Rockin' The Colonies

The Wikis of the world remember the English Beat as a two-tone ska revival band, but the group's three albums can be heard as contemporaneous with XTC and the Clash.

Those were the bands setting the bar in late-'70s Britain, and the Beat was the most fun of the bunch. Shortly after breaking into the U.S. scene with its jittery rendition of "Tears of a Clown," the band splintered into Fine Young Cannibals and General Public.

The latter's singer and guitarist — Dave Wakeling — heads up the modern-day incarnation of the English Beat, which performs tonight alongside British new-wavers the Fixx and Welsh publitical rockers the Alarm, whose latest, Guerilla Tactics, came out July 8.

"Mirror in the Bathroom," by the English Beat