Read A Rare Copy Of The Beat fanzine ‘The Noise In This World’ From 1981!

Here is a special treat for fans of The Beat!  I recently came across a rare copy of the band's fan club newsletter -- The Noise In This World -- from May 1981.  The newsletter is chock full of fantastic information, articles about the band, interviews with the band members and some incredibly priceless pictures and serves as a fantastic companion to Malu Halasa's long out-of-print and impossible to find book about the band "The Beat: Twist & Crawl."

The Noise In This World (taken from the name of the song on I Just Can't Stop It) was produced, edited and neatly handwritten by a close friend of the band named Marilyn Hebrides, and her editorial perspective, punk rock cut and paste design style, comments and insights about her friends who had suddenly become pop stars makes for some very entertaining reading. You can read the entire edition below.

As background, Hebrides shared a cottage with the band's guitarists Dave Wakeling and Andy Cox on the Isle of Wight in 1978, where the three of them worked to build solar panels, When they weren't busy working, Wakeling and Cox played their guitars and wrote songs. As such Hebrides was privy to the very early days of the band as the duo of Wakeling and Cox began writing songs that would be recorded for their first album. One of those songs was a nascent version of "Best Friend" which caught Hebrides attention.  She urged them to start a band.  When they did and quickly became a success, they in turn asked her to be in charge of their fan club. It is from this unique vantage point that this edition of the newsletter, issued just before the band's second album Whappen was released, includes much of the band's back story and beginnings, as well as first person accounts written by the band members of their experiences touring in Ireland and the U.S. It even includes interviews and information about Cedric Myton and The Mood Elevators, who were signed to the band's own Go Feet label.