The English Beat

To call the English Beat a ska band would be like calling the Beatles a Merseybeat act -- accurate as far as it goes, though hardly going far enough. One of the few bands in the 2-Tone movement to extend its integrationist approach to matters of musical style, the Beat (as the band was known in Britain) drew equally from Motown, '60s rock, music hall, and punk to develop a sound that was rich and ...