smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | markeichelberger@comcast.net (Mark Eichelberger) |
| Subject | Re: 1989 |
| Date | Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:21:07 +0000 |
[Part 1 text/plain (3.2 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
I'm not sure if I would go as far as to say The English Beat were the best live act I saw, but they would rank pretty high up on the list. Like Stewart, I saw them multiple times during the early 80's. And as Stewart mentioned, the high energy level of the band really transferred to the audience. I remember the entire audience at the Emerald City disco (RIP) in Cherry Hill NJ dancing madly from the moment they got on stage to the moment they left.
Incidently, if you can find the movie Dance Craze, you can spot me and my friends (for a nano second anyway) dancing like idiots in the front rows, as they filmed the Beat's set at Emerald City for that movie.
And yeah, I have to give a shout out to Saxa. The guy may have been more than twice the age of the other members of the group, but man...that guy could play!
Mark E.
-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Stewart Mason" <craigtorso@verizon.net>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Holmes Online"
>
> >> Let's see, two key members from the greatest live act I have ever
> >> seen in my life, plus one of the most gifted R&B singers of the
> >> decade...yeah, that's a recipe for disaster all right.
> >
> > Stewart - The English Beat is the greatest live act you've ever
> > seen?? Musical aptitude? Energy level? Personality on stage?
> > Considering how many bands you've probably seen, I would have lost
> > this bet a hundred times and still not guessed them. Pray tell - why
> > were they the greatest?
>
> First and foremost, as you say, the energy level. I saw the Beat
> repeatedly when I was growing up in Boulder (they were in fact my very
> first concert, except for a John Denver gig my sister took me to when
> I was 8): the Denver/Boulder area was one of the few places in America
> where they were a draw at the time, and I swear, I think they played
> there every 6 to 8 months. Between 1980 and June 1983, when they sold
> out Red Rocks Amphitheater (a gig I've written about before as the
> weirdest triple bill ever: the Beat headlining, Bow Wow Wow as the
> middle act and as the opener, some baby band from Georgia called REM
> whose first LP had only just come out) about three days before U2's
> storied UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY gig, I saw them four times, the two
> middle gigs being twice during a three-night stand at the Rainbow in
> Denver in '82. Every time, the energy level both on the stage and in
> the audience was simply phenomenal. These were likely the only gigs
> I've ever been do where I actually danced, something I've never been
> actually very good at. They were absolute masters of pacing, both in
> terms of knowing when to extend a groove and when to cut it off, and
> of knowing when to throw out one of the audience faves like "Twist and
> Crawl" or "Doors Of Your Heart." Add in that they were simply
> amazingly tight musically (Saxa never got his due on the records --
> his live solos were invariably fantastic, never mere vamping for the
> sake of it), with probably the best rhythm section of their time and
> place, and that Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling were really
> charasmatic frontmen and they were just a joy to watch, always.
>
> S
>
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.