John Bradbury: Dynamic drummer with the Specials, whose politicised pop songs took Britain by storm

Bradbury played in an embryonic line-up of the Selecter before replacing the Coventry Automatics drummer Silverton Hutchinson in the Specials

The classic Specials line-up, left to right: Bradbury, Lynval Golding, Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Roddy Radiation, Horace Panter and, in shades, Jerry Dammers (Rex)

The dynamic drummer John Bradbury was a mainstay of the Specials, the 2-Tone band also known as Special AKA, whose heady mix of ska, soul, punk and politics became one of the dominant sounds on the British scene and took the country by storm between 1979, the year they issued their debut single "Gangsters", a reworking of the Prince Buster 1967 ska hit "Al Capone", and 1984, when the last incarnation of the group released "(Free) Nelson Mandela", the irresistible anti-apartheid anthem penned by their primary songwriter and keyboard-player Jerry Dammers, the musician with the 2-Tone vision that briefly took over as Madness and the Selecter joined the Specials on the same, pork-pie-hat-dominated, edition of Top Of The Pops in November 1979.

They became cultural signifiers of their era, with songs like the title track of their Too Much Too Young – The Special AKA Live! EP, which topped the UK charts in 1980, "Racist Friend", the 1983 Special AKA Top 75 single co-written by Bradbury, and the epochal "Ghost Town", the No 1 single that was hauntingly evocative of the Thatcher era as unemployment hit the 2.5m mark, riots broke out in Brixton, Chapeltown, Handsworth and Toxteth, and Prince Charles wed the, New Romantics-loving Duran Duran fan Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981, a symbolic contrast to ponder if ever there was one. "These songs have survived because they address issues that are still there," said Bradbury.

Born in Coventry in 1953 to a painter-decorator father and a union rep mother with the GEC and then the NHS, he grew up surrounded by music. His three elder sisters would sneak him into Northern Soul clubs and instilled in him a love of soul that influenced his drumming – his favourites remained Al Jackson, Jnr of Booker T & the MGs fame, and the legendary reggae sticksman Sly Dunbar, whose trademark fills inspired his playing on "(Free) Nelson Mandela", with a pinch of Fela Kuti sidekick Tony Allen's Afrobeat for good measure.

Bradbury studied fine art at Hull Art College then taught English as a second language, a job that broadened his outlook and his understanding of Britain in general, and Coventry in particular, as a multi-cultural melting pot in which immigrants could settle, mods and skinheads could adopt a look inspired by Jamaican rude boys and the Specials could try to welcome one and all at their chaotic concerts. "We would stop mid-number, put the spotlight on the ring-leader, and the audience would take care of the rest," Bradbury said about the way they dealt with trouble-makers.

As Dammers' flatmate, he also shared his vision of Coventry as "the Detroit of the UK", equipped to launch a succession of ground-breaking groups like Berry Gordy, Jnr had done after applying the assembly-line principles of the car-making industry to create Tamla Motown at the tail-end of the 1950s.

Bradbury played in an embryonic line-up of the Selecter – which explains how he wound up with a co-writing credit for the "Gangsters" B-side. "The Selecter" – before replacing the Coventry Automatics drummer Silverton Hutchinson in the Specials. By then, the band had attracted the attention of DJ Pete Waterman, who briefly managed them, as well as the Clash, who they supported on the Clash On Parole tour of the UK in July 1978, and changed its name to The Special AKA.

Their classic, multi-racial line-up comprised Bradbury, Dammers, the triumvirate of vocalists, Terry Hall (the deadpan one), Lynval Golding (the guitar-playing one) and Neville Staple, the guitarist Rocky Radiation and the bassist Horace Panter – who described Bradbury's playing as "attack drumming. He mixed the drive of Northern Soul with a reggae feel. And he improvised. He was different every night."

For two years, with their eponymous 1979 debut album produced by Elvis Costello, and their excellent More Specials follow-up helmed by Dammers in 1980, the band – whose influence reached as far as No Doubt, the Mighty Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Britpop, Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse – were unstoppable.

However, the ground-breaking group proved more volatile than their music and they broke down the middle at the end of 1981. Hall, Golding and Staple formed the Fun Boy Three while Dammers and his lieutenant Bradbury continued as Special AKA with the 1984 In The Studio album, and half a dozen singles featuring vocalists Rhoda Dakar and Stan Campbell and the trombonist Rico Rodriguez (Independent obituary 8 September 2015).

Bradbury went on to lead a covers band, and then worked in IT. When the Specials returned to play at Bestival on the Isle of Wight in 2008, Dammers declined to rejoin, despite Bradbury's best conciliatory efforts. They went on to perform much more internationally than they had done in their pomp, and supported Blur at Hyde Park in 2012. However, the subsequent drifting away of Radiation and Staple from the classic line-up, not to mention Bradbury's sudden passing, leave things up in the air.

"When playing live, I had a ringside seat to the mayhem that goes around the stage," Bradbury reflected about the Specials. "Sometimes it's like a front row seat at the Comedy Store. Our band had a sense of humour onstage that is second to none."

John Bradbury, drummer and songwriter: born Coventry 16 February 1953; married 1987 Emily (one son); died 28 December 2015.