Action Beat: "Playing on Christmas Day was the greatest idea we've had."

This post was written for Varsity online, one of the Cambridge student papers.

"On Christmas Day 2005, James and I hired a generator and drove my car around Milton Keynes playing in 4 different spots for over 2 hours. We started at an underpass near a built-up residential area. It was pitch black as all the lights were either smashed out or not functioning. We created an insane racket, with two guitars and a drum machine. People were coming out of their houses to check out the noise that was bellowing out of the underpass. We then moved on to an industrial area, which was a little more isolated and played for about an hour, and during this time a shitload of our friends had come out and were up for following us around to different spots. The next 'show', as it were, was one of my favourite shows off all time, because we played on a walkway bridge, going over the old A5! We finished up at Milton Keynes' notorious skate park. Playing on Christmas Day was probably the greatest idea we ever had."

One of the truly great bands of the 21^st century are based within a 50-mile radius of where you, Cambridge student, are sitting right now. No. Not London. Head southwest out of the city on the A603, where it becomes the sleepy B1042 and the A507, depositing you west of the M1 in Bletchley.

Most of the year, you won't actually find Action Beat there. This is one of the hardest-working, hardest-touring, hardest-living ensembles of recent memory. They have toured constantly for half a decade (until The Bergen Incident, more later). That is no mean feat for the average band, but Action Beat have seven, eight, sometimes ten members crammed like sardines into their van with equipment and personal belongings. Your correspondent has been in bands that argue deathlessly during a trip to the shop in mid-rehearsal break. There's no comprehending how you'd survive with sanity intact after showerless, nutrition-free days of close proximity and ear-shredding volume, with weeks stretched ahead promising much of the same. People have killed for less.

And their music is no easy-listening joyride for today's young-and-swinging single. When Action Beat hit their stride, it sounds like a war being thrown down a staircase. Electric guitars are tortured and bent like sheet metal, multiple drumkits pound away in remorseless ecstasy, with a phalanx of baritone guitars, electric violins, basses, and assorted percussion creaking and shaking and crashing along in white-hot fury. They never practice. They never sound-check. But years of live performance, refined taste, and taking the road less-travelled has honed these skinny teenagers into veterans.



In addition to this, most band members perform in other bands and put on shows in their hometown. McLean has also managed to transform his hometown label, dedicated to documenting local Bletchley heroes such as Dawn Chorus, Madrid Axemen, and Riotmen (among others), into a legitimate business by re-issuing Glenn Branca's 1981 masterwork The Ascension on heavyweight white vinyl. It's a labour of love, funded by “some inheritance money, and wanted to put it to good use rather than waste it on more van repairs.”

It really shows: Robert Longo's artwork gets the forum it finally deserves, whilst the power of the record never fails to overwhelm. If you haven't heard it, the album has not only had a profound effect on myself and Don, but members of various ensembles you might know by the names of My Bloody Valentine, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sonic Youth.

These years of fun are not without caveats. Years of the DIY lifestyle and aesthetic are taking their toll. Band and label chief Don McLean is about to have a child. On his band's Myspace, he recently posted the kind of blog that only a very nice person would post after years of being repeatedly kicked in the pants. Here are some choice examples of things encountered in the name of sustaining art:

"Hostel with inadequate number of beds, and an old women sleeping in the corner of the room who was obviously freaked out and overwhelmed by the 9 men who just entered the room. Her knickers were drying on the radiator, so that smelt good too. As if an old woman wants to stay with 9 other guys?!?!"

"The promoters at Incubate festival in Tilburg put us up in a squat ran by 18 year olds. It was basically a building site, with no windows or doors. Place was fucking freezing, and the kids spat all over the floor we were sleeping on."

And then there's The Bergen Incident. Shortly after their driver received a €1000 fine for testing positive for THC in a urine sample in Germany, their van broke down in Bergen, Norway. Look at it on the map. It is possibly the worst city in Europe to break down in: miles from anywhere, but facing the UK, being taunted. Just before the tour they had spent £1700 on running repairs and maintenance on the wretched thing.

For six cold days they awaited news on their van before being told it was a write-off. People in the city arranged a benefit show for them, but Norway is a place where a drink costs the same as a black-market kidney in the UK. They eventually flew home, utterly dejected, at a cost of £1800 for the six stranded members, leaving many thousands of pounds worth of gear behind in the van. McLean wrote on Myspace:

"Action Beat is in about £9000 debt now. We don't make money on tour, because our van is constantly breaking. It's now a write-off. We don't make money from record sales, cause we're not that popular."

Action Beat are not a household name. Their music is not accessible to everybody. They often suffer ridiculous indignities in the name of getting to a show and playing it (not that they are demanding or mean or expect kingly riches. Full disclosure: I've cooked for these guys on tour and they're almost pathetically grateful for a place to sit down and eat for an hour in silence). When they do get to the show and play it, even if the place is packed and they sell a few records, it goes back into the tour and the band and the label. So why do it?

The current working theory is this: no earthly feeling can adequately replace when this goes right. Watch.



Fortunately, even though Action Beat are a noise-rock force to name-drop on three continents, their commitment to DIY principles means that a guy like Don McLean is only ever an email away.

"Touring was always something that I had to do, and the 'pleasant novelty' never wore off for us. I am addicted to it, as are most of the band. The more time we can spend on the road the better, even if our minds suffer. In 2010, I got married, and now have a kid on the way, so 2011 won't be as active for us. A lot of members in the band have moved out of their parents, and are paying quite high rent, and this is another obstacle. So, it is definitely going to be a lot harder for us to just leave the country for 10 weeks, but I'm sure we will eventually find the means to do it."

In fact, his email is full of illuminating stories that it would make no sense to cut bits out of.

"It was definitely easier for us to tour so frequently when we first started the band. We all lived at our parents' houses paying little or no rent, worked shitty jobs we were able to quit when we eventually went on tour - and it was generally a really great time for the band because of the lack of any responsibility, or reality. I would plan out these ridiculously long tours, we'd fill the van with 9 people, and all save quite a lot of money so that the van rental and petrol was covered, the tours would run smoothly when we all paid for it. I would always say, “hey, you're paying £250 to go around Europe for 6 weeks. It's a great holiday!”"

Broken down vans, old women, and drug tests aren't the only nightmares of the road. There are also rats.

"It was at a farm which was squatted by French anarchists. It was actually a last minute show, because we had a day off, and it was a very good gig. When we checked out the place to sleep, it was pretty nightmarish, in a sick, cold, dark, damp converted cellar. Most of the beds were wet with condensation and nearly all of them had droplets of shit spread all over. Whilst sleeping, you could hear the rats above you, under the floor boards of the farmhouse. Insane. We actually returned there last year, and were dreading the sleep. We talked about how they had probably fixed the place up a bit, as it was a planned gig...wishful thinking I guess. We were wrong. More rat shit. This time, we all slept in the van, or in the venue."

Despite the hardships, they are not fazed. Their Myspace blurts out the message: “booking a short European tour in April. 2-3 weeks.” With dates set in Belgium, Bristol, and Manchester already (during the Easter break I might add) as well as more to come coupled with the reduced opportunity to see them over the next few years, this is a band worth the trip. For all the hardships they've endured it's the least you can do. But don't feel sorry for them. They're free and living.

http://www.myspace.com/actionbeat/
http://www.fortissimorecords.co.uk/