Mojo - The Music Magazine

The Specials guitarist on wrinkles, boozular differences and his many beefs with Jerry Dammers...

NOT ONE OF LIFE'S natural optimists, Roddy "Radiation" Byers has learned to never wax too sanguine where it regards The Specials. The explosive qualities of his lead guitar playing are in some ways reflected in his personality: gritty and stormy, still the rocker in a band of mods. Byers was in some ways the most infuriated by Jerry Dammers in the dog days of The Specials' first phase - certainly the most thoroughly baffled by the visionary mainman's jazz/lounge direction during and after More Specials. Perhaps accordingly, he seems the least disappointed by Dammers' refusal to tour on anything but his own terms, and it's even possible to read a subnote of glee into his overview of Dammers' subsequent discomfiture. Here, in extensive outtakes from the interview he gave Danny Eccleston for the Specials feature in this month's MOJO, he cuts through the PR flannel with a shrewd, sometimes surprising, take on the reunion of the year.

As far as you're concerned, what was the genesis of the current Specials reformation?
Lynval [Golding]'s been trying since we did The Specials Mk II the '90s. He's kept in touch with all of us. Until recently, I hadn't spoken to Terry since 1981. Some of us have played together, but we never have been close chums. Me and Horace are like chalk and cheese. But it works musically. We're all very different in our musical tastes and personal lifestyles but for some reason we start playing together and it works.

If The Specials had been "just" a ska band, there wouldn't be a Specials legend. The musical mix is unique, and there's an alliance of different personalities. You can see that on stage and hear it on the records.
I've said it before, it shouldn't have worked. Jerry tends to takes the credit for putting us together. I don't quite agree. More of a fluke, I'd say.

Terry and Lynval came to you and Horace after the Glastonbury gig they did with Lily Allen... Did they already have a plan for The Specials?
It seems they sat down, discussed it beforehand. They did seem to have a sort of plot together. Then we had the meetings with Jerry, which were, 'Do it my way or don't do it.' He hasn't changed much. They rest of us decided we could bite our lips over things we didn't like about each other and carry on.

Did it seem to you that Jerry thought you couldn't do it without him?
Jerry's always been like a musical anarchist. But I've always said if you're gonna do a political message, isn't it better to do a commercial song which the kids will get? Not something for a few jazz freaks.

You mean, you're not being subversive unless you're tempting people in, then delivering a message.
That's the way I look at it. Write good rock or pop songs with a ska or reggae feel and put over what you're trying to say. Not something so hard that won't get any airplay. But then I would carry on doing what I'm doing whether it's a success or not, because that's what I believe in, the same as Jerry. That's the way it is.

How does it feel to be on stage with The Specials, the six of you?
Bloody tiring [laughs]. Since the '90s it seems a bit harder every time, because we still try to put on that full-energy show. Sometimes we were walking wounded for a few days.

Seeing The Specials now, it's hard to credit that you're all 50-odd. You're on a mission...
Think of Chuck Berry. What are you supposed to do when you get to a certain age? Retire because you don't look quite as fit as you did? Because you look a bit wrinkly?

Is it more enjoyable in a way than the first time round?
The start was a lot of fun. Then it got to the stage where we got burnt out, because of the [1980] American tour I think. Playing to people who didn't understand what we were trying to do, we thought, 'What the hell are we doing here?' and grew to dislike each other after being cooped up on the tour bus for weeks and weeks.

How much healing had to happen?
We all love each other, but because we're all so different... We all have annoying habits. I like a drink still, but most of the guys have stopped doing that. I tend to keep that out of their way. Everyone deals with things in their own way. Horace will go to his room and read a book or watch a movie. I'll go to the bar and have a couple of drinks with the roadies.

When Terry and Lynval suggested you do it again, what needed to happen for you to be happy?
As long as it doesn't drive me mad, I'm OK. I want some say in it, not just get on the treadmill.

What kind of a "say" did you need?
If you're outvoted on the way the future's gonna go, you're outvoted, but we all get a say. Sometimes you don't get what you want. In the very early days I sang a bit, but Neville came in and got my position singing, and I accepted that, which was kind of shooting myself in the foot, because as you know, if you're not a front vocalist people don't notice you. They let me sing Concrete Jungle. But a lot of fans would rather hear it as it was on the record, whereas I sing it a bit differently. I sang it originally, but when it got to be released as a single... it couldn't be done. It would have changed my whole career.

As a Special?
No, as a solo artist. It almost seems pre-destined sometimes.

What do you remember of the day you left the Specials?
I didn't actually leave. I just stopped going [laugh]. I didn't say I was leaving until the very end. Lynval gave me a lit home and said Jerry was thinking of getting rid of me, because I was making things too difficult, but then Lynval and that were thinking of getting out too.

Initially, did that feel like freedom?
I really enjoyed it for a while, but because of the way the music scene has changed so much... I was thinking you just did the clubs and got an independant record out and bob's your uncle. But by that time it had moved to the Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet thing. Big hair, flash clothes. It was as if punk and 2 Tone never happened.

Have The Specials changed much, as people?
Yeah. More mellow.

Are you more mellow?
Yeah, mostly. I have my moments. But that's the way I approach my music. I wind myself up to that kind of attitude, but sometimes I find that hard to get rid of when I come off stage, it takes me a while to calm down again.

Like a method musician?
Sort of [laugh]

Read Part 2