Talk:Ghost Town (The Specials song)
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Written by Jerry Dammers?[edit]
I recall a bitter dispute about whether other band members were entitled to a co-composition credit - my memory's a bit shaky on this, but the matter may have ended in court and may have been a factor in the band's breaking up. The dispute was big news in the music press at the time. Does anyone have the details? TheMadBaron 01:53, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
video[edit]
Does anyone know where the video was filmed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.38.216.42 (talk) 21:55, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
Who/What is Acclaimed Music?[edit]
The lead currently states that "Ghost Town" is "ranked as the 90th greatest song of all time, as well as the best song of 1981, by Acclaimed Music". There's a citation, but the site itself bothers me a bit. Is it really a significant and important enough site to get a special mention in the lead para of an article about such a major hit? My inclination would be not. After all, the Acclaimed Music article here was deleted in 2007 via the WP:PROD with the reason "No sources independent of the site to establish notability", and has never been recreated in the three years since, which it surely would have been were AM a truly notable website. Loganberry (Talk) 01:17, 4 July 2010 (UTC)
Useful links[edit]
A BBC article released today would be a good base for information in expanding this article. Rambo's Revenge (talk) 11:13, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
About Coventry[edit]
I have long understood that the song was about the Specials' home town of Coventry. This is hinted at at a late stage in the article, but could be explained more clearly earlier on in the article. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 09:55, 13 October 2011 (UTC)
Yes, I am pretty sure I read that in a museum in Coventry! ACEOREVIVED (talk) 16:18, 31 January 2012 (UTC)
C-class[edit]
Have uprated the article's status to C-class based on the work I have done to it - it might make B-class status but I think it needs an official review from the editorial team before that can happen. Richard3120 (talk) 18:40, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
When was the music video recorded?[edit]
The current version of this article states: "The video to accompany the song was filmed during the night and early morning of 27/28 June 1981." How is it then possible that the video was aired on Top of the Pops on both the 18th and 25th June editions? (See TOTP episode list on Popscene) Davidvankemenade (talk) 13:03, 26 June 2016 (UTC)
- I think it's in one of the Specials biographies that says it was filmed immediately after the Rotherham concert, which was definitely on 27 June: I should check and add the reference. Of course, it's quite possible that the dates in the biography are wrong as well, because one of them says the song was released on 20 June, which is 100% impossible as it had already charted that week. Is there a link to the episodes of TOTP online to be able to check the video had been aired those weeks? Richard3120 (talk) 08:45, 27 June 2016 (UTC)
- The TOTP episode list that states that the music video was first aired on 18th June 1981 is here: z6.invisionfree.com/popscene/index.php?showtopic=1147 Davidvankemenade (talk) 17:27, 30 July 2016 (UTC)
- @Davidvankemenade: It does look as though that's the case, doesn't it? I've found another blog which also reviews that week's episode and says that the video was shown on the programme. I think for now the best thing will be to remove any mention of filming date until a definitive answer can be found – the best source would be a complete copy of that week's programme on YouTube, or if it gets shown again on BBC4 in the UK. This is always the problem with finding details about songs and albums in the pre-internet era – even official biographies can be very wrong. As you have proved, the biography and even a BBC article that state that "Ghost Town" was released on 20 June are definitely not correct, because we have TOTP from two days previously showing the video for the song entering at no. 21, and the chart for that week was announced on Tuesday 16 June, so there is absolutely no way the single was released any later than Friday 12 June for it to have charted that week. Thanks for that find: I'll look into it and see if I can get more details. Richard3120 (talk) 22:53, 30 July 2016 (UTC)
- Many thanks Richard! Davidvankemenade (talk) 18:16, 1 August 2016 (UTC)
- @Davidvankemenade: It does look as though that's the case, doesn't it? I've found another blog which also reviews that week's episode and says that the video was shown on the programme. I think for now the best thing will be to remove any mention of filming date until a definitive answer can be found – the best source would be a complete copy of that week's programme on YouTube, or if it gets shown again on BBC4 in the UK. This is always the problem with finding details about songs and albums in the pre-internet era – even official biographies can be very wrong. As you have proved, the biography and even a BBC article that state that "Ghost Town" was released on 20 June are definitely not correct, because we have TOTP from two days previously showing the video for the song entering at no. 21, and the chart for that week was announced on Tuesday 16 June, so there is absolutely no way the single was released any later than Friday 12 June for it to have charted that week. Thanks for that find: I'll look into it and see if I can get more details. Richard3120 (talk) 22:53, 30 July 2016 (UTC)
- The TOTP episode list that states that the music video was first aired on 18th June 1981 is here: z6.invisionfree.com/popscene/index.php?showtopic=1147 Davidvankemenade (talk) 17:27, 30 July 2016 (UTC)
Keyboards?[edit]
Have added a link to Hammond organ to the Personnel section. But what were the other keyboards? Casio MT-40? Any others? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:40, 14 April 2017 (UTC)