Sock Free Hideaway

BEATS OF LOVE 

181. Failure is Always An Option: Glorious Adventures on the Beta Band Front Line and Other Tales by Steve Mason

BY 1997 I was so pleased to hear the Beta Band's Champion Versions EP rewinding everything back to hearing Loaded for the first time, as I had become truly jaded with going out clubbing. 

I was lucky to catch them live early at the Roadhouse and Uni so witnessed the idiosyncrasy and humour that made them so special up close. I travelled far and wide to fall under their spell of redemptive eclecticism. Getting red-eyed with them in South after their farewell performance in Manchester. I knew they were going to be missed, especially by me, as I was already feeling old by then. 

That his best music sounds fragmented and unselfconsciously so, so too does his best writing. That seeps out in candid tales which haphazardly reveal a droll humour. Tales that thankfully encompass more than the Beta Band years. He downplays his bravery by reassessing everything on today's terms. You bemoan the fact that selling out is an outdated form of practice and with that realisation; I come to see why I'd feel old in 2004. 

He's especially hard on himself when letting us into the drifts of his mind. It's a little too near home but his brilliant gift for story telling makes even the most depressing episodes highly entertaining. The peaks and troughs of his life don't come at you in linear and obvious ways either, they instead spring out of the pages in a surprising manner. 

So pleased to read this, rewinding everything back to hearing the mighty and magical Champion Versions' EP for the first time.