The English Beat
The Beat were all about inclusion, rather than exclusion, and this showed in their personnel and their music influences. The six member band consisted of Dave Wakeling on vocals and guitar, Andy Cox on guitar, David Steele on bass, Everett Morton on drums, Ranking Roger on vocals and toasting, and foundational first wave ska legend Saxa on saxophone. The band crossed over fluidly between soul, reggae, pop and punk, and from these disparate pieces they created an infectious dance rhythm. Along with their contemporaries The Specials, The Selecter, and Madness, The Beat became an overnight sensation and one of the most popular and influential bands of the British ska movement. By Christmas of 1979, The Beat were riding high in the UK charts with their first single, a smoking remake of the classic Smokey Robinson tune ‘Tears of a Clown’. Over the course of the next five years The Beat toured relentlessly and released three studio albums: ‘I Just Can’t Stop It’, ‘Wh’appen’, and ‘Special Beat Service’. The band toured the world, touring with such artists as David Bowie, The Police, REM, The Clash, The Talking Heads, The Pretenders, and The Specials, to name but a few. The Beat kept scoring hits with tunes that have now become so popular that it’s hard to remember a time when they didn’t exist, such as ‘Mirror in the Bathroom’, ‘Save it for Later’, ‘I Confess’, ‘Stand Down Margaret’, and their serene cover of Andy William’s ‘Can’t Get Used To Losing You’. Despite their huge success, The Beat didn’t stop singing and acting on the problems caused by the noise in this world. They donated all the profits from their highly successful single version of ‘Stand Down Margaret’ to the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament. They donated their music to causes including the anti-nuclear benefit album ‘Life in The European Theatre’, ‘The World of Music and Dance’ album focusing on indigenous people’s art, and lent their voice to The Special AKA’s freedom cry ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, to name but a few.
