Michelle Marshall
The Specials frontman Terry Hall said goodbye to his sisters and bandmates over the phone just hours before losing his battle with pancreatic cancer at the weekend, it has emerged. The father-of-two was receiving chemotherapy after the disease spread to his liver and he developed diabetes his bandmate Horace Panter revealed in a Facebook post yesterday.
In a lengthy statement, it said: “Terry had the framework for 8 tunes. Confidence was high. We were set to meet up with Nikolaj [Larsen, Specials keyboardist] and make magic.
“This was in September. Terry e-mails everyone and says he’s in bed with a stomach bug and can’t do the first week of pre-production sessions. No big deal, we can knock everything back a week. We’re not due to fly out until November 4th.’
He continued: “This is serious. Like life-threatening serious. He has developed diabetes due to his pancreas being attacked. This has to be treated first, then it’s a regime of chemotherapy. There is nothing anyone can do. Everything is put on hold.
“Terry is emphatic that no-one be told about this. If anyone asks, he’s managing his diabetes.”
Horace had hoped that if the chemotherapy did its job, the band would be able to get into the studio by March next year.
He said: “The chemo treatment starts favourably but it seems that it would be March 2023 at the earliest before we’d be in any position to work. He is in and out of hospital to stabilise the diabetes issue and also to manage pain. It then goes quiet.”
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