THE BEAT are back! Now fronted by Ranking Junior, their music fuses Latin, ska, pop, soul, reggae and punk rock.
THE BEAT are back! Now fronted by Ranking Junior, taking over the lead vocal duties since the sad passing of his father Ranking Roger in 2019 and keeping the legacy alive. The Beat are an English band formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978. Their music fuses Latin, ska, pop, soul, reggae and punk rock.
Along with their contemporaries The Specials, The Selecter, and Madness, The Beat became an overnight sensation and one of the most popular and influential bands of the British ska movement. By Christmas of 1979, The Beat were riding high in the UK charts with their first single, a smoking remake of the classic Smokey Robinson tune Tears of a Clown. Over the course of the next five years The Beat toured relentlessly and released three studio albums: “I Just Can’t Stop It”, “Wh’appen”, both reaching number 3 in The UK album charts and “Special Beat Service”. The band toured the world, touring with such artists as David Bowie, The Police, REM, The Clash, The Talking Heads, The Pretenders, and The Specials, to name but a few.