The Specials (album)
The Specials is the debut album by British ska revival band the Specials.
Released on 19 October 1979 on Jerry Dammers' 2 Tone label, the album is seen by some as the defining moment in the UK ska scene. Produced by Elvis Costello, the album captures the disaffection and anger felt by the youth of the UK's "concrete jungle"—a phrase borrowed from Bob Marley's 1972 album Catch a Fire but equally apposite used here to describe the grim, violent inner cities of 1970s Britain.
Musically, the album encapsulates the wave of British ska, greatly reworking the original sound of 1960s Jamaican ska. The music shares the infectious energy and humour of the original sound, but injects new-found anger and punk sensibility. The resulting sound is considerably less laid-back and "Caribbean" sounding than original ska, and dispensed with much of the percussion and the larger horn sections used in the older variety. The Specials also brought guitar to the front of the mix; it had often been a secondary instrument in Jamaican ska. The album features a mixture of original material and several covers of classic Jamaican ska tracks, a debt which went uncredited on the 1979 release.
The Specials
The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English 2 Tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups.
The band wore mod-style "1960s period rude boy outfits (pork pie hats, tonic and mohair suits, and loafers)." In 1980, the song "Too Much Too Young", the lead track on their The Special AKA Live! EP, reached number one in the UK. In 1981, the unemployment-themed single "Ghost Town" also hit number one in the UK Singles Chart.
After seven consecutive UK Top 10 singles between 1979 and 1981, three members of the group abruptly left to form Fun Boy Three. Continuing on as "The Special AKA" (a name they used frequently on earlier Specials releases), a substantially revised Specials line-up issued new material through 1984, including the top 10 UK hit single "Free Nelson Mandela". Afterwards, founder and songwriter Jerry Dammers dissolved the band and pursued political activism.
The Specials (Shania Twain video)
The Specials is a DVD released by Shania Twain on November 20, 2001 in North America. It consists of two network specials that aired during the Come on Over era. The first concert is called Winter Break and was filmed in Miami, and included footage of Twain in her hometown of Timmins, Ontario. It aired on CBS in March 1999. Elton John, Backstreet Boys and Leahy are all special guests during the show. The second special, entitled Come on Over, aired on November 25, 1999 and followed a Dallas Cowboys game in Dallas. The music video for "Rock This Country!" was taken from this show.
Set list
Miami
Dallas
The Specials (internet TV series)
"The Specials" is an multi-award winning reality television series about five friends with intellectual disabilities who share a house in Brighton, UK.
Originally made as a web-series the show has since made the transition to television.
The five housemates, Sam, Hilly, Lewis, Megan and Lucy, have been friends since childhood. Aged between 19-23, one person, Lewis, has Williams syndrome while the others have Down syndrome. The series was launched on its website on 2 September 2009 and ran until mid-November 2009 with weekly 10-minute episodes.
Created by producer/director Katy Lock and Daniel May, the series follows the independent living venture that arose when 20-year-old Hilly told her parents she wanted to live with her friends. Hilly's parents, Carol and Dafydd Williams, set up Small Opportunities, the company which runs the house where the housemates in The Specials live.
The observational documentary series follows their lives and has won rave reviews for the insight it gives into inclusive, independent living for adults with intellectual disabilities. It was used in a Disability Studies course that focuses on media and disability at City University of New York in summer 2011.
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