Just been looking at the list of those who have taken part in recording the nine-minute charity single version of Mark Knopfler's 'Going Home' (for the Teenage Cancer Trust). It is an impressive list. https://markknopflersguitarheroes.tmstor.es/?utm_campaign=W%2FC%2005%2F02%2F2024-%20Mark%20Knopfler&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mailjet(https://markknopflersguitarheroes.tmstor.es/?utm_campaign=W%2FC%2005%2F02%2F2024-%20Mark%20Knopfler&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mailjet) But in there are a few 'How did they get included?' names. You sort of assume that somebody didn't want to offend a family friend by not including them. And, of course, Bill sails past so many of those included and really should have had the chance to be listed in the same assembly with those that are genuinely impressive and influential musicians. I'd like to think that Bill would have stepped up and joined in (despite poor health) if he had been offered the chance to do so.

This latest has appeared on my doormat whilst I was at work. It will be a lovely end-of-week listen - right now, I think...!

I don’t know whether anyone else spotted the little story in The Guardian newspaper’s G2 section on Monday. Each week, they have a romantic account of the interesting way a couple met and fell in love – a strange idea but always quite sweet. Odd one this week is the story of a lady who worked in a venue (a historic church in Bradford) that was visited by the singer from a band who was looking at the building as a possible venue for a live comeback gig, just a couple of years ago. The singer turned out to be none other than Steve Wright of Fiat Lux, the gig took place, and the couple are now happily married. [I mention this here because Bill both composed soundtracks for stage productions Steve was involved in and produced and played on Fiat Lux’s first single. And Fiat Lux were, of course, also Ian Nelson’s band]. I believe Steve also turns up on this very forum occasionally. Congratulations, Steve, but keep the Fiat Lux music coming!

Just spotted 30 seconds of Bill talking in an unimpressed manner about a Tina Turner album on BBC2's documentary 'When Tina Turner Came To Britain'.

Two good things about this new compilation: https://stevenwilsonpresents.tmstor.es/product/104559 It's compiled by none other than the influential Steven Wilson It has a Red Noise track right near the beginning. It's actually a really interesting and different perspective on the decade in question. I'd be interested to hear Bill's thoughts on it. It's certainly good to be reminded of S Wilson's respect for Bill's contribution to what we call culture.

It is sad to hear that Queen Elizabeth has died. I'm really not a royalist but she always seemed like such a decent and determined lady that her loss must be mourned. I'm also just getting my head around the fact that the new King, Charles, is around a month older than Bill. I had no idea they were so closely contemporary. Charles always seems to mean well, but it's a heck of a job to take on at 73. Best of luck to him.

Reading the latest issue of Record Collector, I was surprised to find the excerpt below in the midst of their very large Sex Pistols feature. The interviews, by Johnny Sharp – with Jones, Cook and Matlock as a group and with Lydon unsurprisingly on his own – are a very good read anyway, but this brief bit of back story really got me thinking. If, in 1976, the Pistols’ 20-year-old drummer had enough awareness of Bill’s first production roles on BBD albums and was enough of a BBD/Bill fan to suggest him as a suitable producer for the Anarchy single – and beyond? – what does this say about how Bill was viewed amongst fellow musicians (rather than just by the ‘music industry’)? This is at very least a link I wouldn’t have imagined. Whenever we get to see the surprising number of photos of Bill with the big names of the seventies and eighties – almost always the kind of people that brought some thought and depth to their mega-success (Annie Lennox, Japan, etc.) – I wonder what their view was (and is) of Bill. Am I wrong in thinking that quite a few of them (Billy MacKenzie is a fair example) were not just finding Bill to be good company but actually looking up to him? Clearly, that’s what Paul Cook was doing when he made his suggestions to the Pistols. He clearly indicates that he wanted a ‘proper’ producer, unlike the way other ‘punk’ contemporaries were going. Is the Sex Pistols ‘almost-link’ something that Bill was aware of? What a weird career twist that would have been! Here’s the piece from Record Collector… When you made the Anarchy single, how much did Chris Thomas’ production bring to the band in the studio? Steve Jones: Prior to that we had our sound guy, Dave Goodman, and it all went to his head when we got a deal with EMI. …. He was smoking way too much weed. I’m not kidding – 100 takes and it still wasn’t good enough. …. Then Chris Thomas came along and- boom! We had it in three takes. Because he knew what he was doing. Glen Matlock: It didn’t work with Dave Goodman because Malcolm was in the studio with him, and Dave wasn’t in a position to tell him to shut the f*** up. … And we kind of went on strike. We said, look it’s not working out. We’ve got to find another way. And Paul (Cook) came up with a couple of suggestions: Bill Nelson from Be Bop Deluxe and Chris Thomas. I didn’t even know what a record producer was at that time. Paul Cook: It was such a great stroke getting Chris involved because at that time …. bands [were just] getting their mates in to engineer like The Clash did with their soundman, Mickey Foote.

Sad to see news of the death of John Miles. I can't say I was huge fan but he was an admirably skilled musician, composer and arranger who was trying to do something a bit different and sitting at the edge of pop music as it was at the time. That he was a northerner and eventually modestly received some recognition in the Prog Awards just a few years ago suggests further similarity to Mr Nelson, but let's at least give a sentimental listen to Miles' mega-hit 'Music' - I still seem to know every word and note without listening first!!!

What is the earliest known live recording of Bill playing? I'm assuming it's with BBD, but even then, how early in the band's career did anyone keep a gig recording which has survived (however illegally)? I know Bill is no fan of such recordings so this isn't a sharing request, just a straight, factual one. Thanks for any info you can provide.

Just heard that Bandcamp intend to continue their series of Fridays on which all (that's every bit of) the proceeds of music sales go straight to the artist in question. So, first Friday of every month is the day to buy new BN music from Bandcamp, up to and including the first Friday of November. What a strangely civilised corner of the music industry this is!

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/be-bop-deluxe-axe-victim-3cd-1dvd-limited-edition-deluxe-boxset/ There is the 3CD + DVD set and the 2CD set as before - July 17th. Looks marvellous... I have wanted to buy the boxes all the way through these reissues but I really don't have £50 that I can spare. I haven't got any of the big-box versions. This Axe Victim set particularly has the two long awaited sets (first Peel Session and Decca tapes) that I would really really love to have. But, no, I just can't. I feel a bit bad even buying the 2CD set just now. Perhaps a 'miscellaneous rarities' set could be released afterwards?

Surely this wasn't official BBD branding? It's retro enough but doesn't seem to have any Bill Nelson flair to it at all.. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-SAMICK-Be-Bop-Deluxe-BA25V-25W-Guitar-Bass-Amplifier-PRE-OWNED-VERY-RARE/223619793318?hash=item3410c741a6:g:~1QAAOSwZ6ddT~f9

Hi to all! I can't find a complete list of Bill's radio sessions anywhere - though the Be Bop ones were easily discovered. I don't think the following is complete but I thought someone should make an attempt. Please fill the gaps somebody. I can't find any evidence that Bill has ever recorded sessions for any other radio stations than BBC1 Radio 1 and the old BBC Radio 5 (mid-90s version). Is this true? Are there sessions from the USA? Anyway, here's the start of a list. Dates are mostly dates of recording - but some may be the broadcast dates - not sure really. 6/11/73 John Peel · Axe Victim · Bluesy Ruby · Tomorrow The World 9/5/74 John Peel · Third Floor Heaven · Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape · Mill Street Junction · Fifteenth Of July (Invisibles) 11/3/75 John Peel · Maid In Heaven · Stage Whispers · Sister Seagull · Lights 10/2/76 John Peel · Blazing Apostles · Crying To The Sky · Peace Of Mind 17/1/77 John Peel · Mill Street Junction · Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape · Still Shining 30/1/78 John Peel · Super Enigmatix · Panic In The World · Possession · Love In Flames 17/2/79 Friday Rock Show (Tommy Vance?) · Stay Young · Furniture Music · Don’t Touch Me (I’m Electric) · Out Of Touch 10/3/81 David ‘Kid’ Jensen · Konnie Buys A Kodak · The Art Of Vision · Boom Year Ahead · After Life 2/6/81 David ‘Kid’ Jensen · Rooms With Brittle Views · Stay Young · Sleep Cycle · Jazz 3/7/82 David ‘Kid’ Jensen · A Dip In The Swimming Pool Reactor · M1 (Still Under Construction) · Zen 13/1/83 David ‘Kid’ Jensen · Dancing On A Knife’s Edge · Time Tracking · Contemplation · Indiscretion 10/4/91 Mark Radcliffe · Trance And Transcendence · Gloria Mundae · B-Movie Bug Boy And a mostly unconnected thought to finish with... Bill's first appearance on a released record was 50 whole years ago (A to Austr, 1970)... Wow!

Just received (from Burning Shed) an announcement that Cherry Red are re-releasing The Associates third album, 'Perhaps', on January 31st 2020. This is a fabulous album despite the very messy money-and-time-wasting that went into making it and the absence of Alan Rankine edgy and melodramatic multi-instrumentalism. It somehow still manages to be totally smooth and weirdly wonky at the same time! But keep listening all the way through to the end of the bonus material on disc 2 and you'll find the 7" and 12" versions of the non-album single 'Take Me To The Girl' featuring guitar from none other than Bill Nelson. Not the most obviously Bill-style song or guitar parts and the single is rather over-produced but these are the only surviving snatches (as far as we know) of the quite brief recording sessions for which Billy Mackenzie invited Bill Nelson to contribute to his recording career. There may be another two or three unreleased songs somewhere but even their titles are unknown, let alone the music itself. To me, the whole notion that two such contrasting geniuses ever worked together at all is quite mindstretching!

Delighted to have just ordered Old Haunts from Burning Shed. These will not last long, even with 1000 available, surely...

I mentioned this elsewhere, but let’s give a thread to Fiat Lux. They are being included here in William’s World because they were the band with whom Ian Nelson very nearly made it big. Between 1982 and 1985, they went through all the right stages: critically acclaimed indie single produced by well-known name (er, yes, none other than Bill himself); major label contract; very-near-miss singles; support from BBC Radio 1 DJs; hotly anticipated debut album; and… Well that’s where it went wrong. The album didn’t happen because the label insisted on a proper hit single before releasing it. The nearly completed album tapes surfaced many years later and in that form are still easily found online (search under ‘Fac Ut Vivas’). The promo video and live footage compilation VHS tape – see Y**T*be – included songs that were never released but would have been on the album. Then followed thirty years of a strong awareness that this was not a good end to a story. Ian’s death in 2006 emphasised that this was a band that would never be likely to get its moment in the sun. In the years that followed, Bill mentioned a couple of times his own hopes of compiling a CD release for Fiat Lux’s material. Let’s just appreciate Fiat Lux for a moment. FL are described on Wikipedia and elsewhere as a ‘synthpop band’ and this is fair enough as a quick summary. But actually, very few of the sounds were synths. What stands out these days is the ever-changing combinations of electronic rhythms with clarinet, saxophone, acoustic guitar, rumbling electric bass and the strong, deep tones of singer Steve Wright’s voice. The other special element is the boldness of the arrangements for and between instruments. Best song from the album is ‘The Moment’ - deceptively simple but so beautifully constructed. This band had something special going on. The other member was David Crickmore and he seems to have been the one most keen to move freely between instruments and bring out strong contrasts between sections of individual songs. So now, in 2019, Cherry Red have finally compiled a 2CD retrospective of Fiat Lux’s career. Basically, it consists of the unreleased album (at last!), plus the six singles (A’s and B’s), plus the two tracks produced by Bill but never released in any form. [Bill recorded FL’s second single (Photography / Comfortable Life) with them but the Polydor people wanted the songs re-recorded for the band’s major label debut]. This stuff is just fabulous and the CD release is all taken from the original mastertapes. While you are over at the Cherry Red site ordering the Futurama re-issue, take a moment to add Fiat Lux’s ‘Hired History Plus’ (named after the singles mini-album that leads the 2CD set) to your order. And not just that….. Over at Proper Music https://www.propermusic.com/artist/Fiat-Lux-119055 is the chance to buy the first album by the reformed Fiat Lux (just Wright and Crickmore, with guests). This was released just last week and I must say that (to my surprise) it has turned out to be such a great album. Everything that was uniquely Fiat Lux is still there, particularly in the soaring, interesting use of clarinet and sax – not quite as Ian Nelson would have played them but clearly intended to continue the approach and pay tribute to Ian in where and how they are used. The gorgeous bass and strong vocals are also very much as they should be. The album is called ‘Saved Sympathy’ and is full of strong, sincere songs with rich vocals, clever arrangements and a quality that is simultaneously 1980s and something a bit smarter than that – which is what Fiat Lux always were. If he’s happy to do so, I’d love to hear Bill’s thoughts on the band and its music and any memories of that time in his brother’s life. Did Cherry Red get in touch about the CD compilation?