Review from Guildford (Sat 14/03/2015)

“We were at the gig on Saturday night in Guildford and I just wanted to let you know what a top night it was.  The sound is still fantastic and although the venue was small (by your standards) it was superb for those that were there. Stella and I were talking afterwards and one of the best things from the night was Ranking Junior, he was quality and its just good to know that he will be carrying the sounds forward for a new generation, (not that you’re finished yet, but you know what I mean).”

The Beat & Bionic Rats in Dublin (Review)

Legendary ska/reggae band The Beat from Birmingham in the U.K. have just started their 2015 world tour. It runs to November next, and sees the band visiting France, the Netherlands, Australia and Britain – with many more locations to be announced.

The Beat enjoy a unique and proud position in reggae\ska’s rollercoaster ride. The band played a crucial role during the 1980s in adapting the genre to a British audience, successfully merging it with the emotions of disaffected punk rockers and (frequently fascist-oriented!) ska supporting skin heads.

Rogers Radio Mixtape

Radio Schedule for Roger’s Mixtape : UK Friday 28 November (00:00 pm/London time) on http://www.sinefm.com/ Friday 28 November (9 pm / London time) on http://www.frenchradiolondon.com/France Saturday 22 November (6 pm/Paris time) on http://www.radiovnl.com/ Tuesday 25 November (10 pm/paris time) on http://www.crockradio.com/ Wednesday 26 November (11 pm/paris time) on http://www.jetfm.asso.fr/site/ Friday 28 November (11 pm/Paris time)…

Ranking Roger ‘Rock the Casbah’ EP for Strummerville

Ranking Roger vs Dopegrinders release a remix of Rock The Casbah in aid of Strummerville with the help of the Clash!
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/rockthecasbah

In 1981, coming off the back of The Beat’s top ten hit “Too Nice To Talk To”, Roger was asked by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones to sing on a version of Rock The Casbah that the Clash were recording. This lead to further collaborations between Roger and the Clash on the road, and then to Mick Jones playing guitar (and nearly joining the group) for General Public, the band that Roger and Dave Wakeling formed after the break up of The Beat in 1983, which enjoyed considerable success on the USA (their biggest hit, Tenderness, still being used in movies today).

While Roger and The Clash’s version of Rock The Casbah was never released, Roger has continued to play the song live (it was included on his recent Live In London CD), so when he met the producing duo Dopegrinders at Across The Tracks festival in 2012, and they decided to record together, it was an obvious track to start with. To make it even better, Mick Jones, as a favor to Roger, very kindly made the original stems available for the Dopegrinder’s use. By way of thanks, Dopegrinders, Roger & The Beat agreed to contribute all their collaborations to Strummerville (aka The Joe Strummer New Music Foundation), to be released in December 2014, the 12th anniversary of Joe’s death (22 December 2002).

Birmingham Show Cancelled

We are sorry to say we have cancelled our show on 13 December at Birmingham Institute. Madness are playing on the same night at the LG Arena which has obviously affected our show so we are going to look at another date in 2015 but in the meantime please contact the ticket outlet you purchased from for a refund.