Last night I got to see The Beat at (what I discovered is) the largest unticketed free music festival in Europe, which is held a few miles from where I live. I am becoming a big fan of ska music and, of the UK bands from the late ‘70s, The Specials are undoubtedly my favourites, but I have been introduced to The Beat’s music and think there is a great poppy/punk/ska feel. Mirror in the Bathroom is a stand out track for me, but there are some other great covers and original songs in their repertoire.As you can imagine with a free festival in a small town, there were some very interesting people out for the night, and people-watching was as much fun as the show! Ranking Roger’s son, Ranking Junior is also in this version of The Beat, and together the band were great. We were hoping they might sing ‘Stand Down Cameron’ instead of ‘Stand Down Margaret’ (they didn’t), but Ranking Roger didn’t disappoint, dedicating ‘Get A Job’ to Mr Cameron. Glad to see the years have not diluted the politics.
