Terry Hall, lead singer of ska band The Specials, dies at 63

Terry Hall, the British singer and lead vocalist of the late 1970s ska band The Specials, has died, band members announced in a statement on social media. He was 63.

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Hall died “after a brief illness,” according to The Specials. Band members remembered him as “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced.”

“Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls,” the group said. “His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love.”

The Specials formed in Coventry, England, in the late 1970s and found success with songs including 1979′s “Gangsters” and “A Message to You Rudy,” and 1981′s “Ghost Town.”

Hall left the band in 1981 to form Fun Boy Three, and later, the Colourfield and Vegas, according to BBC News. In 1994, he launched a solo career, the news station reported.

Hall reunited with The Specials in 2008 and sang for the band’s eighth studio album, “Encore,” in 2019, according to The Associated Press.

In 1981, Hall co-wrote The Go-Go’s debut single, “Our Lips Are Sealed,” the AP reported. The song was also recorded by Hall’s Fun Boy Three.

In a statement on Twitter, Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin remembered Hall as “a lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person.”

“Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song Our Lips Are Sealed, which will forever tie us together in music history,” she wrote. “Terrible news to hear this.”

Other friends and fans also took to social media to remember Hall.

Hall is survived by his wife, Lindy Heymann; and his children, Leo and Felix Hall, according to CNN.

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