THE truly great bands are the ones you recognise in an instant – from a snatch of vocal, a snap and swagger of rhythm and a sonic fingerprint that says this could not possibly be anyone else.

That’s the way it is with Bounce, the spectacular new fourth album by first-generation 2 Tone skankers turned purveyors of joyous political pop The Beat.

The reinvented band are heading to Bridport Electric Palace on Thursday, December 8 with their latest album.

From the clipped and hectic rude boy shuffle of new tunes Avoid The Obvious to the chiming sunshine pop romance of Heaven Hiding, Bounce shows off every gleaming aspect of the most musically diverse band to come out of the multiracial, multicultural explosion that remade British pop from 1979.

The same energy that drove Mirror In The Bathroom – reggae looseness plus razor-sharp songwriting meets the paranoid pace of punk – is here again.

Ranking Roger, original member, MC, songwriter, singer and now driving force of the reconstituted Beat said: “We knew this record had to be really varied and versatile because back in the day, The Beat always were varied, that’s what people loved about us.

“We could be pop or rootsy and underground, we sang about serious things but we made you feel good.”

He said: “The Beat were my education, It was where I learned what music should be, how you can bounce different styles off one another, how you can talk about politics and things that matter but keep a happy, positive vibe that brings people together.

“So this record had to be classic Beat but with a modern edge to it – something that long-time Beat fans will like but new people will get too.”

“And,” says this irrepressible, dreadlocked, none-more-Brummie living logo for The Beat’s sound, “we’re dead proud of it.”

Long-awaited hardly covers it with the long road that has brought Birmingham’s original punk-reggae rockers right back to relevance. In the 34 years since Bounce’s predecessor ‘Special Beat Service’ – the one that won them a huge and lasting audience – The Beat have split up and partially reconvened (off and on) with friends.

Back together, this revitalised Beat is a family business too. Joining Roger is his son Ranking Junior aka Matthew Murphy, a powerhouse MC who adds a new dimension to The Beat’s live shows.

Roger said: “He can do a brilliant fast rhyming style, and I’m just too old for that, it’s great for the younger fans too because it connects us to grime and UK hip hop, all the things that partly descended from 2 Tone.”

* The Beat feat. Ranking Roger and support by The RPMs, at the Electric Palace on Thursday, December 8.