27 Facts About Jerry Dammers

Jerry Dammers has been acknowledged in his work for racial unity.

Jerry Dammers was born 22 May 1955 in Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India, the son of Horace Jerry Dammers who was later Dean of Bristol Cathedral from 1973 to 1987.

Jerry Dammers left India at the age of 2, first living in Sheffield, then moving to Coventry at the age of 10.

Jerry Dammers was a young mod in the 1960s while at school then became a hippie, before becoming a skinhead.

Jerry Dammers decided at the age of 10 he was going to have a band, and spent his teenage years learning music and writing songs.

Jerry Dammers played in a range of bands, from reggae punk, to country and western.

Jerry Dammers had been a member of the Cissy Stone Soul Band, however he could not get them to play any of his work.

Jerry Dammers studied art at Coventry's Lanchester Polytechnic, where he met Horace Panter.

Frustrated at only doing covers, Jerry Dammers was asked to leave the Cissy Stone Soul band, and then played keyboards with Hard Top 22, a reggae band that had many members who would later become the Selecter.

Jerry Dammers was one of the founding members of ska revivalist band the Specials.

Jerry Dammers had written songs in his teens, and his idea in forming the Specials was that it would combine reggae and punk.

Jerry Dammers has said that anti-racism was a key element of the band, and the Rock Against Racism movement was formed at the same time.

Jerry Dammers saw the Specials as an opportunity to integrate white and black people through the same music, and he picked members to make the band multi-racial.

Jerry Dammers got graphic artists to produce specific art for the label, including the iconic man in the suit graphic, which was based on a photo of reggae musician Peter Tosh.

The Selecter left the label, and Jerry Dammers strayed from the ska influence to bring jazz influences, most particularly on the album More Specials However, by 1984 the Special AKA were the main artist on the label, and Jerry Dammers was the only original member left.

Jerry Dammers almost destroyed the label through the cost of the release of the Special AKA album, but was saved when the single "Free Nelson Mandela" became huge internationally, while bringing enough light onto apartheid that it was a factor in the end of the regime.

Jerry Dammers got into a lot of debt, and towards the end of the label he had to stop recording because of a lack of funds.

Jerry Dammers finally shut down the label in 1985, seven years after it was founded, though the message of racial unity imparted to its many followers had a positive effect on society.

Jerry Dammers became an anti-apartheid campaigner, helping to create Artists Against Apartheid in the US, and writing the song "Free Nelson Mandela" about the jailed African National Congress leader in South Africa.

In early 1986, Jerry Dammers took part in the Billy Bragg-fronted Red Wedge tour that featured the Style Council, the Communards, and Junior Giscombe.

Jerry Dammers introduced Simple Minds to producer Tony Hollingsworth and they became the first major act to agree to perform at the Anti-Apartheid Movement's Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, which Hollingsworth was contracted to produce, which was broadcast worldwide from London's Wembley Stadium, on 11 June 1988.

In 2006, Jerry Dammers started his new band, the Spatial AKA Orchestra, playing his own compositions and tributes to Sun Ra and other experimental jazz artists.

The band generally features up to 20 musicians on stage, with Jerry Dammers asking various people to join, including established jazz musicians Zoe Rahman, Larry Stabbins and Denys Baptiste.

In November 2006, Jerry Dammers was awarded an honorary degree from Coventry University, celebrating by DJing at the launch party of the Coventry branch of the Love Music Hate Racism organisation.

Jerry Dammers read out a four-page poem, in which he thanked Peel for helping his own band, and for supporting black musicians.

Jerry Dammers has produced singles for Robert Wyatt, the Untouchables, UB40 and Junior Delgado.

Jerry Dammers contributed "Riot City" to the soundtrack of the Julien Temple film, Absolute Beginners, and "Brightlights" to the compilation album Jamming: A New Optimism.