The Beta Band – Dry The Rain

Listen up Americanos; it’s pronounced ‘Bee-ta Band’ not ‘Bay-ta Band’. And while we’re at it, it goes day/month/year. (I can hear ‘em now: “Hey, we saved yer asses in dubya dubya two.”)

Dry The Rain was the opening track on The Beta’s Nick McCabe produced debut EP Champion Versions in 1997. The EP and the two that followed (The Patty, Patty Sound and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos) earned them a huge cult following which saw the original limited edition EPs changing hands for amounts that would have funded a rudimentary space program. The situation was remedied with the release of The Three EPs in 1998.

Unfortunately, the Beta Band weren’t able to continue their fun, inventive, catchy songwriting into their debut album proper. Hot Shots II was poorly received critically and received a lukewarm response from the public. The recent post-split release of The Beta Band’s greatest hits contains only songs from The Three EPs.

Dry The Rain was also the song that launched the Bay-tas in the US of America when it was featured in the film version of Nick Hornby’s music geek tome High Fidelty. Before playing the song John Cusack’s Rob states, “I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Bay-ta Band.” It’s fair to say that the song’s appearance in the film lead to comfortably more than an additional five copies of the CD sold (some sources suggest as many as eleven or twelve).


The Beta Band – Dry The Rain

Buy The Three EPs