Okay, apologies in advance, I just don’t like the Corner Hotel; never have, probably never will. It’s up there with Festering Hole. There’s no real reason why, it’s just one of those weird Ratboy things.

The opening band was Los Capitanes who are “a 7-piece Canberra based high-energy ska band. They are characterised by an extremely energetic stage show, which often includes simple acrobatic spectacles and dry sarcastic comedy. The band has reasonably traditional punk/ska lineup with the exception of Chuck on percussion. Their style however, has diverged from ska/punk while retaining elements of the genre, especially the idea of incorporating reggae and Latin inspired grooves into their songs.”

No one wants to see the opening band, really, do they? Normally, that would be my stance; they’re just there for filler before the main act. I was sadly mistaken.

This will probably get my ass kicked (by Dave, in particular), but the first song they performed was an Old Dirty Bastard song and executed it really well. From that point onwards it was, as their advertising says, “an extremely energetic stage show”, not quite approaching the antics of the Porkers (Cool McCool in particular) but definitely right up there. They played a fair bit of original stuff that was frenetic and enjoyable and may well warrant some investigation by yours truly.

After nearly an hour, they retired from the stage and the wait for the Special Beat began …

I have never really been a huge Beat fan, so I was more looking forward to the Specials part of the show.

Finally, the band took the stage to tumultuous applause; and not without good reason! That was Neville-fucking-Staple up there! For a bunch of old bastards, they can certainly still skank away like guys half their age, Neville in particular stood still for, what seemed like, about ten seconds during the whole show (he disappeared off stage for a while, something about a bleeding ear?!). It was absolutely brilliant. What is it about seeing music you always listen to played raw and live?

Like other shows, Neville hardly left the stage at all as he danced around while Roger performed Beat hits including Tears of A Clown, Mirror In The Bathroom and Ranking Fullstop to the crowds’ delight!

The band played all the classics: A Message To Rudy, Hands Off…She’s Mine, Roughrider, Gangsters, Simmer Down just to name a few. It was inevitable that Concrete Jungle got busted out, with much participation by the crowd. Monkey Man was awesome as one of the opening songs.

In the last few shows that I have been to, there have been perfect moments where everything comes together brilliantly, the crowd, the band, the whole kit and caboodle. Such a moment happened with Night Klub! As the band struck up to play the whole place jumped and near blew the roof off the crusty venue. It’s these single points in time that I am starting to appreciate more and more.

Finally, the end came; pshaw encores followed. The whole night Roger had been goading the crowd with “Are you hot enough?” Naturally, you expect them to bust out “Too Hot”. I swear it’s a conspiracy … because they didn’t play it! BASTARDS!! How can they tease us like that?!

For the final encore, the band played “You’re Wondering Now”, a perfect end to a superbly enjoyable and brilliantly executed show. The only thing that I really, really missed was the vocals of Terry Hall on some of the songs, but apart from that, the whole experience was one that was not to be missed.

It’s been two years (or so) since The Special Beat toured, and I missed out due to work reasons. If it’s two years until they tour again wild horses and hand grenades couldn’t keep me away!