The English Beat’s “Live At The US Festival ’82 & ’83” on CD/DVD out in September

Music News | Jun 30th, 2012

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Not only is Shout! Factory releasing a Complete English Beat boxset on July 10th, they are also releasing a rare live CD/DVD of The English Beat performing at the US Festival in ’82 and ’83. Definitely something to check out! Fans can purchase and receive Live At The US Festival, as well as an autographed copy of The English Beat: The Complete Beat box set, before street date by purchasing directly from Shout! Factory’s website. The English Beat will be in town again in July: July 12th in Brooklyn, NY at The Bell House and July 13th in Asbury Park, NJ at The Stone Pony.

The English Beat’s entire catalog is being reissued this year by Shout! Factory, and that includes the first-ever release of The English Beat – Live At The US Festival, ’82 & ’83 on CD/DVD, which will be in stores on September 18. The 2-Disc set includes a CD featuring the best of The English Beat at the US Festival, and a DVD featuring full sets from both 1982 and 1983. Live At The US Festival is the first The English Beat concert performance to be released on DVD and has been largely unseen for nearly 30 years.

The US Festival was held over two weekends in 1982 and 1983. Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple Computer, funded the concerts and accompanying technology exposition, as well as the construction of a brand-new outdoor venue in Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, CA. Nearly every musical genre was represented by bands as diverse as U2, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Ozzy Osbourne, Waylon Jennings, The Ramones, The Police and The Clash. Over the combined seven days of the festival, more than one million people passed through the entrance gates.

Music fans have waited decades for performances from The US Festival to be made available on CD and DVD, and the wait was worthwhile. Initial US Festival releases captured performances by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Quiet Riot, and The English Beat are next in line, with two unforgettable shows. The English Beat performed at The US Festival on September 3, 1982 in a lineup that included The Ramones, The B-52’s, The Police, Talking Heads, Oingo Boingo and Gang of Four. They returned the next year to play “New Wave Day” on May 28, 1983, along with The Clash, INXS, Oingo Boingo, Stray Cats, Men at Work, A Flock of Seagulls, Wall of Voodoo, and Divinyls. The English Beat and Oingo Boingo were the only bands to play both the 1982 and 1983 US Festivals.

Preceding the release of The English Beat – Live At The US Festival, ’82 & ’83, Shout! Factory will release a box set titled The English Beat: The Complete Beat on July 10. The 5-CD Complete Beat box set features all three studio albums with bonus tracks, remastered from the original tapes; two discs of bonus material, most of which is previously unreleased on CD, including three sessions recorded with the legendary John Peel for his show on BBC Radio 1, tracks from a live show recorded at Boston’s Opera House, and 12” and dub versions of some of the band’s biggest singles; and a booklet with rare photos and an essay by music scholar Alex Ogg.

July 10 will also see the release of a new single-disc compilation titled Keep The Beat: The Very Best Of The English Beat, which is accompanied by a new introduction written by Rhoda Dakar of The Bodysnatchers. Both releases have been produced in collaboration with the band.

The English Beat are currently on tour. For more information on tour dates, please visit http://englishbeat.net.

Tour Dates:

July 1 Little Rock, AR Juanita’s
July 4 Pacific Palisades, CA Palisades Charter H.S.
July 6 Norfolk, VA The Norva
July 9 Ellsworth, ME The Grand Theatre
July 11 Londonderry, NH Tupelo Music Hall
July 12 Brooklyn, NY The Bell House
July 13 Asbury Park, NJ The Stone Pony
July 14 Pleasantville, NY Pleasantville Music Festival
July 15 Boston, MA Bay State Cruise
July 18 Sellersville, PA The Sellersville Theatre
July 19 Dewey Beach, VI The Bottle & Cork
July 20 Amagansett, NY Stephen Talkhouse
July 22 Baltimore Soundstage
July 27 Temecula, CA Wiens Family Cellars
July 29 Costa Mesa, CA The Hangar @ Orange Cty. Fair
August 4 San Francisco, CA Bimbo’s 365 Clubm
August 17 Arcata, CA Humboldt Brew
August 18 Fairfax, CA 19 Broadway

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