Nor is he a licensed physical therapist.
But the founding singer/guitarist of The English Beat knows what works for the health and well-being of his 68-year-old body, so he’s self-prescribed steady sessions of PST: Professional Ska Therapy.
“I had some health issues that I was unaware of. My circulation system was struggling,” he says from a car somewhere on the road in Tennessee.
“But because of my efforts dancing to ska five nights a week, I’ve built a whole new system of arteries and veins with hormones! I did a checkup and all the numbers were good. That’s the power of ska music! It’s better than being on a treadmill!”
And it’s something he’s practiced every night on his current tour opening for Adam Ant that started in March and runs through May. Fans will get to hear EB standards like “Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Save It for Later,” “Best Friend,” “Too Nice to Talk To” and “Tears of a Clown” when the tour comes to Houston’s House of Blues on April 20.
And, as the date coincides with Record Store Day, H-Town will get more as Wakeling will make an appearance earlier in the day at Cactus Music to celebrate the special 2024 RSD limited/expanded vinyl release of The English Beat’s 1981 album Wha’ppen?
As a teenager, Wakeling was very much a fan of record store culture in his hometown of Birmingham in the UK, then the Isle of Wight when his family moved. And a lot of that had to do with the know-how and recommendations of store staff.
“I would walk in and the person who knew me would say ‘Oh, I’ll put the new Blodwyn Pig aside for you.’ Or ‘The new Tim Buckley came in, I thought you might be interested.’ It was conspiratorial, like you were being let into a secret,” the ebullient Wakeling remembers.
“And if they didn’t have something, they’d order if for you. It was so much more personal than today where on a [streaming service] it will tell you ‘If you like U2, then you’ll love Radiohead.’”
He also remembers that the stores had listening booths, where one could sample all the new sounds or—as he says he also did—“just put on a pair of headphones and look at girls.”
And Wakeling had to work to get that music, unlike the convenience of having everything everywhere all at once with the touch of a button on your phone.
In fact, he vividly recalls how he'd often ride his bicycle 9.6 miles each way (!!) to the nearest record store on the Isle of Wight—trying to make the journey without touching the handlebar as a challenge—often bringing back just one 45.
One time, it was Devo’s wildly offbeat cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”—which he likened to UB40’s “Cherry Oh! Baby” mixed with Industrial music. He also recalls meeting the band one time, telling them that story, and noting that he knew if they could do that and get it released, then he could be in a group!
The original group (clockwise from left): Saxa, Ranking Roger, Everett Morton, David Steele, Andy Cox and Dave Wakeling.
Record cover
The Beat formed in 1978 and were doubly christened The English Beat in the U.S. to avoid confusion with another group. The multi-racial lineup included Wakeling, Ranking Roger (toasting), Andy Cox (guitar), David Steele (bass), Everett Morton (drums) and Saxa (saxophone).
Many fans (and even Wakeling himself) cite Wha’ppen? as the band’s most fully realized album. Its title taken from Roger’s frequent Jamaican patois greeting meaning “What’s going on?” It sits smack dab in between 1980’s speedy, frenetic, ska-punk infused debut I Just Can’t Stop It and the more pop-tinged tones of 1982’s Special Beat Service.
“It’s for me the most 3-D of those three records, the one with the most depth. And it sounds the best on headphones with so many layers of music,” he says. “It wasn’t as successful of the other two initially, but it found its audience. It’s more nuanced.”
He even notes the cover by cartoon artist Hunt Emerson with a colorful depiction of the ground in front of rising waves was meant to show The English Beat just in front of the incoming “tidal wave of success.”
Its sound is slower, with extensive political and social commentary. “Doors of Your Heart” and “Get-a-Job” were the best-known numbers, with “Drowning” and “All Out to Get You” hitting more in the UK (reissues would add the contemporary single “Too Nice to Talk To”).
The band was also inspired during the recording by a lot of the West African music they were listening to, stretching out from ska’s mostly Jamaican/Caribbean sounds. Wakeling remembers a very cloak-and-dagger way they got their hands on records from the continent.
“We went to London and someone said there’s this record shop, but it’s actually inside a vacuum repair shop. You go through the front of the shop into a back room, and it’s full of the latest records from Nigeria. We thought he was kidding and we were being pranked!” Wakeling recalls.
“But it turned out to be true! They have these great records by Prince Nico Mbarga and Ebenezer Obey. I mean, it looked like a front for something that you had to speak code in. ‘Oh yes, um, I’d like my vacuum repaired!” he laughs heartily.
He also recalls going into an instrument shop around the same time at the behest of David Steele where the group obtained a number of Saharan percussion instruments to use in the studio. None of which they knew how to play, at least initially.
“We spent 300 pounds, which was a fortune at the time! But we got busy around microphones learning them. At studio prices!” he says. [Note: That would equal approximately $1,379 in 2024 US dollars].
“Then we got a Chinese water gong. It was a big metal bathtub you filled up with water and a gong that you hit and lowered it in and it made this sound like ooowhoooowhooo! It all made the album a bit more decorated. And to help us break out of ska uniformity, or what the 'rules' of ska were.”
As to why ska never broke big in the US as it did in the UK, Wakeling believes it was likely due to a number of factors, including lack of definition like the New Romantic or Goth genres. And Jamaican music was often looked at as “country cousin” music in the US without the cache of Motown or Stax.
The English Beat would disband in1983, with Wakeling and Roger forming General Public (“Tenderness”); Cox and Steele recruited vocalist Roland Gift to form Fine Young Cannibals (“She Drives Me Crazy”); and Morton and Saxa came together in International Beat.
Various semi-reunions, collaborations, and guest spots would ensue, but never a coming together of the original six (despite the efforts of VH-1’s Bands Reunited).
A sort of fragile agreement was reached where “The Beat Featuring Ranking Roger” would play the UK and and the completely different “The English Beat Starring Dave Wakeling” would play in the US. Both would record, and Wakeling's unit would produce 2018’s Here We Go Love. Roger passed away the next year, after Saxa and before Morton.
In addition to Wakeling, the current lineup of the now just-named The English Beat includes Jamil Soto (bass), Mike Benj (drums), Harun Bonnett and Andwele Coore (keyboards), Antonee First Class (toasting), and Wakeling's daughter Chloe (vocals).
Finally, when I tell Wakeling I’ve got “just one more question,” he begins to laugh. "Bob, you're like Columbo!" he says. It turns out that he’s a big fan of the ’70s TV show in which Peter Falk’s rumpled detective usually uttered that phrase to an interviewee after supposedly ending his gentle interrogation and crack the case.
And he’s got a story from when he unexpectedly ran into Falk himself at a California golf club where the actor maintained an apartment and Wakeling was able to play once.
“I couldn’t believe it, because my favorite film is [1987’s] Wings of Desire in which he plays an immaculate part! I had to tell him and I think he was quite pleased that I wanted to talk about that and not the TV show,” Wakeling says.
“As I was walking away, I turned around and said ‘Ah, just one more thing…’ And he said ‘FUCK YOU!’”
Dave Wakeling will sign autographs, pose for photos, and chat with fans at 2 p.m., on Saturday, April 20, at Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth. For more information, call 713-526-9272 or visit CactusMusicTx.com. Priority line placement will be given to those who purchase an English Beat RSD release. Free.
Later that evening, The English Beat open for Adam Ant at 8 p.m. at the Bayou Music Center, 520 Texas. For more information, call 713-230-1600 or visit LiveNation.com. $54 and up.
