John "Brad" Bradbury (16 February 1953 – 28 December 2015) was an English drummer and record producer. He is best known for having been the drummer in the English ska group the Specials. Early life and education Bradbury was born in Coventry, where his father, Bert, was a painter and decorator for the council, and his mother, Joan, worked first for GEC (she was a shop steward) and then at Walsgrave Hospital, where she helped with care in the maternity ward. She was staunchly anti-racist and concerned with immigrants’ rights, and her views had a powerful effect on her son. He became fascinated by drumming as a child, and when he was eight his mum bought him a drum kit. According to his sister, Jill, "she then put egg boxes on the walls to stop the sound reaching the neighbours". Bradbury had three elder sisters, and it was they who took him to clubs and first introduced him to northern soul. He attended Binley Park school in Coventry, and went on to study fine art at Hull Art College. Later he took a teaching course in Birmingham, where he taught art and English. Back in Coventry, he became part of a small group of former art students and music fans who included Jerry Dammers, with whom he shared a house. "We had friends in common, but at that time I didn’t know he could play drums," said Dammers. It was while he was working at the Virgin record store in Coventry that Brad first met Terry Hall, another music fan with similar taste. "We grew up two streets away from each other," said Hall, "but hadn’t met. He was like my older brother. He took me under his wing and looked after me." Career Bradbury was asked to join the Specials after their original percussionist ("a strict reggae drummer" called Silverton Hutchinson, according to bassist Horace Panter) had left. He made his first appearance with the band on their first hit single, "Gangsters", which was remarkable for having a song by a completely different band, the Selecter, on the B-side. Stranger still, the drummer playing on that Selecter track happened to be Brad. Bradbury played a crucial role in the history of the Specials, the still massively successful multiracial band that first shook up the British music scene in the late 1970s and early '80s by mixing Jamaican ska with