The Specials frontman Terry Hall has died as a result of pancreatic cancer, his bandmate Horace Panter has announced.
In an emotional note shared on Facebook, the band’s bassist said the band – then comprising Panter, Hall and guitarist Lynval Golding – had intended to record a new album in Los Angeles in November, produced by Aggrolites’ Roger Rivas.
It was to be the reggae album they intended to make in 2020, before Hall’s writer’s block pushed them towards a political covers album, Protest Songs 1924–2012, out in 2021. “Terry had the framework for eight tunes,” Panther said. “Confidence was high.”
In September, Hall emailed his bandmates to say he had stomach problems and would have to miss the first week of pre-production sessions before their flight to Los Angeles on November 4. “No big deal, we can move everything back a week,” wrote Panter.
But Hall’s condition did not improve. On October 2, the band’s manager, Steve Blackwell, called to say that Hall had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver and had developed diabetes as a result of the attack on his pancreas, requiring treatment and chemotherapy.
“Nobody can do anything,” Panther wrote. “Everything is postponed.”
Hall was “absolute” that no one was told about his illness. Although the chemotherapy started “favorably”, it became clear that the band would not be able to perform until March 2023, when Hall was in and out of the hospital to stabilize his diabetes and manage the pain.
“After that it goes quiet,” Panther writes.
Terry Hall: His Most Memorable Songs – Video Obituary
By early December, Hall had “lost a lot of weight and is very frail”. By the middle of the month, Blackwell visited Hall and then called Panther to say that Hall was dying.
On Dec. 16, “he was put on morphine and was more or less unconscious most of the time,” Panter said. Hall’s wife, director Lindy Heyman, advised Panther not to visit and invited him to say goodbye over the phone. “So I did it. It was hard.”
Hall died around 5:30 p.m. on December 18. “The world has lost a unique voice and I have lost a good friend,” wrote Panter.
Panter is among the legions of musicians to pay tribute to Hall after his death, including his former collaborators Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, as well as Madness, the Proclaimers, UB40 and Massive Attack, who called the Specials “the protest soundtrack to our youth and the plan of our group”.
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