Special AKA - In The Studio (40th Anniversary Edition) (Aniv) | RECORD STORE DAY
RECORD STORE DAY

Thank you for choosing to buy locally from a record store!

You can explore 3 ways to buy:

Find and visit a Local Record Store and get phone number and directions (call first, there is no guarantee which products may be in stock locally)

Purchase now from a local store that sells online or when available from an indie store on RSDMRKT.com

Purchase digitally now from recordstoreday.com (which serves local record stores)

Preorder Now

Store Distance Phone Preorder
Loading...

Find a local store

DISC: 1

1. LP1
2. Side 1:
3. Bright Lights
4. The Lonely Crowd
5.
6. Side 2:
7. What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend
8. Housebound
9. Night on the Tiles
10.
11.
12. LP2
13.
14. Side 1:
15. Nelson Mandela
16. War Crimes (The Crime Is Still the Same)
17.
18. Side 2:
19. Racist Friend
20. Alcohol
21. Break Down the Door

More Info:

On November 8th, 2Tone Records/Chrysalis Catalogue will release a 40th Anniversary Half-Speed Mastered Edition of The Special Aka 'In The Studio' album. This release has been liaised and approved by the band's founder and main songwriter Jerry Dammers.Formed in Coventry in the mid-1970s, The Specials was the idea of musician Jerry Dammers, who brought together an eclectic array of individuals to fulfill his vision of a multi-racial band, fusing the energy of punk with the legendary but, at the time, often overlooked, sound of Jamaican ska. The band rose to prominence along with the 2Tone movement, which included two No. 1 singles, Too Much too Young and 1981's Ghost Town, which theme still resonates today before Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple left to form the Fun Boy Three and Roddy Byers left to tour with his band the Tearjerkers.The remaining members, Dammers, Bradbury and Panter, recruited guitarist John Shipley from The Swinging Cats, ex-Bodysnatcher Rhoda Dakar and lead vocalist Stan Campbell, reverting the original band name of The Special Aka and set to work on a new album. Released in 1984, 'In the Studio' was a brave mix of bold and challenging music, with a strong political, social and moral conscience. The album made it into the Top 40, and while it might not have been a huge commercial success, it was, and still is, an astonishingly unique work: a haunting, claustrophobic mix of lounge, soul, reggae, jazz and Arabic rhythms, with uncompromising subject matter. It featured two classic singles: the joyous, yet serious rallying anthem for the then imprisoned South African ANC leader, 'Free Nelson Mandela', and 'What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend'. As time has gone by, the status of 'In The Studio' has grown, and today it is rightly viewed as a genuine lost classic. Like the previous two Specials 40th Anniversary vinyl editions, this has been newly remastered and cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, London. Format: Wide spine sleeve, 2LP 180gm Black Vinyl cut at 45rpm with insert inside and OBI.