Singer-songwriter Terry Hall was born in Coventry, England on March 19, 1959. He was best known as the main vocalist in ska group The Specials as well as his work with Fun Boy Three, The Color Field, Vegas, and Terry, Blair, and Anouchka as well as several critically acclaimed solo albums. Inspired by the burgeoning punk scene in the UK, he formed the short-lived band Squad before joining co-founding The Coventry Automatics in 1977. Inspired by classic Jamaican ska, the group then changed their name to The Specials and issued the hit single “Gangsters” (1979), which reached Number 6 on the UK Singles chart. As leaders of the ska revival movement, The Specials’ self-titled debut album was released at the end of 1979 and reached Number 4 on the UK Albums chart. The group’s 1980 EP Too Much Too Young - The Special AKA Live! reached Number 1 and was followed later in the year by the experimental More Specials album, which hit Number 5. After the enormous popularity of their 1981 single “Ghost Town,” Terry Hall left The Specials, taking band members Lynval Golding (guitar) and Neville Staples (vocals / toasting) with him. The trio formed Fun Boy Three and released two albums – Fun Boy Three (1982) and Waiting (1983) – and collaborated with female trio Bananarama on several hit singles. Fun Boy Three also recorded their version of “Our Lips Are Sealed,” a song that Terry Hall had co-written with Jane Wiedlin from The Go-Go’s. Terry Hall left Fun Boy Three and founded The Colourfield in 1984, who released the albums Virgins and Philistines (1985) and Deception (1987) before splitting. His next musical project was the trio Terry, Blair & Anouchka, a pop group that also featured American actress and singer Blair Booth and musician Anouchka Grose. They released the album Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme in 1990 before breaking up. Terry Hall resurfaced in 1992 in the duo Vegas, which also featured Eurythmics guitarist / songwriter David A. Stewart. Vegas’ self-titled album was not a commercial success, and the duo quietly broke up. Terry Hall then released two solo albums – Home (1994) and Laugh (1997) – before collaborating with Fun-Da-Mental percussionist and producer Mushtaq on the album The Hour of Two Lights (2003). Suffering from depression, he then stepped away from the spotlight before reuniting with The Specials in 2008. After many tours, the band finally released new music on the albums Encore (2019) and Protest Songs 1924-2012 (2021). The group was intending to start working together again in 2022 but plans were put on hold when Terry Hall fell ill. He died on December 18, 2022, of pancreatic cancer at the age of 63.
