VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Another brace of sad losses within the rock and roll universe over the last couple of weeks with the passing of legendary pop polymath Scott Walker and ska pioneer Ranking Roger. Both men were major players not only in their respective musical spheres, but also throughout my life from childhood to the present day. Walker - born Noel Scott Engel - first found fame in the mid-60's as one third of the ridiculously good-looking Walker Brothers vocal group. Along with his fellow 'brothers' - they were nothing of the sort of course - they tore up the charts with monumentally magnificent tunes such as The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore and Make It Easy On Yourself. Scott soon tired of the relentless grind of the pop world - as well as the hordes of screaming teenyboppers who followed him everywhere - and soon embarked on a quite astonishing solo career that morphed over the ensuing decades from ornate chamber pop, esoteric jazz-influenced AOR, avant-garde post-rock and even brain-scrambling drone rock. Listening back to his extraordinary back catalogue, it's almost impossible to comprehend that the man responsible for those first four incredible solo albums of the late 60's and early 70's is the same experimental musical genius that gave us albums like 'Tilt' and the frankly bizarro 'The Drift'. He truly was a complete one-off and will be sorely missed. 
Ranking Roger - real name Roger Charlery - was a pivotal member of the British ska band The Beat, who found huge fame in the late 70's with their own brand of reggae-infused skank-heavy dance beats that gained massive traction in the wake of the success of The Specials, Madness, The Selecter and others. Garnering a handful of mighty hit singles like Mirror In The Bathroom, Hands Off She's Mine and Can't Get Used To Losing You, Roger and the rest of The Beat were regular visitors to my childhood world thanks to their constant appearances on Top Of The Pops. Roger, along with Chas Smash from Madness, inspired me to buy some Sta-Press slacks, wear white socks and dance around my bedroom like a loon - although he made it look effortless. After the dissolution of The Beat, he joined the group's singer Dave Wakeling in General Public, who were pretty big in the States for a while, before forging his own path. He had recently been touring in his own version of The Beat before succumbing to cancer at the stupidly young age of 56. Rest in peace Roger - and keep dancing up there.