Mojo - The Music Magazine

Inside that infamous King's Cross reunion summit and beyond with The Specials' bass-plunking diplomat.

IN THE SPECIALS, Stephen "Horace" Panter was dubbed Sir Horace Gentleman - an appropriate handle for such a relentlessly equable fellow. The first time around he was Jerry Dammers' right-hand man, one of the first in and one of the last out of the band. Today he is a reluctant rebel, convinced that there could be no meaningful Specials reunion with Dammers in the tent, pissing in, but regretting the absence of the Specials' seer and songwriter on a daily basis. As he brewed coffee for MOJO in his comfortable Coventry kitchen, he shared his life story, one that embraces the world of rock, art, pedagogy, rag trade, self-actualisation cults and commercial driving. After each chapter, you half expect him to add "...Which was nice" like that chap off the Fast Show. And it's hard not to reflect that of all the postscripts of all the once-and-future-Specials, his is the most consistently heartwarming and bitterness-free. So take it away, Sir Horace...

Why did you leave The Specials the first time around?
It was just being unable to work with Jerry. It was pure personalities. I was going through some personal stuff at the time. I was involved in Exegesis, which was kind of a personal therapy, "est" thing, not as bad as Scientology but verging towards that kind of thing. That really alienated myself from quite a few people. Brad [John Bradbury] didn't seem to mind so much but Jerry found it very difficult. I still turned up for rehearsals and played or whatever, but it became a bone of contention between us. Jerry was under an enormous amount of pressure as well and we just grated and in the end I left. It was dreadful. I didn't like leaving. I'd been with Jerry since the inception of the band but I could see the things falling to pieces, and I was powerless to stop it. It was a very depressing time of my life. I wanted to be a pop star when I was 12, and when I was... the world wasn't wonderful. That's why I started searching for the meaning of life, and I think it took me about 10-15 years to level out and get grounded again.

Day to day, what did Exegesis mean? Was your lifestyle very different?
No not really. I just thought a bit differently, or I used some different terminology. It's kind of become part of business training, but it took in little bits of Buddhism, little bits of Gestalt therapy. I met some people who had done it and it seemed to work for them, and I really needed something at the time which could make me a bit more powerful in the band and stop it falling to bits. I'd always been Jerry's NCO. I was the guy who backed up his ideas, because they were good ideas.

What did you do after that?
My wife Claire had just opened a clothing store so I rediscovered the silk-screening that I learned when I was at college, learned how to dye, learnt how to work a sewing machine, sat in a little lock-up shop three and a half days a week in Coventry. Then I found out that the The Beat had split and that Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger were getting a band together. So I made a few phone calls and joined General Public, which was great, all good. That was 1983, and it finished in 1987. We were MTV darlings in America in 1984, and the first album did real well. Then IRS moved to MCA who didn't know how to market us at all or just lost interest. Then there was the fact that our second album wasn't very good...

And after that?
Then I worked with Ranking Roger for a while: great little band but, again, the material wasn't great. And then I became a white van man for a year and a half. Which I really enjoyed. 'Here are the drops. There's your van. Go.'

And then Roger phoned me up some time in 1990 and says, 'How would you like to play Beat songs and Specials songs to Americans? We can earn a lot of money.' And that was Special Beat, which was kind of a show band, Brad, Me, Neville, Roger. That was great fun, really good, because I was still young, energetic and prepared to travel on the bus. We did that all through America, the back end of 1990. I remember coming back the day before Christmas Eve with a great big wad of dollars, and trying to find the best exchange rate.

And then we did it through 1991 and I spent 13 weeks in America - it was the longest tour I'd ever done in my life. A month with Steel Pulse, a month with Sting, and a month doing our own shows in California. I came back absolutely knackered having missed my son's first day at school. I thought, 'I'm getting a bit too old for this.' So I quit. They carried on until 93.

I went to what used to be Birmingham Polytechnic and did the teacher training course, so I qualified in '93. That was interrupted by The Specials Mark 2 [with Staple, Golding, Byers and ex-Selecter drummer "H" Bembridge]. We did an album via Trojan Records with Desmond Dekker, and then we started doing weekend stuff in Europe, getting on the plane Saturday morning, going out to play a little festival in Belgium, coming back Sunday with £250 in the back pocket. So I did that while I was doing my teacher training, and that kept the home farm.

When did that end?
It fizzled out in America. It was buses and radio station shows which you don't get paid for. It had taken America at least 10 years to get wise to what we were doing, and by then you had The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, The Toasters, Fishbone. We did some fabulous shows - Boston, West Coast - but when you've got to bring back money... I left in 1998, I think, and I went back to school teaching. Which I did up until last Christmas. This time last year I was a school teacher. I was an art teacher at a special needs school.

That sounds very challenging.
I like children. I don't miss the teaching very much, but I do miss the children. Autism, ADHD... they just want to know they're safe and secure, and you can give them something to improve their self-esteem. It was really good, and for the first time in ages I had a regular wage. Though The Specials were famous, we were influential, we never made much money.

How did the Specials recommence, for you?
I've always thought Lynval was the prime mover. He played with Lily Allen in Seattle, then Terry and Lynval played with her at Glastonbury and the response was phenomenal. And then things snowballed from there.

Was that crucial first meeting, when Terry and Lynval came to Coventry to talk to you and Roddy, held right here?
Yes. That was the first time figures were mentioned. It was in the front room here.

What was that like? How did you feel initially? Anticipation?
Very exciting. I'd written a book a couple of years before and I sort of came to the conclusion that I will always be "That Bloke From The Specials", whether I like it our not. Oh well, if that's the cross I have to bear...

What were the potential stumbling blocks?
For me very little, but it was different for Neville and Roddy, because they both had their solo careers up and running. Once I'd met people and realised they were of the same mind and prepared not to talk about the war and we could make a reasonable amount of money and do it on our own terms, it seemed perfect. I consider myself very lucky to be in that position. How many people have dreamt of being a pop star, become a pop star, then not been a pop star, and then done it again and made a real success out of it? You've got more chance of winning the lottery.

Then there was Jerry...
Lynval was speaking to Terry's manager and then to myself and Roddy and Neville and Brad, because we had an idea that Jerry would be against it because whenever anybody seemed to say anything there would be a counter from him. In the first instance he wasn't invited into this, and then he got wind of this and we said, 'We're having a meeting,' and he said, 'Well I'll come.' I'm getting into really sticky territory here [laughs]. And we had a meeting [at King's Cross Holiday Inn in October, 2007] where we all sat around together in the same room and I remember why I left in the first place, I'm afraid.

Describe the meeting to me...
Well, sitting over there was the original Specials manager Rick Rogers and sitting over there was Neville's manager [Warren Middleton]. And the first thing we said was, 'Look Jerry, can we do this with just the seven of us?', and he goes, 'No, I'd like Rick, I'd like Warren to be here.' And Lynval kind of kicked the meeting off with, 'This is great, this is the first time we've been together for years,' and Jerry butted in and goes, 'All I ever did was try to help.' And from that moment on it was just railroad, railroad, railroad, and whether that was out of his nervousness or whatever... it was obvious he was in a different mindset to the rest of is.

Was it ever in Jerry's power to derail it? Could he have stopped the six of you getting on stage and doing Specials songs?
The jury is out on that.

Read Part 2: featuring festering gripes, passive aggression and renewed friendships...