The next meeting of Music Video Preservation Society is coming up this Thursday, July 9th at the Mildmay Club in North London, with directing duo Dom&Nic as special guests and a special feature on a classic British video celebrating a big anniversary: The Specials’ Ghost Town, directed by Barney Bubbles.

The song was released in June 1981, its unique haunting quality capturing a moment when large parts of the country were being battered by the policies of the first Thatcher government. The accompanying video distilled the quality of the song and the mood of the country into a single, hugely cinematic concept - the sevenpiece band packed into a vintage saloon car, careering through a deserted city.

Ghost Town became one of the greatest ever songs to reach No.1 in the UK charts - and stayed there for 3 weeks - with help from this hugely powerful video. Almost exactly 45 years ago.

MVPS will celebrate this seminal pop promo with author and Barney Bubbles’ biographer Paul Gorman, discovering how Barney Bubbles (aka Colin Fulcher) - a leading graphic designer, responsible for numerous iconic album covers (for Hawkwind, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and many more) - came to direct Ghost Town and how he and The Specials made it.

With our spotlight on this special video, Dom&Nic’s canon of iconic videos and more, it’s going to be another great night in the splendid (and air-conditioned) main hall of The Mildmay Club - and there are a few tickets still on sale. 

• TIckets to MVPS at The Mildmay Club on sale here