“BERNIE RHODES KNOWS, DON'T ARGUE!”:
SIR HORACE GENTLEMAN SPEAKS
(THE GLASS HOUSE, POMONA, CA, 10/26/96)
Arguably, few bands have proven more influential on today's ska/punk scene than the Specials, whose classic self-titled debut album of 1979 remains an essential reference point. So does the band's Two-Tone label, whose initial releases from peers like Madness, and The Selecter, forced major labels to take notice.
The Specials remained popular until 1981, until the band's vocal frontline of Terry Hall, and Neville Staple, and guitarist Lynval Golding, left for two dreary but droll albums as Fun Boy Three. The classic lineup reformed in April 2008 -- minus keyboardist Jerry Dammers, who has dismissed the venture as a “takeover” – and haven't stopped hitting the road since.
Long before all that business, however, I spoke to bassist Horace Panter (better known as Sir Horace Gentleman) for a short piece that never saw daylight, for various boring (corporate!) reasons. The occasion was a 20-minute, pre-soundcheck chat at the Glass House...where he and his colleagues, Golding and Staple, were promoting TODAY'S SPECIALS (1996), an album of classic reggae and ska covers. They included the Clash's “Somebody Got Murdered,” prompting a few choice recollections from Horace about those encounters with The Only Band That Matters.
“WE'VE ALREADY GOT A RECORD DEAL...”
(The Coventry Automatics faced one minor problem when they supported the Clash's “On Parole” UK tour at Aylesbury Friars in June 1978...as Horace explains..)
HORACE PANTER: We found there was another band called the Automatics, and we got a letter from their solicitor: “You can't call yourselves the Automatics, we've already got a record deal.” So we had three hours to change our name before going onstage with the Clash! First, it was Coventry Specials, then just Specials, and that's been our name ever since.
“BERNIE RHODES KNOWS, DON'T ARGUE (TAKE ONE)”
(In October 1978, the Specials found themselves supporting the Clash on a UK tour, after catching the eye of their peers' manager, Bernard Rhodes. But Rhodes's tightness proved difficult to bear, as former Clash road manager Johnny Green details.)
JOHNNY GREEN: The legend about Bernard is, he can peel an orange in his pocket. You say, “You got five [pounds]?” And he'd put his hand in his pocket, and bring out one five-pound note, and you know he'd got a big wad of money [elsewhere].
They [the Specials] went out, he'd give 'em money – and this is very Bernard – to buy a tent, 'cause he wouldn't pay for a hotel room. So they had a big old van -- they would drive up to the next town, put their tent up and sleep in it, some in the van, some in this tent.
We saw 'em a couple of times – just a tent by the side of the road, as you were drivin' into the next town. There they'd be, in the most basic conditions, y'know? We all loved them. They were the sort of band that everybody would get up and watch, night after night.
“BERNIE RHODES KNOWS, DON'T ARGUE (TAKE TWO)”
(By March 1979, Rhodes was no longer in the picture, when the Specials' debut single, “Gangsters”/”The Selecter,” rocketed them – and their Two-Tone label – into the UK Top Five. The parting didn't prevent them from sending off Rhodes with an in-joke on their new A-side.)
HORACE: Do you know the song, “Al Capone,” by Prince Buster, where it says, “Al Capone's guns don't argue?” Well, it (“Gangsters”) was an homage to Bernie Rhodes – he was always saying, “You wanna do this, you wanna do that.”
He seemed to know a lot about rock 'n' roll, and what rock bands should be doing, so when we said it (“Bernie Rhodes knows, don't argue”), it was like saying, “Bernie Rhodes knows what he's talking about.” I didn't like him at all, myself – it was why (guitarist) Mick Jones left the Clash. We worked with him for about three months at the end of 1978.
LIFE AT THE TOP (TANTRUMS 'N' TEARS)
(The Specials' rocket ride proved dizzying. As 1979 ended, they'd seen chart success; begun the Two-Tone label; issued their first album; and toured extensively, closing the year in December with the Concerts For Kampuchea benefit beside the Clash, Led Zeppelin, and the Who – proof, if anybody needed it, that the band had arrived.)
HORACE PANTER: Don't forget, we went from being very little, to spokesmen for a generation in just six months. If you looked at a street corner in 1980, every shop had black and white (Two-Tone) clothing inside. We went to Europe for six weeks, had a day off, went to America for six months, and went back to Europe! And here's the record company saying, “Could we have the next album in six months, please?”
There was continuous pressure to make this record (MORE SPECIALS); on the first album], we had been working on those songs for three years. But it blew the rock 'n' roll myth apart, and that was good. For me, it's (MORE SPECIALS) the sound of the band splitting up. When we toured the second album, it was an awful tour – you had to stop in the middle of songs, and stuff like that. I love playing live, and to think that you couldn't do it – I'd say that was another nail in the band's coffin.
COVENTRY CALLING
HORACE PANTER: It used to be the Detroit of Britain, if you like, with factories making cars, and heavy equipment. We've all still got roots down there. We all live within six miles of each other there, so we're all affected by the same things. It's not like one band member is in London, and one is in Manchester. People will say, “Are you sure you should be doing that?”...as opposed to being isolated in London, and having nobody like that around you, not stopping you from turning into an idiot. They [local fans] keep us grounded.
Clash Book Dispatches
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"BERNIE RHODES KNOWS, DON'T ARGUE"