VTR1000.ORG

any of us who are of an age to remember the late 70s and early 80s music culture, will know of 2 tone movement and Ska .... so you will know of the Beat.

Sadly the front man and lead singer Ranking Roger passed away yesterday at the age of 56. .... RIP

Last saw them in 2018 and they were still as good as ever .. in their latest incarnation his son, Ranking Junior, was also a singer in the band.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/ra ... ocid=ientp

Saw that also, sad day indeed.
He was a very articulate gent as well as a great musician.
Sad way to go.

Played a great set when they were on at a festival last year or 17, too soon, rip.

when I saw them last year they were on a 4 band line up with SLF, Selector & Buzzcocks. now both Pete Shelly and Ranking Roger have gone, so 2 of those bands have lost their top man........... Jake Burns and Pauline Black have got to be worried about the statistics here

Saw him Coventry last year with Selector. Good show. Didn't realize Fuzz from car sos was the drummer in the beat

StuartWags wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:28 pm Saw him Coventry last year with Selector. Good show. Didn't realize Fuzz from car sos was the drummer in the beat

I first heard of Fuzz when he was the drummer in the indy grunge band Pop Will Eat Itself [PWEI] and most of that band came out of the West Midlands Bus garage in Dudley! In the early days they would tour with the WonderStuff in support, then as time went on the Wonderstuff became more famous and PWEI ended up being the support.

Fuzz has his own band called Bently Rhythm Ace [bit to dance for me], but also moonlights with a number of midland bands ... and as well as car SOS, where he runs the restoration workshop they base the series at, he was editor of Practical classics car magazine .

he is a cool dude

just checked his wikipidia, and it looks like he played with Ranking Roger before the Beat, and is now their full time Drummer ... I don't spot him

That is sad news. Not a very nice ending, and only 56yrs old,

Chris.