This is the story of one of the UK’s biggest two-tone bands, The Beat, who at the height of their fame in the early 1980s had three top-selling UK albums and epitomized the multi-racial approach to music and life in urban Britain. The story begins in 1979, when sixteen-year-old Birmingham school boy Roger—a punk fan—was invited to appear on stage at a local pub with the newly formed ska band, The Beat. Roger’s energetic style and Jamaican-influenced vocals, paired with Dave Wakeling's angelic pop vocals, immediately distinguished the band from the other ska bands making waves, The Specials, Selecter, and Madness. After recently recording new albums and playing sell-out international dates, The Beat's frontman Ranking Roger, who tragically passed away in the Spring of 2019, explores in this volume the band's extraordinary story.
