Blue Beat comes to Coventry 1964

 

Blue Beat comes to Coventry 1964

You tend to associate Blue Beat music as an influence for the Ska scene that took off in Coventry during the late 1970s. And indeed it was.

But I hadn't really considered that the genre had reached the ears of music loving public of Coventry much before that. But how wrong I was. Yes we had the reggae boom of the late 60s. I clearly remember reggae singles being heavily played in the youth clubs at that time.

So imagine my surprise, while researching for something entirely different, an article I came across in a column in a Coventry newspaper from 1964.

The article was reviewing the latest Blue Beat releases. Admittedly, these records were not from the Blue Beat catalogue itself. But the discs themselves were by heavy weights from the scene which found them released by the Decca, Columbia and Ember labels.

The article is reproduced below:

Blue Beat has come to Coventry. For some time it's lively rhythm has dominated the scene in many of London's West End night spots, and now this infectious message is spreading. Local record shops report encouraging sales and many of the Blue Beat discs are now available.

Perhaps one of the most commercial singles in this style would be 'Cross My Heart' a Decca release from The Exotics.

The eight Exotics are West Indians – seven of them were born in the West Indies but one, tenor player Jimmy Sampson, is a product of that fab beat city, Liverpool.

'Cross My Heart' is an up tempo number, full of vigour and musical colour, and benefits from the vocal sounds of singer and pianist, 22 year old Owen Gray.

Columbia Records offer 'Little Girl' coupled with 'The Bluest Beat', a combination of the sounds of Ezz Reco and the Launchers and Boysie Grant and Beverley. The disc is a follow up to the Launchers 'King of Kings'.

Boysie Grant was responsible for the vocal on the last one and this time he is helped out by Beverley. Ezz and his group thump out the rhythm while Boysie and Beverley call and answer each other throughout the song.

The whole thing has a deliberate thudding beat in a slow-medium tempo and yet manages to steer clear of over commercialism.

Ember Records have released two Blue Beat discs as a start to a new series of rhythm and blues extended players. Entitled The Fabulous Blue Beats' – volume one and two – the records were taped in a seemingly ideal atmosphere of a cool cellar in the heart of Soho.

Out of the gay laughter and rings of cigar smoke came titles like 'I'm the Loneliest Boy in Town' and 'Tan Tan Blues'. Story songs, city songs, these are examples of pepped up sounds with modern overtones that still retain the old tradition of the blues.

I have played these two EP's over and over again and enjoyed them. However the one tune that really impressed was the lengthy ever swaying 'Tight Like That' on volume one.