By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
November 21, 1986
Blame it on the babies. That’s what General Public’s Ranking Roger (a.k.a. Roger Charlery) said when asked why the group took two years to release its second album.
Both Roger and Dave Wakeling, the British nucleus of the band, became fathers for the second time during the recording of “Hand to Mouth,” the followup to 1984’s “. . . All the Rage.” General Public will play at the Riviera Night Club, 4746 N. Racine, at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow. Fountainhead, an Irish band, will be the opening act. (All tickets are $15. For ticket info, call Ticketmaster at 559-1212.)
General Public’s unusual blend of reggae, ska and pop is an extension of Roger and Wakeling’s days with the English Beat. As forerunners in the British ska revival, the Beat earned favor among critics and fans alike with the incessant beat, carefully crafted lyrics and homemade cool look. With two LPs to its credit, Roger said fans probably will come to the shows expecting to hear General Public, and not English Beat songs.
“On our first tour, sure there were kids who wanted to hear English Beat songs,” Roger said in a phone interview. “That’s understandable. But now we’re getting more General Public fans. Some of them have never even heard of the English Beat. They’re so young!”
Roger, 23, said it doesn’t bother him how much the audience knows about his musical history. He’s more interested that they know about the band’s latest record. “. . . All the Rage” spawned hits in “Tenderness” and “Never You Done That,” two surprisingly pop-oriented singles. “Hand to Mouth” addresses subjects ranging from Christianity to sex.
“I have rather eclectic musical tastes,” Roger said. “And I like to get that across in our music. I don’t think we have to sound ska or reggae or pop just because that’s what people expect. That’s too boring.
“Believe it or not, I used to like Gilbert and Sullivan when I was growing up. And David Cassidy, too. When I was about 14 or 15, I started to get into the Clash and the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks and people like that. That was my first listening to punk, and that’s what totally changed me.”
While some of his young peers were content to live out the punk image after school, Roger chose to live the punk life. He became a self-proclaimed “nutty case,” choosing pubs over school and brawls over sports. Roger said he was quite the fighter in school.
The current tour is General Public’s most elaborate and expensive to date, but Roger said it is far from glamorous. Although they don’t get up until about noon, Roger contended that it’s still to early for most musicians. They drive to most of their gigs, do sound checks, and then hit the stage in the evening.
“That’s the part that makes everything worthwhile, you know,” Roger said. “It’s not easy to find things to do for the other 18 hours. Some people read on the bus or occupy themselves with the videocassette or audio cassette recorder.”
Roger, who used to sport a two-toned orange and black hairdo, said, “As long as people can respect you as a person and not as a pop star, that’s great. But I hate it when they (fans) take you out and all they talk about is the group. That doesn’t impress me too much.”
Roger, a vegetarian, said he expects to pare some pounds from his lean 6-foot-2-inch frame on this tour. He’s not on a diet, but he said every trip to America results in a minor weight loss for him.
“You would expect people to come to America and get fat,” he said. “But it’s the total opposite when you’re a vegetarian. It’s really hard to find foods for vegetarians in America when you’re on the road. I’m surprised at the amounts of meat what you have in this country, really.”
While starvation in Ethiopia hasn’t been a hot topic in the media lately, Roger said he hoped people will remember the problem. General Public recorded a song last year called “Starvation” with fellow British rockers Madness, UB40 and the Specials. Though it hit the Top 40 in Britain, most Americans never heard it.
“It’s kind of ironic it didn’t do better because it sounds not unlike General Public music, which has been quite successful in your country,” Roger said.
“. . . All the Rage” sold 400,000 copies and made General Public a common sight on MTV, the cable music station. Roger said that although videos were a big help in getting their foot in the door, “Hand to Mouth” will determine their potential longevity.
“We’ve done a lot of growing up since we were in the English Beat,” Roger said. “I’m just hoping I’ll be around long enough to watch my children follow in their old dad’s footsteps.”
Fountainhead, the opening act, sounds as if it were influenced more by Simple Minds than Bob Marley. But Pat O’Donnell, lyricist and singer for the band, thinks that difference will make things more interesting.
“I’m not going to worry about whether General Public’s fans will like us or not because I’m pretty confident they will,” O’Donnell said. “We’re playing mostly headlining gigs in clubs, but we’re doing a few opening spots as well.”
