Ghost Town is by a British band named the Specials and was released on 12 June 1981 and spent three weeks at number one in the uk top 40 charts and was awarded “Single of the Year” in 1981.
‘Ghost town’ was written to targeted the issue of unemployment, urban decay and violence in cities. The song specifically written about the decay where the band grew up in Coventry and places they witnessed decaying on their uk tour in terms of violence increasing and general decline in the city liveliness. The sing was rebased at a time in the uk when and increase in riots occurred due to racial tensions, and many ethnic minorities suffering from low aided jobs and bad housing conditions as well as corruption within police powers which lead to the governments attentions being raised in-order to help.
The music video was directed by Barney Bubbles and consists of bass player Horace Panter driving around London with the band intercut with views of streets and buildings filmed from the moving vehicle of around London ending with a shot of the band standing on the banks of the River Thames.
The tour for the group’s More Specials album in autumn 1980 had been a fraught experience: already tired from a long touring schedule and with several band members at odds with keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammers over his decision to incorporate “muzak” keyboard sounds on the album, several of the gigs descended into audience violence.
The industrial workplace in 1981 in UK had left the city suffering badly and unemployment rates were at the highest level within the UK.
it was known that in the UK unemployment was heading up to 3 million people
The video’s locations include driving through the Rotherhithe Tunnel and around semi-derelict areas of the East End before ending up in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend. The shots of the band in the car were achieved by attaching a camera to the bonnet using a rubber sucker: Panter recalled that at one point the camera fell off (briefly seen in the finished video at 1:18) and scratched the car’s paintwork, to the displeasure of the car’s owner.The original Ghost Town car can be seen (and sat in) at The Coventry Music Museum.
the song is remembered for being a hit at the same time as riots were occurring in British cities
In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, “You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down … We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong.”
Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic notes that the lyrics “only brush on the causes for this apocalyptic vision—the closed down clubs, the numerous fights on the dancefloor, the spiraling unemployment, the anger building to explosive levels. But so embedded were these in the British psyche, that Dammers needed only a minimum of words to paint his picture.“ The club referred to in the song was the Locarno (run by the Mecca Leisure Group and later renamed Tiffanys), a regular haunt of Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, and which is also named as the club in “Friday Night, Saturday Morning”, one of the songs on the B-side. The building which housed the club is now Coventry Central Library.
As they travelled around the country the band witnessed sights that summed up the depressed mood of a country gripped by recession
Jo-Ann Greene of Allmusic notes that the lyrics “only brush on the causes for this apocalyptic vision.” —the closed down clubs, the numerous fights on the dancefloor, the spiraling unemployment, the anger building to explosive levels.
In an interview in 2011, Dammers explained how witnessing this event inspired his composition: “The overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom”
The song’s sparse lyrics address urban decay, unemployment and violence in inner cities.
The group got ideas and inspiration from touring in the 1980s
It was the last song recorded by the band before splitting up
The song spent 3 weeks at No.1 and 10 weeks on the top 40 uk charts
The band started in 1977 and broke up in 1981
three of the major UK music magazines of the time awarded “Ghost Town” the accolade of “Single of the Year” for 1981
The Specials record label/company was 2 Tone
The video, directed by Barney Bubbles, consists of bass player Panter driving the band around London in a 1961 Vauxhall Cresta
The video’s locations include driving through the “Rotherhithe Tunnel” and around semi-derelict areas of the East End before ending up in the financial district of the City of London in the early hours of daylight on Sunday morning, where the streets were deserted as it was the weekend.
WHAT IS THE CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND IN WHICH THIS VIDEO WAS COMMENTING UPON?
cultural – deep respect and knowledge of Ska, the music style that originated in 1950s Jamaica, a precursor to Reggae
social – Addressing themes of urban decay, deindustrialisation, unemployment and violence in inner cities
historical – caught the mood of Summer 1981 as levels of civil unrest not seen in a generation hit the UK. The song was influenced by scenes noted during the band’s UK tour.
Ghost town by the specials was released on the 12th of June 1981. The song spent three weeks at number 1 and a total of 10 weeks in the top 40. All three major uk music magazines awarded the song single go the year in 1981. the specials were a British band signed to the label 2 tone. The songs they produced targeted many issues in the uk during the 80s. The music genre of their music was ska/ two tone which was influenced by Jamaican culture.
Task 2
The song ‘Ghost town’ targeted the issue of unemployment, urban decay and violence in inner cities. The song was written about the decline in Coventry (where the band grew up) as well as the scenes seen on their uk tour where they saw lots of shops closed down and violence spreading. At the time the song was released the uk saw a spread of riots caused by racial tensions, as many ethnic minority communities suffered from poor housing and low wages as well as police powers being abused. These riots lead the governments attention to help the unemployed.
Task 3
The music video demonstrates an empty city which would usually have been filled with people. The band were in a car driving around this empty town singing and dancing to the song. During the line ‘why must the youth fight against themselves’ shadows of people fighting is shown to demonstrate the scenes seen throughout the uk.
