Such a shame to lose Roger at such an early age. Many of you all, especially if you’re under 40, probably don’t recognize his name but he was a major player in early Eighties music under the New Wave banner and MTV’s formative years. However, mostly everybody has heard of the bands he was in: The English Beat and General Public, with their hits “Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Save it for Later,” and “Tenderness.” There’s more yet I just went with what lazy radio stations stick with.
After two albums with Dave Wakeling as General Public, Roger went solo around 1988. Here’s when he came into my personal life alongside my university friend Helen, who I hope will comment.
During the Summer of 1988, I would spend a big chunk of my spare time hanging out at my alma mater‘s radio station (WMUR 750 AM). It was a hotter than usual Summer in Milwaukee so I took advantage of the building’s AC while taking care of the place’s affairs: making sure the engineer wasn’t stealing our records, communicating with the labels, turning in playlists for our part-time operations and having fun. This really nice lady with Sire Records I had been corresponding with gave me a call around August. She got me on the guest list to see Ranking Roger because her company’s act, Chiefs of Relief was the opener. All I had to do was haul ass to Chicago’s Cabaret Metro (near Wrigley Field and today it’s just Metro) to attend. By then I had enough money to get by until school started and had quit paint crew.
Since the guest was me plus one, I immediately twisted Helen’s arm into going. I don’t think it was difficult. She really liked the Chiefs of Relief songs we played on WMUR and knew who Ranking Roger was.
Off we went to the bus station for neither of us had a car. In Milwaukee, Marquette was downtown, access to Greyhound was easy. Chicago was a tad trickier. There we’d transfer from O’Hare to the subway/train to where Cabaret Metro was. We arrived while it was light, saw Wrigley Field nearby and left a message for our mutual friend (Helen’s future husband) Paul to let him know we were in the vicinity to say howdy.
As for the show, it was pretty cool. Chiefs of Relief didn’t receive much of a reaction from the tiny crowd despite the drummer being Paul Cook (Sex Pistols) or singer/guitarist Matthew Ashman (Bow Wow Wow, Adam & the Ants). I went out to the lobby when CoR finished their set to see how/when to get my interview with the band, record a station ID, portable cassette recorder in hand (oh the Eighties!). While waiting I ran into Richard Gotterher, CoR’s producer while my brain had completely locked up, failing to remember even then he was a legend as per the link; he also produced other records I loved by Blondie, the Go Go’s, the J. Geils Band and Mental as Anything (he would work with the JudyBats in the future). Richard was in Chicago to see how CoR was faring at the tour’s launch. Not well sadly. Then I met CoR’s tour manager, he had just finished handling Underworld through the US and I could tell by the look on his face, this wasn’t going to be easy given CoR’s foul mood from the poor reception.
The station ID and quick interview with Ranking Roger fell through thanks to me running out of time and Helen and me having to turn down Matthew Ashman’s offer to travel with his band given he had seen our enthusiasm in the crowd. It was pretty tempting. They would wrap up in Washington DC and maybe Helen’s mom would cover our return trip to Milwaukee. Even in my foolish youth, I quick declined. I didn’t feel like sleeping on the floor of hotel rooms over the next couple weeks.
Our adventure continued when the concert ended…unfortunately.
We tried really hard to catch the subway back to O’Hare in order to snag the last Greyhound to Milwaukee. We weren’t even close. This meant we had to spend the entire night in the airport, staying awake out of fear and the terminal’s seats being designed to prevent any comfortable loitering. Being 19-20, we figured, how hard could it be? We’ve crammed for exams or written papers under similar conditions. HA! It was hard and this poor, probably insane Asian guy having a helluva’ conversation with imaginary people put Helen in a minor panic. I was also surprised how dead O’Hare was. I guess the international terminal is where the action never stops.
When the time for the first Greyhound to Milwaukee was due to arrive, Helen and I rushed down to the bus stop. This would’ve been around 6 AM. We were exhausted, clinging on to what little energy we had remaining (I never drank coffee then) from being awake past midnight and excited about the nap we’d get on the 90-minute trip back.
The bus flew right by.
Livid, we managed to hang in there until Trailways appeared over an hour later. Thankfully they took checks, we had no cash remaining. I know I passed out before we were officially on I-94 and had enough energy to walk the mile to the apartment I was subleasing to finish sleeping. Greyhound refunded the full price of our round-trip tickets which was nice, I only wanted the unused part.
Helen and I continue to reminisce about our silly Chicago adventure and we thank Ranking Roger for making it possible.
Thank you for all the great music Roger! You will be missed because you had a huge impact on how the Eighties shaped up and future Ska-related acts: early No Doubt, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and I can some influences in personal faves, Bowling For Soup and the Aquabats.
