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Thread: John Bradbury

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    Default John Bradbury

    John "Brad" Bradbury (born 16 February 1953, Coventry, England) is the drummer with The Specials. He co-wrote "The Selecter", a joint "A" side with Gangsters.





    He joined The Special AKA when the original Specials split in 1981; they had a Top 10 hit with "Free Nelson Mandela". Bradbury agreed to participate in the reunion tour of The Specials in 2009.


    Bradbury attended Kingston-upon-Hull Regional College of Art where he was awarded BA (Hons) Fine Art, and Aston University where he gained a PGCE.

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    Default Re: John Bradbury

    Great player. I read that Bradbury's use of the "4 to the floor" kick with various syncopated snare rim-clicks and hi-hat work was one of the influences on Stewart Copeland's playing as well....Stew certainly tips his hat to him.

    One thing though, I have the first Specials album ("Specials") which was produced by them and Elvis Costello and was released in 1979, John Bradbury is on that album. What can get confusing is the history of names the band went under....when first formed in 1977, they were The Automatics and within their first year or so they changed their name to: The Coventry Automatics, The Special AKA, The Coventry Automatics again and then The Special AKA again! In 1979, upon recording their debut album they became The Specials, where John joined the band replacing their original drummer Silverton Hutchinson. They did two albums under that name....and then to throw confusion out there, in 1980 they released the live album "The Special AKA Live" under the name The Special AKA, but then the very next year their single "Ghost Town" was released when they....you guessed it, changed back again to The Specials. During all these latter name changes John stayed as their drummer, and was still in the line up when they changed to The Special AKA, did the album "In The Studio" in 1984 and released "Free Nelson Mandela" as well as "Racist Friend".
    "...it's the Paradigm Of The Cosmos!" Stewart Copeland on Youtube

    668: The Number Of The Guy Next Door To The Beast.

    "A random act of kindness; it keeps my heart in shape!" - Late8

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