[4] After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Jerry Dammers on keyboards, Lynval Golding and Roddy Radiation on guitars, Horace Panter on bass, John Bradbury on drums, and Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez on horns.

The band wore mod-style "1960s period rude boy outfits (pork pie hats, tonic and mohair suits and loafers)".

[4] After seven consecutive UK top 10 singles between 1979 and 1981, main lead vocalists Hall and Staple, along with guitarist Golding, left to form Fun Boy Three.

[8] The group re-formed in 1993, and continued to perform and record with varying line-ups – none of them involving Dammers – until the death of Terry Hall in December 2022.

[10] Joe Strummer of the Clash had attended one of their concerts, and invited the Special AKA to open for his band in their "On Parole" UK tour.

During the tour Neville Staple, who was initially one of the roadies, became a full member of The Specials when his version of "Monkey Man" was incorporated into the group's set.

According to Dammers, anti-racism was intrinsic to the formation of the Specials, in that the band was formed with the goal of integrating black and white people.

Chrysalis agreed to the terms that would establish 2 Tone as a viable independent label and the Specials would get the backing of a major record company.

The track describes an incident of date rape, and its frank and harrowing depiction of the matter meant that airplay was severely limited.

After going on tour with Rodriguez, the band (without Dakar, and as "Rico and the Special AKA") also recorded the non-charting (and non-album) single "Jungle Music".

Rodriguez and the three newcomers were all dropped for the next single, "War Crimes", which brought back Dakar and added new co-vocalists Egidio Newton and Stan Campbell, as well as violinist Nick Parker.

Cuthell, Newton, Panter and Radiation all appeared on the album as guests; as did saxophonist Nigel Reeve, and Claudia Fontaine and Caron Wheeler of the vocal trio Afrodiziak.

After their departure from the Specials, Golding, Hall and Staple founded the pop band Fun Boy Three and enjoyed commercial success from 1981 to 1983 with hits such as "Tunnel of Love", "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)", "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)".

[16] After Fun Boy Three, Staple and Golding joined Pauline Black of the Selecter in the short-lived band Sunday Best, releasing the single "Pirates on the Airwaves".

Radiation fronted and worked with numerous artists including the Tearjerkers (a band that he had begun in the last months of the Specials), the Bonediggers, the Raiders and Three Men & Black (including Jean-Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers), Jake Burns (Stiff Little Fingers), Pauline Black, Bruce Foxton (the Jam), Dave Wakeling (the Beat, General Public) and Nick Welsh (Skaville UK).

Producer Roger Lomas was asked by Trojan Records to get some musicians together to back ska legend Desmond Dekker on a new album.

He approached all members of the Specials and the four that were willing to participate were Roddy Radiation, Neville Staple, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter, they were also joined by Aitch Bembridge, who had been the drummer in the Selecter.

In the 1970s, Bembridge had played with soul singer Ray King, who mentored and worked with Dammers, Staple, Golding and Hutchinson in their days before the Specials.

The release of the album with Desmond Dekker created some buzz for the band, and led to an offer from a Japanese promoter to book a tour.

[21] This line-up went on to tour internationally and released two studio albums: Today's Specials, a collection of mostly reggae and ska covers in 1996,[8] and Guilty 'til Proved Innocent!

[23] Later the same day, they played on the Park Stage, with Damon Albarn of Blur on piano and beatboxer Shlomo providing rhythm, to perform "A Message to You, Rudy".

In 2007, Golding regularly performed concerts and recorded with Pama International, a collective of musicians who were members of Special Beat.

[30] On 8 June 2009, it was announced that the Specials would embark on a second leg of their 30th anniversary tour, taking in the locations and venues that they missed earlier in the year.

[33] In an interview at the Green Room in Manchester in November 2010, Hall confirmed that there would be further Specials dates in the autumn of 2011, and confessed to having enjoyed playing live again: "It's a celebration of something that happened in your life that was important, and we're going to do that again next year, but then maybe that'll be it".

[35] In February 2012, it was announced that the Specials would perform at Hyde Park with Blur and New Order to celebrate the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

– The Specials Live, featuring "the best of the best" performances from their 2011 European tour, selected by the band themselves on a double-disc CD and double-vinyl LP.

[40] In spite of his departure, the Specials played an extensive tour in the autumn of 2014 with Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller) as lead guitarist.

In 2017, the band invited 20-year-old Birmingham native Saffiyah Khan to a show after a photo of her confronting an "English Defence League goon" in a Specials t-shirt at a counter-demonstration went viral.

[52] On 19 December 2022, the Specials announced on social media that Hall had died at age 63 after a brief illness which was later revealed to be pancreatic cancer.

[54] In December 2024, Sky Arts aired “Live from Coventry Cathedral” the last-filmed concert by The Specials, before the sudden passing of lead-singer Terry Hall in 2022.