Neville Staple's Specials

By Dan Thomas
Photo Promo Release

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DT - Neville you’re known as the ‘Original Rudeboy’, what is it about you, you think people love?
NS - Well when they say I’m the original Rudeboy, I used to be really really rude. I say rude, I used to get into loads of mischief, if it weren’t for The Specials I’d probably be doing long time right now. I was literally from the street, I grew up on the street, I used to get up to all sorts of stuff. Detention centres, prison, I was bad before.

DT - You started off as a roadie for the Coventry Automatics, who would later become The Specials, but were soon thrusted into the limelight becoming one of the most unforgettable frontmen. How did you come into the band?
NS - Well I was an entertainer anyway even before The Specials, I used to have my own sound system. So I guess with that in me, when we went on tour with The Clash on the Parole tour at the Music Machine in London, I was doing the mixing out front by the front desk, and when they started doing an instrumental I’d just run up on stage and start DJ-ing on top of the music track.

DT - What was it like touring with The Clash and how was the relationship between the two bands?
NS - It was great, The Clash loved us and we loved The Clash, we got on with all of the members of The Clash and even now we still all talk, to Mick Jones anyway. Joe Strummer I ain’t seen him for a while, Paul Simonen I ain’t seen him for a while. Joe, I guess he was living down this part of town but I hadn’t seen him for ages before he died, but Mick Jones I see.

DT - The first album ‘Specials’, produced by Elvis Costello, produced two top 10 hits - ‘Gangsters’ and the controversial ‘Too Much Too Young’ - how were things for the band during this early success?
NS - To be honest with you, if it was now I would know more about it now, but growing up on the streets where I used to be not travelling or not doing anything, when all that was happening it was just all excitement for me. It took a while to take it in. So it was as that was going on, I was just having fun you know. I’m being honest with people there, it wasn’t as though we knew what we were doing, I was just in a group that was fun, and everybody liked it. So, you think it’s never gonna end, that’s just how it is when you’re young.

DT - The second album ‘More Specials’ seems to move away from the ska genre, why was this?
NS - Well that was because of Jerry, I mean The Specials belongs to Jerry and he moved the music to that ‘musak’ he called it. I dunno why he changed it, but for a lot of fans it was a drastic change. For them is went from dancing, to like musak, like lounge music.

DT - ‘Ghost Town’ went to number one in 1981, but soon after this Terry, Lynval and yourself left to form Fun Boy Three. Was there a specific reason behind this?
NS - We were burnt out in The Specials, like I said we were touring for like two years before the media really got into us, so then when we got big everyone wanted a piece of us. We were doing two shows a day, one for underage, then normal ones at night. Then we’d fly and go do somewhere else, it just burnt us out, that’s basically why we split, we were burnt out.

DT - Many people felt Fun Boy Three wasn’t as credible as the previous bands, what was your view on this?
NS - To me, it was just music to me. I just enjoyed being on stage playing. I mean the first Specials album was different to the second Specials album, then again to me it’s not like oh it’d different again doing the Fun Boy Three stuff, as we’d already done something different on the second Specials album. To me, it’s just we had more time to relax, I guess you could tell from the stuff we were putting out as Fun Boy Three, we were just relaxing. The first Fun Boy Three album was all just studio work, then the second album was totally different from that, cus we didn’t know what the hell we were doing on the first album! We just got in the studio and made it up whilst we were in there. And then we had more time to think about the second album, and you can tell the difference.

DT - After Fun Boy Three you and some members of The Specials and The Beat came together as Special Beat playing a mixture of both bands songs live. How did this come together?
NS - I guess I wanted to work with Roger anyway, and we at loose ends. I was brought to our attention that we could do that I think someone else suggested we could do it to be honest with you it wasn’t my idea, it may have been Roger I dunno. But I said yeah, fine, plus I wanted to go out touring anyway, I wasn’t working, so I wanted to work. I liked the songs and I liked Roger, so to do the songs together was fine.

DT - In the mid 90’s, the remaining members of The Specials put out two albums, the first of which ‘Today’s Specials’ was criticised by a lot of fans as it contained only cover tracks. Do you feel this was justified? And what were your views on the album?
NS - ‘Today’s Specials’. That was supposed to be my solo album. But then, somehow, the rest of the band added some of their other material on it. Most of that album was done with myself and Tom Lowry, and was supposed to be my solo album, but somehow we got it so other members of The Specials got their stuff on it. So basically, that’s how that was. I was gunna do a cover songs album to give me time to write my other stuff.

DT - So the second album during the 90’s ‘Guilty Till Proven Innocent’, was that more of a band effort?
NS - Yeah, although most of the stuff on that album was done with me and Tom Lowry anyway, and the rest of Today’s Specials added on to it.

DT - Are there any plans for a new Neville Staples album in the near future?
NS - Yeah there’s one in the making, just need time to go and do it. We’ve got new songs but it’s just finding time to go into the studio and put them down. And the way it’s going I gotta pay for that out of my own money so I gotta work for it! So we got stuff to do, but I’ve got to pay for it all myself.

DT - Have you ever had any thoughts of retiring from the music industry? Or will you continue for as long as you possibly can?
NS - I’ve just been carrying on, whereas the rest of The Specials ain’t done anything, I haven’t stopped. The rest of The Specials will bellyache to me, that I’m using the name The Specials, like I’m going out as ‘The Specials’. I don’t go out as that, I’m not that stupid. It’s Neville Staples, ‘of’ or ‘from’ The Specials, which is fair enough that’s where I made my name. If the promoter puts my name small and ‘From The Specials’ big, that’s not my fault. At some gigs people chant ‘Specials! Specials!’ and I have to spend 10, 15 minutes explaining I’m the only one from The Specials.

DT - The clever people in Bridgwater last night were shouting ‘Neville! Neville!’
NS - That’s good then! But, when I get home I think I’m going to have to go on to MySpace and The Specials’ website, and put a statement saying, I’m getting hassle from the guys, because they think I’m going out as The Specials. I’m not that stupid. I’m gunna put this on the website. To clarify with The Specials, I don’t go down as The Specials. Then they’ll say well it says The Specials in the newspaper - I don’t write the newspaper! So I get hassle from them, it seems as though they don’t want me to do anything. They want me to go back to selling drugs, and being a bad fucker carrying guns and shit again. I’m trying to do something on my own, they’re bellyaching cus I’m working, so I’m going to leave this statement when I get home this weekend saying I’m upsetting them for some unknown reason to me, and they all want me to go back to carrying guns, selling drugs, because it seems to me that whatever I do they hassle me, say they’re gunna sue me, do this, do that, so what can I do? I’m really pissed off with it all. This is an exclusive for you! When I get home this weekend I’m going to do this statement! Terry does Dj, Jerry does DJ, I do Dj too but I have to do my live show too, I have to. If I’m not doing live shows, don’t be around me.
(Laughs)
NS - Seriously! Fuck! I’m miserable. I’m bored. I do DJing cus that’s what I used to do anyway that’s where I came from, but on stage I’ve got better on my own cus I’ve got nobody in the back of my ears telling me how to dress, what to say, I can’t do this, I can’t say that. The Specials wouldn’t do this [pointing at a pile of signed paper by the band] to give out while I’m on stage. That’s just how I’ve leant my thing, how to communicate, to get on with people.

DT - That’s cool, I mean your show last night was wicked, and was great to see you sitting on the stage signing stuff for people! Everyone loved it.
NS - That’s how it is all the time, like that. I’ve got my own material but they keep asking me to do Specials stuff. I just want to please the people by mixing it all up! So make sure you put all this out, cus this is an exclusive for you! But when I do this I won’t get horrible about it, it just seems that whatever I try to do I can’t do it right. I just need to get it off my chest now.

DT - Thanks a lot for your time Neville it’s been a pleasure, enjoy the show tonight!
NS - Thanks man, I’ve enjoyed it!