Caught in the Carousel

There is so much to tell you today, but for now let's just focus on your adolescent infatuation with Dave Wakeling and your love of The English Beat and General Public. I know you are still bitter that your mom didn't let you go with your brothers to see the Beat open for the Clash, but you will later understand that she was right, and at 11, you were waaaaay too young to accompany drunk teenage boys to a concert, even if they were your relatives. And stop fretting over your imperfect 2 Tone checkerboard drawings on mixed tape labels because soon your oldest brother will fly you to L.A. to see General Public live and all will be right with the world again, or at least all will be right that weekend. And while that is exciting on its own, further out, when you are older than you can even fathom being, specifically in the year 2010, you will be married, have a small child and get the opportunity to see a reincarnated version of the English Beat with Dave Wakeling at the helm. I tell you this now, because I think your outlook on life will be so much brighter if you keep in mind that the things, or specifically the music that inspires you at 13, can still move you in the same way when you are, er…uh, much, (decades, even!) much older.

In between your now, and my now (our nows and thens?), your turntable will die unexpectedly and you will give your English Beat and General Public vinyl albums away to a very good home. For some reason, you won't replace those albums until your boyfriend/future husband rips songs for you from Napster (a free, but illegal electronic music exchange mechanism) in an attempt to woo you. Then, the company that makes the Macintosh you use in the school computer lab will find its greatest success in the creation of a tiny portable electronic music playing device called an iPod. You will buy one, and then it will be stolen (a fool and her gadgets are soon parted) and you will not listen to any Dave Wakeling-created music again except for hearing the familiar rhythms of General Public's biggest hit during Target commercials. (I don't think there were Targets near you then, but think of it like a cleaner, hipper K-Mart). Then one day you will receive a call asking: "Hey, do you want to go see The English Beat play Treasure Island tomorrow?” Before you can say, "No, it’s a school night for my three year old," your husband will volunteer to watch your daughter and niece so you can go see a band play live for the first time in eight years.

English Beat

On the drive to the show your mind will race. Will Dave Wakeling's voice have aged well? Will the new band (Dave Wakeling is the only original member) be able to pull off the same kind of energy and sound? Can anybody love this band the way that you loved them? Will *you* still love them the way that *you* loved them? Will they play “Ackee 1-2-3”? (Turns out no on that one, unfortunately.) Will your husband survive an entire evening consisting solely of apple juice-fueled debates on all matters Disney Princess and Zhu Zhu pets? And before you can contemplate any of this, you will be so excited that you will uncharacteristically dismiss any doubts in your mind about what the evening has to offer and just sit back and savor every detail.

Soon after arrival you will have the opportunity to briefly meet Dave Wakeling (SERIOUSLY, YOU WILL MEET DAVE WAKELING) and he will be gracious and witty and I'll stop there so you can enjoy the moment for all it is. And then after your nerves are settled with a glass or two of wine (IMPORTANT: If you are not driving, never turn down a Jordan Cabernet, regardless of vintage), the show will begin. You will have no intention of dancing, but the close proximity to the stage, the wine, a rare night without domestic obligations and the fact that you are NOT thirteen will make you lose all self-consciousness and you will allow yourself to get completely swept up in the music. They will play “Whine & Grind” and “Stand Down Margaret” and General Public's cover of “I'll Take You There” and you will think, wow, they sound pretty great. And then by the time they play “I Confess,” you'll pause only to wonder how it is possible for Dave Wakeling's voice to sound better live now than it did 25+ years ago. And when the band wraps up with the last songs of the night, you will notice that even the few remaining people who weren't dancing (a tie between the security guy to your right and one of the suits way back in the crowd visible on the giant screen pans of thousands of attendees) will all give in to the addictively happy rhythms of “Tenderness.”

English Beat

And you will leave the event on such a high that you won't even remember texting (I would explain but you won't believe me) your husband three times during the show to say: HAVING THE BEST TIME until you look down and see his reply asking: Are you drunk? And you will think, No, I’m seriously not, just high on... Life? Music? Nostalgia? Feeling more like a 13 year old than I did at 13?

And the next morning you will wake to discover burning blisters and blood stained shoes from too much dancing but you will still be so filled with euphoria from the sheer entertainment of the show that you will not even care. You will show your daughter choppy videos you took on your camera of the live performance and she will delight you with the declaration: "You like good music, mama!" and you will find every English Beat video on YouTube (think free, controllable MTV viewed via computer screen) and replay them for her over and over. And three weeks later, you will hear a Beat song played at Old Navy (a sister store of The Gap) while you are shopping and it will take you back to the feeling of that night, that feeling of being thirteen and passionate about music and your day will be happy regardless of its events.

And if you can keep this feeling going through all your days, you're going to be just fine.

—J.M. Roberts

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