Specials

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Ghost Town/Why?/Friday Night Saturday Morning". "Billboard". 8 August 1981. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012 . Retrieved 14 August 2011. Beaumont, Mark (7 March 2022). "The Story of NME in 70 (mostly) Seminal Songs". NME. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022 . Retrieved 7 March 2022.

Augustyn, Heather (22 September 2010). Ska: An Oral History. Jefferson, North Carolina, USA: McFarland & Co., Inc. p.99. ISBN 978-0-7864-6040-3.On some US releases, the song "Gangsters" (Dammers, Cecil Campbell) appears between "Too Much Too Young" and "Little Bitch". In Australia and New Zealand, "Gangsters" was included between "Do the Dog" and "It's Up to You". a b Panter, Horace (2008). Ska'd for Life. London, England: Pan Books. p.268. ISBN 978-0-330-44073-8. Barton, Laura (5 May 2009). "Barton's Britain: Coventry". The Guardian G2 Magazine. London, England. p.11 . Retrieved 5 September 2013. The label started things off with the classic ‘Gangsters’ shortly followed by Madness’ ‘The Prince’ (a tribute to Prince Buster and the Jamaican Ska scene in general) and The Selecters’ ‘On My Radio’ Other classics which followed included ‘Too Much Too Young’ and The most famous 2 Tone release of them all; ‘Ghost Town’. Despite popular belief the single Ghost Town was not criticism of Racial tension on a national scale; mainly a broadside at the thuggery that existed within Coventry. Infact many of the Specials songs were about life in Coventry. 'Concrete Jungle', 'Dawning Of A New Era', 'Stereotypes' etc. Top Selling Albums of 1980 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand . Retrieved 29 January 2022.

a b c d Montgomery, Hugh; Bignell, Paul; Higgins, Mike (3 July 2011). "Ghost Town: The song that defined an era turns 30". The Independent. London, England: Independent Print Ltd . Retrieved 5 September 2013. In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs" at number 19, for "Lacing ska and reggae with the amphetamine edge of new wave". Mark Beaumont praised the song and its "brooding evocation of Thatcher’s wasteland Britain". [25] Matrix / Runout (Side A, stamped / etched, variant 2): CHR TT 5003 A // 3 ▽ E C R S TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN 1 1 5 CHR-TT 5003A3 √ANOS

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The tour for the group's More Specials album in late 1980 had been a fraught experience: already tired from a long touring schedule and with several band members at odds with keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammers over his decision to incorporate " muzak" keyboard sounds on the album, several of the gigs descended into audience violence. As they travelled around the country the band witnessed sights that summed up the depressed mood of a country gripped by recession. In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, "You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down... We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. 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." [4] Kelly, Jon (2011) " The Specials: How Ghost Town defined an era", BBC, 17 June 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2015