80s band invasion! Some are zombies; others, rosy-cheeked and twinkly of eye.

Everybody's re-formed. Some do it better than others. 

Ocean Colour Scene are back in the Irish Centre in Digbeth for their 20th anniversary tour gig.  I just spotted a flyer for a gig in Manchester next year, with The Wonder Stuff headlining. Also on the bill are Bentley Rythm Ace. Richard March of that band plays with Rhino and The Ranters, who supported the Stuffies' acoustic gig last week in Birmingham. The Ranters' drummer, Pete Hammond used to be in the Au Pairs. And lo, Au Pairs head honcho Lesley Woods is back in Brum next year. 

There's a lot of it about. In August 2014, I met up with Terry and Gerry as they plugged a comeback tour. We were kindly given the back room at the Hare and Hounds, and they ripped though 'Butter's On The Bread' live for me to use on the blog. It's here.

I went to the local gig, full of excited 50-somethings and some of their kids. The full band played: Sue and Mick on washboard/percussion and guitar, with Terry on Bass, and Gerry fronting on guitar.

Mile-wide grins all round. Since then things have moved on apace. 

The Beat goes on. And on. And on. Three different ways.

UPDATE: A revised and expanded version of this post 

is included in the Radio To Go ebook, Survivors 

It's complicated. We're now living in a universe where three, count 'em, three Beats are clattering, rattling, skanking, twisting and crawling.

Everett and his cohort of Mighty Mighty local Bosstones. Photo by Horseman

Dave Wakeling, a founder member of the original Beat, lives in California, and leads The English Beat. Fellow Beat founder Ranking Roger leads his brand of The Beat at home, and Everett Morton, the original drummer, has just announced dates for his band, Beat Goes Bang. 

Time for a chat with Everett, to go with this blog's existing posts on Dave and Roger. you'll find links for those at the bottom of this post. There's clearly a bit of history here. I wasn't planning to dig too deep into the feelings that boil up over a thirty year professional association. But I did... just a bit. 

The immediate question that springs to mind is: leaving Dave's US-based operation aside, is there room for two Beats in the UK, and what sort of musical differentiation will there be?

Wha'ppen next, Dave? a conversation with Dave Wakeling, who wrote 'Stand Down Margaret'

"I often think this band reunion thing is like inviting the first five or six people you had sex with... and expecting everyone to get on great." 

Hunt Emerson's brilliant logo

It's complicated. Dave Wakeling was a founder member of The Beat, one of Birmingham's finest original pop/ska bands. Now he's in California, leading the English Beat, and fellow founder Ranking Roger leads a 21st century Beat at home. Roger was profiled here last year ahead of Birmingham's Reggae City May festival; The Selecter are starring this year. 

The original Beat line-up is long gone, but a classic song has echoed down the years of late. Stand Down Margaret got renewed airplay in the weeks leading up to Thatcher's funeral. I wondered if Dave would want to revisit all that old territory. But, courtesy personified; revisit it he did, especially as it ties in nicely with Specialized 2 Beat Teenage Cancer, a soon come album of covers of original Beat Songs to help Teenage Cancer Trust.