The Beat
By Dave Woodhall.
Leamington Assembly is a great venue. Decent parking, friendly staff, plenty of them behind the bar and when the gig’s over you don’t get pushed towards the door within seconds. It’s also only half an hour’s drive from Birmingham and the last train’s well after they close. Some places closer to home could learn from the Assembly’s approach.
Pauline Black’s had to pull out and the replacement are a ska/punk band whose name I didn’t catch. They did their stuff well enough, although having a song with the worlds “Please Mister Cameron listen to us” doesn’t inspire me with hope that this generation are going to fight the Tories like their parents did.
Speaking of which, the Beat amble on stage and it’s straight into Whine and Grine, with the Stand Down Margaret bit providing some welcome nostalgia. This is soon followed by Tears of a Clown, at which point the audience really get going and never let up.
Noise In This World shows just how ridiculously fit Ranking Roger must be. He’s got his son Ranking Junior on stage with him, taking more of the spotlight with every passing year, but he can still match the young ‘un move for move. And there’s a lot of moves.
Monkey Murders is a slower one, which everyone in the room probably needs. How Do You Do is a more traditionally two tone number. Rock the Casbah is, of course, for Joe Strummer, updated in a manner of which the great rude boy himself would have approved. Then it’s a clutch of numbers from the Beat’s first album I Just Can’t Help It, 31 years old and as good live as they sounded on vinyl in your bedroom. Get a Job is for Clegg and Cameron. As Roger put it “I voted Lib Dem – why?” and features some fine sax playing.
The audience are lapping this up; dancing, singing along and proving yet again that there’s no better music on earth for enjoying yourself. Hands Off She’s Mine, Ranking Full Stop and a show-closing, mightily triumphant Mirror in the Bathroom finishes the set proper.
The Beat
Back for an encore of Junior doing some very impressive toasting while the old man plays drums, then a finishing duo of Save It For Later and Jackpot, with another enthusiastic backing vocal from a crowd who put almost as much into the show as the band did and will probably be feeling it in the morning. But not as much as the owner of the bra that was thrown on stage. Tom Jones – his influence on ska. Discuss.
