The roots of The Beat lie in The Nerves, a seminal power pop combo featuring Paul Collins (born 1956, New York City), Peter Case (the future front man of The Plimsouls), and Jack Lee.
Continuing in The Nerves' vein, the album consisted of harmony-laden, driving guitar pop songs, including a re-recorded version of "Working Too Hard".
The group appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, (March 8, 1980), The Merv Griffin Show and that same year contributed a song to the soundtrack LP of the popular comedy movie Caddyshack.
[2] The band's second CBS LP, The Kids Are The Same was released two years later in 1982,[2] with drummer Ruiz now replaced by Dennis Conway, who played for both Elton John and Alice Cooper.
In 1985, another six song 12-inch mini-album Longtime Gone was produced by former Motörhead drummer Lucas Fox and recorded in London with British musicians, including Jim Barber on guitar (The Rolling Stones & Mick Jagger solo album), being released only in Europe.
In 2006, Collins resurrected "Paul Collins' Beat" with the help of bassist Juancho Bummer and a slightly younger Spanish lineup and recorded a live album entitled Live In Europe, released as a free MP3 CD album download on their official website followed by a CD of all new original material, "Flying High", recorded in Madrid, Spain.
The album was entitled "King Of Powerpop," which included artwork by famed artist Bill Stout in addition to a guest performance by Wally Palmar, vocalist and harmonica player from The Romantics and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
In 2012, longtime friends and musical partners, Paul Collins and Peter Case embarked on a reunion tour paying tribute to their respective bands The Nerves, The Breakaways, The Beat and The Plimsouls.
The tour included a date in Austin, Texas, where actor Bill Murray made a surprise appearance at the concert to introduce the band to the audience.
Once Collins and his management approve the contract, the band serves as a booking agent and the venue is chosen based upon its style of music and the type of people it attracts.
With Collins' solo albums heavily rooted in the genres of alt-country, Americana, folk and country music, he continues to maintain a diversified fanbase.
According to an October 2012 press release, Dave Wakeling stated, “Paul and I originally met back in '83 and have been in touch occasionally over the years, but recently we've been in closer Facebook contact, which led to this idea becoming a reality....Two beats, hearting as one!”[citation needed] In Spring 2014, The Paul Collins Beat embarked on a groundbreaking tour of China, performing full-band electric concerts in nine cities, in addition to in-store performances at record shops and televised news programs.
Neither Collins nor his earlier groups The Nerves, The Breakaways or The Beat had previously performed in China, although each project retains a sizeable following due to the resurgence of vinyl LP records and recent worldwide reissues.
The tour provided The Paul Collins Beat the opportunity to perform in large cities, small working class towns and student centers based around Chinese colleges.
Collins also performed a special acoustic concert at Shanghai Experimental School, which attracted the attention of Chinese media outlets and was aired on television.
Original Beat lead guitarist Larry Whitman (September 27, 1955 – July 26, 1997), a devoted fan of Phil Spector, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Before joining The Beat, Whitman was producer, songwriter and member of L.A. pop group Needles & Pins, whose only release was the Spector influenced 45 RPM single "Don't You Worry".
Portions of the album The Kids Are The Same were recorded in 1980 at Twentieth Century Fox Music Scoring Stage during a Musician's Union strike against the motion-picture and television industries.