wee read 2 parts

skinhead

The "Henry Kissinger" of The Specials retraces the long dark road to reunification...

LYNVAL GOLDING SAYS HE WAS drawn to his current home in Seattle by "the ghost of Jimi Hendrix", but the late Strat magus isn't the only shade playing a role in the events that have recently overtaken him. There's the memory of Specials superfan Keith, terminally ill when Golding promised him, in 2008, that by hook or by crook he would bring the Specials back together on stage. And the shadow of Jerry Dammers, whose own vision of a reunited Specials was so at odds with that shared by the other six band-members that he has been excluded - or has excluded himself (it's a grey area). Golding, the ebullient, Jamaican-born rhythm guitarist who helped define the Specials' groundbreaking ethnic mix (and - in dark days he hopes are not returning - suffered a life-threatening racist attack), will admit to moments of despair en route, and yet all legal, logistical and emotional minefields have somehow been negotiated. In this transcript of the interview he gave Danny Eccleston for MOJO's Specials feature, he reveals the mantra that brought him safely through the storm: "It's not about us, it's about the fans..."

The Specials reunion: everyone says it couldn't have happened without you...
It's been six years of absolute... If there's a hell, I've been through it and back. For me it started [in 2003] just before the 25th anniversary. I just thought it would be nice to get together and play some music. But it needed more time to get over all the obstacles that were in the way.

Obstacles including Jerry Dammers?
At one stage I was the only one that Jerry was talking to. But it made no sense for us to go forward and do a Specials reunion date with two members of the band. That didn't make any sense to me. So I pushed and pushed, travelled between London and Seattle, visited Jerry a lot and spent time with him in his home studio and pushed for more communication, not just with me but with the rest of the guys. That was the key to everything. I tried until I couldn't get any further with him. Horace [Panter, bass] calls me the Henry Kissinger of the band.

And there were issues to resolve with Terry too? After Fun Boy Three?
I hadn't talked to Terry in years, and we had a chat. There's history where we're coming from. But Terry was the youngest one in the band. He was an 18-year-old youth, and the difference between an 18-year-old youth and a grown man... it's a totally different phase. We were able to say, Well, shit happened then, but that was then. Let's move on, and celebrate what we've achieved. So we talked and talked and built up a relationship.

It's your tenacity and positivity that's kept it alive...
I think it was everyone's. Without the other five members, we could not have done this. I bent over backwards to get Jerry. I worked hours and hours and did everything possible. But some of Jerry's demands... his criticisms, I think the audience have answered, y'know? They want to hear the music the way it was recorded... But the audience also feel let down by Jerry not being there. It's sad that he couldn't put the differences behind him and put the family first.

But Jerry doesn't seem to believe you ever wanted him back in the band...
We wanted to play the songs that we recorded. Those were the records that our audience bought, and that's what they wanted to hear. But Jerry had slightly different ideas from the majority of guys in the band.

Was it your job to tell him he couldn't be in on his terms?
It was a trauma time for me. When we did the Bestival, for the first 20 seconds I was so sad because he wasn't there. He should have been there.

Jerry said you compared him with Bill Wyman, presumably meaning that if the Stones could continue without Wyman, The Specials could continue without Jerry Dammers. Wasn't that a bit harsh?
He must have wrote that quote himself because I don't talk like that. I tried to ask him, Where did you get that from, Jerry? That is not the tone I use. It's nothing at all to do with me. Where would I have got that from? I love the man dearly. But there's a lot of things he's saying that I don't understand, like saying that Neol Davies was the first guitarist in the band and that I came along later. But that's totally totally nonsense. It was never like that. It was me and Jerry and Silverton [Hutchinson, drums], and we grew from there. Neol Davies never played with us. There's some rewriting the history of 2 Tone. Just think about it. Where did the ska and reggae come from? I was the one born in Jamaica. I was the one who brought [Dandy Livingstone's] Rudy, A Message To You to Jerry. It came from my father's record collection.

How does it feel, being onstage with The Specials again?
I never realised how much John Bradbury puts into the Specials' sound. He is the backbone of the Specials, the reason it sounds so good every night. I've played these songs live with other drummers and always wondered why it never sounded the same. Hello, it's the drumming! It's like the Who before and after Keith Moon. No comparison. You learn these things later on in life. We were young back then and never bothered to break it down and see why it worked. Silverton was a lovely guy and a good drummer, but it was Brad who made the Specials sound, made the riddim danceable.

What do you get out of it emotionally?
When I met Lily Allen in Seattle, and I played Blank Expression with her, it struck me that the last time I had played that song, that girl wasn't even born yet. I saw a guy in Sheffield, a 45-year-old guy in tears because he never thought he'd see it. That's when it comes home to me what we've done.

You see, where I live in Seattle is out in a suburb on the way to Olympia. I'm surrounded by trees. I'm out in the woods, and I've been cut off, not realising the impact of our music on other people. A little girl told me, she couldn't have been much older than 9, she said her favourite song was Why? That was my song about being attacked by racists. That kind of thing makes me realise that the Specials wasn't just for yesterday's youth. It says something to today's youth as well.

Back in 2004, Neville rang the MOJO office, quite positive about a reunion. There must have been a fair amount of optimism around that time...
It was when [football entrepreneur] Simon Jordan got in the picture. Simon tried to organise a meeting with all of us. He rang me at my home in Seattle and he booked me a flight over, and I thought I was coming over for a big meeting and we'd all talk about letting bygones be bygones and move on. I was on my way to the airport when Jerry rang to say that he hadn't been invited to the meeting. I thought that was crazy. Jerry *had to be in the meeting. I thought, Well if that's the case I'm not going either. So I went to my mate Andy's house for a couple of bottles of beer and a jam in his studio. As far as I was concerned if Jerry wasn't there it wasn't a meeting.

I did eventually meet up with Simon and we got on. And later, I had a meeting with Jerry and Brad in a London museum - among all them ancient relics we fitted in just right. We were a little back room because Jerry didn't want no-one to see us meeting. We talked and things got quiet again. I would keep pushing and keep pushing, but Jerry just wasn't being accommodating at all. We were happy to meet halfway but Jerry wasn't.

Then we had one more meeting, at King's Cross [in October, 2007]. Where we all got together for the first time. Jerry said that if we reformed the band without him in it then he was going to sue all of us. I just thought, Great way to start a meeting! I left that meeting and just went straight to Jamaica thinking, Do I ever want to see these guys again, let alone play in a band with them? This is just too painful... We were just so depressed.

After the King's Cross meeting you had some rehearsals, a couple with Jerry, so there was still a hope, even then, that a deal could be struck...
There was one I went to with Jerry. Horace and Roddy turned up very late because there was this huge traffic jam coming from Coventry. Neville came for half an hour and then had to disappear, he had a gig in Brighton. We just had a little jam basically.

Then there was another rehearsal. I wasn't at it, because I was in America. That was in Coventry and it was Jerry and Terry, Horace and Roddy. Roddy was quite depressed about that. Roddy says he wasn't very comfortable with the tempos Jerry wanted.
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The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.

First they ignore you,then they laugh at you,then they fight you ,then you win

skinhead

The Bestival crisis, the Terry Hall revival, the tragedy of Keith... and of Jerry.

Read Part 1

All of you, including Jerry but not Neville who was stuck on a ferry, turned up to MOJO's Honours List Ceremony in June 2008. But the apparent show unity couldn't have been more hollow, and it was only a couple of months later, at Bestival in September, that you hit the stage without Jerry...
Bestival was a headache. It was really, really tough. There was so much emotion. Hardly anyone, not even members of the band, knew how close we came to losing the gig.

I was staying with my daughter in Woolwich and I walked up and down the riverbank, thinking, We've come so far, I can't let this fall apart now. Me and Terry met outside a café in Islington. Me with a lemon tea and him smoking away, waiting for the phone to ring. This was the Thursday, and the gig is meant to be on the Sunday. I talk to Suggs [from Madness] on the phone and Suggs says, You must talk to Jerry. And I say the talking is over, I can't talk anymore.

Everything was together. Rehearsals had gone great. But there are these threats coming from Jerry and [Bestival organiser] Rob Da Bank is feeling very anxious. We have to guarantee we won't say the name. We couldn't even say, There are six members of The Specials going to play for you tonight. We couldn't say *that. We didn't say anything. My daughter made an intro DVD, we went on, played and got off. Said nothing!

But we knew if we didn't do Bestival, it was over. It was a huge challenge. I gotta thank Rob Da Bank for the having the courage to do it, in the teeth of threats from Jerry.

After that performance there were still obstacles in the way. Neville and Rod were unsure. Me, Brad, Terry and Horace were pretty solid.

Has Jerry sued you?
No. We're too close for that to happen. Me and Jerry have a brotherly relationship. We fight, we argue, but we love each other. I have a special love in my heart for Jerry which will never go away.

Who owns the Specials name?
Jerry went and trademarked the name as him, which I thought was definitely wrong. It's like Paul McCartney trademarking the name of The Beatles. Like "I am the Beatles!" That's wrong. It was seven guys who made the Specials work.

How has everyone changed?
It's funny. At one stage I didn't talk to Brad for years. We were young and we were a bit "rarrrrrgh!" But he is one of the most caring, nicest people... and Terry, I take my hat off to Terry. Horace... Everyone comes from different backgrounds, it would be easy for me to fall into the patois thing with Neville but I find now that I'm so much closer to these guys. Even with Rod, I go to Coventry and spend days with him...

Roddy requires some special TLC?
Roddy is a very emotional sort of person. He needs a father figure. Sometime I have to grab hold of him and slap his wrist, then I tell him how much I love him and care for him. And it works! It's tough love!

I love Roddy. There are times, when Roddy was having one of his downers, I would tell him, "Roddy, if you were to leave this band and walk away from us it would break my heart, and I would give up playing music." When I close my eyes it's like we're twins the way we play guitar together. There's no-one like him. We lift each other when we play with each other.

I love and respect every one of these guys. But there are times when I could slap every one of them [laughs]. My dear grandmother would take the strap to me and she would say, "I only do this because I love you." I didn't understand it at the time.

What do you treasure most about your time in Fun Boy Three?
You know, when they give all these awards for writers they overlook one of the best lyricists ever: Terry Hall. Read that guy's lyrics. The stories there! People ask us how we could have left The Specials after Ghost Town when the band was at its height. I always say, It was the best thing we could ever have done. It was a brilliant move! Financially, it was a disater, but in terms of creativity and peace of mind, it was the only thing to do. And we made some good records.

Working with Bananarama was really fun. Working with our arranger and keyboard player Nicky Holland was brilliant. We had the all-girl band, Caroline LaVelle on cello. Can you imagine, walking away from the Specials? We must have been nuts. But you have to give Terry credit for his vision.

What happened at the end of Fun Boy Three?
I was in Jamaica when I heard. I wasn't told. Terry said the other day, Shit happened there. It wouldn't happen now. He was young and everything. And y'know, we're not perfect. We don't live in a perfect world. We do things that we regret. We went down roads that we wouldn't choose now. But me and Terry are best mates now.

The Specials seems to have been the perfect treatment for Terry's manic-depression...
Music is a wonderful therapy. I've seen Terry at his lowest, but look at him now. I respect that he talks about his personal problem with the depression. He's always made these crazy jokes. But he never laughs; he just stands there looking at you.

How well did you know him, do you think, the first time around?
I think I was the closest one to him in the Specials. We spent a lot of time together. Looking back, a lot of things now make sense. I had no idea he was depressed. Never. I had no understanding of that at all whatsoever. People would ask why Terry was so miserable and I would say, He's not miserable - that's Terry. Now I can look him in the face and I can tell if he's having a good day or a bad day.

Through all the obstacles, what's kept you going?
What drove me was the fans. I resolved to do exactly what the fans wanted us to do. I'm never gonna let them down. There was this one guy, his name was Keith, he lived in Coventry. I think he was bitten by a snake, fell into a coma and everything. He was very very ill and even when he came to he couldn't help himself. His marriage broke up and he ended up in an old people's home, even though he was only in his forties. He lived, breathed and ate the Specials. In his hospital they'd have a special day where they'd get to pick someone to spend the day with them, and he wanted me. I was overwhelmed. I spent not one, I spent two days with him and he really inspired me.

He had all these brown newspaper clippings of what we'd been up to 30 years ago. He couldn't believe it when I turned up. I realised that this was the reason why I wanted to go play those songs. I promised him on his bed that we'd do it, and the one thing that saddens me is that he died before we played Coventry. I'd booked the cab for him, I'd arranged for his two carers to accompany him. He was so happy.

I was really mad with him when he died. I went to his funeral in Coventry. Keith, why did you go and do that? I promised you, man! Why couldn't you hang around? These were the things that gave me the strength to push and push, to go round Roddy's house and pick him up. I put blinkers on and said, This is for Keith.

You don't realise the impact you have on people's lives. These songs say a lot - Ghost Town, Why?, Too Much Too Young, Concrete Jungle - and are touching each new generation. I'm proud of what all seven us have achieved. All seven of us plus Rico [Rodriquez, trombone], Dick [Cuthell, trumpet] and [original soundman/producer] Dave Jordan. Dave Jordan should have been with us, but the drugs got him before that could happen. He left me an answerphone message that he was coming back from Paris to clean up his act, but he never made it.

And Jerry Dammers?
Jerry Dammers is an inspiration. He taught me to be strong and to never give in. Because Jerry never gives in. And that's why we had to do this without him
_________________
The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.

First they ignore you,then they laugh at you,then they fight you ,then you win

kerunch · Joined: 14 Jul 2009 Posts: 118 Location: Dublin

Thanks for posting that.I really enjoyed reading that. Smile

Sugarman · Joined: 10 Dec 2008 Posts: 1523 Location: Sun Valley

Thanks

That was Very Touching I wish Keith had made it to the Coventry Gig and it's very sad he didn't. I can relate to Lynval's story in many ways because he spoke from his heart and I admire him for that.
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