In the last week i`ve been fortunate to see The Specials live twice, firstly on Saturday 29th October at the Ricoh in Coventry, The Specials home town. Secondly & possibly the last (depending on who you believe) live gig on Thursday 3rd November at Alexandra Palace in London.
The Ricoh gig was pretty “special” as it was a bit of home coming for the band, the arena was huge when you first walk into it, but it didn`t take long before it started filling up!
We stood 30 feet or so & to the left of the stage, the view was pretty good, we`d already made the decision of not wanting to squashed by being too close to the front. Unfortunately there were the odd few people throwing liquids through the air & the odd group of lads bumping around dancing in a group, both of which we`d half expected!
The show starts with a montage of pictures, mainly political, spanning the last 30 odd years from when The Specials first hit our radio`s, after a bringing us up to date with a picture of David Cameron the band kicked straight in to “Gangsters”, followed by ”Do the dog”, ” Little bitch”, “Jet set” & many more, ending with the gig with “Your wondering now”………. The Specials where excellent!
4 days later we did it all again at Ally Pally, a group of 17 of us travelled up by minibus, getting there at 3pm for a few drinks & to enjoy the pre gig party, which we`d registered for, & very happy we were too, as we met & had pictures with Lynval Golding, Neville Staples, Roddy Byers & John Bradbury. Apparently Terry Hall had been there but we`d missed him which was a shame as my wife would of loved a pic with him!
The gig was the same set as Coventry, the crowd were definately enjoying it, as was commented on by Terry at some point by him saying “you`re the best audience so far & the best was saved til last!” We wanted to give them a great send off!
I never saw The Specials first time round in the late 70`s early 80`s, but im very happy i`ve seen them not only once twice now & if they do tour again in 2013 i`ll be booking my ticket early!
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