DANCING WITH THE ENGLISH BEAT

The English Beat came to Denver this Thursday evening, putting on a fine performance at the Bluebird Theater.  I met someone else for dinner at the Goosetown Tavern where, to my suprise, it was pointed out that the bathroom doors were uniquely painted to help distinguish between the men's and women's restrooms.  What a suprise!

We arrived early, waiting for the doors to open.  While standing outside, Dave Wakeling stepped out and spent several minutes talking to us, chatting about his having recently stopped smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages (although O'doul's serves its purpose, he much prefers a bottle of NA St Pauli Girl), the very favorable Rolling Stone review of his soon to be released box set (he appreciates the recognition he is now getting, and that it's not such a bad thing that he and his band didn't rise to stardom with all the associated drugs, alcohol and subsequent burnout) and our request to play some lesser known songs (although one or two new songs may be played occasionally, the set list is carefully selected to keep the audience engaged, Dave's experience being that different songs may fall flat).  What a charming individual with a beautiful voice!

A really great performance that kept us hopping for the nearly two hours they were on stage.  The audience, made up of loyal fans, was genuinely disappointed when at the end of their long show the band did not return for an encore.  After continuous cheering for an extraordinary amount of time, the audience got it when the stage crew began packing up the guitars.  A fabulous time!

I biked back to the office, smoked a cigar and had a very pleasant sleep under the cottonwood trees along Cherry Creek in the cool evening air.

From The Rolling Stone:

On July 10th, the English Beat will release a new single disc, Keep The Beat: The Very Best Of The English Beat, as well as a career-spaning five-disc box set, The English Beat: The Complete Beat. The set contains previously unreleased extras, including "Save It for Later" from the Peel Sessions and "Which Side of the Bed," which was previously unreleased in the U.S. Both tracks are available to stream exclusively at RollingStone.com.

The English Beat singer Dave Wakeling considers "Which Side of the Bed" to be an "ironic celebration of the battle of the sexes." He explains that the track is about the emotional distance between a couple in bed. "Separated by what feels like a thousand miles and a thousand reasons from the person you are laying next to, you wake up to find you are touching toes," Wakeling says. "The bittersweet sensation is too intense to go back to sleep, it's hard to breathe, you cannot move, so you start to write a song in your head... 'Who started this next operation on our hearts.'"

The English Beat will hit the road at the end of March for a North American tour in support of the box set's release.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/song-exclusive-the-english-beats-which-side-of-the-bed-and-save-it-for-later-20120411#ixzz1zIoNsCc3

Download the show here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|561p8|597513615|EBBluebirdDenverCOJune_28_2012_MP3.rar|263771|0|0