The Specials

Custom House Sq, Belfast Fri 6pm £33 0818-903001

It’s all social disorder round our house and, so it would seem, the rest of the world, especially Britain. What better time, then, for The Specials to return?

The Coventry band started in 1977, mixing ska, a rocksteady shuffle and punk aggression. Exactly 30 years ago, their song Ghost Townhit the top spot in the UK charts, and while it remains a potent and relevant socio-political pop song, the band itself struggled to find its collective feet, splitting up and reforming over the years in various different line-ups.

The latest incarnation is the one that matters, with most of the original members back, cruising through their best-known singles and album tracks.

(It must be said the absence of Jerry Dammers is seen in some quarters as a major flaw.)

A lack of new material suggests a certain twice-round-the-block approach, but with the old material as good as it is, it’d be churlish not to lace up yer Docs, sit back, and enjoy .

Can't see that? Catch this:Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Wednesday, Dublin