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Written by By Bret Lueder/Special to the Tahoe World
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Tuesday, 06 May 2008 |
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 Dave Wakeling and The English Beat are bringing British Ska to North Tahoe on Saturday, May 10 at the Tahoe Biltmore at 9:30 p.m. doors open at 8:30. Tickets are $20.
And the beat goes on ...
So you say you want a revolution? You want to end violence; you want to end racism? You want to make the world a better place? But what can the average person do?
Just dance, says Dave Wakeling, former guitarist for the seminal Brit-ska band The English Beat. It worked during the late ‘70’s in England, so why not now?
It’s true. The late ‘70’s in blue-collar England was a hotbed of social upheaval and political unrest. White youth factions like the skinheads and black youth factions like the Rudie Boys [Rastas] clashed with police. Violence was commonplace. In Birmingham, Wakeling and The Beat’s hometown, social feelings of uncertainty and a lack of hope fostered the beginnings of heavy metal as Black Sabbath emerged onto the scene in the late ‘60’s.
But by the late 70’s the vibe had changed, especially in Birmingham. The same uneasiness was still ever-present yet the way in which the youth were dealing with these feelings had shifted. The volatile white youth groups were joining with the volatile black youth groups and creating a new culture: the merger of the punk and reggae scenes.
It was these two seemingly opposed camps which were able to put aside their differences and just party. The highly-energetic punk movement lacked the philosophical focus to successfully govern its energy while the roots reggae movement in England, initiated by a visit from the Rastafarian Bob Marley to the island in the early ‘70’s, had the philosophical focus but lacked the ability to move its energy and messages within the largely white British Empire. It was a match made in heaven.
Of course, the up-tempo punk became slower while the mellow reggae became faster. Where the two styles of music met was called “ska.” A Caribbean-derived music and precursor to reggae, ska became the foundation for a whole new musical paradigm in England. Bands like Bad Manners, The Selector, The Specials, Madness and The English Beat pioneered a sound which combined the “high energy” of punk music with the “fluid movement of dub.”
Or at least that is how Wakeling saw it almost 30 years ago as he was quoted in the now out-of-print classic reggae book Reggae International by Stephen Davis and Peter Simon (1982). It was a mixture that was to stop the fighting and start the dancing within the socially visceral masses of a working class England. And The English Beat have their place in rock-n-roll history because of this.
Recently, I had a chance to talk with Wakeling as he sped south down I-5 towards two gigs in San Diego. The cell phone communication was spotty but the quotes were spot-on:
Tahoe World: Despite the volatile socio-political scene in England in the late ‘70’s, The [English] Beat’s messages were that of “love” and “unity,” as opposed to that of Black Sabbath, say, who also hailed from Birmingham?
Dave Wakeling: Well that was the idea. We started with the notion of equality and from there it progressed. From stuff we were seeing at concerts to the stuff we were seeing in our own lives we began to see that the only way to achieve equality was to have love and unity.
TW: That’s Rasta stuff.
DW: Yeah it is. But a lot of philosophies were coming through at that time. Y’know, like the Buddhists have been saying that for ages. And I think we had tried everything else…and we have the technology we do where we could destroy each other very quickly but we still don’t seem to develop the technology or other systems to make us happy all the time.
TW: So out of Birmingham comes both Black Sabbath and The Beat. One is dark, hard and aggressive and the other uses a softer, more subtle approach with their politics. Both can be seen as being powerful ways to get social or political messages through to the masses. Why did The Beat choose the more subtle path?
DW: Well in that mood you can get away with saying quite strong things politically. You wanted to get people’s attention and post punk people were just angry for no particular reason. And people were still frustrated socially but they wanted to have a good time. So we put those two things together and it became more of a reflection of people’s lives.
Y’know you’re usually never a 100 percent happy or 100 percent sad, you always have moods; macro and micro issues going on. We would use the metaphor of say the how the woman at the corner store treated you that morning was how the UN was going to treat England and that sort of thing. So we do have political songs but many of them use individual, everyday images.
TW: Forget race for a second, the two types of music seem diabolically opposed to each other so… [he anticipated my question]
DW: They were, I suppose, in their effect. But there were two reasons for this. I think the punks and Rastas got banned from most bars at about the same time so that forced them into each others company. And also, while the music was different they complimented each other very well. And that’s kind of how it got started.
TW: Then from there everything began to be centered around the dancing?
DW: At house parties you would have one reggae DJ and one punk DJ. And we found that if you mixed it up throughout the night, the dance floor stayed packed all night. It was with the enthusiasm of punk with the hypnotic sway of the reggae.
Of course both were forms of protest music both socially and politically. I think that when the fans began to understand the lyrics of the other music the new scene came together.
TW: What can we expect from the upcoming Dave Wakeling show?
DW: We will be doing hits from both The Beat and General Public [anyone remember “Tenderness”?]. I can tell you that it will be a party with lots of dancing and fun. I hope to see you there.
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