Legendary 2-Tone band The Specials have told digital radio station BBC 6Music they could record new material following a successful reunion in 2008.
After drummer John Bradbury told the station that he believes the group broke up in their prime, frontman Terry Hall confirmed their plans to move into the studio in order to prolong the reunion. “We think going forward is a healthy thing to do,” he said. “We’ve discussed things that will take us on a slightly different route.
It will be different to what we’ve done, just because it has to be really, because we can’t keep doing the same set. We need to combine elements of what we’ve done before with what we’ve always wanted to do.”
Since reforming without key member and songwriter Jerry Dammers, The Specials have toured the UK and received rave reviews for performances at various UK festivals. They also collected the Outstanding Achievement award at this year’s NME Awards.
The news of the band’s desire to record new material may come as a surprise to Jerry Dammers, who earlier this year told the UK’s Telegraph that one of the reasons for him refusing to take part in the Specials reunion was his former bandmates refusal to work on new tracks. “Nostalgia was considered a mental illness in the Victorian era, a morbid obsession with the past,” he told the paper.
“It wasn’t what I wanted to do with the reunion when I originally initiated it, before assorted businessmen got involved. I wanted to start it from a completely different angle, by recording new material. I wanted to move the old songs on a bit, add something modern to them. They weren’t interested at all.”