Posted on 03/29/2019 9:54:06 PM PDT by gawatchman
Roger Charlery, the English singer-songwriter behind the seminal two-tone band The Beat (known in the U.S. as the English Beat) and successful successor group General Public, died Tuesday from undisclosed causes. He was 56.
“‘He fought & fought & fought, Roger was a fighter.’ Sadly Roger past away a few hours ago peacefully at his home surrounded by family,” the Beat said in a statement posted to the band’s Facebook page. “Roger’s family would like to thank everyone for their constant support during this tough time. More to follow in the coming days. RIP ROGER!”
Born in in 1963 in Birmingham to parents who immigrated from Saint Lucia, Charlery rose to prominence in the late 1970s during the second wave of Ska as a member of The Beat, serving as lead singer alongside Dave Wakeling. The band’s sound, a mix of traditional ska with post-punk, pop and Latin elements, was a crucial development in the genre that came to be called two-tone, after The Beat’s label, 2-Tone records
Eddie Vedder said he took the rhythm and chords from this song to compose Better Man.
Here’s my favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPO2G6m746w
The last line of this song sounds spookily like “I’m dead”, but it’s actually “and then”
Didn’t like General Public very much.
XLNT!
Thanks, that is What I needed.
You probably heard the story about Dave Wakeling getting a call from Pete and David Gilmour asking him about the tuning he used on that song. Imagine getting that call.
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