Horace Panter (born Stephen Graham Panter, 30 August 1953) also known as Sir Horace Gentleman, is the bassist for the British

2 Tone Two-tone, two tone, or 2 tone, etc., may refer to: Audio and sound * Two-tone analysis, in nonlinear system measurement * Two-tone attention signal * Two-tone chime, such as the "ding dong" sound of a doorbell * Two-tone sequential paging, se ...

ska band

The Specials The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Lynv ...

Early life

Panter was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an exten ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

and spent most of his formative years in

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...

starting a one-year art course at Northampton College in 1971. In 1972, he began studying fine art at Coventry's

Lanchester Polytechnic , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , underg ...

(now Coventry University).

Music

In his second year at Lanchester Polytechnic he met Jerry Dammers and together they formed The Specials. The band started playing in Coventry bars and clubs before releasing their first single, 'Gangsters' on their own record label (2-Tone). Following the break-up of The Specials in 1981, Panter went on to play with

General Public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlic ...

with

Dave Wakeling David Wakeling (born 19 February 1956) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known for his work with the band the Beat (known in North America as the English Beat) and General Public. Career Wakeling began his professional caree ...

and Ranking Roger from the original Beat, and then with the reformed Specials in the 1990s. Panter then joined forces with Neol Davies of The Selecter to form a Blues band, Box of Blues. Today, he is a full-time member of the reformed Specials and is also in a blues combo, called 'Blues 2 Go'. He has also played with Malik & Pettite (formerly The Tones), and is in the process of getting together a ska orchestra called 'The Uptown Ska Collective' who will begin touring in 2014.

Teaching, autobiography and art

During the 1990s, Panter qualified as a teacher and taught art to special needs children at Corley Special School in North Warwickshire from 1998 to 2008. He has written an autobiography, ''Ska'd for Life'', in which he described his involvement in the creation of the punk-ska hybrid that became known as '2-Tone, and described his experiences since the band's creation. An occupation of Panter's alongside his performing with the Specials is art. He has been a professional artist since 2010 and has exhibited throughout the UK. His work is based on traditional forms of iconography fused with the sensibilities of British pop art.

References

External links

The Specials

2 Tone website

Horacepanterart.com
1953 births People from Kettering Living people 20th-century English bass guitarists 21st-century English bass guitarists English rock bass guitarists Male bass guitarists The Specials members General Public members English new wave musicians Alumni of Coventry University Schoolteachers from Surrey English ska bass guitarists British pop artists English autobiographers Special educators {{UK-bass-guitarist-stub