In praise of "I Just Can't Stop It" by the English Beat

"Noise in this world"? Don't know that one.

But yeah, best ska (1980s) album that wasn't the Specials, for sure.

(Noise in this world...?)

I don't know, a lot of that 2-Tone stuff was pretty dark. I think I'd choose the Selecter as the darkest.

"Noise In This World" is track no. 9 I think.

Wha'ppen was good too. Only just found out recently that that's Cedric Myton of the Congos on 'Doors Of Your Heart'. I never knewed! Also, 'Drowning' was great, but what a weird choice of single!

I'll have to check the lyrics to remind me.

That's not like me.

OTM

This album played at every party I went to that year.

I think i will go see the Beat in a month. They're playing in Buffalo NY right near my house. It's cheap. Anybody else seen them recently? I had no idea they were touring.

this is 100% true!

dudes i have been spinning this record all week and can't get enough of it. uberclassic!

You just can't stop it.

A few years back I bought a couple of hundred shaggy old lps off a friend of my dad's for a couple of bottles of chablis. Lots of shite, some gold. Good deal. I thought I'd found all the good stuff by now, but this morning I came over "I Just Can't.." in the lower regions of the pile. That made me very happy.

"Tears of a Clown" is not on it, though.

y'all gonna buy those reissues? mine are in the mail right now.

I'd buy them if I hadn't just bought reissues of the first three a few years back. But really, there's nothing on those albums that I don't like. One of the most underrated pop acts ever.

^ otm, but damn, that first LP...

The 12" dub mix of Too Nice to Talk To is something special

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bOWgk4HZIk

http://new.assets.thequietus.com/images/articles/9007/Congo_Main_1339269341_crop_550x500.jpg

^ the Congos otm

David Stubbs interviews Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling of The Beat

Thanks Doran! Had never heard Psychedelic Rockers before, it's great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfn4c7TIXyA

Another one of those tracks like Too Nice To Talk To where there seems to be quite an afropop influence - or is all that rhythmic bustle just stuff they're picking from reggae?

I think it's fair enough to say there's an Afropop influence. It's probably their most far out track?

I had no idea how much older their sax player was...

Think he was about 25-30 years older than the rest of them. Remember reading a piece on them in Smash Hits or No 1 or somewhere where it said that he was 50 and I remember thinking 'fuck me, that's ancient!'

So good to hear that he's still around though!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sRsprxEozRk/TmDgYCtmusI/AAAAAAAAAyg/5LAE_6daFX0/s1600/stingshirt.jpg

otm.

how are Dave Wakeling's fake Beat live?

a 3rd rep for "two swords"

might be my favorite beat song.

So the 2CD/DVD reissues are out in the UK. Anyone have a quick review?

amateurist?

Are they different from the US versions? Because I have everything but the DVD and they seem pretty good to me. I mean, it's the English Beat, a band so good that adding "English" to their name somehow made them even better!

how are Dave Wakeling's fake Beat live?

Would be curious to this as well, as I passed on them in town a few months ago.

My understanding is that the Fake Beat is pretty good. I almost saw them last week, but given that the Romantics were also on the bill, I was wary of what the crowd would be like.

Hmmph. They were headlining here.

I probably should have gone.

The Edsel versions are better than the US versions.

The US box set has four live tracks which are exclusive to it, plus an exclusive live CD. The live CD will be available later on its own.

The UK releases (collectively) have an exclusive four-song Mike Read session from 1980, an exclusive five-song live set from 1982, an exclusive outtake called "It Makes Me Rock", an exclusive song from a David Jensen radio session, and nine exclusive remixes.

So the UK releases have 20 songs not on the US box - some of them crucial. The US box has four songs not on the UK releases - none of them crucial. (Disregarding the US live CD you can buy on its own, if you like, and disregarding the 3 DVDs on the UK releases.)

The US box set is cheaper - you save about $15 and gain four tracks . . . but lose three DVDs and twenty other songs. I''ve already bought the UK ones.

I saw the Fake Beat in a tiny club outside of Boston last year and they SLAYED. Really! They played everything you could possibly want to hear with verve, sweat and presence. Dave was really approachable and cool and they all looked like they were having fun. If you get the chance, see them.

do they have some other guy doing all the toasting?

i pre-ordered the USA box before i knew of the UK reissues. maybe i'll turn the USA box around and get the UK reissues. who knows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks_bamhVbhU

saxa's appearance in that video is so great

do they have some other guy doing all the toasting?

Yeah, they do.

I saw the Fake Beat in a tiny club outside of Boston last year and they SLAYED.

I haven't seen them that recently, but twice in the last 5 or 6 years and yes indeed, they were great both times. Would go see them again in a heartbeat. Wakeling's definitely still got it, and the band/arrangements are as tight and grooving as you could want thirty years on.

I played this at the last Devon Record Club get together. Just packed with great songs, played by a band with a beautiful, compact sound. They don't get anything like the credit they deserve.

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/the-beat-i-just-cant-stop-it-round-41-robs-choice/

So the Fake Beat did a tour last year with The Paul Collins Beat called, wait for it, "The Two Beats Hearting As One Tour."

That sounds awesome. I've seen Paul Collins live but never the English Beat. I want to put this record on now but my wife is taking a nap so I'm stuck with listening to mp3s on headphones instead.

I want to put it on now but my turntable finally broke a while back and my records are being improperly stored

That sounds like a fun tour, especially considering how great Dave & co. were when I saw them last week.

RIP Ranking Roger.

RIP Roger Charlery aka Ranking Roger.

“Goodnight sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”. pic.twitter.com/6kVr49cJJH

— pauline black (@paulineblack) March 26, 2019

Further word

https://thebeatofficial.com/rip-roger/

Imagine being Ranking Roger and knowing your only three albums in a band are three of the greatest albums ever recorded.

you're overlooking general public there i think, but yes, the beat fucking rule. rip roger

Cannot imagine seeing this band in a club...rest in peace, indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NI8_XMq00o

aw jeez. he and wakeling were responsible for some of the greatest pop songs of the 1980s. their voices blended in a very odd and distinctive and fetching way.

Imagine being Ranking Roger and knowing your only three albums in a band are three of the greatest albums ever recorded.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 26, 2019 9:43 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are you forgetting about general public?

their first album is pretty good (although it has a hideous cover),a nd this song is up there w/ some of the best beat tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XegL32Btzs

both roger and dave were beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-QkQoNCmg4

*coughs* I believe Alfred clearly is distinguishing between 'band' and 'duo,' guys.

didn't general public have a bunch of other guys in it?

and alfred is absolutely right about the 3 beat albums

they were obviously lumped in with the ska revival but those records are all over the place, in the best possible way.

also holy shit roger was ***SEVENTEEN*** in that video alfred posted

(weird, dave wakeling has a long-defunct twitter account and 90% of it is him shitting on joe scarborough: https://twitter.com/dave_wakeling)

R.I.P.

I love the Beat albums, and I also have a big soft spot for General Public because their first album coincided with me discovering college radio. I remember when the song "General Public" came out, ahead of the album, and I taped it off the radio. I saw them on the tour for their mostly-forgotten second album, they were great and did a fair selection of Beat stuff mixed in with the GP stuff -- they had Saxa with them, too.

Anyway, great singer/toaster, great songs. "Pato and Roger A Go Talk" 4eva.

oh this news makes me so sad for the loss, dunno how else to say it

are you forgetting about general public?

uh, no? I'm just pointing out that RR appeared on three great albums.

The first GP album is at best good.

weird, dave wakeling has a long-defunct twitter account and 90% of it is him shitting on joe scarborough: https://twitter.com/dave_wakeling)

― affects breves telnet (Gummy Gummy),

I swear to god, I thought you wrote "hitting on"

There’s an alternate universe for you.

Ugh cancer.

No statement from Dave Wakeling yet?

Just re-reading this interview with Roger and lol at this little dig @ U2:

It seems you spent a lot of time touring around 81-82 with artists including The Clash, The Specials and even Bowie. Which gigs stand out in your memory today?

Yeah – not forgetting The Police and Talking Heads – and just to let people know that REM used to open up for The Beat. They had three or four tours with us before we made our record company sign them up. Obviously I’m glad that they became massive in the end. U2 opened up for us once – but you know – you meet people along the way and some of them are nice and some of them are horrible – the nice ones you end up working with again. If you’re a diva I don’t want to know, but if you’re grounded and down to earth like a lot of bands around then seemed to be – it still seems to be the way to be.