Music: A tale of two "Beats": Ska rivals come together

CLEVER AND KINDLY chap as he is, ska-punk pioneer Dave Wakeling has summoned a fine way to make amends for a professional conflict harking back three decades.

Namely with a tour dubbed "Two Beats Heart as One," playing at World Cafe Live on Sunday, where his enduring group the English Beat is being co-billed with the power-poppin' American (but Anglo-loving) Paul Collins Beat.

Way back when, circa 1979 and forward, Dave and Paul feuded over control of the simpler band name each had started out with: the Beat.

"While we were musically quite different, we started at the same time, not knowing the other existed on the other side of the big pond," Wakeling recalled the other day.

In the depressed industrial town of Birmingham, England, Wakeling and cohorts - including guitarist Andy Cox and toaster (Jamaican rapper) Ranking Roger Charlery - were summoning up a compelling musical blend of punk vituperation and sunny helter-skelter island-groove styles.

"Our first inspiration was these two DJs who'd work opposite sides of a club where we hung out. One would play nothing but punk and get the crowd all roused up for 20 minutes, until they were exhausted. Then the other DJ would take over and play nothing but reggae, and pretty soon all the dancers would be leaning against the wall. But when the two DJs alternated tracks, people were out on the floor dancing all night. So Andy got the idea we should try and mash the two forms together in a single three-minute song."

As they did, to chart-topping success with originals (lyrics by Wakeling) like "Twist and Crawl," "I Confess," "Mirror in the Bathroom" and "Save It For Later." Also important were some amazing Caribbean-flavored remakes - especially of the Miracles' "Tears of a Clown" - that have endured and grown in import through the decades.

One could argue that the English Beat is bigger today than the band was in its active creative years (1979-1883). That's why Shout! Factory has just issued a five-CD box set, "The Complete Beat," and CD/DVD video, "Live at the US Festival."

Plus, the label is prepping a follow-up package devoted to the English Beat spin-off band General Public, likewise featuring Wakeling and Ranking Roger. (Another notable spin-off was Cox and Beat bassist David Steele's Fine Young Cannibals.)

Wakeling believes the Beat goes on today "in part because those songs - written in a time of economic decline and social conflict - still ring true today. It's also because we didn't go in for trendy synthesizers. Thanks to our producer, Bob Sargeant, our music never sounded dated."

Oh, it also hasn't hurt any that the Beat - along with like-minded ska/punk "two-toners" the Specials, the Selector and Madness - sparked a long line of younger emulators, from No Doubt and Sublime to Reel Big Fish and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. These newer groups know good party music when they hear it and have managed to keep the style current.

"We've gone out on tour with bands like Reel Big Fish," said Wakeling. "At first their audience doesn't have a clue who we are, but by the end of our set we've won them over."

Over here, on the West Coast, Paul Collins started with a different set of ground rules. Think classic '60s Liverpool harmony groups fused to sonic cues of early '80s power pop.

"We thought our sound was much more beat-centric, deserving of the name," said Wakeling. But because Collins was first to lay claim domestically, the British band had to append "the English" to their moniker for stateside touring and album-release purposes.

And making things even more complicated, on home turf in England, the Birmingham-based band would continue to be known as just the Beat.

Even today, there's still a U.K.-based version that goes by the Beat. It's fronted by Ranking Roger and the group's original drummer, Everett Morton.

"There's no rivalry between Roger and me, except professionally," said the now Los Angeles-based Wakeling, who moved to the States after getting a solo recording deal with IRS Records. "We talk about doing things, touring together here. Then the managers get in the way, with 'deals' it would take a U2 to support.

"Meanwhile I run the U.S. touring version of the English Beat," Wakeling carried on. "It's really more the American/Cuban/Singapore/British Beat. Our photo looks like a Benetton advert. The guy who took over Ranking Roger's role in our group, Antonee First Class, is an international phenomenon onto himself. He's a Londoner by birth but spent a lot of time in Jamaica and is very versatile."

An all-around interesting guy, Wakeling started out with careers in construction and firefighting. "Everyone in my family wore a uniform, so they were most proud of me then." Later, after the English Beat and General Public years, he quit the music business for a spell in the 1990s to work for Greenpeace, organizing major charity concerts and recording projects.

The man has also had dreams of becoming a Buddhist monk and continues to practice the faith "badly, when I'm in dire straits. What's great about Buddhism is that it takes the real world into account and wishes no harm on others. Because the harm you do on others comes back on you.

"For the last couple weeks, I've adopted the motto, 'Time to get the best of the rest of your life.' It's been so effective for me, lifting the weight from my shoulders, that it may turn into a song."