Red Beans & Rice

Red Beans & Rice - That Driving Beat/Throw It In The Grass
Chiswick CHIS 124. Released 7 March 1980.
Produced by Pete Wingfield
engineered by Alvin Clarke
Lavern Brown: vocals
Jeff Coleman: guitar
Mike Paice: saxophone, harmonica
Benny Herbert: bass
Tom Riley: drums

That Driving Beat by Red Beans & Rice is one of Chiswick's should-have-been-hits. A Willie Mitchell tune that gets a powerful Sam & Dave-like treatment, it's a sure fire floor filler. Released in the midst of the mod revival, it was the right record at the right time, but things were not to be. There's little info to be found on this band. They had a track on Albion's The London R&B Sessions featuring the same line-up, and there was an E.P. on either Ace or Big Beat (SW 68) that I've yet to track down. After singer Lavern Brown left, a new line-up recorded Live At The Dublin Castle for Ace (CHM 72, 1983), that features fun, but workman-like, blues work-outs that lack the spark of the 45. What else is there to tell? Lavern Brown is a mainstay on the London blues circuit and later worked with Van Morrison, while Tom Riley (who took over vocal duties after Brown left) had worked with Dave Edmunds. Oh, and producer Pete Wingfield had a 1975 hit with Eighteen With A Bullet.
Besides the standard U.K. issue, there were A-label promo copies (see below and please excuse the fuzzy eBay swipe) and a rare German picture sleeve (above).