Ghost Town: an anthem for modern times
I have no twee anecdotes for this one. It’s just a fucking phenomenal piece of music, possibly one of the greatest singles of all time. I couldn’t let it go by unremarked.
38 years ago today, summer of 1981, this was at the top of the charts. It was a summer of riots. Thatcher’s policies had failed to patch up the economy and recession held the country in an ever-tightening headlock.
Unemployment rising. Racism dividing the working classes. A current of explosive anger running through every street in every major city in the land.
In an interview with the Independent, Specials keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammer said: “Britain was falling apart. The car industry was closing down in Coventry (the band’s hometown). We were touring, so we saw a lot of it. Liverpool and Glasgow were particularly bad. The overall sense I wanted to convey was impending doom.”
And that’s exactly what you get. The bone-rattle of the organs comes on like a haunted fun-fair. Neville Staple’s and Terry Jones’ baleful moans prickle at the back of your neck like footsteps at midnight. The couplet: “Bands won’t play no more/Too much fighting on the dancefloor” condemning of a society that has drained every last drop of joy from its communities and replaced it with fear.
There were serious tensions within the band too. Dammer was laser-focused on his discordant, apocalyptic vision for ‘Ghost Town’, but other band members wanted to stick to the simple chord progressions of their first record. A gruelling tour schedule took them through depressed towns. There were fights in the crowds at gigs.
The band recorded the song for Top of the Pops that summer and they are alleged to have split up in the dressing room immediately afterwards. A break-up that seems almost inevitable now.
The first time I heard the backstory of ‘Ghost Town’, the song took on fresh meaning and significance. It was a little piece of history from a darker time. A gruesome artefact to be inspected from a distance. Safe behind a glass case.
Hearing it now, in 2019, the menace seems to move a little closer with every listen.
#write52 is a writing project by Ed Callow, who basically bullies us into creating original content every week. Follow the gang on Twitter here.
I’m Penny, a freelance writer and content strategist. If you’re interested reading more of my meandering twaddle, the best place to follow me is on Instagram.
