Terry Hall

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
 
In the strictest sense, Terry Hall isnt a musician. He doesnt play an instrument and his singing is generally flat and detached. But Terry Hall is a great pop star, with a perfect look, a cooly laconic voice, and a knack for anticipating pop trends. As the frontman for the Specials, Hall shot to stardom in Britain in the early 80s, singing such classic ska-revival singles as Gangsters, Nite Klub, and Ghost Town before leaving with the groups other vocalists to form the new wave pop group the Fun Boy Three. That trio began a long line of projects Hall pursued over the next decade. None of his groups recorded more than two albums, and each had a taste of British success. Of all these, the Fun Boy Three was the most successful, but he disbanded them within two years to form Colourfield, which led to Terry, Blair, and Anouchka and then to a duo with David Stewart, called Vegas. Each group led Hall closer to the pop mainstream, yet he remained an outsider, since he had no desire for stardom. While his polished recordings only bore a slight resemblence to his seminal work with the Specials and the Fun Boy Three, Halls presence was stronger than ever in the mid-90s, as a new generation of alternative artists, including Blur and Tricky, acknowledged his influence. All the praise concided with the release of Home, Halls first official solo album, which appeared in 1995, well over 15 years after he began his career.
 
Hall was singing with a new wave band called the Squad when Jerry Dammers recruited him to sing with the Specials. Gangsters, the first single the Specials released, went into the Top Ten upon its release, establishing both the group and its independent label 2-Tone as a major pop force in England. For the next two years, the Specials were one of the most popular and influential bands in the U.K., scoring a streak of seven straight Top Ten singles. Their popularity culminated with the prophetic Ghost Town, which spent three weeks at number one in the summer of 1981. The Ghost Town single was the last to feature Terry Hall and the original lineup — after its release Hall split with the groups other two vocalists, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples, to form the Fun Boy Three.
 
Where the Specials were a ska-revival band, the Fun Boy Three was a new wave pop group with distinctly weird, skeletal and experimental overtones. The band released their first single, The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum), shortly after they departed from the Specials. The single peaked at number 20 late in 1981. Early in 1982, the group charted again with It Aint What You Do (Its the Way That You Do It), a duet with Bananarama on an old Jimmie Lunceford song. The Fun Boy Three finally released their eponymous debut in the spring of 1982. That summer, they had a hit with a cover of George Gershwins Summertime. The group recorded a second album with Talking Heads leader David Byrne late in 1982. The resulting album, Waiting, appeared in the spring of 1983, concurrently with the Top Ten singles The Tunnel of Love and Our Lips Are Sealed, a song Hall wrote with Jane Wiedlin, who already made it into a hit the previous year with her group, the Go-Gos.
 
By the summer of 1983, the Fun Boy Three were peaking in popularity and Hall disbanded the group. Hooking up with ex-Swinging Cats members Toby Lyons and Karl Shale, Terry Hall moved to Manchester and formed the Colourfield, a more lush and melodic outfit than the Fun Boy Three. In January of 1984, the band released their first single, The Colourfield, which just missed the Top 40. It was followed later that summer with Take, which didnt even come close to the Top 40. The Colourfield had its first hit in January of 1985, when Thinking of You reached number 12. It was followed by Castles in the Air, another failed single that preceded the release of their debut album, Virgins and Philistines, by just a few weeks. Like the bands singles, Virgins and Philistines failed to gain a large audience for the Colourfield. The band released a second album, Deception, in the spring of 1987. During the sessions, Lyons left the band, leaving Hall to finish the album by himself; to complete the album, Hall hired Raquel Welchs band.
 
After the Colourfield imploded, Terry Hall formed a trio with an American actress called Blair Booth and a jeweler called Anouchka Groce. Terry, Blair, and Anouchka explored Halls love for 60s pop, as well as kitschy mainstream pop, as evidenced on the trios cover of Captain & Tennilles Love Will Keep Us Together. Missing, the groups first single, was released in the fall of 1989 and it didnt make much of an impact, peaking at number 75 on the British charts. The trios second single, Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme, didnt even chart. Terry, Blair and Anouchkas debut album, also called Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme, was released in February of 1990 to little attention.
 
Two years later, Terry Hall returned with Vegas, a one-shot collaboration with Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics. Vegas eponymous album was released in the fall of 1992 and yielded three minor U.K. hits — Possessed, She, and Walk Into the Wind. Vegas wasnt particularly successful and the duo disbanded in early 1993.
 
Terry Hall released his first official solo, Home, in the spring of 1995 to mild interest. After its release, Hall collaborated on a new single, Chasing a Rainbow, with Blurs Damon Albarn. The single was a minor hit and was added to a re-release of Home later in the year. Early in 1996, Terry Hall was featured in Trickys side-project Nearly God, singing on the single Poems.