When I heard Dave Wakeling of The Beat{I refuse to call them The English Beat on principle!!}in a radio interview last month mention The Beat would be joining up w/ fellow 80's Brits Squeeze I made plans to catch them both on the New York City stop of their tour.
To my chagrin I'd never seen The Beat and the last time I saw my South East London homeboys was in Sept of 87 in my final concert b4 moving to this side of the Atlantic so it was a short hop up I 95 to The Roselands Ballroom on Saturday for this double slice of 80's nostalgia.
A decent size crowd was on hand Saturday nite at The Roselands to see the show,a nice mixture of ska fans looking to get their skank on,20 somethings hoping to catch up on what they missed 30 years ago and 50 somethings looking to recapture their 20's or in my case{I turn 50 next year}remember them!!
The Beat rocked!!note to self catch their next headlining tour cos if what they served up in their hour long opening set was anything to go by I've been missing out all these years.
Opening w/ "Tears Of A Clown" Dave Wakeling and co ran through their set which included such hits as "I'll Take You There""I Confess""Tenderness""Ranking Full Stop""Mirror In The Bathroom""Save It For Later""Twist And Crawl" and "Hands Off She's Mine"
I'd like to have heard"Best Friend" and "Stand Down Margaret" but other than that I had little or no axe to grind,I'll be sure to catch The Beat on their next headlining tour.
Looking every inch the ska king he is Dave Wakeling respledent in Fred Perry polo shirt and two tone guitar strap left the audiance w/ these words of wisdom"careful what you say in your 20's...you may have to remember them in your 50's!!!"
And then for the headliners Squeeze,obviously having a HUGE South East London bias{who me????!!!}I've been a fan of the band since 79 and their Sophmore effort"Cool For Cats" and it's amazing they're not only still playing together in 2012 but also planning an album of new Difford and Tilbrook material,the fact they played Coachella recently and were headlining at The Roselands shows they're still relevant now.
Opening w/ "Take Me I'm Yours" their debut single some 34 years ago they then launched into "If I Didn't Love You" b4 throwing in a few oldies from their extensive back catalog b4 reeling off ten hits that closed the show and served as their three song encore
""Cool For Cats""Up The Junction""Another Nail In My Heart""Goodbye Girl""Annie Get Your Gun""Hourglass""Pulling Mussels From The Shell""Slap And Tickle""Tempted" and "Black Coffee In Bed"
My only small gripe,no "If It's Love" or "No Place Like Home" in the setlist.....that and being unable to convince the raven hair beauty I'd been chatting up all nite that "Black Coffee In Bed" should be a metaphor for life and not just a Squeeze song title she in turn suggested I sing the lyrics to "Goodbye Girl" on the train ride back to Philly!!!....playas gotta play....hate the game not the player!
Squeeze will be opening for B52's this summer which could be a good show,I know I haven't seen the last of "a couple of likely lads" from Deptford or Dave Wakeling and The Beat and YES rolling indoors at 3.40am was well worth it!!!
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