Roger Charlery, who used the name Ranking Roger, was an English singer and musician of West Indian descent best known as a member of the popular ska band The Beat. He died on 26th March 2019, after battling terminal illness.
Born in Birmingham, he began as a DJ and then played drums in a band called the Dum Dum Boys. In 1978, he joined Morton and Steele, vocalist Dave Wakeling, guitarist Andy Cox, saxophonist Lionel Augustus Martin (Saxa) in The Beat, known in America as The English Beat. They released three studio albums in the 1980s including 'I Just Can't Stop It', before disbanding in 1983. Ranking Roger and Wakeling formed General Public in 1983, going on to release three albums.
The Beat reformed in 2006 and continued to perform and record. Ranking Roger released two solo albums, 'Radical Departure' (1988) and 'Inside My Head' (2001). An autobiography titled 'I Just Can't Stop It' was due to be published in 2019.
