Well it was very, very hair raising! The reason being, we were on Two Tone and we had about ten record companies, the big ones, wanting to sign us up. Anything you want guys – the cheque is blank! We went for Arista who were offering us less money but the most freedom we wanted. So it wasn’t about money for The Beat, it was about having your own say within that crooked business and people who’d actually listen to you. Because someone could offer you a million pounds and just put you on the shelf. But the guys at Arista said listen whatever we do, whoever you sign with it doesn’t matter. But if you sign with us we’re gonna break this band and make sure this band gets the recognition and they did. RR: heard about that. It sounded like a really good thing. We met them years ago and I thought ‘They’re really nice guys… for Americans!’ Very into their music, they loved our music and their music was OK. I touched on the new project – The Dread-I thing. It’s not the end of The Beat – I’ll still do that, and people should know that, but I’d like to try another project where I can be more dynamic and me and Ranking Junior can control it – different styles, different audience that kind of thing. It’s all part of the challenge. But it was difficult because we had to come up with tunes, so what we were doing on tour was we had a notepad each and we’d keep them for two or three days and then pass them on to the next person.

I said “remember that band The Beat that opened for us? They’re playing down this place the Mercat Cross.”Everybody would write onto somebody else’s thing and a lot of the lyrics from the second album and the third album came in that way. It was a great way to get stuff together and say well that’s a band effort. Cause even like the smallest line from the drummer could get into the song. We used a lot of bits from headlines and stuff like that. It all came together and made sense. So that took a while to record and get right but when it did come out in England it was met with mixed reactions. A lot of people were like well it’s not Ska is it? You’ve done like The Specials and mellowed out or whatever it is. But in California all of a sudden all the surfers and beach bums, the mods out there, we’d go out there and they’d be lapping it up. That’s when I realised how brilliant this band was at merging in such a subtle, sophisticated way and not in a pushing it in your face way. To mark Demon Record’s heavyweight re-issue of seminal 2 Tone album, “Wha’ppen?” we take the opportunity to talk to The Beat’s Ranking Roger about his memories of the album and the 2 tone period, his new project with his son Ranking Junior (pictured above with Ranking Roger) – and – getting REM a record deal! M: You always get dubbed a ‘ska’ band, probably just because your debut single came out on 2-Tone (The Beat formed their own Go-Feet label after that)

M: With your son now sharing lead vocals, it creates a nice dynamic onstage, like it’s a family affair but do you get on ok while you’re on the road.

Interview – Ranking Roger of The Beat

Having thought about it, maybe it’s the fact that I never got married. I should have been married. I’ve 3 kids and was with an Irish girl for 20 years, but we split up about 10 years ago. I regret that. We should have got married, but we didn’t. Maybe if we’d married we wouldn’t have split up later, I don’t know. So he says – and if Saxa says you’d better believe it. I know they used to play Manchester and Liverpool quite a lot, he used to play with these jazz bands that went all around the country, and I know John Lennon used to go to a lot of blues dances, or shebeens as they were known then, and obviously they were after hours parties, and sometimes they would have a band playing there, just a small line up, nothing too loud, but enough to keep the thing going. I think it was in that kind of setting where it must have happened. For John Lennon to have been into that kind of thing is good, and later on we found out that George Harrison was a big reggae lover within The Beatles, there was a reggae vibe I think, in there somewhere. When I can – or when the weather’s good – I try to do loads of inline skating, that’s my love, second to music – getting on my skates and getting out there. But I haven’t been on the streets for a long time – I skate around the park a lot. I used to be on the street racing the buses – but now I’m like – heeeeeey – this is a dangerous thing to do. I used to be a bit of an expert, I still am, I teach people, I love doing that. And I love video games – I do loads of video gaming – that’s when I’m not writing or building a rhythm – but sometimes it’s good to get away from all that, and get away from who everyone thinks you are – and be yourself. That’s important too. Yeah I think so but maybe we changed it too radically y’know. I call the first album a classic, the band were hungry, we were young, there’s major notes against minor notes in there & stuff. It’s all in there. It’s only after we recorded them that we really got to play them properly. I’ve got this thing out at the moment on Pledge, a double CD compilation of collaborations with people like Sly & Robbie and Death In Vegas and that will be followed by Return Of The Jedi, which will feature some of what would’ve been The Beat album.

RR: Well, I had to re-learn them, it’d been years since I’d sung them but he already knew them all. Whether he liked it or not, it was drummed in, partially in the soul. It must be in his blood. GENERAL ON SALE 10am Friday 27 Jan http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/2017/the-selecter-and-the-beat/ M: Was it just a happy accident that just a handful of similar bands all released debut singles in 1979 that had this unique new sound? It wasn’t like you all convened beforehand and plan to change the world.Maggie Thatcher’s economic policies had literally ripped the heart out of the local community and it left a lasting effect even to this day. One has only to drive through places like Longbridge to see just how bad things became then. Over 30 years later & things are only just beginning to improve. Obviously there was a lot of poverty. It needed building up. High unemployment. It seemed like there was no future. I was about 16-17 and it looked like there was no future for the youth. It was a horrific picture when I really think about it – the strikes going on everywhere and the threat of nuclear war – we’ve found out since that Russia aren’t that bad – and they’re now our friends – but that was the biggest thing for a lot of people then – we really thought that the chances of nuclear war were high. We’ve learned years later that there was never really any intention for any side to start it – but it’s weird the things we live under – like the wars in the Middle East – and the Western world’s secrecy with China – so it’s like a new iron curtain has come up now. It’s a shame. M: That would complicate things a little. Although, last year, the US Beat and the English Beat toured America together, billing it; ‘Two Beats Hearting As One’. We are teaming up with The Selecter in 2017, hitting the road together for a number of dates around the UK and Ireland. After our show at Shepherds Bush Empire sold out in record time, we have added a show at the iconic Roundhouse in Camden on Friday 6 October 2017. M: So were you listening to a lot of punk? Along with The Police, a lot of those punk bands had a reggae-influenced phase; The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts, Costello… all had at least one reggae song.