Terry Corridor, the frontman of influential U.Okay. ska band the Specials and later a member of recent wave pop act Enjoyable Boy Three, has died. He was 63.
“It’s with nice disappointment that we announce the passing, following a short sickness, of Terry, our stunning buddy, brother and one of the crucial good singers, songwriters and lyricists this nation has ever produced,” said a tweeted statement from the Special’s official account. “Terry was an exquisite husband and father and one of many kindest, funniest, and most real of souls. His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the enjoyment, the ache, the humour, the battle for justice, however largely the love.”
Because the lead singer of the politically and socially aware Specials, Corridor achieved U.Okay. fame and cult standing by songs comparable to “Ghost City,” “Gangsters” and “Too A lot Too Younger.” With Enjoyable Boy Three he loved chart success with the songs “Summertime” and the Bananarama that includes hits “‘Tain’t What You Do (It’s the Method That You Do It)” and “Actually Saying One thing.”
orn Terrence Edward Corridor on Mar. 19, 1959 in Coventry, England, his mother and father labored within the automobile trade. Corridor was traumatized as a schoolboy after he was kidnapped by a paedophile ring at age 12 and brought to France the place he was sexually abused and later deserted. In interviews, Corridor has mentioned the incident left him scarred for all times and prompted life-long melancholy, forcing him to drop out of college at 14 after turning into hooked on Valium.
The younger Corridor discovered work as a guide laborer, his solely escape coming by music. He performed with native punk bands, together with the Squad, earlier than being noticed by Jerry Dammers who requested him to develop into the frontman of his ska revival band, the Coventry Automatics who in early 1979 would change their identify to the Specials. He featured on the Specials’ first single, “Gangsters,” which garnered the band consideration after radio play on the BBC.
The Specials’ eponymous debut report adopted in October 1979. Produced by Elvis Costello, and launched on Dammers’ indie label 2 Tone Information, The Specials featured just one charting single, a canopy of Dandy Livingstone’s “A Message to You, Rudy” and initially had blended evaluations, however since its launch has develop into a basic and socially important report. Launched at a time of excessive youth unemployment within the U.Okay. in addition to race riots, strikes and callous Thatcherite financial reforms, the album tapped into the pervasive feeling of despair within the nation and the hardly hid tensions inside society. In 2013, NME ranked The Specials at quantity 260 on its listing of the 500 Best Albums of All Time.
A fast followup album, Extra Specials, was launched in September 1980. Leaning into politics extra overtly, the report featured Corridor’s first songwriting credit with the music “Man at C & A.”
The Specials’ biggest success, nonetheless, got here from the Corridor-fronted non-album single “Ghost City,” launched in June 1981. The music, a sardonic ode to a damaged Britain, captured the zeitgeist and spent three weeks atop the U.Okay. singles chart, shortly turning into the music of a fractious summer time riven by extra strikes and rioting in 35 British cities. The accompanying music video to “Ghost City,” that includes a morose-looking Corridor and bandmates driving round a dilapidated metropolis, was equally impactful and have become an indelible a part of British popular culture.
Regardless of the crossover success of “Ghost City,” the Specials broke up not lengthy after with Corridor and bandmates Lynval Golding and Neville Staple going off to kind the brand new wave trio Enjoyable Boy Three. Signed to Chrysalis, and with a a lot clearly industrial and pop course, Enjoyable Boy Three launched their eponymous first album in March 1982. The album, written by Corridor, Golding and Staple, featured new wave lady band Banarama on 4 tracks, together with the hit U.Okay. single, “T’aint What You Do (It’s the Method That You Do It).”
In 1983, Enjoyable Boy Three launched their second album, Ready, with the band as soon as once more sharing joint writing credit, except for the hit single “Our Lips Are Sealed”, co-written by Corridor and Jane Wiedlin and reached No. 10 on the Billboard chart when it was beforehand recorded by the Go-Go’s. “Gutted to listen to of the passing of #terryhall. He was a beautiful, delicate, proficient and distinctive individual,” Wiedlin tweeted. “Our extraordinarily temporary romance resulted within the music “Our Lips Are Sealed,” which can endlessly tie us collectively in music historical past. Horrible information to listen to this.”
After two albums, Enjoyable Boy Three was no extra, with Corridor beginning a brand new band, the Manchester-based pop band the Colourfield with ex-Swinging Cats members Toby Lyons and Karl Shale. The Colourfield launched their debut album, Virgins and Philistines, in 1985 to average success within the U.Okay., however the 1987 followup Deception was a industrial disappointment and so they disbanded.
The late 80s and the 90s noticed Corridor collaborate with quite a lot of artists to various levels of success. He was a founder member of the short-lived bands Terry, Blair & Anouchka and Vegas, the latter a collaboration with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and likewise labored with the Lightning Seeds, Gorillaz and Difficult. He additionally launched two solo albums, Dwelling in 1994 and Snicker in 1997.
Corridor was not a part of the Specials reunion excursions within the 90s, however rejoined the band in 2008, with the outdated lineup taking part in Glastonbury in 2009. Corridor additionally featured on The Specials’ album Encore, the primary time he had recorded with the band since “Ghost City” in 1981.
Corridor is survived by his spouse, director Lindy Heymann. They’d one son; Corridor has two older sons together with his ex-wife, Jeanette Corridor.
