– Fun Boy Three – In Session – BBC – January 16, 1983 – BBC Radio 1 –
Tonight it’s one of the rare sessions by a short-lived, but very memorable group, Fun Boy Three. Recorded by the BBC in 1983.
Sadly, Fun Boy Three only last a little over 3 years. But in that short period of time recorded some of the most potent material of the 80s. One of their most notable tracks was The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum which, if they released nothing else would put them in the top 100 of all-time great acts. They also went on to record their original version of Our Lips Are Sealed, which became the debut hit for the Go-Go’s.
Formed after their split from The Specials, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple retained much of the Ska flavor, but added eclectic to the mix and the results made their way on to two critically acclaimed albums before calling it a day, and Terry going off to form The Colourfield – another short-lived but extremely well received band.
Terry Hall contacted his former Specials bandmates with the prospect of a reunion. He announced that the Specials would be reforming for tour dates and possibly recordings on 30 March 2008. Six members of the band performed on the Main Stage at Bestival as the surprise act on 6 September 2008. The Specials’ original keyboardist and primary composer Jerry Dammers did not play at the festival and owns the trademark rights to the name “the Specials,” so the group was billed as “Very ‘Special’ Guests”. The Specials announced 2009 tour dates to celebrate their 30th anniversary on 2 December 2008. Dammers did not join the band on the tour, although relations between the two parties were reportedly strong. Hall was quoted as saying “the door remains open to him”. Hall was still performing with the Specials in 2018, including a concert with the Rolling Stones, along with his original band members Lynval Golding and Horace Panter, and often DJed in various UK venues.
The Specials released a new studio album entitled Encore on 1 February 2019. Upon release it went straight to the number one spot on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the highest-charting album ever released by the Specials.
Terry Hall died on 18 December 2022 from pancreatic cancer, at the age of 63.
If you missed them the first time around (and it’s possible you did, since they didn’t stick around that long), here’s a chance to discover Fun Boy Three all over again and listen to what you missed.
