#GHOST TOWN SONG MOVIE#

According to Collins, The Specials usually recorded by all playing together live, but he was used to building a backing track bit by bit. Dammers had found a small 8-track studio in Leamington and it was decided to go there to record three songs for the bandвЂ™s next single. They were surprised to discover that he was white.ДЄfter recording two major label records, Dammers had become disillusioned with high tech, expensive studios and liked Collins homemade approach and reggae credentials. Suspicious that it was some sort of joke, he agreed to travel up to Coventry a couple of days later to meet the band and was surprised to find that they were serious. The song reached a broader audience after Jerry Dammers heard it and later voted it his record of the year in New Music Express, which landed Collins a deal with Epic Records.Дammers was smitten with the track and in March of 1981 phoned Collins up to invite him to produce The Specials next batch of songs. It was the first track to use a homemade drum machine sound and the rhythm copied 'Another One Bites The Dust' by Jamaican-based Clint Eastwood making it instantly recognizable. Part of the reason the track became a hit was production techniques employed by Collins. The song became a hit quickly, spending five weeks at #1 on the UK reggae charts in 1980.

#GHOST TOWN SONG MOVIE#

Evans was a up and coming UK movie and TV actor and singer, who appeared in the 1980 UK reggae movie ' Babylon'. He founded Local Records in the late 1970's and it quickly came to the forefront of the post-punk DIY record label boom - making reggae and dance records, selling them through shops and later topping the UK reggae charts and the national charts.Д«ut, it all started with one record - 'At The Club' which Collins recorded with Victor Romero Evans. Collins got his start working with local talent, using home made equipment and recording in a front room on a 4-track TASCAM recorder in North London.

John Collins, a North London-based music producer and owner of Local Records was drafted in to produce 2-Tone's finest moment after Jerry Dammers lauded his production on Victor Romero Evan's Lover's Rock hit 'At The Club'. You can thank them both for their direct and indirect roles in the recording of one of The Specials greatest songs. Have you ever heard of John Collins? How about Victor Romero Evans? If you haven't you are in good company. Here is a trivia question for all fans of The Specials and 2-Tone. While the song continues to evoke memories and serve as a harbinger for the current economic decline on both sides of the Atlantic, the genesis of its recording and the back story behind its deserve to be told too. A re-formed Specials are due to tour later in 2011, with the song as the centrepiece of their set. 'The people getting angry,' booms another, ominously.В Few songs evoke their era like the Specials' classic Ghost Town, a depiction of social breakdown that provided the soundtrack to an explosion of civil unrest.В Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment, its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took on an entirely new meaning when Britain's streets erupted into rioting almost three weeks later - the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts.While it may describe a very specific moment in British history, Ghost Town's popularity has barely dimmed. Then comes the haunted, spectral woodwind, punctuated by blaring brass.В Over a sparse reggae bass line, a West Indian vocal mutters warnings of urban decay, unemployment and violence.В 'No job to be found in this country,' one voice cries out. It starts with a siren and those woozy, lurching organ chords. The BBC has marked the occasion with a great piece about the song and its place in British music history:

The Specials released the iconic 'Ghost Town' 30 years ago on June 20, 1981.

Ghost town song