• Ghost Town was released in 1981
• It was produced by John Collins
• Won an NME award for best single
• Stayed at number 1 in the UK charts for 3 weeks

Cultural, Social and Historical Background

• In 1981 the industrial workplace had left cities in poverty and unemployment rates were at the highest level within the UK.
• 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.”
• As the band travelled throughout the UK they could evidently see the impact of recession on the country and how it had affected everyday life.
• The song rose significantly in popularity during the time of extreme riots in the country.
• 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.

Communicating Meaning

• The song included a variety of unique and unusual sounds and instruments which was used to reflect the unusual and abnormal times people were living in.
• The clothing used in the video is black suits and brighter clothing, this could be to show the divide between rich and poor at the time in how the lower class workers lived in uncomfortable and worse areas whereas the rich continued their life as normal.