest Songs 1924–2012, which entered the UK charts at number two.

‘I had to get attention’: Terry Hall’s mental struggles

Mental illness had been a constant in Hall’s life. As a child, he suffered terrible trauma after a schoolteacher kidnapped and abused him.

“I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days,” he told The Spectator in 2019. “And then punched in the face and left on the roadside.”

He was prescribed Valium after the ordeal, to which he became dependent, giving him a .

In 2004, Hall attempted to take his own life. Surviving this extreme episode of mental illness gave him the push to

“I was diagnosed as manic depressive, which I sort of knew anyway, I’d just avoided the diagnosis,” he told America’s ABC in 2010.

Hall admitted to self-medicating with gin, before finally agreeing to seek medical help.

“I didn’t have a choice this time around, I had to get attention,” he told ABC.

“In the last five years I’ve had brilliant medical care and I’ve got a mixture of drugs that help balance me out.

“It’s such a weird illness, it’s an unseen illness but you only see it when it’s at a bad peak.”