Rounding out our summer salute to The Specials this week, for today’s Weirdo Wednesday, we’re taking a look at the last performance of the original lineup on Top of the Pops where Terry Hall, Lynval Golding, and Neville Staple announced they were leaving the band. According to Golding, they were not in a good place at the time, stating: “We didn’t talk to the rest of the guys. We couldn’t even stay in the same dressing room. We couldn’t even look at each other. We stopped communicating… At the time, we were on a different planet.” All of that is fairly evident in this lip-synced delivery of the characteristically eerie “Ghost Town”, a fitting choice considering the song’s disillusioning themes of urban decay, violence, etc… Granted, The Specials would carry on for a few more years with a markedly different lineup, and despite some occasional reunions that occurred decades later, suffice to say they were never the same after this final performance from the OG members:
