Britain’s streets erupted into rioting the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts. This was due to Ghost Town being released on Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment. it expressed the mood of the early days of Thatcher’s Britain for many. “It was clear that something was very, very, wrong,” the song’s writer, Jerry Dammers, has said. – Source (BBC, Jon Kelly)
The band was made up of white and black singers, at the time this was known as 2 Tone due to the record labels name to a genre which fused ska, reggae and new wave and, in turn, inspired a crisply attired youth movement. Vocalist Neville Staple said in Ghost Town that there was “too much fighting on the dance floor”, he sang from personal experience. The Specials to announce a gig promoting racial unity in their city on the day of Ghost Town’s release; the National Front announced a march in the area on the same day. By the evening of 10 July, Ghost Town was a number one single.
- racial otherness (72-73) – Gilroy suggests, intensified fears that immigrant communities might swamp Britain.
- post-colonial melancholia (72-73)
- the story of UK race relations post W.W. 2 (72-73)
- Legacy of the Empire (77-79)
- The Search for Albion (77-79)
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