Terry Hall battled depression in his teens after being sold into a paedophile ring: more about his early years

The Specials’ Terry Hall’s passed away after a short illness.

His band’s music has always been about protest. He grew up in Coventry, West Midlands to working class parents who worked in factories and got paid in cash. He was a gifted student but couldn’t get the education he wanted. And, he faced abuse in his childhood that changed the trajectory of his life.

Despite being academically gifted and a good footballer who was invited to try for West Bromwich Albion, none of those opportunities panned out. His parents declined the invitation since they didn’t want to travel across Midlands. He did well in his 11-plus exam and even then his parents declined a place at a nearby grammar school, according to The Guardian.

“All of a sudden they were expected to buy books and a school uniform,” he told Fantastic Man. “I’d just been walking to school dressed in my football kit. So there’s always been a bit of that kicking around in the back of my mind. Not being educated. Wondering what would have happened if I’d gone.”

Child abuse

At the age of 12 he was abducted and delivered to a paedophile ring in France. He didn’t tell his parents about the incident and it is not known how he was rescued from there.

“They both worked in factories. They got paid in cash. Me dad was a heavy drinker. They had their own lives, you know?” he said, according to The Guardian.

The trauma was such that he was medicated through his teens and battled depression and manic depression. “I was on Valium when I was 13 and it took me out of life for six months,” he told the Big Issue.

Left school at 15

He started working after leaving school at 15. From bricklayer to hairdresser, he’d done it all.

“When you get kicked out of school with nothing, it closes down a lot of doors, but I was just starting to get an angle on what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do,” he told the Big Issue.

He started using his dole money for buying records and Young Americans by David Bowie became his turning point. “I had the first inkling that maybe I wanted to be in a band. But I found it difficult to work out how you actually did it,” he said.

How music helped

He had his feelings about the horrors he faced locked away before he became a singer. And, music finally helped him let them out.

“I’m socially inept but all of a sudden I was finding my voice – it’s always been a weird thing that I’ve never quite understood. But I loved it, and having spent years not being listened to, standing on a stage with a microphone was my chance to share my voice, share how I felt and maybe make friends,” he said.