12 May 2022

It's got a name but I prefer to call it nameless

Thursday music corner: Terry Hall (b. 1959) first came to prominence leading The Specials from 1977 until 1981, departing on a high when their single Ghost Town topped the UK charts. He went on to form Fun Boy Three (six UK top 40 singles from 1981 to 1983, including It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It), with Bananarama) and The Colourfield (one UK top 20 hit, Thinking Of You, in 1985), and collaborate with a wide range of artists. His 1994 solo album Home was produced by Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds, and the ebullient, joyful Sense, co-written by Hall and Broudie, was the second single released from it. 

In 2019 Hall told Uncut magazine that he was comfortable growing older

I’ve wanted to be 60 since I was about 27, because at that point everything I liked was being performed by 60-year-olds like Andy Williams, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra,” he says. “I love how they’d carry on doing what they do. You have to shut everything out to do that. I feel blessed to have reached that stage. A lot of people think that 60 is part of the downward spiral, which it is if you allow it to be, but you can fight it and say, no it isn’t, it’s just part of this story.

“It means I got my Freedom Pass from Transport For London,” he adds with a grin. “I bloody love travelling around London on buses, and I plan to fully abuse this pass as much as I can. I bloody love being 60… I’ve always thought I’d make my best music in the years between 60 and 70.

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