The Beat (soon renamed to Paul Collins' Beat) is an American rock and power pop band from Los Angeles that formed in 1979.[1] Paul Collins' Beat resurfaced in the 1990s and continues to tour and record new material. Front man Paul Collins has released several projects with his alternative country group The Paul Collins Band, who play Americana music inspired by country rock and folk rock.
The roots of The Beat lie in The Nerves, a seminal power pop combo featuring Paul Collins (born 1956, New York City), Peter Case (the future front man of The Plimsouls), and Jack Lee.[2] Collins played drums; all three members composed and sang. Collins contributed several songs to the band including "Walking Out On Love," "Let Me Into Your Life" and one song, "Working Too Hard", to the group's only release, a 1976 self-titled four-song EP distributed by independent Bomp! Records. The Nerves are most famous for Lee's "Hanging on the Telephone" later popularized by Blondie on their breakthrough album Parallel Lines.[2] After The Nerves' demise Collins and Case formed The Breakaways which went through several guitarists until Case and Collins both moved to guitar and recruited Mike Ruiz (drums - Milk 'N' Cookies) and Steven Huff (bass and backing vocals - The Apollo Stars). Case left the group after a few months of rehearsals to pursue a solo career which led to the eventual formation of The Plimsouls. Collins, Huff and Ruiz officially became "The Beat", when pressed for a group name prior to an interview to promote the release of The Breakaways recording of "Walking Out On Love" (credited as Paul Collins), on Bomp's Waves Vol. 1.
Transition years
The Los Angeles power pop scene was beginning to garner national attention and with the help of Collins' friend from The Nerves days in San Francisco, Eddie Money and his record producer Bruce Botnick, Collins was able to ink a deal with Columbia/CBS and Bill Graham Management.[2] CBS released their self-titled debut in October 1979.[2] All 12 songs were Collins originals; Peter Case, Steven Huff and Eddie Money had one co-writing credit each, all on different songs. Continuing in The Nerves' vein, the album consisted of harmony-laden, driving guitar pop songs, including a re-recorded version of "Working Too Hard". The album was critically acclaimed and is today remembered as a classic of the power pop genre (see this 4.5-star review in AllMusic). The group appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, (March 8, 1980), The Merv Griffin Show and that same year contributed a song to the soundtrack LP of the popular comedy movie Caddyshack. Despite promotion, respectable airplay on commercial and College radio, diligent touring alongside such popular artists as Ian Gomm, The Jam and a tour of Europe, The Beat found little commercial success.[2]
The band's second CBS LP, The Kids Are The Same was released two years later in 1982,[2] with drummer Ruiz now replaced by Dennis Conway, who played for both Elton John and Alice Cooper. The group was now billed worldwide as "Paul Collins' Beat".
The British ska group of the same name were first to establish themselves as "The Beat" in Europe, prompting a voluntary decision for the U.S. group to be billed as "Paul Collins' Beat" in Europe. In the U.S., Collins' "The Beat" was first to release an album in turn forcing the British group to use the name "The English Beat" in the U.S., albeit only after the British group was threatened with a lawsuit by Columbia, Collins' record label.
Not as critically successful as its predecessor, The Kids Are The Same was also a commercial flop.[2] A two-year lag between releases, a name change and this "sophomore slump" resulted in the group being dropped from CBS-Columbia.[2] Undaunted, the group self-financed the production of three videos featuring songs from the LP now abandoned by their former label. One of these videos "On The Highway", which had been modestly promoted to AOR radio by CBS, was put on medium rotation for several months on the then fledgling MTV network.
With an overhauled New York City line-up (Conway and Whitman were replaced by Patti Smith drummer Jay Dee Daugherty and Television/Tom Verlaine guitarist Jimmy Rip), the group reclaimed the name "The Beat" and released the five song 12-inch mini-album To Beat or Not To Beat in 1983,[2] on the independent Jem/Passport label in the U.S.. One song from the album, "Dance, Dance", was made into a music video in 1984 and received limited exposure on MTV. To Beat or Not To Beat, with an additional song, was released in Europe where the group relocated (and would remain for the next several years) to promote the release and tour, this time featuring Paul's brother Patrick Collins on guitar and Fabian Jolivet on drums during that year of extensive touring and television appearances.
In 1985, another six song 12-inch mini-album Longtime Gone was produced by former Motörhead drummer Lucas Fox and recorded in London with British musicians, including Jim Barber on guitar (The Rolling Stones & Mick Jagger solo album), being released only in Europe. A live album recorded in Madrid, Spain with Spanish members (featuring Manolo Iglesias on drums) titled Live At The Universal followed in 1986. Collins relocated to San Francisco, releasing the album One Night, with yet another incarnation of an all American Beat, this time credited as "Paul Collins + The Beat", through Sony in 1989 (again only in Europe). One Night was their first album to feature acoustic instruments such as mandolin and acoustic guitar. This was their final studio album before disbanding. Collins would go on to record several solo albums before later re-forming a new version of The Beat.
Later years
Collins embarked on a solo career in the 1990s, releasing "Paul Collins" in 1992, featuring numerous guest appearances by S.F. Bay Area notables. Collins then returned to his "hometown" of New York City. Focusing his songwriting on Country, Folk and Americana he formed "The Paul Collins Band" which produced the 1993 release "From Town To Town". Collins continues to tour, while retaining a cult following; he is particularly popular in Spain. The Paul Collins' Beat music videos "On The Highway" and "Dance, Dance" are occasionally aired on the VH1 Classic and MTV2 television networks.
In 2006, Collins resurrected "Paul Collins' Beat" with the help of bassist Juancho Bummer and a slightly younger Spanish lineup and recorded a live album entitled Live In Europe, released as a free MP3 CD album download on their official website followed by a CD of all new original material, "Flying High", recorded in Madrid, Spain. That was followed in March 2008 with Ribbon Of Gold. This album contains several songs the band performs live in concert, including Falling In Love With Her, I Still Want You, Big Pop Song and She Doesn't Want To Hang Around With You. Paul Collins' Beat latest release is a split 7-inch with the Italian powerpop band Radio Days (band), released by the Italian label Surfin Ki Records. In 2009, Bill Graham catalog released Live at Berkely Theatre with Eddie Money through Wolfgang's Vault.
Collins continues to tour and record new material.
Comeback albums
In 2010, Collins Paul Collins' Beat signed a record deal with Alive Naturalsound and recorded an album of new material with Jim Diamond at his Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit, Michigan. Diamond is a respected Record producer, who is best known for his work with The White Stripes. The studio was chosen because it relies on vintage recording and Diamond is said to use a 2" 24-track tape machine among other mixing boards and various pieces of equipment. The album was entitled "King Of Powerpop," which included artwork by famed artist Bill Stout in addition to a guest performance by Wally Palmar, vocalist and harmonica player from The Romantics and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In 2014, Alive Records released Collins' second comeback album, entitled Feel The Noise. In support of the new album, Collins embarked on a world tour and released a music video for the single, "I Need My Rock N' Roll."
Green Day Broadway musical
In 2011, the American punk rock band Green Day launched the American Idiot Broadway musical production. Each night included a live rendition of the song "Walking Out On Love," which was written by Paul Collins. The song was previously recorded by Collins' groups The Beat, The Nerves and The Breakaways. Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is an outspoken fan of the song, which may appear on a future studio album by Green Day. To celebrate the success of the musical, The Paul Collins Beat joined Green Day onstage for live performances in New York.
Collins and Case reunion tribute to the Nerves
In 2012, longtime friends and musical partners, Paul Collins and Peter Case embarked on a reunion tour paying tribute to their respective bands The Nerves, The Breakaways, The Beat and The Plimsouls. The touring band lineup for the Collins and Case tour was augmented by members of The Paul Collins Beat (Timm Buechler, bass, and Amos Pitsch, drums), offering audiences with full-band electric showcases. The tour included a date in Austin, Texas, where actor Bill Murray made a surprise appearance at the concert to introduce the band to the audience. The Beat had previously appeared on the Caddyshack original motion picture soundtrack alongside Murray in 1979. According to the L.A. Times Music Blog of March 22, 2012, the tour "fell apart" early due to "musical differences".[3]
The business model for The Beat Army is a simple process in which a band or artist agrees to book a club or festival gig for both themselves and Paul Collins' Beat, who agree to perform the show as a headlining act. Once Collins and his management approve the contract, the band serves as a booking agent and the venue is chosen based upon its style of music and the type of people it attracts. After the performance, Collins divides the proceeds evenly between his band, himself and the members of the opening act.
With Collins' solo albums heavily rooted in the genres of alt-country, Americana, folk and country music, he continues to maintain a diversified fanbase. The Beat Army has enabled Collins to book shows with country bands, singer-songwriters, folk artists, and rockabilly bands.
Band members
Michael “The Beat” Ruiz] Alice Cooper drummer Dennis Conway, Thunderboss bassist Juancho Lopez, Protones guitarist Octavio Vinck, bassist Steven Huff, Drummer Fabian Jolivet (Pistones/The Chambers Brothers), Patti Smith Group drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, guitarist Patrick Collins, Milk 'n' Cookies drummer Mike Ruiz, drummer Manolo Iglesias (Tequila), guitarist Jim Barber, Television guitarist Jimmy Ripp, Needles & Pins guitarist Larry Whitman, Secret Affair drummer Paul Bultitude, Rebel Waltz bassist Timm Buechler, guitarist Tim Schweiger, drummer Chris Bongers (Bultacos), bassist Justin Perkins, guitarist Mike Cecchini, drummer Alan Cameron-Swift, bassist Derek Davidson (Electric Mess), guitarist Manolo Cahuchola, guitarist Jim Barber, bassist Simon O'Brien, drummer Brian Morris, guitarist Glenn Morris (Kings of The Sun) guitarist Morten Henriksen, drummer Tomas Dahl, bassist Stig Amundsen, guitarist Martin Deehan (The Yum Yums), bassist Paul Stingo.
The Paul Collins' Beat tour with The English Beat
In Fall 2012, The Paul Collins Beat joined a package tour "The Two Beats Hearting As One Tour," co-headlining with Two-tone Ska group The Beat. The English Beat and The Paul Collins Beat were both part of the "new wave" of bands to emerge from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The styles of music they play are very different. The tour package included dates at large music halls, casinos, auditoriums and clubs. According to a September 2012 interview with Collins, "Contrary to what the internet fabricates, there never was and is no animosity toward The English Beat. I am still a big fan of The English Beat. Ska is really cool music. Dave is a good friend. He's always so nice and always upbeat. He's just as supportive of my music as I am of his. Both of our fanbases are enjoying hearing each other's music." According to an October 2012 press release, Dave Wakeling stated, “Paul and I originally met back in '83 and have been in touch occasionally over the years, but recently we've been in closer Facebook contact, which led to this idea becoming a reality....Two beats, hearting as one!”[citation needed]
China tour
In Spring 2014, The Paul Collins Beat embarked on a groundbreaking tour of China, performing full-band electric concerts in nine cities, in addition to in-store performances at record shops and televised news programs. Supporting the Paul Collins Beat were Shanghai based punk group Round Eye who also organized the tour of the mainland.
Neither Collins nor his earlier groups The Nerves, The Breakaways or The Beat had previously performed in China, although each project retains a sizeable following due to the resurgence of vinyl LP records and recent worldwide reissues. The tour provided The Paul Collins Beat the opportunity to perform in large cities, small working class towns and student centers based around Chinese colleges. Collins also performed a special acoustic concert at Shanghai Experimental School, which attracted the attention of Chinese media outlets and was aired on television.
Other information
Original Beat lead guitarist Larry Whitman (September 27, 1955 – July 26, 1997), a devoted fan of Phil Spector, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Before joining The Beat, Whitman was producer, songwriter and member of L.A. pop group Needles & Pins, whose only release was the Spector influenced 45 RPM single "Don't You Worry".
A poster of The Beat's self-titled first album can be seen in the opening credits of some episodes of WKRP In Cincinnati.
Portions of the album The Kids Are The Same were recorded in 1980 at Twentieth Century Fox Music Scoring Stage during a Musician's Union strike against the motion-picture and television industries.
Although The Beat's song "There She Goes" is included on the soundtrack album of the film, Caddyshack, and listed in the closing credits, it was not used in the final cut of the film.
The Beat or Not the Beat: A Tribute to Paul Collins Tribute Compilation (1994, Pop Attack)
Related Research Articles
Peter Case is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His career is wide-ranging, from rock n' roll and blues, to folk rock and solo acoustic performance.
The Plimsouls were an American rock band known for their hit 1982 single "A Million Miles Away", which was featured in the movie Valley Girl.
Slash's Snakepit was an American rock supergroup from Los Angeles, California, formed by Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash in 1994. Though often described as a solo or side project, Slash stated that Snakepit was a band with equal contributions by all members. The first lineup of the band consisted of Slash, two of his Guns N' Roses bandmates—drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Gilby Clarke—as well as Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez and former Jellyfish guitarist Eric Dover on lead vocals.
No Doubt is an American rock band formed in Anaheim, California in 1986. For most of its career, the band has consisted of vocalist and founding member Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young. Keyboardist Eric Stefani, Gwen's brother, was also a member when the band started to release albums in 1992. Since the mid-1990s, trombonist Gabrial McNair and trumpeter Stephen Bradley have performed with the band as session and touring musicians.
Guttermouth is an American punk rock band formed in 1989 in Huntington Beach, California. They have released nine full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour. They are infamous for their outrageous lyrics and behavior which are deliberately explicit, offensive and intended to shock, though usually in a humorous and sarcastic manner. This behavior has sometimes resulted in high-profile problems for the band, such as being banned from performing in Canada for eighteen months and leaving the 2004 Warped Tour amidst controversy over their political views and attitudes towards other performers.
Protein was an American punk, alternative, post-grunge, metal band, formed in 1994 in San Francisco, California, United States.
Reagan Youth is an American anarcho-punk band formed by singer Dave Rubinstein and guitarist Paul Bakija in Queens, New York City in early 1980.
A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm section is often contrasted with the roles of other musicians in the band, such as the lead guitarist or lead vocals whose primary job is to carry the melody.
Clement Burke is an American musician who is best known as the drummer for the band Blondie from 1975, shortly after the band formed, throughout the band's entire career. He also played drums for the Ramones for a brief time in 1987, under the name Elvis Ramone.
The Icicle Works are an English alternative rock band, named after the 1960 short story "The Day the Icicle Works Closed" by science fiction author Frederik Pohl. They had a top 20 UK hit with "Love Is a Wonderful Colour" (1983). In the US and Canada, they had one top 40 hit, the 1984 single "Birds Fly ".
The Diodes are a Canadian punk rock band formed in 1976 in Toronto. They released five albums: Diodes (1977), Released (1979), Action-Reaction (1980), Survivors (1982), and Time/Damage Live 1978 (2010). They were one of the first Canadian bands to embrace this style of music and helped to foster the original core Punk scene in Toronto.
The Accüsed is an American crossover thrash band from Washington State, USA, formed in 1981 by Chibon 'Chewy' Batterman, Dana Collins and Tommy Niemeyer. The band was a progenitor of the crossover style that bridged the gap between thrashcore and thrash metal, later influencing grindcore and some crust punk bands; as well as an influential band in the Seattle area alternative scene. The band calls their music "splatter rock", and their zombie mascot, Martha Splatterhead, created by Blaine Cook and Tommy Niemeyer, appears on most of their albums. Common lyrical themes involve social injustice and Martha Splatterhead coming back from the dead to slaughter rapists and child molesters.
The Nerves were an American power pop trio, formed in San Francisco in 1974 and later based in Los Angeles, featuring guitarist Jack Lee, bassist Peter Case, and drummer Paul Collins. All three members composed songs and sang. They managed an international tour in the U.S. and Canada, including dates with the Ramones, and performances for the troops as part of the United Services Organization (USO).
Paul Vincent Collins is an American writer, author, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for his work in the power pop groups The Nerves, The Breakaways and The Beat.
Paul Burgess is an English rock drummer, notable for his association with a wide range of British rock and folk-rock bands. In addition to extensive session work, he has been a member of 10cc, Jethro Tull, Camel, Magna Carta, and The Icicle Works.
Toiling Midgets is a rock band from San Francisco, California formed in 1979 by members of San Francisco punk bands Sleepers and Negative Trend. They have been active on-and-off since 1979, with their early 1990s lineup getting most attention due to the involvement of Mark Eitzel of American Music Club. They reunited in 2007.
Alex Chilton was an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was never repeated in later years with Big Star and in his subsequent indie music solo career on small labels, but he drew an intense following among indie and alternative rock musicians. He is frequently cited as a seminal influence by influential rock artists and bands, some of whose testimonials appeared in the 2012 documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.
Geoff Palmer, also known by the stage name Geoff Useless, is an American musician from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, now living in Madison, Wisconsin. He played bass and provided backing vocals for The Queers straight out of high school, and played guitar and did lead vocals for The Guts and The Nobodys.
Peter Case was the debut album by American power pop singer-songwriter Peter Case, released in 1986 on Geffen Records. Omnivore Records reissued it with additional tracks in September 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
