I'm not sure there is too much more I can say about Terry Hall. He has featured on these pages many times as either a solo artist or with Vegas, the Colourfield, the Specials or Fun Boy Three. I did manage to dig up something from the shelf that hasn't had an airing here before. This, the third and final single from FB3's self-titled 1982 album, is probably my least liked of all the band's singles, but that's far from a rebuke. I particularly like the horns supplied by the Swinging Laurels. Remember them? Terry, Neville and Lynval are quite impressed by someone who gets lots of invites via the phone. Man, do I hate talking on the phone. I sigh every time it rings. This was quite a year for Hall and the rest of the splitters from the Specials. If you count the trio's work with Bananarama, there would be five top 20 hits. "The Telephone Always Rings" peaked at No. 17 on the UK chart. Here is a beefed-up take that gives you about two more minutes than the 7".
"The Telephone Always Rings" (Extended Version)
I had this song on my mind tonight. So, here is a bonus... also from 1982. I played "Give Us Back Our Cheap Fares" here a couple of years ago, but I have never featured the extended version. As a 12 or 13 year old growing up among the corn fields of Illinois, the fact that FB3 and Bananrama were protesting with this song went completely over my head. I just liked that it had the same eerie quality as "The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum" and the Specials' smash hit "Ghost Town". You'll find this much longer take as the B-side to the 12" single of "Really Saying Something".
"Give Us Back Our Cheap Fares" (Extended Version)
7 comments:
I do not recall this song at all. Jo does. She would have been 12 at that time.
Terry Hall can do no wrong in my book.
Even just the sight of those two covers takes me right back. Bands like Bananarama and The Fun Boy Three seemed very accessible at the time too somehow. Once saw Terry Hall eating a fry-up on a Sunday morning at the indoor market at the Electric Ballroom in Camden - would've been around about that year too. I can't think of him now without getting that smell of bacon!
Didnt have much time for fun boy three and then tunnel of love and our lips came along and from the colourfield onwards it was genius all the way
Waiting is the better of the two FB3 albums for sure.
'Waiting' is still a great LP. I once saw FB3 at the Hammersmith Palais and can clearly remember Terry Hall's hilarious deadpan response to one particular post-song audience ovation - 'Thank you. You're so sincere'.
Poptastic!
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