Two-tone icon Terry Hall, lead singer of The Specials, and later Fun Boy Three and The Colourfield has died at age 63. Hall was a beloved cultural pioneer who bridged musical genres and racial divides.
"When you see injustice, all you can do is think: what can I do to help, what can I say about this, how can I make people aware of this?" Hall once said.
From BBC News:
The musician was born in 1959 and raised in Coventry, where most of his family worked in the city's then-booming car industry.
But his life took a dark turn when, at the age of 12, he was kidnapped by a teacher.
"I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days," he told The Spectator in 2019. "And then punched in the face and left on the roadside."
Hall said the incident left him with life-long depression and caused him to drop out of education at the age of 14, after becoming addicted to the Valium he had been prescribed.
"I didn't go to school, I didn't do anything. I just sat on my bed rocking for eight months."
Music was some form of solace; and Hall joined a local punk band called Squad, receiving his first writing credit on their single Red Alert.
He was spotted by The Specials' Jerry Dammers, who recruited him as a frontman…
