By Jim Rowland
It’s back to the early ‘80’s in Bournemouth tonight as Dave Wakeling’s Beat hits the south coast as part of a pretty extensive ÜK tour featuring Annabella Lwin’s Bow Wow Wow as tour support. More than one version of both these bands does the rounds these days, but tonight it’s the turn of both the original lead singer’s versions.
I wasn’t too sure what I would make of Bow Wow Wow, having never seen them and only being familiar with the ‘hits’, but curiosity gets the better of me and just about the whole audience too as a sizable crowd has got here early to see Annabella Lwin doing her thing.
I miss the very start but get perfectly placed to catch the old hit I remember most fondly, namely ‘C30 C 60 C90 Go!’ It’s a blistering version that immediately signals it was a wise choice to catch Bow Wow Wow’s set, and indeed what follows is quite superb throughout.
Hits like ‘W.O.R.K.’, ‘Go Wild In The Country’ and set closer ‘I Want Candy’ go down a treat, but interestingly the lesser known album track ‘The Man Mountain’, penned by the late Matthew Ashman, original guitarist of both Bow Wow Wow and Adam & the Ants, seems to go down even better. Annabella Lwin is in fine form, still seems to relish the stage, and it has to be said her voice is in top condition, sounding just like it did forty-odd years ago.
The last time I saw Dave Wakeling was 21 years ago, when most of the original Beat line-up reformed for a one-off show at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Sadly, Ranking Roger, Saxa and Everett Morton are no longer with us these days, but since then Dave Wakeling has been keeping the Beat flag flying, mostly in America, with his version of the Beat alongside Ranking Roger, and now Ranking Junior’s, ÜK version.
Ranking Junior put on a great show in Bournemouth at the start of this year, but tonight it’s great to get re-acquainted with the original voice of the Beat, Dave Wakeling. This seven-piece band follows the format of the original band, and delivers a crowd-pleasing set of just about all the old classics you would want to hear. The classic debut album ‘I Just Can’t Stop It’ is of course heavily represented, with ten of its 12 tracks featured, and aside from the singles from that album and other big hitters like ‘Twist & Crawl’, it’s great to hear less celebrated , but equally good, tracks like ‘Two Swords’ and the punk-infused ‘Click Click’. It’s also great to hear the best singles from the second and third albums like ‘Doors Of Your Heart’ and ‘Save It For Later’, as well as the killer single ‘Too Nice to Talk To’.
Dave Wakeling, still in fine voice, is relaxed and witty, jovially drawing parallels between the state of the country in the Thatcher era and now after ‘Stand Down Margaret’, which still receives a rousing sing along from the crowd. Before ‘Tears Of A Clown’, he also regales a particularly funny and bizarre tale of the time he was introduced to Smokey Robinson.
We’ve lost a few two-tone icons in recent years, so it’s great to see Wakeling, most definitely an icon of that movement, backed by a highly talented band, roll back the years and remind us what a special, unique, and important movement it was and still is.
Great night, two great bands, and two great performances.
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