Jerry Dammers (born Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers[1], 22 May 1955, Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, South India) is a founder and keyboard player of the Coventry, England based ska revival band The Specials, The Special A.K.A. and The Spatial AKA Orchestra.
Before his days in The Specials, Dammers had been a mod in the 1960s, then became a hippie, before becoming a skinhead.[2] He had been a member of The Cissy Stone Soul Band, and studied art at Coventry's Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University), where he met Horace Panter.[2]
He contributed to the founding of 2 Tone Records, which helped develop the 1970s/1980s ska revival. He became a noted anti-Apartheid campaigner, helping to create Artists Against Apartheid in the US, and writing the song "Free Nelson Mandela" about the jailed African National Congress leader in South Africa. He also introduced Simple Minds to producer Tony Hollingsworth and they became the first major act to agree to perform at Hollingsworth's Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, which was broadcast worldwide from London's Wembley Stadium, on 11 June 1988. That same year, he briefly played with the re-formed Madness.