#Dave Wakeling

[retropopcult]

"Tenderness" is a song by English new wave band General Public, released as a single from their debut studio album All the Rage (1984). It slowly climbed the charts in the US, peaking at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[bronskibeet]

From a 2023 interview with Dave Wakeling of the Beat (link) - I really like how he describes Terry Hall's stage presence here

[2tonerecords]

stuff from a while ago

[superherokiller]

The Beat.

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Flexipop #14 (1982)

Welcome To The Working Week: Dave Wakeling (The Beat)

[guerrilla-operator]

[flashbackvixen80s]

Happy birthday Dave!

Happy birthday to Dave Wakeling of the English Beat!

Here's a little English Beat tribute from FHA with "Save It For Later" in honor of his birthday

[spilladabalia]

The Beat - Save It For Later

[all-rock-and-roll-is-homosexual]

Flexipop #14/ Welcome to the Working Week

Featuring:

Dave Wakeling of the Beat

if you like my scans and want to repost them off of tumblr or crop/otherwise make edits to any of the photos contained within this post please credit my blog and the original photographer (where applicable), and if you’re feeling extra generous and want to help me out you can donate via my ko-fi donating will allow me to obtain more magazines to scan and upgrade my equipment

[greensparty]

Album Reviews: John Hughes compilation / Guns N’ Roses box set

This week I got to review two mammoth box sets and boy are they stacked and loaded:

‘Life Moves Pretty Fast’ The John Hughes Mixtapes various artists

album cover

One of my favorite writer / directors of the 80s was easily Mr. John Hughes. Looking at his filmography from 1983 to 1989 is so impressive. Classics upon classics. He was so prolific with films he either wrote or wrote and directed during that unbelievable run over six years: National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, The Great Outdoors, and Uncle Buck. People often underestimate how talented Hughes was at marrying the music and film by his use of the perfect song in his iconic scenes. Film geeks don’t talk about him the way that they do, say, Wes Anderson or Martin Scorsese in terms of mastering the needle-drop into a scene. But Hughes was definitely passionate about music and that came off in the soundtracks to his films. It was said that Hughes would often travel to London when he was between projects and just shop at record stores. Sometimes he would showcase a lesser known artist to U.S. audiences, other times he was catching an artist in their prime or he might’ve been digging up some older nuggets. Now the Hughes Estate in collaboration with Hughes’ longtime music supervisor Tarquin Gotch have curated a 4CD 74-track box set compilation ‘Life Moves Pretty Fast’ The John Hughes Mixtapes being released Friday by Demon Music Group.

Hughes on-set directing Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

About a year or two ago, I scored a copy of the limited edition Ferris Bueller soundtrack, which was kind of cool because there wasn’t a soundtrack album for the movie in 1986. I love that it finally did get a soundtrack release filled with loads of songs and music score. Much of those songs are featured on this box set. There is the obvious tracks on this compilation: Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from Breakfast Club, The Psychedelic Furs’ “Pretty in Pink”, Yello’s “Oh Yeah” from Ferris, Lindsay Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” from the Vacation movies, and The Thompson Twins’ “If You Were Here” from Sixteen Candles. But what really impressed me is what a deep dive they did. I mean they went for some lesser known tracks that just played in the background and were not in the foreground. But more than anything it took me back to his films and reminded me of so many of his awesome moments: Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” playing during the birth sequence in She’s Having a Baby, The Beat’s “March of the Swivelheads” playing as Ferris is racing to get home before his parents, Killing Jokes’ “Eighties” playing during the party scene in Weird Science, Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” playing as Duckie sings along with it in the record store in Pink, or Ray Charles’ “Mess Around” as John Candy is playing air-piano while driving in Planes just to name a few. Because this is set up as a mixtape modeled on the tapes Hughes was making at the time, you can also tell what music he was into at the time, which was mostly new wave. There’s more than one song from The Dream Academy (including the sublime “Edge of Forever”), Dave Wakeling (both solo and with General Public), Echo and the Bunnymen, Big Audio Dynamite, and well, way too many artists to name here. As both a film geek and music geek, as well as a lifelong Hughes fan, this box set is a treat for fans. You could easily buy all of the soundtracks, but what’s cool about this set is that it feels like Hughes took the time to mix his soundtracks into the perfect mixtape!

For info on Life Moves Pretty Fast: https://www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/catalogue/releases/life-moves-pretty-fast-the-john-hughes-mixtapes-4cd/

4.5 out of 5 stars

Guns N’ Roses Use Your Illusion I and II Box Set

box set cover

To say that Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and II were the most highly anticipated album releases of that time period would be a colossal understatement. After the boffo success of their 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction they were the biggest hard rock band on the planet from 1988 onward. To satisfy the fans they released GN’R Lies which was a reissue of Live Like a Suicide with some acoustic songs and they released some songs on soundtracks and compilations but what fans really wanted was a new album. Around 1990 they announced not one but two albums being released at the same time. For a solid year, I kept gathering clues about the album (MTV News, Rolling Stone, rock radio, Circus, etc) as the release date kept getting pushed. Finally they began a tour in the summer of 1991 and they had the biggest song of Summer 1991 with “You Could Be Mine” from Terminator 2. But on September 17, 1991 both albums were finally released. The night before record stores across the country opened at midnight with fans lined up outside to be able to buy it right away. I didn’t go at midnight but after school my step-sister gave me a ride to Newbury Comics to pick up both CDs. $25 total was a lot of money to me at the time, but it was my big purchase for the month. I gleaned over all 30 songs, the lyrics, that album art, and the album as a whole. They were one of my favorite bands and this album enforced that. Now 31 years later both albums are getting the box set treatment with the new UYI Super Deluxe Edition dropping Friday from UMe.

the box set’s bells and whistles

During the recording of UYI, drummer Steven Adler was replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. The band also added keyboardist Dizzy Reed. If Appetite for Destruction was raw hard rock, this album as a whole was a little more glossier and it was also the band swinging for the fences: orchestras, guest singers like Alice Cooper, and covers (Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” and Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”).  But it is very much a GN’R go-big-or-go-home rocker of an album. I listened to it quite often as a teen. Disc 1 is UYI I remastered. “November Rain” is a 2022 new version with a 50-piece orchestra. Disc 2 is UYI II remastered. Disc 3 and 4 is their live concert from May 16, 1991 at the Ritz Theatre in New York City. This was one of the band’s pre-tour warm-up surprise shows as they prepared for their big Summer tour. They covered Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and then go into “Civil War”. There are also snippets of covers of Rod Stewart’s “I Was Only Joking” and Alice Cooper’s “Only Women Bleed” before going into GN’R songs. For two songs, the band is joined by the late Shannon Hoon who appeared on backing vocals on “Don’t Cry” before Blind Melon’s first album was out. Discs 5, 6 and 7 are the band’s concert from January 25, 1992 at Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. By this point rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin had left and was replaced by Gilby Clarke. This one features even more covers including The Godfather theme song, The Eagles’ “Hotel California”, and Pink Floyd’s “Mother”. More so than the NYC concert, this was the band putting on a big arena rock show with back-up singers, a horn section and various members getting to do their solos. Various versions of this reissue are being released including ones that include a blu-ray of the NYC show, a 100-page book, and various collectibles. For this review I did not get to see the blu-ray or read the book.

GN’R in 1991

This is a very robust reissue that will have GN’R fans salivating. I enjoyed both concerts. They serve as a reminder of what a great live band they were. I was lucky enough to see them in Sept. 1992 when they co-headlined Foxborough Stadium with Metallica. What a show that was! This lineup was incredible: Axl was a bigger-than-life rock star, Slash and Izzy and Gilby were guitar heroes, Duff McKagan was a solid bassist, Dizzy brought keyboards into the band in a way that it hadn’t been on Appetite, and Matt Sorum was keeping the beat the whole time. I kind of wished this reissue included some outtakes. I know, I know - UYI I and II had 30 songs and here I am wishing there was more. But it would’ve been cool to hear some rarities that didn’t make the cut. Oh well, maybe for the 40th anniversary edition!

For info on UYI: https://gnr.lnk.to/UYI2022PR

4 out of 5 stars

[punkrockmixtapes]

Dave Wakeling - I Want More - 1991

[thekylemeredith]

“I don’t know how everyone gets away with high ticket prices”

The English Beat’s Dave Wakeling joins Kyle Meredith With... to talk about progressive topics, John Hughes, & Wha'ppen?

#theenglishbeat #80smusic #80s

[music-crush]

Dave Wakeling

Happy birthday Dave Wakeling, frontman for General Public!

[sinceileftyoublog]

The English Beat Live Show Review: 12/4, City Winery Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When The English Beat (or The Beat, as they were known in the UK) started in the late 1970s, inflation was out of control, people were living under the threat of nuclear war, and you couldn’t trust any politician to give a shit. “Totally different from today!” facetiously joked Dave Wakeling during the band’s show last night at City Winery. Really, the group’s unique status in the music landscape back then holds true today, too. Though toaster Ranking Roger passed away in 2019 and had long been performing under a separate incarnation of the band, even the current Beat lineup’s diversity belies homogeneous trends in punk. From current toaster Antonee First Class--London-born and of Jamaican descent--to keyboardist Minh Quan and saxophonist Matt Morrish, each player brings their own distinct musical background in interpreting fused renditions of new wave, punk, and ska. When Antonee gave the generic speech you hear all the time about music bringing “Black, white, brown, Asian,” etc. people together, he grouped it with the idea that the band brings together different subsets of reggae subcultures, too, from rude boys and girls to skinheads.

Really, before the band got into the hits that transcend genre and have, like, sound-tracked films--General Public’s “Tenderness”, “Save It For Later”--they dove deep into ska. Walking out to Harry J. Allstars’ eternal “Liquidator”, Wakeling challenged the crowd to beat the previous night’s in terms of energy. (“I can confirm that 3-4 people can dance on the tables and they won’t break,” he said.) Appropriately, they launched into their version of Prince Buster’s “Rough Rider”, “Hands Off...She’s Mine”, and “Twist & Crawl”, from their debut I Just Can’t Stop It. Their performances of “Too Nice to Talk To”, with Morrish’s saxophone blaring, and “Doors of Your Heart” reflected the worldbeat the band experimented with as they grew, widening their reach beyond even the borders of London and the Caribbean. “For people who aren’t there,” Wakeling said before performing the latter, “We dance for them.” In their following performances of “Ranking Full Stop”, segueing into “Mirror in the Bathroom”, it felt like the spirit of Roger Charlery was there, anyway. The beat goes on.