Maybe it's just the onset of old age, but Christ, I wish we could experience the likes of the 2-Tone explosion again right now. After all, what have we had since that's been as simply ALIVE with attitude, socio-political commentary, racial harmony (attempted at least) and fabulous records?
2-Tone had these qualities in aces and its' legacy has endured in MADNESS' lengthy spell of evergreen chartbusting singles and particularly THE SPECIALS' lasting influence since they single-handedly sound tracked the summer of 1981 with their killer swansong single "Ghost Town."
Yet, while I'm certainly not here to dispute the contributions of 2-Tone's twin leading lights, I've always felt that THE BEAT - though probably bronze medallists in this particular archival race - were due a far larger slice of kudos pie in their own right. And that case is strengthened when you rediscover their debut album, "I Just Can't Stop It": to this day it's every bit as relevant as "More Specials" or "Absolutely," never mind more than capable of knocking spots off any supposedly politically correct indie chancers you'd care to mention.
Originally conceived by Isle Of Wight friends DAVE WAKELING, DAVID STEELE and ANDY COX, THE BEAT became reality when the trio relocated to Birmingham and completed the band with RANKING ROGER (aka ROGER CHARLERY), EVERETT MORETON and, implausibly, unflappably cool sixty-ish SAXA…on, yeah, you guessed it. Actually, the group's debut single, a killer, ska'd up cover of SMOKEY ROBINSON'S "Tears Of A Clown" (#6 in early 1980) was their only release on 2-Tone, as they quickly shifted to their own Go! Feet label through Arista.
The hits didn't end there, though. There's four more UK Top 30 singles on "I Just Can't Stop It" in "Mirror In The Bathroom", "Hands Off…She's Mine", the gentle skank thru Pomus and Shuman's chestnut, "Can't Get Used To Losing You" and the one everyone forgets, "Best Friend", which I personally feel takes some beating in the summery guitar pop stakes.
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There's plenty more besides the Top 40 statistics, too. Virtually everything here benefits from the band's unerring flair with skintight, rocksteady rhythms (and lest we forget, no-one's ever touched drummer Everett Moreton for playing rimshots) and Saxa's inimitable playing which wafts deliciously through every selection from the PRINCE BUSTER cover "Rough Rider" to the plaintive Anti-Thatcher anthem, "Stand Down Margaret" and the set-closing goodtime-erama of "Jackpot."
Admittedly, THE BEAT never quite recaptured such glories on their two ensuing albums, "Wh' APPEN" (1981) and "Special Beat Service" (1983), although this latter runs it close. However, after this, the chart placings were drying up and the market for all things ska had seen its' sell-by date flash past. Wakeling and Charlery went on to form the intriguing, but less successful GENERAL PUBLIC, whilst Cox and Steele teamed up with singer ROLAND GIFT to go supernova with FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS.
But leaving aside that history, it's surely for "I Just Can't Stop It" that all these crew members should be best remembered, because even in our present cut-throat climate, a record with so much defiant optimism, democracy and danceability shouldn't be consigned needlessly to nostalgia's funeral pyre.
Oh, just one more thing. Whoever owns the rights to the fantastic 2-Tone movie "DANCE CRAZE", please would you release the bastard on video. There's poor people starving out here, y'know.
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