Sunday, February 7, 2010

English Beat Rarities - Elusive and Unreleased Tracks Finally See The Light Of Day



Fans of The Beat are always on the lookout for anything remotely new that they can add to the somewhat finite universe of recorded material that is available from the band. With only three albums and very few non-album tracks, its been, slim pickings for anything new. However, I recently heard two incredibly rare and unreleased tracks by the band which have been the holy grail for obsessive fans of the band.

Back in 1983, as the band was focused on breaking their 'Special Beat Service' LP in the U.S. (and were in the process of breaking up themselves), they returned to the U.K. to record a session for the Kid Jensen radio show on BBC 1. Rumor has it that the band recorded up to 4 new and never released songs during the session, including a lovely cover of Cole Porter's 'Night & Day'. As the band disintegrated and reformed as General Public and Fine Young Cannibals in 1984, the tracks recorded for those sessions were lost to the annals of time.

Though the tracks have remained elusive and hidden away, their existence has never been in doubt. In fact as far back as 1999, Dave Wakeling was quoted in a Rolling Stone story about the possible release of a greatest hits retrospective that would include rare tracks. "I'm told the labs in England had found some live tapes and maybe we'll put some of that on it," he says. "Somebody said there was an idea that they'd found a couple of tracks on the master reels that we'd never finished. Ah, 'contains previously released tracks.' It's probably because they were s---."

Now, 27 years later, the band's ultra smooth version of Cole's 'Night & Day' along with a funky number called 'It Makes Me Rock' featuring some seriously angular sax playing from Wesley Magoogan (think Oingo Boingo) have finally seen the light of day via an amazing mix of rarities, b-sides and 12" remixes posted by Liam Ska on his blog. The mix also includes the hard to find version of 'Rock The Casbah' by The Clash featuring Ranking Roger which was on Mick Jones mix of 'Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg' which would later be re-mixed and re-cut as 'Combat Rock'.

Below is the track listing for the mix along with notes about each song compiled by Liam Ska.

1. Pussy Price (Live) - This version of Laurel Aitken's 'Pussy Price' was recorded live in Germany. It comes from the Beat's concert for German TV's 'Rockpalast'.
2. Stand Down Margaret (Dub) - This was a double 'A' side with Best Friend. It has been previously available on cd on the 'B.P.M...Beats.Per.Minute' compilation in 1996. This has since gone out of print.
3. Psychedelic Rockers (7" Version) - This version has only previously been available as the 'b' side of the 'Too Nice To Talk To' 7" in 1980.
4. Hit It (Auto Erotic) (7" Version) - This was a non-album single from 1981. It has previously been available on cd in the USA on the 'What Is Beat?' compilation.
5. Which Side Of The Bed (7" Version) - This version has only previously been available as the 'b'-side to 'Hit It' in 1981.
6. Cool Entertainer (7" Version) - This was released as the 'b'-side to Pato & Roger's 'Ago Talk' single in 1982.
7. What's Your Best Thing (7" Version) - This was released as the 'b'-side to 'Save It For Later' in 1982.
8. March of the Swivelheads (7" Version) - This version was only previously released as the 'b'-side to 'Jeanette' in 1982.
9. It Makes Me Rock - Unreleased track from a 1983 Kid Jensen Radio 1 session
10. Night & Day - Unreleased track from a 1983 Kid Jensen Radio 1 session
11. Rock The Casbah - Ranking Roger toasting over 'Mustapha Dance' by The Clash and is unreleased.
12. Hands Off...She's Mine (12" Version) - The Beat's first 12" single, released in 1980.
13. Twist & Crawl (12" Version) - Double 'a'-side with 'Hands Off...She's Mine'.
14. Too Nice To Talk To (Dubweiser) - Taken from the 'Too Nice To Talk To' 12".
15. Psychedelic Rockers (Dubweiser) - 'B'-side of the 'Too Nice To Talk To' 12".

23 comments:

biopunk said...

Thanks Marco!

Konrad Useo said...

Great fun listening to these.
Many thanks.

Marco On The Bass said...

Glad you are enjoying the tunes! It was great to finally hear the unreleased tracks.

McCrank said...

I thought I saw a FYC recorded version of this same tune - the Cole Porter "Love For Sale" - is this the same track?

Marco On The Bass said...

Hi McCrank. FYC did record Porter's 'Love For Sale' which leads me to believe it was one of the Cannibals who decided The Beat should cover 'Night & Day'. What do you think of the 2 unreleased tracks? I quite like 'It Makes Me Rock'.

smallaxe said...

Really glad to get this. Is there a disc 2?

Marco On The Bass said...

Thanks Small Axe. Surf over to Liam Ska's site to download the other two discs he created.

boomhead said...

Thanks for the link/download. Really enjoying your blog. Keep skanking.

Splangy said...

Marco,

Thanks for this. There's still one elusive track out there that I can't find.

I've heard what sounds to my ears like a full blown cover of Rock the Casbah by the Beat. It's not RR toasting over the original Clash song and it's not RR and Pato Banton covering. It's also not, I'm 90% certain, Mustapha Dance. I only heard a snippet (turned it into a ringtone) but the production value was too high for them not have completed the song.

ANY IDEAS AT ALL ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Thanks,

GB

Anonymous said...

Anyone??

Hello? Tell me you have the answer.

The song is out there and our lives are less meaningful without it.

jeff said...

Marco, just found your blog and I've enjoyed catching up on it. I totally missed this post back in Feb, though -- is there anywhere else I can download these files? BTW, I have that great BPM compilation on vinyl and CD -- took me ages to find it. Great blog -- still working my way through the archives.

Marco On The Bass said...

Hi Jeff! Just realized the link is dead. If you send me your e-mail address I'll send you a fresh link for these tunes.

Unknown said...

Marco--

Same thing: been looking to get "Psychedelic Rockers" forever, and can't believe I missed the original posting and working link. Arrrgh.

Geoff

Anonymous said...

please please please repost

Marco On The Bass said...

I was finally able to re-collect the songs from this comp and will upload them in the next day or so. Check the link in a few days and it should be working again.

Marco On The Bass said...

The link has been fixed and the mix has been uploaded. Enjoy!

Jim P. said...

Thanks a lot for all this, buddy.

Anonymous said...

Marco!

A year after the event I've finally caught on - but better late than never....

This is fantastic. I heard the original broadcast of the mentioned Radio 1 session (ahem, yes, I am an oldie) and have been desperate to hear The Beat's version of 'Night and Day' again for something like 28 years. Thank you. You've made my day.

Mattylad

Anonymous said...

hey my name is jim and i check this blog a bunch. But now I see "Psychedelic Rockers" and the original "What Side of the Bed...?" is gone....is there any way you could re-up those??

Pablo said...

Same as above, any chance of getting the missing tracks again? I love the Beat.

Anonymous said...

Hey just so everybody knows, "It Makes Me Rock" is now available in a proper studio version, along with the same performance of "Night And Day" on the reissue of Special Beat Service. And everything else is also available now, except for "Pussy Price".

Mark aka Kip Pullman said...

Incredible. You are so kind for leaving a treasure such as this. I love the mixes and dubs. Thanks so much.

Unknown said...

Have you heard of "Motor Show" a track recorded by The Beat? Mentioned on page 183 of Ranking Roger's bio.