Specials erect quality threshold for reunion

Here's something that, we suspect, hasn't been factored into the NKOTB or Boyzone comebacks: The Specials won't play together if they're no bloody good any more.

Neville Staple explains:

“A couple of months ago we started talking. “We had to talk first to see if we could get on, but we got past the talking stage. Then we said, ‘Okay, let’s see what we’re like in a room together rehearsing with instruments’.

“So the musicians done that first, then Terry went down. So we’ve had two rehearsals. One where they're on their own, and then the last one where me and Terry went in.

“We’re just seeing how it goes. If it gels, it gels. If it doesn’t, you don’t wanna go out there as some old geriatrics – not me. What we've got to do is make sure the music at least is right.

“We’re feeling it out now. It sounded alright actually but it’s gonna take more than one rehearsal.

“So if it works, we’ll do it. If not, well. I’m sorry lads and girls. But we’re trying.”

The Sex Pistols do something similar, although it's more about checking the cash amounts offered sound right rather than the band.