Local heroes The Beat shone brightly for five years from the late seventies before breaking up with members forming various outfits such as General Public, The Beat Goes Bang and The Fine Young Cannibals. Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling toured their own versions of The Beat before Roger`s sad passing in 2019. Roger`s son Ranking Jnr was a member of his dad`s band from a teenager and on his passing promised to continue the band`s legacy into a new generation while developing his own distinctive voice and style.
This five piece band shared a delightfully structured forty to forty five minutes of classic Beat cuts as Ranking Jnr commanded the stage with some animated dance moves with him also running across the stage with the bass guitarist mirroring his efforts in the opposite direction. We enjoyed numbers that were instantly familiar and for me brought back some really nostalgic memories such as `Twist & Crawl`, `Too Nice To Talk To`, `Hands off… She`s Mine`, `Rough Rider` along with `Carry the Flag`, `Get-a-Job`, `Whine & Grine`, `Stand Down Margaret`, `Ranking Full Stop` and `Side to Side` from Ranking Roger`s album `Bounce` from a decade ago.
All good things come to an end and this energetic set closed with `Mirror in the Bathroom` with the majority of this packed audience dancing and singing along. It was a superb warm up set for what was to come and i`m sure Jnr`s Dad would have been extremely proud of his lad.
One of the few comforts of heading towards my seventh decade is that I managed to see most of the influential reggae, rock, punk, metal, and soul bands first time around and a few a fair number of times. The Undertones were one such band who I got to see a number of times before their inevitable breakup.
It`s the band`s 50th Anniversary and a number of dates have been pencilled in throughout October and November to celebrate this milestone. These days Paul McLoone is the lead singer and if you`ve not caught them with Paul before, you`re in for a treat as he`s very much his own man with a delightfully engaging and energetic manner.
The band arrive on stage and burst into life with `Jimmy Jimmy` as this packed crowd go crazy. The equally superb `You`ve Got My Number (Why Don`t You Use It!)` follows with `Male Model` and a favourite of mine the sixties tinged `The Love Parade`. There`s plenty of two/three minute melodic riff driven classics such as `It`s Gonna Happen`, `True Confessions`, `Jump Boys`, `Boys Will Be Boys` and `Tearproof` but there`s lesser known cuts as well, which for me are equally worthy such as `I Gotta Getta`, `Girls Don`t Like It` and `(She`s) A Runaround`.
The Undertones were also capable of creating some much more tender and reflective songs which are given an airing tonight with `Julie Ocean`, `When Saturday Comes` and `Wednesday Week` but the majority of tonight`s audience were waiting for `Teenage Kicks` a number that was DJ John Peel`s all-time favourite song and from which he even had sections of the lyrics of the song engraved upon his tombstone when he passed away. We have a few more numbers like the thumping `Girls That Don`t Talk` before the band bow out with `Get Over You`.
The quintet quickly return and share `Johnny C`mon` and interestingly `More Songs About Chocolate and Girls` which I didn`t expect. `Here Comes the Summer` becomes a communal singalong before `My Perfect Cousin` has everybody singing and cheering wildly before the band take their leave.
This ninety minute performance passed by in the blink of an eye and there was a real uplifting almost tangible atmosphere as we all headed out into a fairly chilly October night. There`s nine more dates spread out over this month and the next so you have a few chances left to catch this really infectious and entertaining milestone anniversary show.
