[kj] English Beat

[Mike Cooper]

I am unashameably going to name drop here but Rankin Roger is a very good friend of mine.  He still runs The Beat as The Beat and anything else just is not as far as he is concerned!!!  At the moment they are playing 2 to 3 gigs a week all over the shop and pulling a lot of people.  Roger's son Matthew or Rankin Junior is also the other vocalist and he also guests from time to time with the Ordinary Boys.  The two of them together bouncing around is just great.  The drummer is original and the guitarist is a punk rocker who runs the legendary Market Tavern in Birmingham, but I can't remember their names.  The Beat (proper) are actually finishing off a third album which Roger is producing, which should be out in a month or two and the stuff I have heard is as good as anything before.  Roger is possibly the nicest bloke I have  ever met, friendly down to earth, funny and full of wonderful stories from the early days whcih I could listen for hours.  They have a lot of label interest and are currently looking at the options. They are playing Brum next Friday with Neville Staples from The Specials and I for one can't wait.  

Saw Selector support Stiff Little Fingers on Monday and they were brill too.  Pauline Black is just GREAT a goddess and I have never seen anyone enjoy singing that much before.  There are also two Selectors doing the rounds two but most people seem to ignore the one without Pauline singing so if they are coming near you check first.

Roger is also a Killing Joke fan by the way and knows Jaz.





========================================
Message Received: Mar 22 2006, 05:38 AM
From: GregSlawson at aol.com
To: gathering at misera.net
Cc: 
Subject: [kj] English Beat

Just saw English Beat (the ONLY ska band that EVER got any regular commercial radio airplay in the US, with the exception of the song "Our House", of course). Dave Wakeling was the only original member. Not as good as their tours a few years back, mainly because there wasn't a Ranking Roger-type vocalist. They also played every one of their songs significantly slower than on the albums (both the fast and slow songs). They did play a few very good new songs, including a ridiculously great song called "How Can You Stand There" (a fast ska/pop number), which criticizes those who are not political. This song is even better than any song they did on their 3 albums--I kid you not. I also heard that Ranking Roger is touring with his own Beat and calling it "Twist and Crawl". Any news on either band recording in the future? 
[ (no name for attachment) (0.1 Kb) ]
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/gathering/attachments/20060322/49f8f707/attachment.html