Music

This is the best summary I could come up with:

After doing Ghost Town on Top of the Pops, three of us went to see [songwriter and keyboard-player] Jerry Dammers at his house and told him we were leaving.

We wanted a more percussive sound and built the song from the ground up, creating the rhythm using conga drums.

Our box set was planned before he died: I hope it will give people a way to celebrate what a great and amazing artist he was.

You don’t think about whether it’s a good idea to walk away from a very successful band who’ve just had a No 1 single; you just want to go where there are fewer arguments.

I’d played percussion in bands before the Specials – with people like Ray King or Lieutenant Pigeon – so the change in sound, away from ska, was easy for me.

I suppose putting out a very political song as the first single was a bold statement but you don’t think: “Will we still be big?” It’s just what you want to do.

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