The Beat, January 1980
"A good time was obviously being had by most."
This gig took place on 19 December 1979, and sums up the way the post-punk music scene was starting to fragment.
Support act God’s Toys were another Coventry band who, a quick internet search tells me, were expected to be big. Perhaps that’s the reason his review was illustrated with a photo of them rather than the headliners.
THE BEAT/GOD'S TOYS
Eric's Liverpool
MELODY MAKER, January 5, 1980
IF YOU think yet another 2-Tone group is a bit of a yawn, you should have seen the support.
Whatever else you might think of them, God's Toys are hard to ignore. The word is "colourful" as you're confronted with five people of indeterminate sex clad in Skids' Top Of The Pops suits, and looking glaringly out of place among the predominantly mod audience. Then the keyboards start up and it's oh no, not more Numan clones. But there's a surprise as the next song has a reggae beat (complete with lyrics about smoking ganja), and most of the set continues in the same vein.
The mods look as bemused as I feel, but at any rate aren't hostile. I get bored and start thinking about people who jump on every possible bandwagon at once. Can you really please everyone?
How quickly things go stale. The excitement and novelty of 2-Tone's Specials has worn off. This is the problem faced by the Beat. Dance music's all very well, but there are times you feel too intimidated to have the necessary good time. At these gatherings — an outsider in what was once my second home — I begin to understand the antagonism once directed at the punks.
One of the good things about that Specials gig was the diversity of the audience, all enjoying themselves, with the racial mixture within the group further emphasising the unity which is only too rare on these occasions. Now the audience has narrowed: the 2-Tone following is essentially a mod one.
A good time was obviously being had by most. After a while you've almost forgotten about wanting to hear the hit single, and the two sides come almost as a bonus at the end of the set. "Ranking Full Stop" gains when heard live, but "Tears Of A Clown" still suffers in comparison with the original, and Ranking Roger's self-consciously ethnic interjections jar a little here and elsewhere.
If the Police make white reggae, and the Specials blue (beat), to quote the two extremes born of the same impulse, the Beat are black and white stripes. Emphasis is on a more modern reggae style than the ska revivalist, which alternates with the punk approach that gives other songs their intensity. It's less of a hybrid than you'd expect from a 2-Tone group, though equally accessible.
But, such variations apart, you feel like you've heard it all before.
Watch God’s Toys
Y’all know what The Beat (aka The English Beat) are like, so here’s a video of God’s Toys.
Did they become really big?
That's a very cool article and photo. Thank you Penny.