Recorded 11.5.00 at Nova Beaut

From Liverpool EP (v/a 2x7", with Clinic, Ricky Spontane, & Kling Klang. Plastic Cowboy Recordings, 2000).

REVIEW:
NME, July 2000
THE BEALE's Love Over Gold sounds like the Fall's 'Rowche Rumble' on no drugs whatsoever - not even caffeine or fags. Which means of course that it is absolutely brilliant because there is nothing wrong with being unimaginative and unoriginal and derivative just so long as the cadavers that you are digging up and skullfucking 'till they squeak are those of unmitigated geniuses. Like Mark E Smith. Who called me a lickspittle recently. The wanker. - Steven Wells

Liverpool

Love Over Gold

From The Beale vs Craig David aka The John Morgan EP 
(7” Guided Missile Recordings, 2001)
Recorded at Toe Rag

The Beale vs Craig David aka The John Morgan EP

97 Circular

Iggy Navarro 7” (Guided Missile Recordings, 2001).

REVIEW:
Record Collector, December 2001
'The New 7 Up / Negs'
Big, rubbery, detuned basslines dominate this piece of slightly deranged, modern garage punk. The A-side hammers home its message by simply repeating "Iggy Navarro" ad infinitum, and the B-side bigs up the two-note Farfisa while the vocalist (definitely not singer) extemporises, bitterly. Allegedly named after the legendary occasional 'tache merchant' Ian Beale, they are a three-way pile-up between The Fall, The Cramps and 'Cool Thing'-era Sonic Youth is what this single is based on, and The Beale manages to salvage some valuable scrap from the wreckage.

Iggy Navarro

The New 7 Up

Iggy Navarro 7” (Guided Missile Recordings, 2001)

Negs

From Fragments of a Lost Language (Their Early Works vol.1) CDR 2002

Wizard's Den

Texas

70 Knives

From Live at Stonehenge 1985: Brothers In Arms (Their Early Works vol.2) CDR 2002

Whitey On The Moon

Brock's Guitar

The Top Ten

Young Stuart (Old)

Constantinople

From 21 Years in Kranj (CDR Kabukikore KKCD41 February 2004).

REVIEW:
The Sunday Times, Culture section, 27 June 2004.
STEWART LEE

    THE BEALE
    21 Years in Kranj
    Kabukikore/Guided Missile kkcd41

    The failure of Apple’s iTunes website to co-operate with the majority of the UK’s independent labels exemplifies consumer culture’s illusion of choice. The same music one can already access easily via Amazon or HMV now also comes direct to your laptop at reduced cost, while the margins are further marginalised. Meanwhile, the new album by the Beale is available to download, entirely free, at www.sickhappyidle.com, or as a CD you can hold in your hand for £4 at www.kabukikore.net. The group infect a 1980s post-punk template with furious kitchen-sink surrealism and comical provincial belligerence. Their front man, Adrian Shaw, is a great English eccentric waiting to be discovered. Fall fans will embrace the group’s impatience with rebranded lemonade and Superking-smoking men. Even the merely curious can afford to investigate. Four stars

21 Years In Kranj

The Double Carpet

From 21 Years in Kranj (CDR Kabukikore KKCD41 February 2004).

it's about a victorian glasshouse in a park which has had every single pane of glass replaced with hardboard due to vandalism. it is a place where we used to wheel 'our kid' in his wheelchair. he always wanted to graffiti the boards but he couldnt grip a pen so we did it for him. we wrote "Billy is sound". This moment defined his life and now whenever we wheel him past hardboard house and he sees this he gets very excited and feels proud.

Hardboard House

Conceived on 25 May 1977, 20:50. (T.Smith header), the Project finally coming to fruition 23 years later when the core membership of the group reconvened in exile at Nova Beaut studios in London. 

In the intervening period, The Beale appeared under various guises, most notably during the glory era when Europe was Red, Bottoms were never less than 18", the Zappa/Genesis/Floyd T-shirt was colour coded to the Trim-Trabb/Marathon/Gazelle and the Knives were hot, hot, hot. Early incarnations featured Clooney as lead singer, bringing the group close to financial and personal disaster.

Equipment was obtained using revenue from the sale of acquired Boodles goods. Early sponsorship from Jack Sharp’s was retracted following the now notorious "golf ball incident".

The Beale now operate under the guidance of Billy Jeffs’ management company in central London. Billy earned his stripes in the North Liverpool Catholic Social Club circuit and numerous walk on parts in gritty northern mid eighties docu-soaps. After a couple of spells at Her Majesty’s pleasure, Jeffs headed South to chance his arm in the cut-throat London indie circuit, where he hooked up with the group who were Sohocialising at The Groucho Club in London’s Trendy West End.

The core unit of the band record as a four-piece (drums, bass, guitar & voice), live performances taking on a life of their own with numerous members of collective making ad hoc appearances.

The Beale lifestyle: The New 7-Up in Kenny’, John the Postman, The Sollie, The Mudmen, H.A.W.K, W.K.P.H, Groundpig, Xtremes, Max’s, The O Bar, The Hogshead, The Granton, Duffy, The Riceys, (King) Arthur, Billy Jeffs, Liver Fruit & Veg, Manns, Aussie Whites, Berghaus, Wormwood.

The Beale

Popular tracks