THE SPECIALS | LIVE REVIEW
Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Sun 21 Apr
The Great Hall resembles a This Is England convention, with Fred Perry and pork pie hats aplenty, as well as the occasional skinhead – either through choice or the aging process. They’re all here to mark the return of The Specials, who are gigging to promote their first album of new stuff in almost two decades.
Support act The Tuts, an all-female trio kitted out in pastel suits, are doing their rowdy take on pop-punk to crank up the punky reggae party, their shtick somewhere between The Ramones and The Spice Girls. A Rudy Can’t Fail Clash cover is the golden thread to the DJ’s subsequent ska and reggae set, with the audience singing along to Woolly Bully and Cherry Oh Baby – a sign of what’s to come.
Speaking of signs, The Specials heyday was in a time of conservatism and austerity, with protests, Mary Whitehouse puritanism, a resurgent IRA and a society polarised by hard left and far right. History repeats itself, and with placards erected as a stage backdrop on a weekend of Extinction Rebellion mayhem, the return of the multicultural band who chronicle the zeitgeist is supreme timing.
Sirens, searchlights and Lynval Golding’s nuclear warnings announce the apocalyptic dub of Man At C&A, closely followed by a bouncy Rat Race, where the audience loudly co-opt the chorus from Terry Hall – inscrutable as ever, although his recent revelations deserve empathy and paint a lot of context around his well-known morosity. Hall’s introspection and intellect shine through on his incisive writing, with Friday Night And Saturday Morning tailormade for Caroline Street now and then. The greatest hits continue, with raucous singalongs and moonstomps to Rat Race, Gangsters, Concrete Jungle, A Message To You Rudy and Too Much Too Young.
Other vintage numbers get a subtle reworking, with Nite Klub gaining a brief gospel intro and the Moscow mariachi reggae of Stereotype mutating into a funky dub disco – Terry on squiggly synths and Steve Cradock doing the Morricone guitar lines before stepping on the wah-wah pedal. A sprinkling of numbers from new album Encore are appreciated and slot in well, with the sublime piano and roots reggae skank of Vote For Me and Embarrassed By You capturing the parlous political situation. Remorseless, dub-heavy bass and King Tubby echo FX back anti-EDL protestor Saffiyah Khan’s rabble rousing words on Ten Commandments, like Prince Far I for the woke generation.
The crowd are still dancing and skanking in the bank holiday heat for the trio of encores, with You’re Wondering Now resounding as a prescient Brexit anthem: “Britain has fallen, now you’re on your own … you’re wondering now, what to do, now you know this is the end.” The only thing missing was Ghost Town.
words CHRIS SEAL photos RUSS LUGGATT