Today it's one of my high school favs - English Beat! Formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978, The English Beat were one of the more popular acts associated with the 80's Ska revival. They launched their career with a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Tears Of A Clown" on Two Tone records. Note the name of the band was "The Beat" but they were known in the States as "The English Beat" to avoid legal issues with California power pop group "The Beat".
After two successful albums and touring the world with the likes of David Bowie, The Clash, The Police, The Pretenders, R.E.M., The Specials and Talking Heads, English Beat split in 1983. One of the more notable things to rise out of the ashes was 80's pop group Fine Young Cannibals. Gotta admit, "Good Thing" was a helluva catchy tune.
Go Feet was a label founded by English Beat, and it was used used to release many of their early recordings. Today's 45 was actually Feet 01.
From the very informative fan site at here: "The Beat established its own label as an attempt to shield themselves from the many negative aspects of dealing with corporate record labels. In this way, the band was given more creativity to record the music as they wanted as well as to expose bands that the major labels would not take a chance on."
Aside from The Beat, the label featured releases from The Congos, The Mood Elevators, and Pato And Roger. For the most part, the label stopped actively releasing in '83.
And of course, the clip!
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