Chapter 48: Sweetest Tabu
In which I forget it's the 45th anniversary of 'Ghost Town' and share another illicit dub.
You might think I would seize the day that ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials turned 45, and write something in depth about its creation, but as my regular readers are surely aware by now, I’m always behind schedule, and there was no time last week for such indulgence. If there’s time I might try and pen a follow up to my piece for The Quietus about ‘Too Much Too Young’ reaching number 1, so fingers crossed I can get that down before July 5th when ‘Ghost Town’ claimed the top spot back in 1981.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know I started work on a short documentary about ‘Ghost Town’ back in 2021, which grew into an idea for a feature length film; a plan which was admittedly a little too grand for a guy with no spare time or money, and no professional filmmaking credentials. It’s a project I return to every so often, wading through a sea of research, and stacks of records which might soundtrack the film.
Long story short, I originally pitched it to Two Tone’s parent label Chrysalis Records as a short film, maybe ten or so minutes, specifically about the making of the song, with a plan to interview Jerry Dammers, engineer John Rivers and producer John Collins. I sent over a sizzle reel using audio from an old interview with Dammers and footage I’d nabbed off the internet—sizzle reels aren’t meant for commercial use—to convey style and tone, and they were interested, so I met up with the second John on the list and wound up with a couple of hours of fascinating insights and funny stories from the ‘Ghost Town’ sessions, as well as John’s own career producing Victor Romero-Evans, Janet Kay, and the theme from Desmond’s to name a few.
I’ve shared a test reel using three segments of the John Collins interview before, but I don’t think I’ve ever shown anyone beyond Chrysalis the sizzle reel, so here it is…
Music gear nerds amongst you may have noticed that’s not “the actual organ” Dammers mentions in the voice over. I shot close-ups of my Siel Orchestra synth to substitute the real thing which I planned on getting my hands on if it ever went into production.
The split screen thing is a nod to the artist-filmmaker John Akomfrah who’s experimental docs and installations I’ve loved since I started studying/making films in my young teens (yes, I have no professional experience, but I’ve been making films/videos since I was a kid). In fact I mentioned Akomfrah in the Ghost Stories pitch deck: “Influences on the film’s style include the experimental documentary work of Chris Marker, Arthur Lipsett, John Akomfrah and the Black Audio collective, but with the pace of VH1’s Pop Up Video, offering an ever-unfolding array of facts and soundbites which are cut to a soundtrack which flows like a mixtape as the story develops around it.”
Here’s the other test clips I made using my interview with John Collins…
Who knows if it’ll ever happen, but I’d love to finish it one day, if you know anyone with some—ok, a lot of—cash to spare for licensing footage and music, then please drop me a line. As unlikely as it might seem, I still hold out hope, but until that day I thought I’d treat my very special full subscribers to another unsolicited dub I’ve made.
This time I’ve dabbled with an idea which crossed my mind while working on Ghost Stories. I’ve not got to the bottom of whether this was an influence, but musak and easy listening had fuelled Dammers’ imagination by the time of the More Specials album, and ‘Tabu’ from Terry Snyder’s 1959 album Persuasive Percussion has more than a nod of ‘Ghost Town’. So, I’ve got a bit time-stretchy and laid Tabu’s bare bones over a ghostly rockers beat, then got busy with the echo and reverb.
Preview ‘Tabu Tone’ in this video clip below, and if you’ve been kind enough to cough up some cash for a subscription, it’s available as a WAV or MP3 at the bottom.
Happy ghost hunting!
