Coventry Music Museum curator Pete Chambers BEM writes for the Observer.
Fun Boy Three
The Complete Collection
In 1981, on June 20, The Butts arena played host to the ‘Rock Against Racism’ gig after the tragic racially motivated death of Dr Amal Dharry.
We did not know it then, but this would be the very final gig the Specials would play in Coventry with Jerry Dammers on board and the mesmerising ‘Ghost Town’ would serve as a bittersweet swansong for the band we so loved.
Just released is a glorious six disc collection entitled ‘The Complete Fun Boy Three’. Like the Specials before them, they only clocked up two official albums, but like the Specials before them both would be classics of their time and would continue to influence and delight many musicians and fans alike.
This new set is a thing of beauty, telling pretty much the whole story of a band that even now people find impossible to define adequately.
The Fun Boy Three left the 2-Tone Mothership in Summer ‘81’. Before the end of the year, they would have seen lower chart success with the ever so relatable ‘The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)’ (by all accounts this was the track that would have followed ‘Ghost Town’ as the next Specials single.
It was rerecorded by the Specials for their 2019 chart-topping ‘Encore’ album).
For us fans who had only ever seen Terry, Nev and Lyn dressed as Rude Boys playing Ska music, the move was a monumental one.
Here they were styled in dress and hairstyle like true products of the 1980s and not a pork pie hat or loafer in sight.
I loved this band but I have spent that last 40 plus years still trying to fathom where this band sits in the Specials timeline.
Truth is it probably never has, for the FB3 were always something miles apart from the band that spawned them.
Some would lament their lack of hard-hitting lyrics. This again is way off the mark – listen to the songs on this set and you quickly realise that the FB3 had as much to say as the Specials did, maybe more.
Take the track ‘Well Fancy That’ from the ‘Waiting’ album. As mentioned in the sleeve notes: “That track describes Hall’s sexual abuse aged 11 by a teacher on a school trip in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Well Fancy That!’ dealt with me being sexually abused as a kid.” He told The Guardian in 2003, “That song really helped.”
I could write pages on this beautifully compiled boxset, sadly I only have 500 words, but on here you will find the pop songs like ‘Tain’t What You Do’ and ‘Really Saying Something’ (with Bananarama of course), gems like ‘The Telephone Always Rings’ and ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ as well as the perfect pop song ‘Farmyard Connection’.
Plus, the curious ‘If Dogs Run Free’ – an outtake of a Dylan cover with Producer David Byrne.
It is a superb collection showing the musical brilliance of Staples, Golding and the too soon departed Terry Hall.
It is time to stop trying to pigeonhole them and time to just enjoy their often curious, always original thought-provoking pop music.
