We're so stoked to announce that The English Beat will be joining us for the 2017 Rock n' Roll Carnival! This is a big deal for Musack because we have been English Beat fans for a long time. (See the note from Donick below)
It’s hard for me to express how much the English Beat meant to me in my formative years. I was fourteen or so when I first pushed an English Beat cassette into my boombox. Out poured the answer! Politics and passion that you could dance to!
For the rest of high school, “I just Can’t Stop it," “Wha’ppen," “Special Beat Service,” and the compilation, “What is Beat?” got daily play… wearing out the cassettes over and over.
This was the soundtrack for growing up in the '80s, somewhere between a John Hughes and John Waters movie. The soundtrack for at least my first three major crushes. Their cover of “Tears of a Clown” got me through the fact that none of those three crushes actually worked out. To quote Damone…. “How about the tunes?”: “Mirror in the Bathroom”, “Twist and Crawl”, “Door of Your Heart”, “I Confess”, “Jeanette”, “Save it for Later”, “Ackee 1,2,3”… Come on! And then the graphics… pink and black GO FEET! They hold a special place in my heart. AND have been a constant on my music playing device of the moment for the last 30 years. I wore out the cassettes and then replaced them with CDs. Then transferred those to MP3s and 4s…. then went back and replaced those with vinyl again. We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Dave Wakeling and the gang to Musack’s 7th Annual Rock n’ Roll Carnival. This is going to be a big big fun fun time.
-Donick Cary
Founder of Musack
More About the English Beat
The English Beat is a band with an energetic mix of musical styles and a sound like no other. The band's unique sound has allowed it to endure for nearly three decades and appeal to fans, young and old, all over the world.
When The English Beat (known simply as The Beat in their native England) rushed on to the music scene in 1979, it was a time of massive social and political unrest and economic and musical upheaval.
This set the stage for a period of unbridled musical creativity, and thanks in large part to the Punk movement and it's DIY approach to making music, artists like The Beat were able to speak out and speak their mind on the news of the day, as in “Stand Down Margaret”, things that mattered to them and the youth culture, as in “Get A Job”, and universal matters of the heart and soul, as in theirclassic hits “I Confess” and “Save It For Later”.
The original band consisted of singer-songwriter Dave Wakeling on vocals and guitar, Andy Cox on guitar, David Steele on bass, and Everett Morton on drums – later additions Ranking Roger (toasting) and foundational First Wave Ska legend Saxa (saxophone) completed the outfit. The band crossed over fluidly between soul, reggae, pop and punk, and from these disparate pieces they created an infectious dance rhythm.
The Beat first came to prominence as founding members of the British Two Tone Ska movement, with their classic first album “Just Can't Stop It” fitting squarely in that genre. Along with their contemporaries The Specials, The Selecter, and Madness, the band became an overnight sensation and one of the most popular and influential bands of that movement.
However, band leader Dave Wakeling never felt constrained by the movement. Dave has always viewed ska as a springboard, not a straight jacket. Indeed, the band's sound continued to evolve over their first three studio albums, through the General Public era (a band formed by Dave with Ranking Roger, the toaster from The Beat), and has continued it's evolution with the forthcoming English Beat album “Here We Go Love”, a PledgeMusic crowd-funded album set for release in 2016, the band's first new album since 1982's “Special Beat Service”.
Consummate showman that he is, Dave Wakeling has continued to keep The Beat alive and strong. Dave continues to tour the world as The English Beat with an amazing all-star ska backing band playing all the hits of The Beat, General Public, and songs from his new album “Here We Go Love”.
You just can’t stop The English Beat... and now they're coming to play the backyard at Musack's 2017 Rock n' Roll Carnival!