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Ghost Town (The Specials song)

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This article is about the song by The Specials. For other uses, see Ghost town (disambiguation).
"Ghost Town"
Song
B-side"Why?"; "Friday Night, Saturday Morning"

"Ghost Town" is the title of a 1981 song by the British ska band, The Specials.

History

In Autumn 1980, during the More Specials tour, the band arrived in Glasgow for a performance. The song was inspired by the sight of elderly women selling their possessions on the Glasgow streets. Jerry Dammers later said, "In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong."[1]

The song spent three weeks at number one and ten weeks in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart overall. The track was recorded at the Woodbine Street Recording Studios in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

The video of consisted of the band driving a Vauxhall Cresta around some empty London streets. "Ghost Town" was a hit at the same time that riots occurred in British cities. Guardian critic Alexis Petridis states that "Ghost Town captured the political mood".[2]

The club referred to in the lines "All the clubs are being closed down" and "Too much fighting on the dance floor" was The Locarno, run by Mecca Leisure Group and later renamed Tiffanys, which was also the club setting the scene for the b-side song, "Friday Night Saturday Morning". It is now Coventry Central Library.[3]

Track listing

1981 release

  • 2 Tone CHS TT17 7" [4]
  1. "Ghost Town" (Dammers) - 3:40
  2. "Why?" (Golding) - 2:59
  3. "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" (Hall) - 3:32
  • 2 Tone CHS TT1217 12" [5]
  1. "Ghost Town (Extended Version)" - 6:02
  2. "Why? (Extended Version)" - 3:55
  3. "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" - 3:32

1991 re-release

  • 2 Tone CHS TT30 7" (Ghost Town Revisited) [6]
  1. "Ghost Town" - 3:40
  2. "Ghost Dub '91" - 4:19

Chart positions

Chart Peak
position
UK Singles Chart [7] 1
Irish Singles Chart [8] 3
Norwegian Singles Chart 7
Netherlands Singles Chart 12[9]

References

  1. ^ Petridis, Alexis (8 March 2002). "Ska for the madding crowd". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Heard, Chris (4 May 2004). "Rocking against Thatcher". BBC News. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
  3. ^ Barton, Laura (19 May 2009). "Barton's Britain: Coventry". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  4. ^ http://2-tone.info/2tone.pl?show112& 2Tone Discography "Ghost Town" release details
  5. ^ http://2-tone.info/2tone.pl?display219 2Tone Discography "Ghost Town" 12 Inch release details
  6. ^ http://2-tone.info/2tone.pl?show125& 2Tone Discography "Ghost Town Revisited" release details
  7. ^ http://www.chartstats.com/songinfo.php?id=9432 chartstats.com "Ghost Town" chart log
  8. ^ http://www.irishcharts.ie/ Irish singles chart placings
  9. ^ Norwegian & Dutch Chart Positions @ finnishcharts.com. Retrieved July 2009.
Preceded by UK number one single
11 July 1981 - 25 July 1981 		Succeeded by

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