Chart entered : 8 December 1979
Chart peak : 6
Number of hits : 13
We bid adieu to the seventies with another debut on Two-Tone and a cover of one of the decade's most celebrated chart-toppers.
The Beat actually formed in the Isle of Wight in 1978 when Dave Wakeling ( born 1956 ) and Andy Cox ( born 1956 ) two exiled Brummies, found themselves working together fitting solar panels. On returning to their home city they got a band together called The Beat. They supported a band called The Dum Dum Boys whose drummer , "Ranking" Roger Charlery ( born 1961 ) dug them enough to start following them around and getting on stage to "toast" in accompaniment. He soon asked to join and was accepted. Around the same time they acquired a new bass player Dave Steele ( born 1960 ) who was working as a nurse. When the band needed a new drummer one of his colleagues put them on to Everett Morton ( born 1951 ) a West Indian who helped them master reggae.
As they built a reputation the chance to make a record with Two-Tone came up .Jerry Dammers wanted to put out "Mirror in The Bathroom", unsurprisingly since it's by far their best song. However the band balked at giving Chrysalis exclusive rights to the song for five years and that's why they settled on their lively cover of Smokey Robinson's "Tears Of A Clown" which was one of the highlights of their set. They decided they needed some brass to fill out the sound and Everett suggested a Jamaican sax player he knew, Lionel "Saxa" Martin ( born 1930 ) . Saxa had played with all their heroes, Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken , Desmond Dekker, but he accepted the gig. At 49 he made Andy Summers look like a spring chicken.
The band originally started playing the song in rehearsal to try and knit their disparate influences , punk ( Dave S ) , reggae ( Everett ) and pop ( Dave W ) into a coherent sound of their own. It was then used to fill up the set and became a sort of unifying anthem that both punk and reggae fans appreciated. I hadn't heard the original when it was released and took it on its own merits as an exciting pop record with Andy's jangly guitars, Dave S's superfast bass and the expert sax fills all meshing around Everett's rock solid drumming to great effect. Dave's distinctive, slightly wooden voice copes well with singing Robinson's opera-referencing lyric at speed and Roger chips in with his ad libs at the end.
Roger got more action on the flip side "Ranking Full Stop", nominally a double A-side but TV and radio ignored it ( perhaps for fear that someone with a Roy Jenkins speech defect might have to introduce it ) and I didn't hear it until I bought the single. Roger wrote the lyric which is really just an exhortation to dance and he does the lead vocal over the frenetic ska-punk backing that became their trademark. It probably works better live or in a club than on my turntable but it still sounds like fun.
As someone who classes these lads in their top ten bands of all time, I'd personally say I think they had better songs than "Mirror in the Bathroom", but I understand why it's their most lasting statement.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Morton's skills were greatly understated in why the Beat (to me) had a better sense of West Indian grooves than many of their Two-Tone comrades. Mixed in with Steele's constantly nervous basslines and you had a hugely exciting sound.
As an aside, in my days at a Student Union DJ (2000-02), this could still get a crowd skanking out big time, even if loads had no idea who it was - it certainly could the most queries of "who is this?" during my time behind the decks.