‘We spent £100,000 doing a gig in a scout hut!’ The Beta Band on debt, disastrous decisions – and their defiant comeback
Fiercely original and stunning live, they should have been massive – but they imploded. As the Scots return, they relive disowning their debut album, blowing Top of the Pops – and getting shocks off their battery-powered illuminated suits
Steve Mason is remembering the day in 2004 he was told the Beta Band was over. “There was enough money in the bank account to pay each of us a month’s wages,” says the singer, seated in a busy London greasy spoon. “And by that point, we were only on a grand a month. Then that was it.”
For the previous eight years, life in the band formed in the Scottish seaside town of St Andrews had been one of constant reinvention and innovation. They’d made fiercely original records and experimental films, while putting on visually stunning live extravaganzas. Their transatlantic fanbase included Oasis, Radiohead, Irvine Welsh and actor John Cusack, who’d recommended their song Dry the Rain for a now-famous scene in High Fidelity. Playing a record store assistant, Cusack announces: “I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band.” He then puts the CD on and the shopppers nod their heads to Dry the Rain.
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