To You Alone - King Biscuit Time

"How many times do I have to answer that!?" Steve Mason, former front man of the inimatable Beta Band has clearly had enough. Beneath his Elvis Costello-style spectacles he rolls his eyes after being asked whether he really hated that debut album. He is in a good mood though, despite coming worse off after having a fight with a hard bastard scouser earlier in the day. The scouser in question had, according to Steve, six legs, wings and a vicious ****ing bite. The scouser in question was a wasp. 

Steve, along with old friends Pete (of Old Jock Radio fame) and Colin Emmanuel (known to you and I as C-Swing producer of Hot Shots II) are in Liverpool on this dreary Saturday to start a tour under the guise of King Biscuit Time. Things are looking up for fans of Steve Mason’s clever sonic buffoonery, with new single ‘C I Am 15’ ready to hit the shelves next week, and an album of new choons poised for next year, devotees can throw away their black arm bands and rejoice. The Beta Band are dead, long live King Biscuit Time!  

Packing all of the hypnotic funky punch of career best (with the Betas at least) Hot Shots II, C I am 15 gives it to the UK’s and US’s secret services doggy style. Steve explains: "It’s in response to years of abuse to the world and you know… keeping it a secret from the rest of the world. Finally when they decide to go to Iraq it kinda became public knowledge but only because it was something they couldn’t really hide and it was really obvious as to why they were going there."  

Unlike Coldplay, when Mason starts singing about political events the result is not just a rant or black marker pen on his hands and wrists but a funk pop masterpiece that sounds completely unlike any record you’re ever likely to hear. It’s hard not to mourn The Beta Band, their passing represented so much in music. They were undoubtedly a defining band of recent times and even inspired the likes of Oasis and Blur to copy their sound with ‘Go Let It Out’ and the ‘13’ album respectively.

"It does get to you a little bit when you’re really struggling and they’re like a multi-million pound band and you know they’ve had really big hits from ideas you’ve been doing, but you’ve got to get over that pretty quickly otherwise you’d just never sleep. It was good that Radiohead kind of repaid us the debt by taking us out on tour in the States you know, they put their money where their… well you know… put our money where their mouth is!" Falling into a hearty ‘scoat-ish larffff’… 

Steve is charming; he talks of his old band in regretful terms, and it seems he genuinely loved The Beta Band, but the dirtiest business in the world (copyright Ian Brown) didn’t love him for it back. When talking of their split he is passionate. His old band mate Richard is now a joiner ("A natural regression" as Steve puts it) but apparently has an album finished and is looking for a deal, and despite reports published on this very website Steve is not a labourer on a building site near you.