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PICTURES: Sam Wells, WORDS: Matt Catchpole
It’s a scorching Camden summer time’s night and we’re right here to witness the return of the leaders of two bands whose second within the solar stretches again greater than 40 years.
Sure it was 1982 when Dave Wakeling‘s band The Beat and Bow Wow Wow, fronted by precocious Burma-born teen Annabella Lwin, had been on the peak of their powers.
A time when rocketing inflation was inflicting a value of dwelling disaster and a right-wing Tory authorities was at warfare with the unions. Sound acquainted?
However as fellow ’80s survivors ABC as soon as stated: “That was then and that is now”.
May these icons of ska and tribal post-punk nonetheless be related all these years on?
Learn on to search out out:

After an lively opening blast from Conflict covers outfit London Calling – it was time for a stripped down Bow Wow Wow to strut their stuff.
Backed by impressively mutton-chopped guitarist Wild Invoice ‘Lightnin” Woodcock and sensational drummer John Montgomery, Lwin is a pressure of nature as she bounces onto the stage.
Simply 14 when the band broke by means of, she’s clearly delighted to be again within the metropolis the place she was first found singing alongside to a radio in a West Hampstead dry cleaners.
The Burundi beats made well-known by authentic drummer Dave Barbarossa are keenly in proof because the band launch into c30 c60 c90 Go! – the world’s first cassette single.
Kitted out in a striped gown in Jamaican colors, her hero Bob Marley emblazoned on the entrance, Lwin treats us to a breathless run by means of her repertoire.
She reminds us her tune Aphrodisiac was used on the soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola-directed 2006 movie Marie Antionette and likewise pays tribute to authentic guitarist-songwriter Matthew Ashman who died aged simply 35 in 1995.
With a nod to the headliners she performs a ska-ified cowl of Marley’s Cheer Up and Bow Wow Wow’s hit cowl of The Strangeloves‘ I Need Sweet will get a properly obtained airing.
Smiling and shimmying backwards and forwards, Annabella cuts a really totally different determine to the moody, sensual determine of her youth.
Her glorious band give a brand new freshness and vitality to the songs and although based mostly within the US, she clearly retains a keenness for the capital.
“You’ll be able to take the lady out of London, however not the London out of the lady!”, she declares on her first London present for seven years.
Set nearer, Go Wild In The Country – a high 10 hit in 1982 – is a fittingly vibrant finish to a vivid and breezy set.
It’s a packed home and there’s a sizeable queue for the gents’ earlier than the primary occasion.
An indication, as one wag factors out, that it is a present for women and men (it’s a reasonably even cut up) of a sure age.
Many of those people of their Fred Perry polo shirts had been there within the glory days when Ska’s Impolite girls and boys briefly took over the charts, providing a hopeful various at a time of racial and financial turmoil.
There’s a marked buzz of pleasure as Dave Wakeling’s signature Gibson Teardrop guitars are laid out on stage and the lights dim for the arrival of The Beat.
A beaming Wakeling is aware of his viewers and set opener Tough Rider – a canopy of the Prince Buster basic – rapidly will get them shifting.

Twist and Crawl ups the tempo nonetheless additional, whereas Palms Off She’s Mine sparks a spontaneous singalong.
There’s a poignant second as Wakeling remembers misplaced compadres: toaster and co-vocalist Rating Roger, drummer Everett Morton and saxophonist Lionel ‘Saxa’ Morton.
“All gone, however we nonetheless love them so,” Wakeling says by means of intro to I Can’t Get Used To Shedding You.
There’s even a whistling solo.
“When did you final hear Sting and Bono doing their very own whistling?” Wakeling asks in his outstanding Brummie drawl.
It’s one thing of a homecoming for the singer-songwriter, who factors out that The Beat’s (The English Beat in America) discs had been recorded in a studio subsequent door to tonight’s venue.
He’s the one authentic member within the eight-piece line-up however his well-drilled band of youthful ska-colytes ship hits like Too Good To Discuss To and Mirror within the Rest room with polish.
That stated, a number of the hard-edged cynicism and political punch of songs just like the anti-Thatcher anthem, Stand Down Margaret is misplaced within the prevailing temper of celebration.
However the viewers don’t care, in truth at one level the rowdiness of the dancing even triggers a flash of concern amongst safety.
The concept of this well mannered gathering of individuals of their 50s and 60s inflicting a riot is plainly preposterous and rightly attracts a rebuke to the Roundhouse employees from Wakeling.
“A few of you lot are going to have sore knees within the morning,” he laughs as the stress rapidly defuses.
Co-vocalist and toaster mc Antonee First Class is full of life and assured – build up a rapport with the group with a name and response and routine, punctuated by chants of ‘Ruuuuuude Boyyyyzzz’.
A strong and surprisingly gritty Two Swords – a considerate tune about confronting fascism – leads the encore, earlier than Wakeling shares an anecdote about assembly Smokey Robinson at a Grammy’s occasion.
Wakeling’s sort phrases to the Motown legend are rewarded with a beneficiant hug.
“And it went on and it went on, and it bought a bit awkward,” the frontman remembers,” Christopher Cross needed to break us up like a referee.
“I cherished Smokey and after that I feel it’s truthful to say Smokey cherished me,” the singer jokes earlier than breaking into The Beat’s ska-tinged model of Tears of a Clown.
A canopy of the Desmond Dekker-penned Jackpot provides us a final probability to get a little bit of skanking in earlier than heading out into the warmth of the evening.
A shameless nostalgia-fest to make certain, however the high quality of the songwriting shines on by means of the passing years.
- For extra about The English Beat with Dave Wakeling go to their web site right here
- For extra about Bow Wow Wow with Annabella Lwin head to her official website
And if you wish to know what all of the fuss was about within the ’80s take a look at the movies beneath.
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