The Beta Band

In the movie High Fidelity, there is a conspicuous scene where the protagonist -- the owner of a maverick, independent record store -- whispers into the ear of an employee, "I am now going to sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band."
With that, proprietor Rob Gordon (John Cusack), inserts the Beta Band disc into the player, folds his arms, and gazes out at the roomful of customers as they react to the soothing downfall of "Dry the Rain," filling up the store.
The customers - probably without realizing - all begin to bob their heads to the music. Smiles abound. A young woman grooves as she moves to the next record bin. And finally - as predicted - a guy in his mid twenties looks up at Cusack, who is standing godlike behind the counter, and asks, "Who is this?"
When Cusack replies, "It's The Beta Band," proudly, and with a knowing smirk - a million music nerds made a mental note: "Must download Beta Band."
Certainly the success of Beta Band's 2001 Release, Hot Shots II, and their subsequent American tour -- was due, in part, to that serendipitous plug.
Scotland's The Beta Band are Steve Mason (guitar, vocals), Robin Jones (drum, piano, tape loops), Richard Greentree (bass), and John Maclean (decks, samples, pianos).
"What can the crowd expect on this tour," I asked Maclean in a phone interview from his home in Edinburgh, Scotland?
"Our songs take a step up in the live arena. It's the videos, the costumes, the set, the lights and the music. Oh, and there isn't going to be an opening band. One of us will DJ before the show.
"We go through a different phase for each tour. In the past we've done a plant phase, an organic phase, and a space phase (where we dressed up in space costumes). I think for this tour we'll have a white phase. Everything is going to be white."
The Beta Band is busy: They design their own stages and costumes, produce and direct short films (shown before and during the Beta shows), design album covers, and publish a magazine called The Flower Press.
"It annoys the fuck out of us when we get called slackers," said Maclean. "We work hard."
Of course, naming themselves "The Beta Band" is probably partly responsible for the slacker perception. In schools in Britain, beta band is a term for the underachievers. The alpha band are over-achievers .
"People who are in the beta band develop better outside of school -- through their art and music," said Maclean. "So we can be beta band people and still not be slackers."
The Beta Band will play 4th and B on Friday, December 26. They abruptly dropped working on their upcoming CD to tour the U.S. and capitalize on the momentum gained from that huge plug in High Fidelity.
"It was almost even bigger," said Maclean. "For awhile, there was talk that we might even score the whole movie. That didn't work out though."
"When the four of you saw the UK premier of Fidelity," I asked, "What was it like to see John Cusack spinning your disc in his finger, then putting it in the deck and exposing America to your music?"
"It was surreal," he answered. "We had been drinking at the pub before going to see the movie. By the time our scene came on, we all had to go to the bathroom really badly. When it did, we broke out into a fit of giggles and then ran back to the pub to pee and drink more pints. We didn't even stay to see the rest of the movie. It was all too much."

Originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune 4/26/02
EJD