Iconic 'Ghost Town' Bass Guitar Hits Auction Block for £20K!

The electric bass guitar used on The Specials' famous 1981 hit Ghost Town is about to be auctioned, and experts believe it could sell for as much as £20,000. The Specials were a band from Coventry, and their music was very influential in the UK during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ghost Town was written by Jerry Dammers, the founder of the band, and it reached number one in the UK charts. The bass guitar, a blue Fender Precision from 1971, was played by Horace Panter, who bought it for just £200 in 1981. Panter said he is not very attached to the guitar, but he hopes it will go to someone who will actually play it, not just keep it locked away. He said the guitar still sounds great and is fun to play.

The auction for the guitar will take place on 10 March. Ghost Town was released during a time of social unrest in Britain, with riots happening in several cities. The song spent three weeks at number one and stayed in the Top 40 for eleven weeks. All three of the UK's major music magazines at the time named it their single of the year. Luke Hobbs, who works for Gardiner Houlgate auctions in Wiltshire, said that this bass guitar will attract a lot of interest from fans and collectors. He explained that Ghost Town is a song that really captures the feeling of Britain during that difficult time, and Horace Panter's bass playing is a key part of the song's sound.

After The Specials broke up in 1981, Horace Panter continued to use the bass guitar with a new band called General Public. This group included former members of The Beat, Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Clash, and The Specials. General Public had a hit in the United States in 1984 with the song Tenderness. In 1988, Panter sold the bass guitar, but he bought it back in 2010 when The Specials reunited. Now, he is selling it again, and many people are interested to see who will end up owning this piece of music history. The story of the guitar shows how important music can be, not just for the people who play it, but for everyone who listens and remembers.