The English Beat

I saw the English Beat the other night, possibly the most purely enjoyable group to come out of England since The Yardbirds and likely the most joyous post-punk/ new wave Brit group ever. They're a ska revival band; like The Pogues or The Mekons, they took the no-future genre of punk and plugged it into a preexisting genre of music, maintaining the Britishness of the former but showing total respect for the latter. The English Beat's MO is to play punk-infused ska that's as danceable as most ska from Jamaica but has English cheek at its core.

There was only one member from the original band present, a geezer and a former alcoholic named David Wakeling. But like other hard living Brits who lost their original bands or their musical careers, like Mark E. Smith of The Fall, John Lydon of The Sex Pistols, or John Cooper Clarke, Wakeling had a good natured personality that is clearly hard won and allows him to maintain perfect contentedness as he goes from venue to venue. So he just stood up there, took the piss a little, and played playful and sometimes gorgeous ska music (you don't get to say that a lot) with a brilliant back up band. Totally solid.

I actually danced a lot- there were a lot of Brits in the audience (apparently every English person from Aspen came, as if to pay respect), and they all danced about as badly as I did. I'm inclined to like the Brits a bit for that, in spite of everything else. Anyway, check out Twist and Crawl and Mirror in the Bathroom to get started.