The Specials blow the roof off East London's Troxy theatre

The Specials

In a previous blog post, I embedded Charlie Brooker's beautifully cynical parody of Ian Drury's Reasons To Be Cheerful, but just like The Blockheads, their contemporaries The Special were blazing a similar musical trail.

They proved this with class and panache on 21 November at Limehouse's (that's in East London for Northerns, the Scottish and the rest of London) The Troxy.

The art deco theatre in one of London's poorest boroughs was the perfect place to host the politically charged two-tone pioneers.

They opened with Ghost Town, a track they wrote back in the 80s when the clubs had been closed down. This seemed to resonate in the dilapidated, Dunkirk spirit of a pre-gentrified London, with all the opulence of Canary Wharf on the horizon, almost sneering over the rest of Tower Hamlets like a snobbish waiter in nouvelle cuisine restaurant.

What followed was hit after forgotten hit. The likes of a very heart felt Doesn't Make It Alright, Concrete Jungle, Gangsters, Rat Race, Nite Klub, Do The Dog and Monkey Man to which guitarist and vocalist Lynval Golding informed the crowd that none other than its writer, Toots Hibbert, was backstage.

Terry Hall was on form all night. With witty quips delivered in his naturally dry style. Asking the crowd if anyone was from Coventry and the odd anti-government jibe.

It's hard to believe that in the 80s this particular culture was mimicked by the skinheads. A fascist, white-supremacist group that probably weren't listening when the band sang 'just because you're a black boy, just because you're a white, doesn't mean you've got to hate him, doesn't mean you've got to fight'.

Unfortunately, looking around the 800 capacity venue of old ska scensters and a new crop of revivalists, the only black faces were on the stage.

Finishing with Too Much Too Young, the Coventry 10-piece who bought reggae, roots and ska to the masses in the 70s left the crowd hungry for more. Although they exhausted their repertoire, it just wasn't enough to quench the crowd's thirst. However, as Walt Disney said, always leave them wanting more.