A Special offer from Jordan

14 April 2012

Simon Jordan may be going to Old Trafford on Saturday to support Crystal Palace, but their fight against relegation will not be the only thing on his mind.

Sitting alongside him in the directors' box as Iain Dowie's side take on Manchester United will be a key man in the chairman's one unfulfilled dream: reforming 70s and 80s ska band The Specials.

Jordan has invited Terry Hall, the band's former lead singer and United fan, to be his guest at the game and he has grand plans for him. He was blown away by The Specials' successful new sound when he was growing up, and hits such as Ghost Town and Too Much Too Young, are regularly found playing in whichever of his 12 cars he has decided to drive.

After indulging his two other loves for Palace and motors, Jordan does not see why he cannot get his favourite band back together.

He said: "It is a huge thing for me. I have spent like 20 years listening to their music. I have achieved some of my ambitions. I had an ambition to buy a football team and we have done okay. I love cars so I bought a motor magazine and I love music so I am working with The Specials to try to reform them.

"I have met many famous people in my life and never really been that impressed but when I met Hall I was a bag of nerves.

"If they reformed they would play their old music, ska. You have got to understand the backdrop of these guys. Their music was so popular. Ghost Town and things like that goes over very well. If they reformed it would be huge."

Typically for Jordan, it is an ambitious project. The Specials split acrimoniously in 1981 and many before the Palace chairman have failed to get them back together.

The septet's rock-style, touring behaviour and the size of the group led to massive rows and the break-up followed some spectacular and violent fall-outs, including instrumentsmashing spats on stage.

But more than 20 years on, Jordan's enthusiasm as a star-struck fan seems to have placed him in the unusual role of peacemaker.

"It was a difficult break-up and the band members' paths have rarely crossed since," said Hall's manager Steve Blackwell.

"Simon has been instrumental in bringing them to the point where they are talking to each other at least."

Blackwell was working for a record company when The Specials first hit the big time and he has been Hall's manager for the last 10 years.

He said: "Simon approached us before Christmas last year and we have been approached many times before about getting the band back together. We had to understand his motives before we could even start thinking about the potential. He said that if there was anything he could do he would love to help and he was genuinely interested in the band.

"Since then he has had conversations with various other former members and it is almost like he is sitting on the sidelines monitoring them. Things are looking more positive and they continue to talk. I cannot say it is anything more definite than that.

"But if something happens it will be on Simon's instigation, by being his normal ebullient and outgoing self. He is coming at it from a fans' perspective and is the sort of person who makes others sit up and take notice."

Jordan has become friends with Hall over the last year and is adamant that his desire to reform The Specials is not because he wants to make money. He clearly has the resources to bankroll the project, but said: "I'm not a music promoter. I just want to see it happen. They will blow people's socks off."

Progress on reforming The Specials and a win at United would be music to Jordan's ears.

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Iain Dowie

Manchester United

A Special offer from Jordan

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