Terry Hall (born 19 March 1959, in Coventry, England) was the lead singer of The Specials, the Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, Terry, Blair and Anouchka and Vegas. He released his first solo album, Home, in 1995. He has also worked with The Lightning Seeds, Stephen Duffy, Dub Pistols, Gorillaz and Tricky.
The Specials were the main players in the 1979 - 1981 Ska revival movement of 2 Tone. Terry joined the Specials late in 1977 replacing initial vocalist Tim Strickland and remained the front man until they split in August 1981.
They released only two albums and the
Ghost Town EP though the 2 Tone label was responsible for launching the recording careers of many others including Madness, The Selector and the Beat. The Specials' first self-titled album features some of Hall's most recognizable and notable performances, including "Little Bitch", "Nite Klub", "Concrete Jungle", and
"Gangsters". This debut album also displays Hall's writing talent alongside Jerry Dammers. Hall's trademark sardonic, wry and deadpan vocals, combined with sarcastic kitchen-sink lyrics, still raise a smile today, seemingly a direct precursor to the dour poetic wit of Morrissey.
In October of 1980, The Specials released their second album,
More Specials. While singing such fan-favourites such as
"Rat Race", and
"Hey, Little Rich Girl", Terry successfully helped the band recreate the upbeat music that the first album possessed. The next album The Specials recorded, 1984's
In The Studio, did not include Hall.
In June 1981, they released their final widely acclaimed
'Ghost Town' EP. The EP contained one of the greatest songs ever written and provides a perfect soundtrack and backdrop to social life then and now - Friday Night, Saturday Morning, A Terry Hall masterpiece and work of genius. Though the band re-emerged as The Special AKA with vocalists Body Snatcher Rhoda Dakar, Stan Campbell, Egidio Newton and Jerry Dammers, and have toured again in recent years Terry has not since fronted them.
After The Specials' last single with Hall, the UK No.1 hit
"Ghost Town", Hall left the band to start a New-wave group, Fun Boy Three, with two other Specials members, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples. Terry grew out and bleached his hair and wore more flamboyant clothes befitting of the early 80's and their sound went into a much brighter, poppier phase. Fun Boy Three's first hit single occurred in late 1981, entitled
"The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)", then followed-up in early 1982 with
"It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)", a duet with Bananarama. Fun Boy Three then provided guest vocals for Bananarama's single,
"Really Saying Something". In February 1983, Fun Boy Three released
Waiting. It consisted of the Top Ten hits
"The Tunnel of Love" and the classic
"Our Lips Are Sealed". The latter was a song Hall wrote with Jane Wiedlin, who had already made it into a hit the previous year with her group, The Go-Go's. The Fun Boy Three often ran into similar criticism as The Style Council as they had a less credible image than their previous bands.
In 1983 Terry quit The Fun Boy Three and in time formed The Colourfield with Toby Lyons and Karl Shale and by 1986 drummer Gary Dwyer. They released their first single
"The Colour Field" in 1984 complete with a much more conservative haircut and richer sound.
“Thinking of You” was the only single which had success in the UK charts.
Virgins & Philistines was released in April 1985. It failed to gain a large audience due to difficulty in marketing an album with such a diverse sound. Since
Virgins & Philistines doesn't fit into a specific era, it continues to sound fresh and undated decades later, and still remains a critical success in the eyes of the music press today. It is often regarded as the direct musical predecessor to the later work of The Lightning Seeds in the 1990's, whom Hall would later collaborate with in a songwriting role whilst providing occasional vocals.
They released their second album
Deception in 1987. The content of
Deception is very different from
Virgins & Philistines. It is almost as if Hall formed a new band but kept the same name. Since then Hall has voiced his displeasure with the recording of the album because he did not feel he had control of the session musicians and producers the way he needed to preserve The Colourfield’s sound.
After the Colourfield imploded, Terry Hall formed a trio with an American actress called Blair Booth and a jeweler called Anouchka Groce. Terry, Blair, and Anouchka explored Hall's love for 60's pop, as well as kitschy mainstream pop, as evidenced on the trio's cover of Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together", "Missing" the group's first single, was released in the fall of 1989 and it didn't make much of an impact, peaking at number 75 on the British charts. The trio's second single,
"Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme" didn't even chart. Terry, Blair and Anouchka's debut album, also called
Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme, was released in February of 1990 to little attention.
Two years later, Terry Hall returned with Vegas, a one-shot collaboration with Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics. Vegas' eponymous album was released in the fall of 1992 and yielded three minor U.K. hits
"Possessed", "She," and "Walk Into the Wind." Vegas wasn't particularly successful and the duo disbanded in early 1993.
Terry Hall released his first official solo,
Home, in the spring of 1995 to mild interest. After its release, Hall collaborated on a new single, "Chasing a Rainbow," with Blur's Damon Albarn. The single was a minor hit and was added to a re-release of Home later in the year. Early in 1996, Terry Hall was featured in Tricky's side-project Nearly God, singing on the single "Poems."
In 2001 he appeared as a guest on the Gorillaz-D12 single "911", which was a song about terrorist attacks in the U.S. and 2007 he provided vocals for many tracks on the Dub Pistols album
Speakers and Tweeters.
Polyrock emerged in the late 1970s as pioneers of post-disco and new-sensibility dance music in New York. The band comprised vocalist Catherine Oblasney, guitarist Billy Robertson and Tommy Robertson, drummer Joseph Yanece, and keyboard player Lennu Aaron. 
When he began to play live in the early part of 1982, his ´band´ consisted of nothing more than himself plus a series of pre-recorded backing tapes. The arrangement proved both pragmatic and effective; it allowed John to present his music to the public to his own best advantage. Before he decided to form his own band, he performed together with Mark Hughes and Phil Shephard in a band I Scream Brothers where he was responsible for the musical arrangement.
In 1986 another U.V. PØP LP was released, ‘Bandy Baby Man’, which was mainly produced by John White. U.V. PØP songs later appeared on various compilations and they had few more releases during the 90’s. In 2005 Strafbomber made a tribute to the U.V. PØP with the ‘Sleep Don’t Talk’ cover. 
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They released their debut four track EP on Private Records, offering short, funny and quirky stats of electro pop. Their first album In Silence was an attempt to funeral rock of Joy Division. It was muted by incomprehensible vocals and dismal, meandering music. In 1983, FLL were joined by Per Oystein Sorensen who raised the bridge to cross from desolate goth rock to a piano-laden amalgam of sophisti-pop and light jazz. After a year, before their first single "Now and Forever" was released, their second album, Small Mercies followed. It was still sinister, with funeral percussion, but with FLL now being a quartet and with the piano given an important role in the scheme of things, they continued towards a more defined pop direction, with a more personal style than previously.
In 1985, Fra Lippo Lippi were signed with Virgin Records in the U.K., releasing their third album, Songs. Fra Lippo Lippi jettisoned the gloom of their earlier efforts on Songs, experimenting with synth-pop and romantic balladry powered by Kristoffersen's piano. During the same year the latest member Øyvind Kvalnes and founder member Morten Sjøberg quit at the prospect of giving up their day jobs for the uncertain careers as professional musicians. This leaves FLL as the duo of Rune Kristoffersen and Per Øystein Sørensen. 
In 1986 the first single for Virgin, "Shouldn't have to be like that", was released. It reached number 4 in the official Norwegian sales charts and the lower regions of the UK charts. It also remains Fra Lippo Lippis biggest hit. "Come Summer" and a completely reworked version of "Everytime I See You" are released as singles number 2 and 3. As a live band, FLL is extended with 4 musicians. They successfully tour Norway in the autumn, sold out concerts everywhere. They released another two album during the late 80’s 'Light and Shade' and The Colour Album
Fra Lippo Lippi became a huge hit in the Philippines in the late 80’s and were invited there for concerts. Ticket demand was huge and they sold out the 11.000 capacity Folk Arts Theatre in Manila 6 times over two weekends. In 1992, they released their sixth album Dreams and after releasing few best of compilations they split. Kristoffersen launched his own record label, Rune grammofon and Sorensen continued as solo artist. In 2000, Fra Lippo Lippi performed in the Philippines, a country where the band landed numerous hits during the 80's.
As a neglected part of the Factory Records scene, the Stockholm Monsters are a key link between the bristly art-funk of A Certain Ratio and the good-foot indie dance vibe of Happy Mondays and the other Manchester bands of the late 80's. Often seen merely as New Order proteges (Peter Hook produced all but one of their records) and victims of both record company indifference and unnecessary potshots by the cynical British music press, the Stockholm Monsters deserved better treatment than they usually got.
Back then, still in their teens, and with no settled guitarist, the band found it hard to find gigs and be noticed. After linking up with the Manchester Musicians Collective, the Monsters scored a few gigs at local venues such as the Cyprus Tavern, and struck lucky when supporting the Rezillos at Rafters. Both Rob Gretton and New Order bassist Peter Hook were in the audience, and decided that the outstanding song "Fairy Tales" would make a good single for Factory Records. Hook in particular took the fledgling band under his wing, and would go on to produce almost all of their recordings, albeit disguising his identity behind the moniker Be Music.
They released a fine EP, 'Miss Moonlight', in 1983. Unfortunately, despite Hook's continued involvement, Factory Records apparently lost interest in the group and shunted them to their Belgian subsidiary label Factory Benelux, then seen as the label's dumping ground for vanity projects and failed experiments.
The first single off the album, "Earth Intruders", has been released on April 9. Björk will also be touring for the first time in four years in support of the upcoming album; the majority of confirmed performances so far are at festivals.
They released only two albums and the Ghost Town EP though the 2 Tone label was responsible for launching the recording careers of many others including Madness, The Selector and the Beat. The Specials' first self-titled album features some of Hall's most recognizable and notable performances, including "Little Bitch", "Nite Klub", "Concrete Jungle", and "Gangsters". This debut album also displays Hall's writing talent alongside Jerry Dammers. Hall's trademark sardonic, wry and deadpan vocals, combined with sarcastic kitchen-sink lyrics, still raise a smile today, seemingly a direct precursor to the dour poetic wit of Morrissey.
In October of 1980, The Specials released their second album, More Specials. While singing such fan-favourites such as "Rat Race", and "Hey, Little Rich Girl", Terry successfully helped the band recreate the upbeat music that the first album possessed. The next album The Specials recorded, 1984's In The Studio, did not include Hall.
In June 1981, they released their final widely acclaimed 'Ghost Town' EP. The EP contained one of the greatest songs ever written and provides a perfect soundtrack and backdrop to social life then and now - Friday Night, Saturday Morning, A Terry Hall masterpiece and work of genius. Though the band re-emerged as The Special AKA with vocalists Body Snatcher Rhoda Dakar, Stan Campbell, Egidio Newton and Jerry Dammers, and have toured again in recent years Terry has not since fronted them.
After the Colourfield imploded, Terry Hall formed a trio with an American actress called Blair Booth and a jeweler called Anouchka Groce. Terry, Blair, and Anouchka explored Hall's love for 60's pop, as well as kitschy mainstream pop, as evidenced on the trio's cover of Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together", "Missing" the group's first single, was released in the fall of 1989 and it didn't make much of an impact, peaking at number 75 on the British charts. The trio's second single, "Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme" didn't even chart. Terry, Blair and Anouchka's debut album, also called Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme, was released in February of 1990 to little attention.
Between 1982 and 1985, they released three albums, one EP and two singles "What I Would Give" and "Don't Let Go". Their third album New Beginnings proved to be their final work together. A series of retrospective packages followed throughout the late 80's and 90's, a self-titled release on Cathexis got the ball rolling in 1988, followed by 1990's Retrospective and 1995's New Naked Technologies.
Most of their recording material was reissued on a New Naked Technology compilation in 2010.
A series of three 1982 singles — two for Crepuscule and one for Operation Twilight — predated their debut album, most notably, "The Subway". Miranda and Burwell recorded the album, Too Crazy Cowboys for Factory in 1983, with key assistance from New Order's Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris. After the album's late 1984 release, Burwell went into a successful career as a soundtrack composer, starting with the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple. Sadly none of the singles could gain prominent success.
