The Specials at Brixton Academy
The Specials 16th of May appearance at the Brixton Academy came as relief to those who had already been through the dress rehearsal on the sixth of May.
The opening night at Brixton was postponed at the last minute due to a throat infection contracted by lead singer Terry Hall. The rescheduled gig, ending up being the last at Brixton, contained in places an edgy, tense crowd.
At the front, the patiently waiting fans found themselves besieged in the seconds preceding The Specials appearance, by an influx of anti-social skinheads whose male menopause smelt of bad digestion and stale beer.
The Specials themselves were fabulous, their performance was spot on. Emerging from behind the curtains to Enjoy Yourself, the crowd went wild.
Energetic and fully competent with no rusting from their 30 year break, lead singer Terry Hall’s voice showed no signs of the illness that plagued him a week before, the infection having transferred to the silent Lynval Golding.
Hall himself cut an unfamiliar upbeat figure, relishing in recent Manchester United victory to the obvious irritation of some.
Despite the well publicized rift between the band and Jerry Dammers, the gap in the group was ably plugged up with a capable looky likey on keyboards. Neville Staples displayed a good portion of his usual energy, and guitarist Roddy Radiation really appeared to be enjoying himself.
Despite the huge importance of skanking and dancing to good old ska tunes, this was just not possible. Until they tired themselves out, the first third of the gig was about fighting, pushing and trying very hard not to be crushed or trampled on.
Being at the front of any gig is a liability where one expects a fair amount of bruising and minor injury. Not a delayed trip to casualty with a potentially serious neck injury. At times, out and out war was going on with some seriously dangerous pushing, shoving and a fair few fists raining down in places. The crowd was savage, and not helped by a few who were obviously experiencing a chemical high and swaying around helplessly in the melee as if waiting for the Levellers to come out.
By three quarters of the way through, the crowd settled somewhat and were dancing like they were on fire. Top tune Friday night Saturday morning was a welcome break from the general scrum, though with a surprising number of fans scratching their head at this one.
Too much fighting on the dance floor was not the only worry when it came to protecting oneself throughout the gig.
The amount of on show thieving was unbelievable and victims were targeted everywhere. Fully prepared for being a victim myself, when the inevitable hand was slipped into a jeans pocket there was nothing to be had, though in hindsight perhaps I should have left my Npower gas bill for them. I myself had clocked the suspected thieves as they did not look like they had ever heard of the Specials, obviously didn’t know any of the words to the songs, and were moving through the front of the crowd with their backs to the stage bumping into people.
The person next to me was dismayed to find at the end of the gig that they had been concentrating so hard on protecting their purse, they hadn’t noticed they had been undressed, and a jumper had been taken. Another gig goer Mark, spotted a “tin can sort of lady going around pickpocketing.”
Despite the negatives of the night, The Specials were back, and in top flight form. Their performance was nothing short of brilliant and despite the solid two hours of music, the gig was over all too quickly. It is unlikely that the band will continue to fade away into old age so catch them while they are still on tour and enjoy yourself.