COUNTING (ON) THE BEAT!

Rip It Up, Issue 49, 1 August 1981, Page 1

COUNTING (ON) THE BEAT!

The number of bands that can be labelled essential come and go every year but from where I'm dancing, the Beat sure look like a vital band, meaning they're plugged into the current energy form and articulate to boot. Last t year, the six individuals involved surprised even' themselves with the freshness and pace of I Just Can't Stop It, an album , that also showed the band's readiness .tp..- . comment on things political and social. . v’/.’-V That was then, and now on. a. Tyt Wakeling. It's on e,^^lp < tX’^.* '.the - ,* *• VVjb-’. -by> Pn qV. g • ’Kr>£6 r *a n t h e v y^^^isl^.^^wVfe^J^QV.^aVid'-SteeVe’^^kK.A^a^.GoXvV ’.yjo&'-i&u >.f? tC >w«p4tV’ MpKob (dt: u pis}- e/b'.wprkjog-.'• ,ygs? .‘ardyCKd- ’fo fpfy hj^KaVji’ i.hk-' prigi hails; arid '.co'.ye r's • I i ke. 'My. •'.* • ? bV - . y • /’.V^^yV/R'^^sly^yy^i^r.^eF^tt.W'as^ery-intd-spuhmusiC'lyle.*/' :*J^*p*^*<j‘j^'4y^'K4d' >^*^*Jjb^h- ing-Üb > puhk add Our -old wave'. l ?s^^fdy6urftes ,^eT^‘Cnpte^, B^.e%eant'>VTith , Buckley- and-a-bit'.• ; ,^*g^.Ud;da^^^B;AH'dy-;qnh^'dikejd.'B.o'b.v' - throe. when.-the.group/ •VV/i^^^u^e’VK^u2?6ppk^i^il^'.lihdert'pWesv/VV - '- *'V«Swws«- • and Taler - that- '.sarn'e. • • /»SBKw4Va^»'Jpsr^pTvdnMV.;3A^^^'^^rt - in'.-)tist'^ref6i ; e'./•s§&e reiease\'^tW^-fe^bsjbgl4;*'Spilt^py'-^^nsp'As'cfasSic-'. ■ *V as'. 0 h - launch i ng •. /J^aOTS&y^^^ly^r^y-^n’d-&'ia^el*>bjrt*}ia'6.suffered more/ '.• /‘.tdan its fair dt ‘ agr.ee’ W.i’dV. the.• V •' *•*•’/■ When we dp * 2VTdne^Wefe. -T * ’ jypl s tart i catrte/. had it ‘.V/as ‘icing.*/ 't^be^rdto^opt/blyA'p^Ki^dfet'^btS'rt^t^bjg'iraijg.o'tta'.-'. Have a reaction t<3* l t'.-’-X.• Tb cestlsLoas; .• - The Speciali4<ndwi'^UbX^y’''.W4Vi^'dX'd*i'dp/_lTbhT s -'. beginning and arebs£i , Jl‘/d > b)]^*tß^b > P'^V.^h^b".s<^V t^.l hfe//, bq&SplJmSff huge 1 - .dt•'.' isd ; fV**yPb C VPt ojpiW The wb iky 'of)- T^id^el^f^paliy.'W'ak ']ipg-‘ • ekaclfyifuflydSf»f4u9bS**« t^ moment, yet is Bright'.ahd'.almbVUKopeful in its danceability" This is the essence of Beat music? "I think so. It's something that goes through all the other groups on 2-Tone too. We think we should reflect the society we live in and that it's in a pitiful state. I don't know whether you've read of what's happened in England in the last week?" The Liverpool riots? "Yeah, the place is falling to bits really and so we want to reflect that in' the lyrics, but we've got to start thinkin' of some positive things to do about it and there's no better way of makin' yourself feel positive than by dancing. So we want the two things to complement each other. Not dancing to escape but dancing to be strong, to do something about it.'' Rock'n'roll is about now, about having your fifteen minutes' worth and then moving over. Does Wakeling worry about the fact that their songs may not survive the current social scene? "Yes, but I think the material we write in the future won't be so specific anyway coz I've said all I want to say about the political and social situation. The basic idea is that we're trying to live under a system that is totally outdated, it is much more suited to Victorian society than it is now. I think I've covered nearly every aspect of the bits that are? outdated the ridiculous lip service to nationalism when the world is obviously international. Now we've put . ourselves on the spot by saying how dreadful we think everything is perhaps we're gonna have to come up with some suggestions of how to make it better. Perhaps the lyrics will start having a positive feel to them but still mixed with a certain amount of desperation because I don't think we have much time left." Does he feel concerned that his lyrics may go unnoticed or be misunderstood? "That was a reaction to our first album, as the girl who - runs our fan club spent most of last year answering letters to people who wanted the lyrics and so she begged us to put them on the new album. "I really like it when people misunderstand the lyrics and make up their own version. When you have a favourite song and you sing along with it for about three weeks, then , //; '■.} you read the lyrics and find it's about something completely different. "Some of the lines on. the new album are consciously ambiguous to make sure that it doesn't come across as a dry • .political line. But the lyrics weren't put there to be a gospel • or anythin'." Back to the Beat's first LP and specifically 'Mirror in the Bathroom', a slap at vanity. Is the band vain? •.//••'/....- >•/’ "Not as a group, I don't think, but everybody personally is vain. It was an attack on little bits of vanity I'd noticed in other people but it doesn't take more than a minute to realise that you do exactly the same things yourself. It wasn't just attacking vanity but saying that we ought to try and accept it as we are all as guilty as each other on that one. It's those things that keep people apart from each 1 other. • . "The album was recorded very quickly, very hecticly. : Everything had just happened and we were all anaesthe- - . tised. It was just a rush, you just get gripped and carried> along by the situation. "The songs were ones we'd been playing in Birmingham for four or five months. We'd been gigging solidly so the songs were pretty well worked." How does he view the album now? ' *. v/s v/ * "I like about half the tracks and I wish we'd had more chance to be retrospective about the other half. When I look back on it I think it was just good fun. Nobody could believe we were in the studio doin' it and nobody could believe we just had a hit single. It was all a bit tongue-in-cheek really. Y'know people from the media and record companies running around saying how great you were and it was all a bit hard to take seriously." . / \ . ! , Good reviews and the Beat go hand in hand. Does * he / take all this favourable press seriously? "That's the trouble when you get lots of good reviews. You're tempted to take them seriously and when you see a bad one you feel like throwing the paper away and saying

'Pah, you don't wanna believe nothin' you see in the ( papers': It goes in little phases in England because having four weekly music papers with a lot of journalists writing, it's a bit like one of those quiz they push the button before a lot of pre-empting •go>ng, ohs o', yq u ekeks where /.;y,du\i r^'th e'.'caL;S' > hiskerk.-apd. t'hOn'.a'.-c Wyfsfe you're a .■ ■ * bunt h <?f. sh^iks• * ' •//'•’/ y * VKv>JoC^siv• V*.• £p b id. ■ p'ress •al m - and ’.••".rjgjitfy-'sb,'. as. - .it subtle ■•‘•TCKMea 1 aj-InSibdrvtr'agOT&JirKehyper-of A' y |a>d more- ajSfrng than L^V^/benekt ng rly, the >b'^jni>d^he //■y^^becKang^/**/ ,•/*.*.*‘./VvelV.-’.thero• jot-bf. titlwffiirij'.mra;-fo^ rself ‘/.•Stjt'p'ifrs jdr • ’. -04fir \ • Tvj ho n ■t getthe. /.• ter/.vVe'cf • mixed', the last track n • * it's • jise'd. a,s'. a • ou ■‘.•'.■gpifr);'. How's. • t ricks'? 1 /, ftfs. •aka *a• sawsw/}yf>awJftK6®sß» is '.•/.hapb^jng'.it'.-t^e'.r^djn'e'nt?‘/.Sq'.iV.4^^t'.d*r.‘oftrt ; ws^feyfls. •/. G)d the• tront-cT ‘.t h eql burp', there JJ y - ‘-‘.t h a.tT'.f)‘oVywe -See-jt'j E Very body. t '. Pdrn in g •' •• - •'/. 'JhffmmSSSSuSSVjW ' ■’/* ' ••■"Y e*d if ( Hc'e’s - , be t’vy ee p‘. fk - a^' \ The^diff^rekees.betvyeep'.the first and .•'.•'•dbv)6u/-'.-’-bUt/.-what'./arb.-'. , V^^yfng®^Vjdw’/.’*o'n'-^^K d i 1 1 ncll o n s,? . .- . ’- ‘ '• '■ Jjfiffk •■V.'-'.'P.'MosL'b’f/'iheVreyjew'sVgp'.-’^^bqift^mo'^.tP^'db^^Kl^. frenetic speed. I found after about four months of listening to the first LP, that it was ■ often too fast to dance to unless you were close to amphetamine, and that’s what quite a lot /. '.dT'p. e ppW-Mid- .to- 'us'. •' ft * cap te to me at Dingwalls on the dance floor when they put on the twelve-inch version of Hands Off She's Mine' and about half way through it I was /•'.oVit*p£ , bV.eal^>’i’th6\ight>'th^t :^tdo^fa?r, to dance to'. The third album may. som'ewhere between the two. We may

have over-compensated on some tracks as regards, speed but we were desperate. not to do something similar to the first LP." And so to the track that most directly concerns us, the 'Dream Home In NZ' number, a provocative and vaguely ethereal song that has a sting in its tail. "The idea came from an American TV quiz show. American TV has a great influence on us and they have an awful lot of quiz shows where you win a car and somebody faints. It seemed that the prize that everybody wanted was to get away from this dreadful pressure. You can feel it in America, and even more in Britain at the moment, and looking at the map, it seemed that New Zealand was so far away from the Russian and American missiles and it seemed a good place to go. The song is just about wanting to be a long way away from the way we run our lives in Europe." There's two more New . Zealand calls waiting for Wakeling but I slip in a last question. At the beginning of the year the Specials and the Beat played Belfast. I ask Wakeling, being an Englishman, if he feels responsible for the mess in Ireland: "Of course. When you get to Belfast you can feel very, very embarrassed about having an English accent. You feel like saying sorry to everybody you meet in the street. It was a very emotional gig and one of the best that we'd done, a fabulous atmosphere. No fights, I think we'll go back." The Beat are coming here towards the end of the year. "I'll come and stay in your dream home," quips Wakeling. - "You're more than welcome," I reply. Of that there's surely no doubt. George Kay *