Can't stop the Beat from British invasion

Media Credit: CAMILLE TUUTTI-WINKLER/ THE EAGLE BEAT IT - Celebrating their 30th year, Birmingham, England-based ska rockers The English Beat are finally starting to make a foray into the competitive U.S. music industry. Their Saturday show at the 9:30 club blended an array of followers, from MILFs to the usual hipster.

If you ever wanted to catch a show with a truly diverse audience, try The English Beat. When this ska band performs, don't be surprised to see how the MILFs and their college-aged offspring, the usual 9:30 club hipster, a handful of mods and 30-something Beat heads swing their hips and skank elbow to elbow.

With a sold-out show at the 9:30 club Saturday, these two-tone '80s aficionados rocked the house with a message of love, peace and unity, and made a little time to talk shop with The Eagle afterwards.

The U.K. band gained notoriety in the United States when its song "March of the Swivelheads" (from their 1980 album "I Just Can't Stop It") was featured in the 1986 slacker movie, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." The band broke up in 1983 and reformed in 2005. Since then, frontman Dave Wakeling, the blond Briton who traded Birmingham for California, has built a stronger U.S. fan base.

Wakeling is perfect for the job as an entertainer - a little bit mischievous and a whole lot charming. He jokes and asks the audience members if they want to hear "lewd" songs.

Offstage, after the almost two-and-a-half hour show, he maintains that certain British cheekiness not even years in sunny California have managed to tame.

Wakeling is now the only original member left, and it is curious to see that, 30 years later, younger people keep showing up at the Beat concerts. How does the MySpace generation - the barely legal-looking blonde shimmying in front of the stage - know about the band?

"Every 10 years, there is a new, interesting wave of ska, and now we're on the fourth wave," Wakeling said in an interview with The Eagle.

The English Beat was part of the second wave; No Doubt, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were the third wave. Now, ska has become an interesting and important music theme again, he said.

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