Dammers denies Specials claims

Jerry Dammers, the founder and main songwriter of The Specials, has denied claims made by his former bandmates in a recent interview.

The keyboard player wrote to The Guardian to dispute comments from singer Terry Hall regarding the band's upcoming reunion shows.

Dammers said: "The fact is that I would not have been invited to the first 'reunion' meeting at all had John Bradbury not told me about it.

"Terry's manager circulated emails from which I was excluded. Rehearsals were held without me, and I only managed to attend two - one of which was attended by only four people."

Dammers also said that it was untrue that he only wanted to play a single one-off show in Coventry rather than a full tour.

On Hall's claim that he was "f***ing missing out", Dammers said: "Whether that is supposed to be his way of trying to say I'm still welcome in the band would be hard enough to work out if, at our meeting, he had not also said to me of the reunion: 'I promise I won't do it without you, hand on heart.'

"Despite all this I never give up hope of some sort of reconciliation."