Podcast - Ep. 4: The English Beat - Dave Wakeling Interview

The English Beat recently performed at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, and John Fleming caught up with Dave Wakeling, frontman, for the Sound Words STL Podcast.

The English Beat is a band that has had three names: The Beat in the U.K., The British Beat in Australia and The English Beat in the U.S. (Paul Collins' Beat had the name first in America.)

For the band's American name, Wakeling was inspired after seeing English muffins at a diner.

It does present a predicament on what to call the band in the UK now, as the English Beat, which now is based in Calif., looks to release its fourth studio album, "Here We Go Love."

"It's past 99% done. It'll be mastered in the last couple of weeks before Christmas," Wakeling said of the album's progress.

The record, which is set for a March 2018 release, will be the first English Beat album since 1982's "Special Beat Service."

He had a unique perspective on how the band would exist in the post-punk early '80s.

"Our idea was, we could be the Monkees with John Lennon in the band. So you could get on television and still be subversive with a rye grin."

Following the English Beat's first run, Wakeling and co-frontman Ranking Roger formed the super group General Public, which also featured The Clash's Mick Jones and members of Dexys Midnight Runners and the Specials.

"Everybody was out of work, suddenly. And, although we all turned out to be quite famous, we all live really close to each other -- within 15 miles of each other, everybody."

With the band, Wakeling had a number 27 single with "Tenderness."

For more on the English Beat, visit EnglishBeat.net and DaveWakeling.com.