Jerry Dammers celebrated Glastonbury‘s 40th birthday by bringing a host of special guests – including Arthur Brown – onstage during his West Holts stage set tonight (June 26).
The Specials founder played a number of reworked songs by jazz legend Sun Ra during his 90-minute performance, which saw him joined by upwards of 20 other musicians playing under the name of the Spatial AKA Orchestra.
The biggest cheers, however, came both when he unveiled a 10-minute dub version of The Specials‘ ‘Ghost Town’ and his cover of Brown‘s ‘Fire’.
Introducing the song, Dammers paid tribute to Brown.
Despite adding that the band hadn’t rehearsed the song properly, Dammers led his orchestra through the track, which was sung by Jamaican singer Johnny Clarke, while Brown appeared onstage wearing a red outfit (complete with red sunglasses).
Dammers was also joined onstage by ska legend and former Specials cohort Rico Rodriguez and singer Anthony Joseph for several songs.