Ghost Town

Written by Jerry Dammers, "Ghost Town" was recorded on April 3 to 9 and 15 to 17, 1981 at Woodbine Street, a small eight-track studio in the cellar and living room of a house in Royal Leamington Spa run by John Rivers, and mixed at John Collins's home in Tottenham. The single is CHS TT 17 on 7-inch; the extended 12-inch runs 6:02. It spent three weeks at number one and eleven weeks in the top 40 (the Terry Hall article says ten), and went platinum. Barney Bubbles directed the video, in which Panter drives the band around London in a 1961 Vauxhall Cresta. Dick Cuthell played flugelhorn, Paul Heskett flute and Rico Rodriguez trombone. The seven members could not fit in the studio, so the tracks were built piece by piece: drums, bass, rhythm guitar and a guide organ first. Duran Duran covered it in 2023 and Lankum in 2025, and a plaque at the studio was unveiled in December 2021.