This town, is coming like a ghost town
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf
This place, is coming like a ghost town
No job to be found in this country
Can't go on no more
The people getting angry
On this date in 1981, THE SPECIALS were on Top Of The Pops performing GHOST TOWN, (July 2nd, 1981).
GHOST TOWN, with its themes of urban decay, unemployment and rising racial tension was remarkably prescient of the riots that occurred in British cities at the time, and in many ways represented the pinnacle of the 2-Tone label’s achievements.
"‘Ghost Town’ was inspired by Jamaica, but it’s all about Britain too,” said Lynval Golding in 1981. “We’re going through a similar thing over here. Coventry is supposed to be an industrial town, but now that all the industry is closing down, it’s becoming like a ghost town.”
The club mentioned in the song was the Locarno in Coventry (later becoming ‘Tiffanys’), a regular haunt of Neville Staple and Lynval Golding (and also referred to in the b-side, ‘Friday Night, Saturday Morning).
‘Ghost Town’ became the band’s seventh UK top ten hit in a row, and their second #1. It sold half a million copies and spent three weeks at number one and 10 weeks in total in the top 40.
The theme of rising tension running through the lines of Ghost Town mirrored the fragmentation that was taking place in the group at this time. It was the last single recorded by the original seven members of the group before splitting up.
The single had two great B-sides, the social commentary and charm of FRIDAY NIGHT, SATURDAY MORNING, Terry Hall setting the scene of a night on the razz at the Locarno, and Lynval Golding’s WHY? written in 1980 after the rhythm guitarist was attacked outside the Hampstead Moonlight Club. Accompanied by two white girls, he was set upon by a gang of racist thugs who battered him so badly that he ended up with multiple rib fractures.
