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The Dreamshire Chronicles More Listening Notes Go to Album Listening Notes to accompany the album The Dreamshire Chronicles by Bill Nelson DISC ONE: 1: 'Prelude: The Night Is Lit By Diamonds.' A gentle electronically treated piano and reverse guitar lead to a processed percussion loop. Chorused, echo chamber guitar floats languidly. A two minute forty four second instrumental. It suggests starlight shimmering above the slumbering towns and villages of Dreamshire, settling and centering the listener's mind in preparation for the movie in sound about to begin. 2: 'Welcome To Dreamshire.' (Monitor Mix.) A heavily treated percussion loop underpins this mid-tempo vocal ballad. A romantic but melancholy song whose opening lyrics are: "I dream of cities that don't exist, faces of people I've never met, empty streets bejewelled with rain..." Instrumental textures combine strings and woodwinds with Hammond organ and electric guitars. A couple of liquid, melodic, sustained guitar solos enhance the song. A brief toy xylophone line concludes it. This is the first of two mixes of this song. (The second appears on disc two.) This one is a monitor mix which is more or less as it sounded whilst I was still working on the piece in my home studio. It has a simple, intimate quality which I liked, hence its inclusion here. 3: 'The Pleasure Boaters.' Somewhat dark and mysterious. A one minute and thirty six second instrumental. Brushed drums and chiming guitars lead to an Indian orchestra and reverse guitar conclusion. Brief but moody. 4: 'This Everyday World.' (Vocal version.) Spooky opening cuts suddenly to piano and orchestra for this melodic song which is a distant cousin to certain tracks on 'The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill.' Time signature fluctuates between 4/4 and 3/4 (Waltz time.) Lyrics open with: "This everyday world is a haunted place...This everyday world, far from commonplace..." The song's coda shifts pace as a steam driven percussion loop enters and tremolo guitars accompany the repeated refrain "Voices in the darkness..." 5: 'Rainboy And Whistledog.' Thunder and rain opens this charming, chiming, freely improvised instrumental. A latin percussion loop suggests a mutant mix of cha-cha and bossa nova. (Spot the piano quote from 'Begin The Beguine.' ) Squelchy synth bass underpins twangy guitars and ghostly strings as Rainboy and his Whistledog wander the cobbled streets of a gaslit Dreamshire town sparkling with night rain. 6: 'Young Marvelman.' Opens with needle static, brushed snares, raindrop-piano and dreamy guitars, leading to a strange and moody song inspired by the 1950s comic book character 'Young Marvelman' who, in my imagination is a denizen of Dreamshire.' Lyrics include: "Young Marvelman hovers in halogen, miraculous powers under control...Ladies in lavender gaze at the bolt from the blue...so there he goes and everyone knows, Young Marvelman..." 7: 'Garden Railway.' A whimsical little instrumental which opens with synthesised 'steam' effects leading to electronic percussion, piano melody, choral motifs, plucked strings and backward harps as a miniature railway train puffs its way happily around the garden of one of Dreamshire's more eccentric lords of the manor. 8: 'The Shimmering Threshold (On Your Bike Emperor Ming.)' A vocal ballad this, beautiful but not a little strange. A sample of the lyrics: "Mandolin by the sea, broken clarinet, mandolin by the sea....My location on your dial, my name on the edge of your smile, roller coaster century...And there we stood, on the hilltop, looking at street lamps and stars...Chimney stacks and viaducts, smoke that blows away, blows away...The shimmering threshold..." An oriental melody enters followed by lyrics referencing 'Emperor Ming' from the old 'Flash Gordon' Republic film serials of the 1930s. A combination of orchestra and electric guitar leads to a change of tempo and fast synthetic phased drums as a weird coda kicks in with cellos, electric guitars and a lyric which sings, "Oh my God, this looks like, oh my God this looks like, some weird kind of apparition..." The song ends with a burst of heavily distorted guitars, running in both forward and reverse gear. 9: 'Evening Star Electric Park.' An eight minute forty six second instrumental featuring slightly oriental Marimba patterns with improvised jazzy guitar overdubs. Has an overdriven guitar break leading to a piano section, then key change into a four to the floor rhythm with fuzz guitar then a return to marimba and jazzy improvisation. Mood alternating throughout between jolly and sinister. Other worldly voices enter, leading to a 'musical box' loop coda over which Gretsch guitars intertwine and twang. A Mini-Moog synth enters and snakes its way through the undergrowth before vanishing. Ghostly voices return to conclude the piece. What exactly lurks in this mysterious Park? Sacred monsters or creatures of Faerie? 10: 'Sailing To The Moon.' A single sub-bass note begins this two minute and twelve second vocal-based song as a swell of processed guitars and soaring strings set the opening mood. A guitar loop enters and the vocal begins "This garden is a theatre in which colour casts its spell...This window is a portal through which ghosts are bid farewell..." A gigantic orchestra enters then dissolves as a woodwind loop gently ends the track. Short but widescreen. 11: 'The Milky Way (Burning Bright.) An abstract opening to this instrumental featuring 'found' voices. Insect-like high speed percussion kicks in and the textures shift between guitar, synth and strings, ending in a bizarre, haunted sound collage. 12: 'The Sparkling Idea.' Feedback guitar starts this song before tremelo guitar pattern enters with Indian orchestra, sitar, Moog and medium tempo drums. The lyrics begin: "My left hand holds a key, my right hand holds another...My mind defines the centre and all extraneous thoughts are dimmed..." A heavy guitar riff underpins an instrumental theme from the Indian Orchestra. More lyrics, "My left hand beats the drum, my right hand calls the thunder...Sometimes I'm struck by lightning, sometimes I'm struck by wonder..." A huge orchestra crescendo leads to quiet coda and oceanic synth and piano ending. 13: 'Ghosts Wind The Parlour Clock.' A one minute and twenty one second instrumental combining sample-and-hold synth sounds with strings, woodwinds and harp.The tick of the parlour clock sets the tempo. But who's hand is winding it? 14: 'Spooky Little Thing.' A poppy vocal in this whimsical song which cheekily references titles from several of my albums. (I won't quote from the lyrics on this one as it will spoil your fun!) Guitars, drums, slide guitar and orchestra all combined to create a melodic, catchy and concise number. 15: 'Now I Come To Think Of It.' This is one of my favourite vocal tracks on the album...psychedelic, trippy, fractured, non-linear. A sample of the lyrics: "Oh yes, now I come to think of it, oh no, maybe some mistake...Oh, yes, now you come to mention it, I guess, we were wide awake..." Guitars, synths, sitars and strings interact throughout. Enigmatic and dreamlike. 16: 'Spinning Pentagrams.' Weird opening that sounds as if the guitar has been put through a washing machine on spin cycle, over which a sampled voice speaks of 'the dark mystery of time and space.' This mysterious song develops into a strange kind of blues riff whose reverberating guitar hints at Howling Wolf mashed up with David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks.'. Here's a peek at some of the lyrics: "Here in the future, in an ancient England, pentagrams spin within electrical circuits...Swan boats drift on a beautiful river, beyond these oak trees, the glorious sea...who can tell if this is real or unreal, who can tell if this was meant to be..." The bridge section vocal has a subtle hint of mock-Cockney, Dick Van Dyke cheeky-chappie pronunciation about it as it sings, "Some days I feel special, some days I feel strange, some days I'm all metal, some days...disarranged..." An orchestral middle section then enters complete with cocktail piano and ripe flutes, sounding as if they're seeking refuge from a 1960's kitsch television spy series. The song suddenly finishes...but a shimmering loop of vari-speed guitars enters a heartbeat later and initiates a coda featuring underlying dark noise and overdubbed voice samples. Does this song suggest a bizarre fusion of '60s camp detective Jason King with Elizabethan occult Magus Dr John Dee? Hmmm...Orson Welles would say, "probably." 17: 'The Ruins Of Youth, The Twang Of Tomorrow.' A one minute and forty nine second instrumental with rippling piano and wiry electric twang guitar which quickly evolves into a picked blues feel. Phased noise ends the piece and ends Disc One of 'The Dreamshire Chronicles.' DISC TWO: 1: 'The Reality Of Imagination.' A five minute and thirty three second instrumental with various voice samples. The voices speak of 'The tomorrow people' and 'The reality of imagination.' The first two minutes of this piece feature guitar, synths and electric piano floating freely through a cathedral-like space...a low, compressed bass drum pulse enters, suggesting the tune's time signature. It is joined by cymbals and high percussion. The main guitar line is then fed through a modulating Leslie cabinet effect, which makes it sound like a hybrid of guitar and Hammond organ. The pulse gradually fades away leaving the guitar suspended in space as the track ends with more voice samples. The concept is of imagination being the key component in the worlds we create around ourselves. 2: 'Smoke Drifts Silent In Autumn Air.' Grand piano intro then tremolo guitars open this atmospheric and fragile vocal piece. Here are a few lyric examples: "Smoke drifts silent in Autumn air...over rooftops, chimney tops, here, there and everywhere...Colour coded, copper, bronze and gold...wonders to behold, wonders to behold....so pure, so clear, so far, so near..." Massed strings and underwater guitar enter as the vocal gains strength and rises to sing of "ghosts and shadows." Brass and woodwinds are added to the orchestra as the song's key changes, leading to a piano and flanged rhythm guitar section as the lyrics sing "Kiss me now and light the fire..." The electric rhythm guitar changes to an acoustic guitar and the lyrics tell of "walking in the sunshine...searching for a skyline..." French horns enter with a lovely theme, then strings and chugging electric guitar dropping away to acoustic guitar and piano and a re-iteration of the first verse's lyrics. Ends on chunky guitar chords, string figure and electric piano. All in all, an ecstatic evocation of a glorious Dreamshire autumn. 3: 'Bubbledreamer.' This one's a mid-tempo guitar instrumental in major key mode, underpinned by drums, dancing filigrees of silvery strings and filtered keyboards. A light, jazzy feel with delicate blues overtones as the guitar explores the spaces created by the various instrumental textures. Three minutes and forty one seconds of pleasantly bubbling, gentle euphoria. 4: 'My Little Book Of Secret Knowledge.' Opens with found voice samples talking about ritual Cabalistic magic. Leads into a piano led riff with lyrics which tell of "My little book of secret knowledge, the mirror in my hand...that old immortal blooming rose in the suburbs of the damned..." Spooky theremin-like sounds, cymbalon, piano and guitar followed by lyrics singing of "Beautiful phantoms..." A series of unusual and texturally contrasting instrumental changes begins, (including a heavy guitar riff,) as the song winds to a voice sample conclusion. Seems as if one of those grand gilded ruined mansions of Dreamshire is inhabited by an ancient Magus and his library of forbidden knowledge. 5: 'Robots On Parade.' This is a fun, whimsical instrumental, suggestive of clockwork and electric toy robots marching around a strange Dreamshire toyshop at night. A sampled voice interjects the word "electricity" as guitars and synths create a contemporary version of the English beat group instrumentals of the early 1960s. Think Joe Meek resurrected in the 21st Century and given digital technology to play around with. 6: 'Dark And Complicated.' Opens with the sounds of a mysterious electro-chemical laboratory, followed by spooky piano and guitar. Here are the opening lyrics to this constantly mutating song: "It's dark and complicated, deep and still...the chair in the corner sings of its own free will..." Piano, guitar, woodwind and string combinations rise and fall. More lyrics: "Ghostly apparitions, unbidden visions, strange traffic goes through this room..." A neo-classical instrumental section follows to be joined by rippling electric guitar as the opening lyric re-appears. Another song dealing with the elusive phantoms who populate Dreamshire. 7: 'Blue Beams.' (No drums mix.) A pure, clean sounding electric guitar duet, one instrument handling chords the other soloing freely over. No drums, no keyboards, no bass...just two guitars sweetly circling around each other. Music played for a Dreamshire night club ghost after the patrons have all gone home. 8: 'More Than Glory, More Than Gold.' Brushed cymbals and a lone guitar open this romantic vocal piece. Sweet lyrics: "Sunbeams dappled on ancient walls, Autumn rises as apples fall....sooner or later Winter calls and pours icing sugar over it all...When I stand naked, frail and old and every sound I've made has been bought and sold, I will love you more, truth be told, more than glory, more than gold..." Chiming, chromium guitars throughout with an orchestral middle section. A beautiful, melancholic love song. 9: 'The Lost Planet Of Sunday Afternoon.' Arpeggio guitar underpins this miniature instrumental. Overdubbed harmony lead guitars build to the track's conclusion. One minute and thirty eight seconds of pure yearning. 10: 'Mass Equals Energy.' A quirky little song in waltz-time. Surreal lyrics: "Spooky malfunction sparks arc of memory, upsets the applecart, mass equals energy..." Guitar reiterates the vocal line whilst a heat haze of soft synths hum in the background punctuated by raindrop piano. More lyrics: "Isn't this the strangest world in the universe?" More silvery guitar before a brief Giorgio Moroder style sequenced synth coda enters to end the song. It's the musings of a Dreamshire scientist, hunched over his microscope in a small art deco laboratory hidden in the heart of a misty forest. 11: 'The Light Gathering Garden Of Omar Kadiz.' Minimalist percussion and synthetic choir open this instrumental which features a simple but hypnotic piano melody, reverse guitars and lots of space. Orchestral counterpoint enters here and there, as does retro Moog synth in places. TR808 style hi-hats and hand-claps give an old-school trip-hop feel but the orchestra, electric guitars and choral parts hint at a kind of neo-classical sensibility whilst the guitar adds add a touch of psychedelia. Imagine a mystical garden where flowers glow with an inner neon-like light and trees shimmer silver against a dark thunderstorm sky. 12: 'Windsong Of The Flying Boy.' A vocal, slightly up-tempo with electric, filtered percussion. A song of the seasons. Some lyrics: "Rosy skies of Evening-land, apple blossom mercury...windsong of the flying boy, all seasons shall be sweet to thee..." More vocals, followed by a change of key then : "Speedboats from another world, mysterious comets, sounds that come and go, teenage electronics..." Which leads to a middle section featuring a wild, non-linear guitar solo before settling back into the melodic verse structure. More lyrics: "Thoughts set sail on silver ships, lost in clouds of mystery, windsong of the flying boy, all seasons shall be sweet to thee..." A melodic, clean guitar solo follows and a percussion break with hovering synths...a return to verse one...lap steel guitar and reverse guitar loop ends the song. 13: 'Henrietta Through The Looking Glass.' A climbing guitar instrumental with orchestral punctuation and piano cascades. The Henrietta of the title is legendary Soho sub-culture character Henrietta Moraes who was a model for Francis Bacon in the 'fifties. In my imagination she is now one of Dreamshire's gentle ghosts. In this piece she dances, languid and naked, smiling beatifically whilst several elderly gentlemen, dressed in tweed, watch in admiration through her window. 14: 'Luna On The Beach.' This song was originally recorded for the 'Joy Through Amplification' album but didn't make the final cut. It's a pop-rock thing with lots of wild wah-wah guitars. Some lyrics: "Give me a signal, wondrous being, draw down the power, the fire and the spark...send me a postcard, fabulous creature, bring me a souvenir from the realm of the heart..." A nice, fat, chunky guitar riff underlines the chorus. The bridge has these lyrics: "Elusive thoughts luxuriate in limpid pools of thoughtful gems...Venus swims amongst the fishes, far beyond the rings of Saturn...Rockets glimpsed in evening skies..." A wonderfully chaotic arrangement. 15: 'Neither Puck Nor Pan.' A moody, minor-key instrumental featuring processed guitars and electric piano. It evokes and conjures the more shadowy denizens of Dreamshire. 16: 'Welcome To Dreamshire.' [LuxeMix.] This is a more 'shiny' or polished mix of the song on Disc One. It brings 'The Dreamshire Chronicles' album almost full circle. 17: 'This Everyday World.' (Instrumental Version.') Whilst working on the vocal version of this piece, I realised that the 'backing track' could work in its own right with a couple of extra overdubs and a little tweaking. This is the result of that process and it ends the album in fine orchestral style as the listener bids farewell to Dreamshire...until the next time! Music and Lyrics Copyright Bill Nelson 2012 All Rights Reserved. More Listening Notes Go to Album

Raiding the Divine Archive Be Bop Deluxe retrospective collection - March 1987 Collections Menu Future Past TRACKS: A1) Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus A2) Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape A3) Maid In Heaven A4) Ships In The Night A5) Life In The Air-Age A6) Kiss Of Light A7) Sister Seagull B1) Modern Music B2) Japan B3) Panic In The World B4) Bring Back The Spark B5) Forbidden Lovers B6) Electrical Language The CD version added the following tracks: 14) Fair Exchange 15) Sleep That Burns 16) Between The Worlds 17) Music In Dreamland NOTES: Raiding the Divine Archive is a compilation offering the new listener an introduction to Be Bop Deluxe. The LP appeared first in March 1987 on vinyl and cassette, and featured 13 tracks. PAST RELEASES: All the songs on this compilation album were taken from the six albums released in the band's lifetime, issued between 1974 and 1978. When this compilation was issued on CD in April 1990, it was the first time Be Bop Deluxe material had been presented on CD, and as such, confined itself to their best known material. The CD version featured new artwork and added four extra tracks. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: This compilation is now out of print in physical form, but is available to download from online stores. Collections Menu Future Past

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) October 2009 Jan Jul Aug Sep Nov Dec Monday 5th October 2009 -- 12:00 pm Have just been speaking on the 'phone with Emi who is still in Japan. She's been away for 10 days now and there's still no indication of when she'll be coming home. Today is her 61st birthday. It's the first time since we've been a couple that we've not been able to go out for a meal together to celebrate it. Before she left England, I gave her two birthday gifts. The main one, (a watch), she opened there and then. The second birthday gift was packed unopened in her suitcase, to take with her to Japan, with strict instructions from me not to unwrap it until today. It's a very nice gold and turquoise blue dress ring with a silver dragonfly set on top of the stone. She's now opened it and says that she loves it and that it fits fine. But we're missing each other terribly and the days just seem to drag and drag. Emi's back problem is still bothering her so she's visited a Tokyo physiotherapist for treatment and has booked another appointment for next week. Her mother seems to be a little better than she was on Emi's previous visit. I'm told that she is eating and communicating more than before and gives the impression of being a little more positive in her outlook. But, despite her mother's slight improvement, the general picture out there remains vague. It's a trait of Japanese culture that nothing is as clearly or directly expressed as it would be here in England. There's lots of hinting and reading between the lines but getting a straight answer is hard work. I'm still amazed that anything gets done in Japan at all, so diffused and foggy are the decision-making proceedures. Nothing is ever hit 'head-on.' I know that many western people living or working there find this facet of Japanese culture difficult to understand and often frustrating. Life here without Emi became even more stressful last week. On Thursday, I returned home from town around 6 pm to be greeted by the sight of Django, (my cat,) in the garden, waving his tail around in a very odd, agitated manner. I sensed something was amiss and as I walked towards him saw that there was something wrong with the end of his tail. It was at a strange angle and when I looked closer could see that the end section of the tail was almost cut right through. I tried not to panic but, in a state of shock, immediately 'phoned the nearby vetinary surgeon where our two cats are registered. The lady who answered the 'phone said they were just about to close but that I should call their emergency number. This connected me with a different vetinary practice which, from what the voice on the other end of the telephone told me, was in the process of 'taking over' our usual vet's business. I was instructed to take Django to a different surgery which was somewhere over the other side of town. I put Django into his transport box,which is always a struggle as he hates going in it, (and to the vets), and set off in the car. When I arrived somewhere in the general vicinity of the new vet's surgery, I parked the car and carried Django in his box along the street towards where I thought the surgery was located. My sense of panic increased when, after walking some distance, I couldn't see anything remotely to do with a vet. Maybe I'd gone in the wrong direction. I turned around and walked several hundred yards along the main road in the opposite direction with Django becoming more and more stressed inside his box. And still I couldn't find the place. I tried calling the vet's number on my mobile phone but got only an answering machine. Eventually, I asked someone passing by if they knew where the vet's surgery was and they pointed me back in the opposite direction, where I'd just come from, but said that it was quite a way further along the road than I'd originally presumed. By this time, I was as stressed as Django, my heart pounding like a drum. After an about face and further walking I eventually arrived, breathless, at the surgery which was located in an imposing Victorian town house, quite some distance from where I'd parked the car. I was instructed by the receptionist to wait in a high-ceilinged, brightly lit room until the vet arrived. When he did arrive, he very carefully examined Django's tail, indicating the protruding bone and informed me that it was almost completely severed and could not be stitched together. The only solution was to amputate the latter part of the tail. This would involve Django staying at the surgery overnight prior to an operation to remove the damaged part of the tail the following morning. Meanwhile, the vet gave Django two injections, one a pain-killing solution and the other an antibiotic to try and stop the wound from becoming infected. I explained how I'd come home to find Django in the garden with the injury and couldn't think what might have caused it. The vet said that it appeared as if someone had deliberately slammed a door on his tail, almost severing it completely. Now, Django and Tink both spend a lot of time outside. There are fields beyond our garden although we're flanked on both sides by neighbours. That afternoon, when I'd gone into town, Django and Tink were outside in the garden, lazily enjoying the autumn sunshine. Django was perfectly fine with no signs of injury. This was around 3:30 in the afternoon. Our cats have always been o.k. when I've needed to go out. They'll happily terrorise the local rodent population for a few hours and usually come home when they hear us return, or sometimes a little later when they become hungry. They're both quite independent creatures yet, at the same time, a delightfully domesticated and inseparable part of our family. Both cats are very affectionate and bring a great deal of joy and warmth into our lives and, as readers of this diary know, Django and I have a particularly magical relationship. But I'm at a loss as to exactly what or who caused this injury to Django's tail. I've been deeply upset by it and wish I knew what the cause was. Anyway, I had to leave Django with the vet and I drove back home alone, feeling shocked and concerned. I'd earlier been given an invitation to have dinner with some good friends who live just down the lane, but in the end I had to call them to apologise and explain that I was in no fit emotional state to be anything other than the most miserable of guests. That night, I couldn't sleep, worrying about Django's condition and being angry at the thought that someone may have deliberately done this to him. The next morning, I called the vets to ask how things were but they said that Django hadn't had his operation yet but would be having a general anaesthetic soon, prior to the amputation. Around 11:45 am I received a telephone call from the surgery to say that he had now undergone surgery and that I could collect him around 2:30 pm. I drove to the vets, this time knowing exactly where it was, and informed the receptionist who I was and that I'd come to collect my cat. I paid the £250 bill for the operation and was directed to a waiting area at the rear of the building where, after a few minutes, a lady nurse appeared with Django in his box. As soon as he heard my voice, he called out to me. The nurse gave me some medication called 'Metacam' and instructed me to administer this to Django orally, every day, via a kind of needle-less syringe. I was also told that he must not be allowed to lick his tail and was given a transparent plastic, cone-shaped collar which I would have to fasten to his neck if he showed any signs of doing so. I was also told that he was not to be allowed outside the house for at least ten days. Now, all of the above conditions are guaranteed to be a form of torture for poor Django. In fact, almost as soon as I got him home, he began his cleaning/grooming routine, something he likes to do at least a couple of times per day. And, of course, his tail is always part of this proceedure. Now though, because of the amputation, his tail is a sorry sight...a couple of inches shorter than before and shaved of fur. The shortened tip of the tail bears sutures and looks sore. As I expected, Django attempted to lick his wound which meant there was no option but to fix the cone-like restrictive collar to his neck. The result was most upsetting, Django desperately trying to get the cone off by banging it into doors and furniture, walking backwards as if to walk away from it, pawing at it and finally sitting stock-still with a kind of catatonic stare, gazing at the wall as if in deep shock. It was heartbreaking to watch, or at least it was for me. I'm terribly sensitive to the plight of animals and empathise with their struggles...far too emotional I suppose. I'd make a terrible vet...I'm afraid I'd be shedding tears at the first sign of an animal in distress. Pathetic, really, but that's how I've always been. After the cone collar had been on for a while, Django finally sat by the front door, crying to be allowed outside. As mentioned above, I'd been strictly told that he must remain in doors for at least ten days, so I had to refuse to let him out. He looked up at me like I was some kind of monster. Well, that was Friday and the situation continues in similar fashion. Django can't get to his food bowl with the collar on so I have to remove it at certain points in the day when he shows signs of wanting to eat something. It's then a struggle to get it back on afterwards, (and another bout of stress for both of us). On Saturday, I slipped out to the supermarket to get some much needed litter-tray material, (he normally goes outside to do his 'business' but that's out of the question for quite a while). When I got back, he'd somehow managed to get a front leg jammed into the cone of his protective collar and was limping around the house in some discomfort. I freed his leg and tried to adjust the collar a fraction tighter to prevent it happening again. But even so, he sneaked off into some dark corner of the house and, three times now, miraculously managed to get the collar off completely. Consequently, I need to know exactly where he is at all times so that I can guard against him getting to his amputated tail and causing more damage to it. Night times are difficult too as he's always enjoyed being 'out on the tiles' (or rather, out in the fields). Not being allowed to leave the house makes this impossible. Instead I've attempted to have him sleep on the bed with me where I can, hopefully, keep a weary eye on him. He sleeps for a while, curled up in the curve of my arm, but then wakes up and, perturbed by the cone, goes on a bender from room to room, trying to get it off. The last couple of nights I've managed but a few hours sleep, and these only at intervals throughout the whole night. I'm feeling exhausted and frustrated by it all, especially as Emiko is not here to help me deal with it. I'm confined to the house along with Django, frightened to leave him on his own for long. Both of us suffering from cabin fever. Tomorrow morning, I have an appointment to take Django back to the vet for a post-op examination. Inevitably too, the ordeal of the cat travel box once more. This unfortunate and untimely episode has brought my work, (and just about everything else, including visiting my mother), to a halt as my life now seems to centre around Django's well-being and the struggle to keep his tail from further damage. But he is a rather special cat, and worth the effort. As I've mentioned before in the diary, it seems to have been one thing after another these last few years. Nothing for it but to just keep going, I suppose....So that is what I will do. ***** The images attached to this diary entry are:- 1: Bill's Gus G1 midi guitar and his live processing equipment. 2: Just a few of the Nelsonica 09 guitars, backstage in Harrogate. 3: Poorly Django. 4: Django with post-op tail. 5: An early 1980's photo of Bill signing autographs. 6: A recent snapshot of Bill's studio. Top of page

Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms Bill Nelson album - 20 September 2010 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) One Thing Leads To Another 02) Sky Scooter 03) Speedboats From Another World 04) In An Aeroplane 05) The Dream Of The Unified Field 06) Binky And The Dancing Astronomers 07) Real Worlds And Dream Worlds 08) The Kid With A Cuckoo Clock Heart 09) What Station Is This? 10) After The Rain, Pick The Fruit 11) Binky's Blues 12) Another Slice Of Wonder Cake 13) Buddha And The Rain Cloud 14) The Day That Came And Went 15) Wing Thing ALBUM NOTES: Modern Moods for Mighty Atoms is a mixture of vocal and instrumental pieces released on the Blue Shining Fountain label in a single print run of 1000 copies. The album was born out of unused material composed and recorded at the time Nelson was compiling Fables and Dreamsongs and Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus (the album compiled especially for Nelsonica 10 ). With a number of high quality tracks that didn't fit within the style or concept of those two albums, Nelson set about the task of adding a handful of new tracks written especially for the album and soon had a third new album to master. Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms sold out in August 2019. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "These tracks were originally made for the forthcoming albums in this new series of releases [Fables and Dreamsongs and Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus] , but either they didn't fit in terms of concept, or there was simply no room left on either album to include them. So, in a sense, Modern Moods is a compilation of 'left-overs'. But the amazing thing was that these left-overs actually fitted together in an interesting way and have created a rather nice album with lots of variety." FAN THOUGHTS: BenTucker: "It really is an absolute stunner - it will blow a lot of people's minds, I suspect." BobK: "I love the variety. Rocky, poppy, jazzy, up-tempo, slow tempo, some with vocals, some instrumentals, and some 'strange ones'. My goodness, that IS variety. Well variety is nice, but it helps that every single track is very impressive indeed." andygeorge: "First impression? An absolute corker of an album! "If anybody had any doubts about Mr Bill Nelson being able to 'cut it' anymore, I defy them to listen to this and not be blown away by the sheer genius of the man. As Bob has said, variety rules here...something and more for anybody's taste buds to savour...Love it! "And these are 'cast offs' Mr Nelson?...Well, roll on the next chapter! "..."Another Slice of Wonder Cake?"...Yes please! "...enough of this, back to the music..."Sky Scooter" is playing now...Love it!" MondoJohnny: "I love it! All the tracks grab me instantly. I particularly like the vocal tracks so far." "It just gets better and better with repeat listens! "Sky Scooter" is great! I think it's greatest hit material, even though there aren't any lyrics." "I was blown away by how much energy this album had. When most artists start getting older they adopt a more "mature sound" which usually seems to mean that they throw out all the whistles and bells, and produces really low pulse thoughtful music. Bill seems able to still capture high energy pieces, but he infuses them with his working knowledge of life, and his technical mastery and restraint. It is a winning combination to be sure." Holer: "Hi Bill - Just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying the new record. It's fun to hear an album where all of your moods and styles are on display. It really confounded my expectations at every turn and that's a good thing. I am particularly enamoured of the instrumentals "What Station is This?" and "Wing Thing". I've always had a soft spot for your penchant for high weirdness, and those tunes really fill the bill. (oops pun.) I could literally listen to hours of that kind of stuff (and often do...). "Anyway, thanks once again for delivering another elpee of cracking tunes." Pathdude: "A true classic with tremendous vocals and instrumentals of all types. It seems to touch upon every mood. One of my absolute favorites." "This one is too good to miss." JMH: "What Station is This?": "I literally had to pull to the side of the road, stop the car and listen to this wondrous piece. The artist and his definitive art of perfect invention are in superb form on this track...takes me backwards and forwards in time...little does Mr. Nelson realise , perhaps, that he is the preeminent inventor/arbiter of Modern Western Musical Mysticism...I certainly got misty eyed listening to this track." "This was a stop-dead-in-your-tracks awe inspiring listen." Alan: "I can say that this one hooked me on the first listen. I love every track on it. I'm off work tomorrow and can hardly wait to listen even more closely. "If anyone is wondering whether or not to get this album, I say go for it." Albums Menu Future Past

Iconography album - 19 December 1986 Orchestra Arcana Albums Menu Future Past Currently unavailable TRACKS: 01) Christ Via Wires 02) Clock Conscious 03) I Wonder 04) Eastern Electric 05) Search And Listen 06) News From Nowhere 07) One Man's Fetish Is Another Man's Faith 08) Right, Then Left 09) Iconography 10) The Gods Speak 11) Life Class 12) Altar Natives 13) Sex, Psyche, Etcetera Extra tracks added to the 2013 CD edition 14) Several Famous Orchestras 15) Who He Is ALBUM NOTES: Orchestra Arcana was a Bill Nelson pseudonym, used to avoid contractual issues with CBS/Portrait, to whom Nelson was then signed. Iconography was the first album released under the Orchestra Arcana name, and was distinctive for the Nelson's imaginative use of 'found voices' taken from various radio, TV and film sources. These were weaved into the fabric of the music, in a technique first used on the albums Chamber of Dreams and The Summer of God's Piano contained in the Trial By Intimacy box set (recorded between 1981 and 1984). Issued on LP and cassette, Iconography represented the first new Bill Nelson album on the Cocteau imprint since Trial By Intimacy nearly two years previous. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: This title is currently out of print, but may see a digital download release at some point. SAMPLES: In the 1960 film of H.G. Well's 'The Time Machine', Rod Taylor says: "Gentlemen, what I'm asking you to do now, is witness a demonstration of the possibility of movement within the fourth dimension." Robert Hughes: "And so a chasm opened between the true language and what the young knew to be reality...Like a mutilated saint...Half machine, half angel...The spirit of our time he called it..." BILL'S THOUGHTS: "It was the first of the albums I released under the 'Orchestra Arcana' moniker. It contains instrumental recordings, many using 'found voices', and was recorded in my then home studio 'The Echo Observatory'. It's predominantly synth/keyboards based and created with old-school analogue technology. It's a must-have for any fan of my instrumental music." _____ "The samples on "Clock Conscious" came from 'A Matter of Life and Death', a must-see film for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to enjoy it. The film is part of a famous body of work by film director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger who worked together using the name 'The Archers'. They were not only responsible for 'A Matter of Life and Death' but also 'The Red Shoes', 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp', 'Black Narcissus' and 'I Know Where I'm Going'. All recognised as masterpieces of the cinema. It's remarkable stuff and essential viewing." FAN THOUGHTS: wadcorp: "No vocals from Our Man Bill, but tons of "found vocals". Cuts from movies, news broadcasts, etc. Great stuff. This, and the follow-up Optimism are absolute musts." "One Man's Fetish Is Another Man's Faith": "is an interesting mix of Bill's styles. It starts off like something from Summer of God's Piano or Pavilions of the Heart & Soul , with the found-vocals that are the hallmark of most all of the Iconography album. Just after 2.10 into the song – almost halfway through this piece of music – things change from the ethereal & introspective into an outright anthem. Said anthem can hold its own against "For Stuart", even though it's lacking the dynamic lead guitar. An amazing, keyboard-driven theme for sure!" stormboy: "This...is my absolute favourite BN album. "One Man's Fetish" is a superb track, but then again, the whole album is chocca full of gems. There are so many amazing tracks and beautiful details that it's really difficult to pick one track or aspect of it. From the jaunty synthlines on "Life Class", to the amazing guitar work on "Altar Natives", or the vocal snippets and samples, or the production... bliss!" "For the record, "Altar Natives" is my favourite ever Bill Nelson instrumental track - the perfect mix of his synth, sampling, rhythm and guitar work." Quinault: "It has that international dance classic: "Sex, Psyche, Etcetera!" I might have to pull out my copy just to hear "Eastern Electric"." mitchellmichael: "I can't wait to get the re-issued Orchestra Arcana stuff! Bill is a master at using "found voices" I think." felixt1: "I have been very pleasantly surprised at how much I have enjoyed the music from this period of Bill's career. On paper, the idea of it should not work for me, but it very much does. It is arguably within these recordings that the true extent of Bill's talent as a composer began to surface. Arguably the first inkling that there was some level of genius within." paul.smith: "A cool lo-fi track I really like is "Right, Then Left"...A great montage of 'found voices' and swirls of sound with hidden layers that peel off with repeated listening...there's loads from this time I love...I think I enjoy them even more now than years ago in many ways...'little miracles of sound and song' they are." "If you don't have it I urge you to acquire this reissue....essential!!!" Albums Menu Future Past

Perfect Monsters Bill Nelson album - 29 February 2016 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Perfect Monsters 02) Deco Super Cruiser 03) A Holiday In Dimension X 04) The Carousel Of Time 05) The Dubious Virtue Of Loveliness 06) Skidoodling 07) Apple Tree Swing 08) The Ghost In The Machine 09) Hyperluminal 10) Flower Kiosk 11) It's A Long, Long Story 12) Relaxo Supremo 13) Magic Star 14) Katstatik 15) Weatherwood ALBUM NOTES: Perfect Monsters is a mixture of vocal and instrumental pieces issued in a one off print run of 500 copies on the Sonoluxe label. The album was born out of surplus material produced during the sessions for the Phantom Fuzzbox album that was completed between November and December 2014, which at the time of writing remains unreleased. Perfect Monsters was completed in January 2015 and would wait in the queue of albums forming Nelson's release schedule until finally arriving on 29 February 2016. It was taken off sale 5 days later with all remaining copies sold through email enquiries. On 17 March it was confirmed that the album had completely sold out. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY: Awakening of Dr Dream , Electric Atlas , Swoons and Levitations , Dream Transmission Pavilion , Blip 2 , Kid Flip , Stereo Star Maps , Shining Reflector , Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms , Clocks & Dials BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Released today and available right now from the Dreamsville Department Store is my latest album Perfect Monsters , a vocal and instrumental extravaganza which I think you will love. The title song itself refers to my two cats, Django and Tink, rather than Frankenstein and his chums, it's a blissful, relaxing song evoking the cats sleeping in the warm sun. The album also contains many richly textured instrumental tracks with a broad palette of electric guitar tones conjuring up colourful soundscapes." _____ "You know, I'd forgotten what this album sounded like, such is the amount of work I've done since recording it. I decided to have a listen the other day and was knocked out by what I heard. It's a really good album, (even though I do say so myself), a mix of vocal and instrumental tracks with a blissful, euphoric feel and some fabulous guitar tones. I'm very pleased with the way this one has turned out and I think you'll love it!" _____ "The front cover of the album...it's a paper and scissors collage made by myself." FAN THOUGHTS: Puzzleoyster: "I am on 'round three' of listening through PM and my personal instant non-musical review would be... If this was a Boxing Match I would have been knocked out by track 5 each time of listening the initial 15 minute impact is immense purposeful and Beautiful. I am on the 'canvas' simple as... Pick up ones self back in the ring and... It has xxx classic written all over it" mark smith: "I can't stop playing it. I don't know of another recent release that has hooked me like this. It makes me smirk every now and then at its understated beauty. 10 out of 10 !!!" felixt1: "Is firmly becoming one of my all time favourite albums from Bill. This album has surprised me with its musical and emotional depth. It sounds to me like quite a personal album for Bill, but perhaps deceptively so... At the end of a working day I find myself most often turning to the song "Perfect Monsters", as a way of de-stressing and generally cheering myself up! To me this perfectly encapsulates the mood of the end of a challenging but ultimately happy day. Bill describes his cats both lyrically and musically in a way that for me, fills the song with a chilled but playful happiness. There are plenty other stand out moments throughout the album, both instrumental and lyrical - "The Carousel of Time" is another classic Bill song about life and the passage of time...too many moments to cover in a brief post but I just wanted to get the message across that I think this is a special album." Chimera Man: "The overall tone and feel has great charm. Some immediate stand out tracks for me are "The Carousel of Time", "The Dubious Virtue of Loveliness", but most delicious of all "Relaxo Supremo"." BigManRestless: "Contains what I'm sure will rapidly become one of my favourite vocal tracks - "The Ghost in the Machine", and one of my favourite instrumentals - "A Holiday in Dimension X"." soteloscope: "On a family drive we listened and all really like the title track - as we have 2 black cats (Gooch & Panther)..."bellies full and battles won". Love the instrumentals - lush and thoughtful. My son and I had to repeat "A Holiday in Dimension X" - we dig the drum machine beat! Have to mention "The Ghost in the Machine" - get down with your bad self, Bill. Over all, the mostly mellow mood I'm getting is soothing to my soul. I'll need to listen many more times." "Love the song "Magic Star" with the fast tempo sophistication. Please do keep on not going gentle into that goodnight." Archimedes Woo: "All the way from The Magic Toy Shop to The Land of Oranges, Perfect Monsters llegó esta mañana. Extra texture. Artwork phenomenal. Buen hecho señor Bill." Angie: "This is an absolute gem. It was a dull day down south, yesterday, and the music gave me a "sun on my back" type of feeling. Absolutely sublime. Obviously I'm still 'exploring', but that was my immediate overall reaction. Thank you, Bill" CoachMatt: "Lovely tracks that gave me a carpet ride feel during my travels, which only Bill can do." chazzy3: "Bill -- Thanks so much for a wonderful new album. This is a gem, a very moving, beautifully structured musical journey. The family is enjoying this very much. With deep appreciation." james warner: "A deceptive title, as this is a laid back, chill-out album but for a couple of more fiery tracks ("The Ghost in the Machine" and "Magic Star") which may jolt you out of your revery." Peter: "An instant classic! Whether with vocals or without, this album speaks to me. Especially with a title that's a reference to Bill's cats! I especially like "Skidoodling" which has a nice groove..."Apple Tree Swing" features some lovely playing (Bill, dude, you are SO good!), and "The Ghost in the Machine" rocks pretty hard in Bill-style, and several others are just lovely, melodic joys. A wide range of styles and tones...it's got everything. Love it." Albums Menu Future Past

Days in Europa album - 1979 Skids Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer and Keyboards Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) December 2013 Tuesday 24th December 2013 -- 9: 00 pm Apologies, and not just one but an entire alternative universe filled with them. Yes, ok, I know...I'm outrageously late with this diary entry...despite all good intentions. My previous diary was, (deep breath, flushed cheeks, lowered gaze), two years ago this month. Two dizzy, madly spinning, bee-hive buzzing years! Where did the time go? Why so fast? Why so long to write these words? The truth is that music, along with various other pre-occupations, has made an increasingly severe demand on my time and only now have I returned to these pages in the vain hope of catching up. Heck, the word 'vain' should maybe read 'impossible.' So much has happened since my December 2011 diary entry. I'm struggling to recall anything, (let alone everything), as there has been such a remorseless whirlwind of activity, particularly with regard to recording. A dust cloud of cosmic proportions stirred up and I'm forever stumbling away from the storm. My own damn fault, of course. So...forgive me. I'm not even going to attempt to fill in that two year gap with what would amount to an endless list of activity. Should you, dear reader, be even remotely curious, please take a stroll through the last two years of the Dreamsville online forum, or browse the list of releases in the Dreamsville Department Store and you may get a vague idea of where the majority of my energies have been spent. Of course, those of you who regularly cruise this twinkling realm will already know of what I speak. ;-) With the above in mind, I intend to start afresh and not cover the missing two years in any great detail. It would involve far too much typing and even more digging back into my archives to wrestle two year's worth of memories from the grip of oblivion. Nevertheless...There have been more than a few album releases: 'Songs Of The Blossom Tree Optimists'; 'Joy Through Amplification'; 'The Palace Of Strange Voltages'; 'Return To Tomorrow'; 'The Last Of The Neon Cynics'; 'The Dreamshire Chronicles'; 'Blip!'; 'The Tremulous Doo-Wah-Diddy,' 'Albion Dream Vortex' and a short while ago, 'The Sparkle Machine.' I threw a couple of exclusive album launch parties too, both of which were relaxed and enjoyable for both myself and my special guests. These events gave me the opportunity to give a pre-release playback of a new album or two and throw a little light on their creative evolution. I also threw in an intimate solo performance as part of the 'Blip!' launch. ;-) Also, back in 2012, a Nelsonica fan convention was staged featuring 3 live sets and other special entertainments, (including the traditional, though rather exhausting, 3-hour long meet 'n' greet). A lot of hard work and preparation goes into these Nelsonica events...so much so that I've begun to feel I should perhaps mount them only once every two years instead of annually. Coming up with concepts and content for them, plus musical preparation and the exclusive Nelsonica CD takes up an inordinate amount of my time for what amounts to a one day event....Nevertheless, the chance to interact with people who appreciate my work is valued. So, I do my best. More recently I was involved in a unique fund raising concert for the Wakefield Unity Hall restoration project, held at Wakefield's award winning Hepworth Gallery where I performed an intimate solo instrumental concert for just over 300 people. I have a personal family connection with the Unity Hall building. My father played there in the 1940's and 1950's, (he was a talented saxophonist). I played there in the 1960's with 'The Teenagers' and 'The Gibson 4' and even with Be Bop Deluxe in the early 1970's. As I child of the '50's, I visited the the building with my mother and grandmother when it was the largest branch of the Co-operative Society in Yorkshire...Mum, Gran and I went shopping there every Saturday afternoon in the 1950's. At that time it was a kind of 'dream department store.' At least to a small child like me. As part of the restoration appeal, I donated a limited edition print of an etching I made a long time ago, (in 1963), whilst I was still an art student at Wakefield Art School. The print has been put on sale in the Hepworth Gallery's shop to generate additional funds for the Unity Hall restoration project. I was a teenager when I etched the original image and had no idea, at that time, that 50 years later it would be available as a limited edition print in such a setting. The etching shows a view of Wakefield from nearby Heath Common, (as it looked back in 1963), complete with the City's now long ago demolished power station and cooling towers. I remember spending that 1960's afternoon on Heath Common, sketching the view of Wakefield and later trying to transform it, (back in the Art School's print making room), into a kind of 'neo-cubist' rendition of the scene. The resulting zinc-plate etching had something about it, despite my relative inexperience with the medium. Can I admit that I'm rather proud of it? I've also recently been involved with a more contemporary art exhibition. My 'Lacuna' video piece has been shown as part of 'Noise And Whispers,' an exhibition of sound art held at the GV gallery in London. I wasn't able to make the trip for the opening/private view (or the closing party), but I'm really pleased to have one of my video pieces exhibited as part of it. Hopefully, some of this diary's London readers will have found time to attend. Other activities: I opened a Facebook page some time ago and have attempted to contribute to it and other Facebook pages/groups devoted to my music. Despite its allure, I find Facebook to be a frustrating and time-consuming experience, particularly the latter. I'm amazed by just how much time people seem to have available to post superficial or banal comments. Don't they have work to do? ;-) Facebook, it appears, is the perfect digital platform for the celebration of trivia, though it isn't entirely without redeeming features...but...sometimes it's a struggle to find them. Anyway, I'm hoping that my less than enthusiastic embrace of Facebook might serve as a promotional device of some sort, a means of spreading my music to a wider audience, (though I'm wondering whether I really want to deal with such a possible outcome). I'm forced to wonder, do these self-declared fans from the past really care about the music itself? Or is it just a social opportunity to wallow in feelings of nostalgia, a flickering, virtual space in which to re-live long-lost youth? Maybe I'm being a little too critical here. Well, don't misunderstand...I'm not knocking nostalgia itself, of course not. I'm an old nostalgia fetishist myself, especially when the nights close in and life gets grim. At those moments I allow myself to drift back to more innocent times, opening my mental cinema to replay movies of childhood and days of romantic longing from an era before I was even born.. I'm ok with all that....up to a point. But it's the reluctance of some people to balance the past with the here and now that bugs me. How to encourage them to step away from the damp fogs of yesteryear into the bright sunlight of the present day? One thing the FB experience has revealed is the appreciation of certain fans who have taken the musical trip with me from the 1970's to now. I'm lucky in that respect...my current music resonates with many people and I'm thrilled and grateful that it does. Anyway... New projects? This year, I've enjoyed an absolutely lovely collaboration with the fabulously talented guitarist Reeves Gabrels. We've spent several days together in my little home studio, (across the year), creating an album which we are currently thinking of calling 'Fantastic Guitars.' It's now finished, apart from giving the eleven individual tracks their titles and choosing a running order before finally mastering the album over at Fairview with John Spence . (Oh, and the package design needs to be done too.) But, this album is, I think, genuinely special. I've long been a big fan of Reeves' playing, but the icing on the cake is that he has turned out to be one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure to collaborate with. And music is Reeves' heartbeat. His CV is enviable...David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Cure, to name but three major artists whose music he has graced. (But I don't need to tell you that, you already know.) I'm honoured to know him as a valued friend and inspiring musician. 'Fantastic Guitars' will, all being well, emerge around Spring of 2014. It's a rich, complex, quirky album of guitar instrumentals. Many hours of listening pleasure for those with ears to hear! Even more work lined up for next year: I'm not allowed to reveal details yet, but there's something quite grand on the horizon. It looks as if it will make such an intense demand on my time that I won't be able to deal with much else for at least the first third of 2014. I was hoping to stage a 2014 Nelsonica but this new project may take precedence over it. I'll reveal all when the time is right. What else? As mentioned earlier, the release of my latest album, 'The Sparkle Machine.' This is a guitar-based exploratory instrumental album. Richly textured with processed and filtered guitar sounds. It combines psychedelia with improvisation, mashing up rock and jazz and blues to such a degree that genres and barriers dissolve in a sort of widescreen 'guitar-scope.' This album builds a crystal bridge between 'Albion Dream Vortex' and next year's 'Fantastic Guitars' collaboration with Reeves. I'm limiting 'The Sparkle Machine' to strictly 500 copies, most of which have already sold out. An item of sad news: On the 10th of December, jazz guitarist Jim Hall passed away at the age of 83. Jim was one of the true geniuses of Jazz guitar. I first heard him in my teens. His playing was refined and sophisticated and his influence and inspiration extended beyond the realms of jazz to so many other guitarists. I've been an admirer of his playing for years and was thrilled to receive a little note and autograph from him last year when a friend (and fan of my music) in America gave Jim a couple of my albums at an event where Jim was appearing. Jim immediately and kindly wrote a little note to me, which my friend forwarded to me. I treasure it, even now more than ever. Here's an excerpt from a tribute to Jim which appeared in Premier Guitar magazine. I hope that it will serve to introduce you to his work in case you don't know of it: “Every time Jim Hall opened his case there was a sticker inside the lid that reminded him of his mantra. “Make musical sense.” Hall died in his sleep on December 10, 2013, at the age of 83. His contributions to guitar—both as a player and composer—elevated the instrument and made a deep and lasting impression on the musical world. At times, Hall could be both elegant and angular with his approach but he never stopped searching for the next sound. Much in the mold of Hendrix, Michael Hedges, and Les Paul, Hall was an innovator who stretched, bent, and pushed the boundaries of modern jazz guitar and created a uniquely soulful language all his own. His approach to harmony, comping, and rhythm was groundbreaking and his landmark album with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, The Bridge, is a classic example of this. The integrity of a musical passage always trumped the desire for technical flash. Hall's unassuming personality and sharp wit mirrored his approach to music. "He had the most incredible sense of humor andcould cast his listening like a light on everyone in sight, so when in his company, you felt like you couldn't ever go wrong," shares guitarist Julian Lage, who had recently formed a quartet with Hall. After a recent tribute concert organized by guitarist Joel Harrison, Hall tracked down the names and addresses of all the musicians who performed and wrote each one a handwritten thank you note. It could be argued that the jazz guitar tree is rooted in four names: Django, Charlie, Wes, and Jim. Virtually every guitarist, from classical to shred, has been touched by the music that flowed from that quartet. Even after some recent health issues slowed down Hall's physical abilities, he never lost his touch for the instrument. The notes that would flow out of his Sadowsky archtop combined the best of bebop, folk, blues, and Americana. His individual spirit brought joy to many people and he will be sorely missed.” Jim had a reputation for being a really nice person as well as a maestro. His recorded legacy will continue to inspire me and so many others. My birthday a week ago already...I'm now 65 and am in the first week of my 66th year. Life, as they say, is short and feels shorter with every passing moment. Not nearly enough hours on the dial of the clock and, sadly, not enough power in its batteries. So much more I want to achieve, so much to learn, so much to refine and bring to fruition. When I was a 1950's kid, playing in the back garden of my parent's Eastmoor Estate council flat, in the West Yorkshire City of Wakefield, I caught summer's bright butterflies in old glass jam-jars. Now I try to catch fleeting moments in words and music. Time is a great mystery. A big THANK YOU for your much appreciated support this last year. I hope I will be able to provide you with more listening pleasure in 2014. Until then, a very MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and all! Much love from your old pal Bill. xxx Top of page

Japan Be Bop Deluxe single - 2 September 1977 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A) Japan B) Futurist Manifesto ORIGINALLY: Both were non-album tracks. NOTES: Japan was the eighth Be Bop Deluxe single issued during the band's existence. The single came in a generic record company sleeve. Promo copies exist with the words "Demo Record Not For Sale" and a large 'A' printed on the label. Note that the B side is printed as "Futuristic Manifesto", but the correct title is "Futurist Manifesto". PAST RELEASES: Both tracks were recorded during the Drastic Plastic sessions, but neither would feature on the eventual album (in the UK at least). Their first appearance on album was on The Best of and the Rest of Be Bop Deluxe double album (1978) and were also featured on the Singles As and Bs compilation (1981). Oddly, "Japan" would not be included as a bonus track on any of the CD reissues that appeared in 1991, whereas "Futurist Manifesto" would next appear as a bonus track on the Modern Music album when it was issued on CD in 1991. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The single is long deleted, but both tracks can be found on the Cherry Red/Esoteric Recordings reissue of Dr astic Plastic (2021 ) - both in physical form and as a digital download. Singles Menu Future Past

The Dreamshire Chronicles Bill Nelson double album - 27 November 2012 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download DISC ONE TRACKS: 01) Prelude: The Night Is Lit By Diamonds 02) Welcome To Dreamshire (Monitor Mix) 03) The Pleasure Boaters 04) This Everyday World (Vocal Version) 05) Rainboy And Whistledog 06) Young Marvelman 07) Garden Railway 08) The Shimmering Threshold (On Your Bike Emperor Ming) 09) Evening Star Electric Park 10) Sailing To The Moon 11) The Milky Way (Burning Bright) 12) The Sparkling Idea 13) Ghosts Wind The Parlour Clock 14) Spooky Little Thing 15) Now I Come To Think Of It 16) Spinning Pentagrams 17) The Ruins Of Youth, The Twang Of Tomorrow DISC TWO TRACKS: 01) The Reality Of Imagination 02) Smoke Drifts Silent In Autumn Air 03) Bubbledreamer 04) My Little Book Of Secret Knowledge 05) Robots On Parade 06) Dark And Complicated 07) Blue Beams 08) More Than Glory, More Than Gold 09) The Lost Planet Of Sunday Afternoon 10) Mass Equals Energy 11) The Light Gathering Garden Of Omar Kadiz 12) Windsong Of The Flying Boy 13) Henrietta Through The Looking Glass 14) Luna On The Beach 15) Neither Puck Nor Pan 16) Welcome To Dreamshire (Luxe Mix) 17) This Everyday World (Instrumental Version) ALBUM NOTES: The Dreamshire Chronicles is a double album mixing vocal and instrumental pieces, issued in a single print run of 1000 copies on the Sonoluxe label. The album was first announced on the Dreamsville forum in February 2012, and though it was completed inside two months, a busy schedule throughout the year meant that its release was held back in deference to other albums. The Dreamshire Chronicles sold out in July 2021. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "It contains a wide variety of styles, all of which have proved popular with many fans these last ten or fifteen years...and every track sounds, I'd say, just like 'me'. "As for 'rock' music, there are a couple of tracks on the 2 discs that are direct outakes from the Joy Through Amplification sessions, ("Luna on the Beach" being the most obvious of these). But there are also tracks that would have fitted perfectly on albums such as Clocks and Dials , Non-Stop Mystery Action , Fables and Dreamsongs , Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus , Fancy Planets and Fantasmatron , amongst others...The only way to describe it is for you to hear it. It's a cornucopia type of album, mixing styles and genres as if they were ingredients in a sonic cocktail. A track may start out in one mood but mutate through several others to end in a completely different place. It's music to listen to and follow as if you were reading an adventure story." _____ "Dreamshire is richly blessed with golden and beautifully artificial orchestras. The whole kit n' imaginary caboodle! It also has warped blues guitars, sublime jazz guitars, ambient keyboards, broken beats, ethereal loops, haunted lyrics and oblique arrangements. It's not in the least 'experimental', as I know exactly what I'm doing with it...but it will challenge anyone who thinks a few synth bleeps equals adventure. This is adult music and not a throwback to '80s big-shoulder, analogue fashion, or '70s rock guitar macho chest-beating histrionics. It will confuse the bejesus out of anyone expecting the obvious pop 'avant-garde' signifiers. (At least, that's what I'm hoping for...) "Speed of light, speed of sound, stand back, mind the blast! This will be a sublime listening experience for those whose lightbulb is switched on! It's neither experimental nor rock, it's kind of beyond those categories." _____ "It's like a bunch of different coloured fireworks going off at once and I just enjoy the individual bangs and whooshes, then try to decipher patterns from it all later, when the smoke clears." _____ "Dreamshire isn't meant to be an exterior location...it's an inner landscape, located in some mysterious backwater of the mind, surreal and illogical." _____ "A thought struck me as I was listening through this album to prepare the listening notes: If there was to be such a thing as a Bill Nelson 'steampunk' album, The Dreamshire Chronicles might well qualify. There's something antiquated, rustic yet futuristic about this one, a kind of neo-Victorian rock n' roll, steam-powered guitar amps and Tesla-coil keyboards coupled with a symphony orchestra staffed by women in long leather dresses and tall hats. Patinated copper pipe flutes and oboes, drums fashioned from old stoves and railway engine boilers, guitars that resemble a cross between crystal sets and concert harps. Everything lit by candlelight." _____ Bill's Listening Notes for the album: 'Dreamshire Chronicles' Listening Notes FAN THOUGHTS: BenTucker: "May I recommend Bill's latest, The Dreamshire Chronicles , for your listening pleasure (assuming you don't already have it). If you could imagine what Be Bop Deluxe would sound like in the second decade of the 21st century, then this is it. Intoxicating melodies, amazing guitar...the works! And it's a double album. Basically unmissable!" "Much that's instantly addictive, with rich melodic hooks & glorious guitar in abundance. All the songs seems like stand-outs to me." "Spinning Pentagrams"...an incredible song - from a quite amazing 2 CDs of material...It's one of those albums that leaves you speechless. A very heady, potent and mysterious brew. References? For me, Fables and Dreamsongs type no-holds-barred psychedelic romantic adventurousness with alternate-universe dark Victorian JTA atmospheres... Star rating? Completely off the scale, obviously. You really have to buy this one." Prey: "Dreamshire arrived today, and I'm pissed! How can one man be so talented?! I'm beginning to think I got short changed in life... Amazing work Mr Nelson, I was left speechless." Stumpybunker: "This is such a superb work, one that is growing on me daily with each listen. It is amazing that Bill can excel himself with each release so repeatedly (not that I am surprised, or complaining!), to provide us all with such masterpieces. Long may this state of affairs continue! Many thanks Bill." felixt1: "You're getting there Bill, with a bit of practise...who knows? Very much enjoying "Evening Star Electric Park". I love the piano on this also. Seriously, some absolutely awesome guitar playing on this album." "The Dreamshire Chronicles is one of those albums, like Fantasmatron before it - that gets better and better with each listen. Definitely an essential release. Whilst there is always great new music to look forward to from Bill, I must admit I look forward to albums of this type (multi-layered, lush strings, mixture of vocal and instrumental, utilising an uninhibited sonic canvas) perhaps most of all..." aquiresville: "Smoke Drifts Silent in Autumn Air": "Be Bop Deluxe LIVES, Baby! Bill, I absolutely love the singing style that you re-visit for this track, as well as the musical cues (the electric piano track-out notes, at the end of the song, perfect!) A lovely, lovingly sly-aside, wink-and-a-nod slice of music! Wonderful, Bill!" BobK: "Dreamshire Chronicles really is brilliant isn't it?... For an album that is so stylistically diverse it really hangs together well. Just love the way the vocal tracks blend and compliment the instrumentals and vice versa. By the end of each CD it is almost like you have been through a rather wonderful journey. So many highlights it feels a bit unfair to single out individual tracks, (could probably pick almost ANY of them and rave), but one track no-one has mentioned is "Henrietta Through the Looking Glass". Wow. It is damn catchy and melodic throughout with plenty of twists and turns and quirky strangeness throughout. For me this is up there with my all time fave BN albums. A list that does seem to be getting longer each year!" swampboy: "Bubbledreamer": "This is one of my favorite cuts from The Dreamshire Chronicles . As a matter of fact, you could make a stunning mini-album out of just the instrumentals from this set. The whole album sounds like it was recorded in The Palace of Strange Voltages ." Holer: "It is jaw-droppingly good. The songs are just outstanding and it definitely plays like a soundtrack of sorts, conjuring and evoking." Asinbasil: "There is something very deep and profound about this album...Personally, I don't think this is Bill's most immediate album, but it is a highly intriguing and desirable one that will demand many listens from you. I also think that in the not too distant future, some of us will look upon this work as amongst Bill's very finest, maybe even his magnum opus? I love "Spooky Little Thing", but the song "More Than Glory, More Than Gold" is a song right up there with the finest love songs ever written. Thank you for this album Bill, it truly is a thing of beauty and one you should be justifiably proud of." Albums Menu Future Past

The World and His Wife Bill Nelson ep - 7 November 1983 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A) The World And His Wife B1) Dream Car Romantics (In Death's Garage Antics) B2) Dancing Music ORIGINALLY: All three tracks were non-album tracks exclusive to this EP. NOTES: The World and His Wife is a three track EP featuring two vocal tracks and one instrumental piece. This was the fourth in the series of Cocteau Club EPs issued to fan club members, included in Issue #7 of the club magazine, Acquitted By Mirrors . All three tracks were recorded at the Echo Observatory. "Dream Car Romantics" is a fairly abstract instrumental dub mix of "Living in My Limousine". PAST RELEASES: Track A was released on the 1989 Enigma US CD release of Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: All tracks are available on the retrospective compilation album Transcorder (The Acquitted By Mirrors Recordings) . Singles Menu Future Past

Signals From Realms of Light Bill Nelson album - 1 October 2011 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) I Am The Universe 02) Past And Present (And The Space Between) 03) Beam Service 04) The Spirit That Remembers 05) Happy Realms Of Light 06) Days Of Golden Dreams 07) Dark And Bright ALBUM NOTES: Signals From Realms of Light is an instrumental album released on the Sonoluxe label issued in a single print run of 1000 copies. The album's concept was first announced on the Dreamsville forum in June 2011 having grown out of an album titled The Mysterious Echo Chamber of Priapus Stratocaste r. A change in musical direction and difficulties in realizing appropriate artwork for an album with that title led to a revised working title of Greetings from the Realms of Light . Nelson then decided that the material he had assembled for the project was best split across two quite different albums, and the tracks initially created with the Priapus Stratocaster album in mind were removed to allow the Signals From Realms of Light album to develop along the lines we know from the finished album. Pre-release copies of the album were first made available at the The Art School Ascended on Vapours of Roses event held at Leeds University along with Model Village on the 1st of October, 2011, before going on general release through S.O.S. just 3 days later. Signals From Realms of Light sold out in November 2019. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download in the Dreamsville Store . IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY: Non-Stop Mystery Action , Theatre of Falling Leaves , Mazda Kaleidoscope , Palace of Strange Voltages , Gleaming Without Lights , Wah-Wah Galaxy , Dreamland to Starboard , Neptune's Galaxy , Map of Dreams BILL'S THOUGHTS: "It's a hybrid sort of album which, whilst entirely instrumental, (save for several 'found voice' samples), contains long-form, reflective, quite serene moments as well as the aforementioned psychedelic guitar thrashings. The latter serve as interludes for the longer, more introspective pieces but I think the real key to the album will be those much longer, slowly evolving, exploratory tracks... The new working title is 'Greetings From the Realms of Light' . ('Light' being a recurring theme/symbol in some of the voice samples). As always though, until the album is mastered and manufactured, this could be subject to change!" _____ "The mood is that of a series of sound paintings, gathered from a romantic, imaginary future that never arrived." FAN THOUGHTS: Puzzleoyster: Re: Which album do you consider to be Bill's Magnum Opus? "Back against the wall, it has to be Signals From Realms of Light . A complete Life-affirming 68 minute miracle, delivered sonically in the Bill Nelson Style...No words spoken or delivered - the instrumentation delivers the words if you know the language." paul.smith: "Possessing everything I love about Bill's abstract instrumental albums - absolutely stunning and full of layers - each time I have the pleasure of playing it I get something new - fantastic..." alec: "Getting pretty addicted to SFRofL . It's a deep one. Turns the mind into a cinema." Serge Ruel: "WARNING/INTICEMENT: Listening to this record will shift your consciousness. If you want an album that reflects many/many/many of Bill's recent themes and their development; this is the one. BRAVO/BRAVO - An artistic tour de force! More than worth the price of admission! Thanks for keeping on (continuing to develop)!!!" johnofdeath: "I've always loved the way Bill uses samples of voices in his music and these longer pieces contain lots of them. Really nostalgic/atmospheric...(At one stage I was a bit concerned about the repeated use of "recalculating" until I realised it was my Sat Nav telling me I'd taken a wrong turning but it did fit in with the music!!!)" tom fritz: "I've just been loving "Past and Present", from Signals From Realms of Light - 22 minutes of "pure joy". A real treat for the guitarists - we're all wired that way. At the 4:00 mark, the e-bow shines in, chills abound & the day starts over." andygeorge : "I am the Universe"...Just how f*****g good is that blistering guitar sound when it kicks in...the tone, the texture, the body...I literally stopped what I was doing when I heard it the first time, had to savour the moment and not miss a note...Bloody marvellous Mr Nelson!!!" aquiresville: "Sorry, Fellas, but it's "Beam Service" all the way 'til Friday. Such a perfect soar-worthy, slick-n-slide Bill guitar solo! Only one artist sounds like that!" mthom: "I think Bill's new stuff is truly the best. I oftentimes go back to the old stuff and think, wow, this sounds kind of primitive. But in a good way, but not so textured and...full. Signals From Realms of Light continues to amaze me, with some of the best damn guitar playing I have heard in a long time. So textured and...full. There's a lot going on there, and it seems to get better with repeated listens. Hooya!" felixt1: " Signals From Realms of Light is one of those albums with instant reward. It's got all of the attributes that Nelsonians of all vintages will enjoy. Gorgeous guitar, chimes, piano, lush synths, cool science fiction type sounds, they're all there in abundance. An absolute triumph, I am instantly hooked on this album. "The long form track in particular, "Past and Present (and the Space Between)" is a corker with many a twist and turn and lots of nice guitar...and some nice chilled ambient moments. Buy it !!!" Analog: "This has my favourite found voice piece, without doubt, (possibly my favourite track of all for a single piece of music from any artist ever!) - and when you hear it I'm sure you'll agree that it is outstanding - "Days of Golden Dreams", and my second favourite found voice piece - "The Spirit That Remembers", though my favourite could not exist in its delightful form without the other which comes first on the album. "Overall an album that is a MUST buy as it really sets a mood as only Mr. Nelson can, and what a great mood. (Listening as I type - typing ceases, listening now! THE TRACK...Ah, Yes! Repeat play for that track! Bravo Mr. Nelson. Always does it for me. Creativity in its finest. Needed that. I feel better now.)" Paul Andrews: "Bill unleashed from standard song format to a truly creative peak." Albums Menu Future Past

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) January 2008 Feb Aug Sep Oct Tuesday 22nd January 2008 -- Morning A difficult diary entry. My stepfather George, who had an operation for cancer several months ago, is not well. After his operation, it was thought that the problem had been eradicated. Then, a few weeks before Christmas, he was re-admitted to hospital after suffering a further health set-back. After a week in hospital, where various scans and tests were conducted, we were given the depressing news that the cancer had returned with a vengance and that George was beyond the reach of further operations or treatment. We're all deeply saddened by this and are feeling particularly helpless, 'though we're all trying to encourage him to take as positive an attitude as possible. I still believe that the mind has a tremendous influence over the body and that life can surprise us with quiet miracles. Nevertheless, the news inevitably brought a dark cloud to the festive season and it's impossible to ignore that George's condition has deteriorated since. As well as thinking about George, I'm very concerned about my mother who is, by nature, a worrier. I'm doing my best to be supportive to them both but I have to admit to feeling helpless and inadequate. I won't go further into the situation here in this public web-diary as it's a very personal matter. Of course, it's impossible for me not to at least touch on the situation. I'm not particularly good at disguising these things but I am, as you may have realised, struggling to find a way to convey matters which are, at core, quite painful. George is at home at the moment, very fragile, feeling terribly ill some days and slightly better on others. It's these better days that we're hoping will allow him some respite from the illness. I suppose that, in terms of chronology, the above news should have been part of my previous diary entry and, in fact, that was originally the case...but I then thought it best to wait until after Christmas. So I removed the relevant paragraphs and decided to wait until now to document developments. Actually, I'm not even sure if I should write about it at all but the emotional impact of the situation on day-to-day life will, I fear, be impossible to disguise. So that's it. A different subject: Christmas now feels long gone, as does New Year. Already, 'though it's still only January. Time accelerates, pushing into 2008 with a restless violence dulled only by the lingering, self-inflicted hangover of seasonal over-indulgence and fruitless escape. I spent the 'holiday,' (is that really what it is?) in a kind of stupor...the usual desperate chasing after more innocent times, but this all too soon abandoned to the dubious charms of oblivion. It's a kind of seasonal psychosis, common to those of us inclined towards a dark disposition and cursed by the weary accumulations of years. But, there we go...anything to keep the beast at bay. In an attemt to counterbalance all this, I've plunged back into the whirlpool of work in search of creative solace and satisfaction. I'd begun to re-work aspects of my 'SILVERTONE FOUNTAINS' album before the Christmas break but have now virtually abandoned all but four or five of the original 16 pieces of music I'd selected for it. As a result, I've recorded 15 brand new pieces for possible inclusion on the album, 'though not all of these will make the final cut. Consequently, there are more than enough abandoned or 'left over' pieces to fill this year's limited edition Nelsonica convention album. In fact, the connvention album may have to be a double disc set this time. And why not...it is the year of my 60th birthday after all. A good reason to push the boat out, I think. As for 'SILVERTONE FOUNTAINS,' well, I think it's one of the richest sounding, most complex instrumental albums of my career, but it has innocence, spontaneity, charm and melody too. It pulls together the stylistic traits of the last half-dozen albums I've recorded but does this in a manner that I hope will shine new light, (and shade), on the music. The album also contains one of the trickiest, retro-hip, jump-jive guitar instrumentals I've ever committed to a recording. It's part of a piece which develops, out of the blue, from a reflective, melancholy meditation on transcience to a fast-paced, joyous collusion of mind, fingers and strings. The piece is called 'Young Dreams, Whirled Away'. (The 'whirled away' part of the title referring to the aforementioned speedy guitar section.) This piece, for me, provides one of the album's highlights. Overall though, the album is a heady mixture of dreamy melancholy and ecstatic celebration. It is, (arguably), a slightly more demanding or challenging listen than the original album I'd assembled under the 'Silvertone Fountains' title last October, but all the better for that, in my opinion. Having said this, there's nothing overtly 'avant-garde' about it, just a gentle twist of sound here and there, a faint suggestion of the surreal, a faded dream wrapped up in silver filigrees and golden clouds of buttery guitar. Whilst on the sunject of guitars, there's quite a nice selection of them on this album, the most featured being my Campbell Nelsonic signature model, my Eastwood Airline 'Map' guitar and my newly aquired Peerless Monarch archtop, plus a touch of Gretsch twang and a sprinkle of Telecaster bright-spangled shine, (this last courtesy of an instrument on generous loan to me from my friend Johnny Moo). There are still adjustments to be made to the track selection though. I've today come to the conclusion that two of the tracks, maybe, don't sit as neatly into the overall feel of the album as I'd like and I might yet replace these two pieces with either a couple of the original album's tracks or even switch on my recorder again to create two more new pieces. I'll decide about this over the next few days or so. Meanwhile, Emi and I are driving over to Wakefield this afternoon to visit my mother and George. POST SCRIPT: Things have changed since writing the above, a few days ago. I originally hoped to post this entry much sooner but was planning to take some photographs to include with it. Circumstances haven't allowed enough time to do this and now the situation mentioned above in relation to my stepfather George's health has become even more critical. I'm just about to drive over to Wakefield again but this time to a hospice to which George was admitted this morning, (29th January). A 'phone call from my mother, a short while ago, informed me that things have deteriorated dramatically, even though George has been fighting the condition to the point of exhaustion over the last few days. There's not much more I can say at this point, so I must leave it at that and hurry over there. Top of page

The Dream Transmission Pavilion Bill Nelson album - 19 September 2009 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Billy And The High Blue Horizon 02) Beauty Lifts Her Skirts 03) The Sound From This Recording Travels To The Stars 04) Once More Around The Moon 05) Prairie Hula 06) Kiss You Slow 07) The Boy Who Knew The Names Of Trains 08) Picture In A Frame 09) Sway And Swoon 10) A Thought For You 11) Where Does It Come From, Where Does It Go? 12) Transcendental Radios 13) The Walls Of Which Are Made Of Clouds 14) I Am The Captain 15) Here I Am For You 16) Once More Around The Moon (Monitor Mix) ALBUM NOTES: The Dream Transmission Pavilion is an album mixing vocal and instrumental pieces issued for Nelsonica ‘09 on the Discs of Ancient Odeon label. With the decision to end the 500 limit on copies of the Nelsonica releases, Nelson created instead a novel special edition of the CD by issuing 250 copies (as an incentive to buy Nelsonica 09 tickets). The special version was housed in an autographed tin box, which included an additional alternative cover. With Nelsonica attendance running at 240, this allowed ten copies of the special edition to be sold through SOS which were snapped up by a fortunate few within hours of going on general sale. The remainder of the standard issue went on sale through SOS allowing non-attendees of the event to at least enjoy the music without having to worry unduly about placing an order within days of it going on general sale. One track on this release had appeared previously – albeit under a slightly different title. "Kiss You Slow" (then known as "Kiss You Slowly") had been issued as the B-side of a free digital single I Hear Electricity on Nelson's 60th Birthday (18 December 2008). CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "This year's Nelsonica album benefited from more 'A' list tracks than usual. (Although my subjective 'B' list category tracks are often considered 'A' list by many fans! ) "I simply had too many good compositions to fit onto other projects this year, (plus a handful of perfectly acceptable tracks that didn't quite suit the style of some of the other releases,) so The Dream Transmission Pavilion album is, for me, a much more satisfying and 'finished' album than I initially expected it to be. It's certainly worthy of extended listening and some of its tracks may well contribute to a 'classic songs' list at some point in the future. "And here's an admission: I personally prefer it to Fancy Planets !" _____ "The Dream Transmission Pavilion album is nearly all vocal, apart from a couple of instrumental tracks. Stylistically, it covers a variety of genres. I won't itemise all the angles here...you'll just have to buy it and find out for yourself! But tell the wife they're both vocal albums...and if she says that she can't hear any vocals on Theatre of Falling Leaves , just say they're a bit too far back in the mix." FAN THOUGHTS: major snagg: "And I thought Fancy Planets and Here Comes Mr Mercury were good. Wow, Dream Transmission Pavilion is also fantastic. The bar just keeps getting raised higher with every new CD. AND I love the CD cover(s). "Prairie Hula" is a favourite today...every day another favourite track! This is like Christmas and Birthdays all rolled into one..." Grey Lensman: "It is a really cracking CD...Great guitar work, not that one expects any less. Fabulous range of sounds." JohnR: "I just love this album and some of the guitar playing is spine-tingling good stuff...For me, this is a Nelsonica collection that has a real coherency to it and is my most played album of Bill's since Whimsy." Dar: "I had the "Where Does it Go?" half of that pegged right away as primary Nelson, and it has risen to the status of Archetypal. It puts together so many of my favorite elements and blends them sublimely. I'm far from an 'every note of every song is great' fan, but this 2nd 1/2 of this song just works like a miracle on me; every note, every turn, every 'riff', every little clicky sound of the guitar pick, every subtle touch and treatment, all the feedbacky guitar, and the main chord line over the top. "This is perfection and it comes together at the highest, most current level of evolution." MG: "Sonically superb as expected. I would also like to send some kudos to Real Men With Ray Guns for their beautiful artwork." Pathdude: "After listening to this CD multiple times, I have to say that it is a classic. I remember when Bill said that he was especially proud of this convention CD as containing "A-list" material. Well, I would have to agree. There are many fabulous tunes on this CD. When I hear "Once More Around the Moon", it sounds like a standard in the traditional sense. And there are so many on this CD. "Thank you Bill for another wonderful CD." Swan: "I've only just listened to TDTP , in the car today, I have to say it is soooooo lovely! I nearly fell asleep to one of the tracks, fortunately I had my woman in the passenger seat and she stabbed me with her nail file so a gruesome accident was avoided!" Albums Menu Future Past

Acquitted By Mirrors - Issue Fifteen - Published early 1990 Back to Top

Telecommunication single - 1981 A Flock of Seagulls Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer on the A-side. Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Live Archive Pl ectronica A celebration of Bill Nelson at 70 Picture Gallery from fans and Dreamsville staff

Getting The Holy Ghost Across album - 25 April 1986 Bill Nelson Albums Menu Future Past Currently unavailable TRACKS: 01) Suvasini 02) Contemplation 03) Theology 04) Wildest Dreams 05) Lost In Your Mystery 06) Rise Like A Fountain 07) Age Of Reason 08) The Hidden Flame 09) Because Of You 10) Pansophia 2013 VERSION DISC 2: 01) Wildest Dreams (Wild Mix) from the Wildest Dreams 12" single 02) Heart And Soul 03) Living For The Spangled Moment 04) Feast Of Lanterns 05) Illusions Of You 06) Word For Word 07) Finks And Stooges Of The Spirit 08) Nightbirds from the Living for the Spangled Moment EP 09) Self Impersonisation (7" and 12" b-side) 10) Wildest Dreams (7" a-side) 11) The Yo-Yo Dyne (12" b-side) from the Wildest Dreams singles ALBUM NOTES: Getting the Holy Ghost Across is a vocal album issued by Portrait Records, a CBS subsidiary. It would turn out to be Nelson's final album for a major label for over 6 years. In the UK the album was issued on LP and cassette, with the latter containing five extra tracks and an exclusive extended version of "Because of You". These five bonus tracks would form the bulk of the Living For the Spangled Moment mini-album issued later that year (see separate entry). Allegedly the album was due to be issued on CD, but CBS cancelled the release before copies hit the shops, and it would take 20 years before it officially appeared in that format. Getting the Holy Ghost Across was the subject of some controversy in the US, mainly due to Nelson's use of The Annunciation with St. Emidius (1486, by Carlo Crivelli) alongside occult script and symbolism on the album artwork. Therefore, for the North American release it was released with an alternative title (On a Blue Wing ) in re-designed artwork. If that wasn't confusing enough, the US album featured an alternative track listing, losing songs A3 and B2, but gaining 2 of the bonus tracks added to the UK tape ("Heart and Soul" and "Living for the Spangled Moment"). PAST RELEASES: Such was the interest in a reissue of Getting the Holy Ghost Across that Nelson licensed the master tapes from Sony (who bought CBS in the 1990s) for a limited edition release on his own Sonoluxe imprint (2006). For this release Nelson added all seven tracks from the Living for the Spangled Moment mini-album, and "Yo-Yo Dyne" from the Wildest Dreams 12" single. Although not part of the 22 album reissue programme licensed to Cherry Red in 2011, it was a pleasant surprise when Cherry Red announced the release of a 2CD edition of Getting the Holy Ghost Across in 2013. The remastered set improved on the Sonoluxe edition by restoring the original UK artwork, and included all 11 tracks issued across the Wildest Dreams 12" single and the Living for the Spangled Moment mini-album. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: This CD is currently unavailable with no know plans for a re-release. BILL'S THOUGHTS: The album's title Getting The Holy Ghost Across and its occult/esoteric symbolism caused a problem with regard to getting the album stocked by a certain chain of record stores across the States. This chain was owned by a fundamentalist Christian family whose beliefs forbade them from stocking any album that might promote occult or esoteric philosophies. The usual, ill-informed paranoia of the born-agains, I suppose. Anyway, because this particular chain of record stores represented an important source of sales it was decided to change the album title to On A Blue Wing and to redesign the cover art, removing any trace of magical, alchemical or occult symbolism. This was just for the American market of course, in the UK the album retained its original title and packaging." _____ "I haven't actually played the album for ages...but I do recall that much of the album was about my first falling in love with Emiko whilst I was still married to someone else." _____ From Acquitted by Mirrors 13: "The script on the right is called Malachim. It is a coded alphabet that was used in Grimoires and it goes back to the Middle Ages. On the left is Enochian, also a magical language. This one was developed by a Dr John Dee who was the Court Astrologer to Queen Elizabeth the First. He was one of the most learned men in Europe at that time and had his own huge private library down in Mortlake out to the west side of London. The house is sadly long since knocked down but the site is still there. Dee worked with a man called Edward Kelly who was a kind of medium; it is said the two of them were given this alphabet through the means of a crystal ball. It is an entire language - very complex - in fact it has been checked out by modern-day language experts and it has all the attributes, it has grammar, syntax and so on. It is used again in a kind of angelic magic; but on the sleeve what they both say is 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across'. "The script on the back is Hebrew and that of course says the same thing. The reason I used these is because they are all part of the things I have been studying. The Enochian system is used by a magical order that in fact still exists today under the surface. It is called 'The Order of the Golden Dawn' to which the infamous Aleister Crowley once belonged. Well a big chunk of their teachings are hinged around the Enochian Theory, so it is obviously something I am quite aware of." ALBUM REVIEWS: Review on Goldmine Magazine FAN THOUGHTS: Jon Wallinger: "Getting the Holy Ghost Across is probably the album that means the most to me in terms of my Bill Nelson "timeline". I had always been aware of Bill Nelson/Be Bop Deluxe from being a wee nipper and watching the rehearsals in the local village hall, but I never got into the music until the mid 80's and this album was the first that I had to wait for the release, I'd read some tantalising snippets of lyrics and info from the fan club magazines, the buzz of anticipation was unforgettable, bought the LP and Cassette version upon release and have loved it ever since." Parsongs: "Getting the Holy Ghost Across is one of my favorites from Bill Nelson. An album that can be spiritual or iconoclastic depending on the perspective of the listener. "To me it is a collection of songs about a man questioning everything: his world, his religion, his relationships. It has a certain intensity to it (in words & music) that I just love." james warner: "The themes of spirituality and religion dominate, however, it is not a sermon, but a celebration. An uplifting experience even for non-believers such as myself. This being an 80s release, there is a strong keyboard content in the music, but the guitar has all the more impact when it is used, particularly in 'The Hidden Flame' and 'Because of You'." Phil: "Contemplation": "is probably my all time favourite Bill Nelson track, and that includes all the BBD stuff. I just love the prelude that "Suvasini" provides for the track and adore all the swirling eastern influences that pervade the song. Couple these with the funky, bass driven emphasis (not unusual in the mid 80's) and the legacy of lyricism and tuneship that we had from the BBD and QD days, then you have the perfect track." Mr. Mercury: "The GTHGA version [of "Contemplation"] remains one of the most gorgeous songs written in the latter part of the 20th Century, and my favourite version..." Peter: "The album came out during a particularly rough romantic period in my life, and a couple of the songs really spoke to me. When I heard 'Because of You', for example, for the first time, I teared up...it just reached in and found an emotional chord in me and strummed it! The guitar in that song has such feeling..." aquiresville: "Absolutely played the Heck out of this vinyl, when it was originally released (along with the Living For The Spangled Moment EP). 'Wildest Dreams' was an incredible slice of heaven." MondoJohnny: "Some half mad whino shoved a copy of Getting the Holy Ghost Across into my hands and told me my life would never be the same. He was right! "I've never heard anything like it before or since. "One of my favorite albums of all time I think." alec: "I remember my parents assuming that Getting the Holy Ghost Across was a Classical LP. "Regarding the Hebrew: In the late '80s, a girl I used to know who is from Israel I remember kept looking at that record cover and so I finally handed it to her. She explained to me that the Hebrew on the cover is actually "Getting The Holy Ghost Across" in English, written phonetically (in Hebrew characters). She spoke it as she read it and I remember her giggling as she read the word "across" as something like "eh-kro-ez," or similar. "That's very clever!" she laughed." BlissIsFree: "It's the 2013 edition of Getting the Holy Ghost Across I just got my hands on. I must say, I have waited decades for this! Listening to it, especially the remastering is like reacquainting with a dear old friend. Not only is this one of my favourite albums of Bill's but favourite period. "I want to thank Bill for seeing fit to have this version released, because of the track programming, liner notes, and Bill's notes and reflections on this album. I am so grateful to have this. Definitely an aural treat." MG: "In the context of back in the day I always liked the material. With the expanded release and liner notes I would recommend this to anyone wanting to take a step back in time with regard to BN's body of work. Call me nostalgic...the liner notes alone are worth the price of admission." Quinault: "Best album of the era. Hands down! Even more tracks than Bill's Sonoluxe release. Buy it now." Albums Menu Future Past

Sunday 25th September 2005 -- 9:00 pm I've begun to look at the calendar with the same feeling of horror I get when looking in the mirror. It's scary and something I'd rather avoid dealing with... but no choice. Time is of the essence and deadlines are looming in all directions. The mastering session for the two new albums is set for the 29th. This coming Thursday. No more changes to the recordings are permitted now so things have to stay as they are. Nor am I allowed to change the running order of the songs as I've given my erstwhile art and design assistant, Dave Graham, the go ahead to typeset the text for both projects. In fact, we're close to having the packaging art finished although I've just now sent Dave more images for possible inclusion; photographs I took at Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay earlier today. I made the trip specifically to gather photographic images and camcorder footage. I'm supposed to have video projection material ready for the November tour dates too but, at this moment, there's neither tour material, nor tour concept, to work with. I've simply not had enough time, what with everything else I've had to do these last twelve months. I think one of the problems is that everything seems to become focussed on a single point of time in the year, (i.e. autumn). There's the fan convention with it's now obligatory album, visual work and live performance, plus the tour schedule and it's equally obligatory new album and staging. But, it's not just that... Alongside these major projects are other tasks, some associated, some completely separate. Many of these seem to occur at the back end of the year also. Naturally, it all ends up being a sort of juggling act, a crazy attempt to keep various balls in the air at once. But, I shouldn't really blame anyone but myself. I guess I'm the sort of girl who can't say no. Hope I'm not in a terrible mess. I just feel drained and empty at the moment. Some information has been missing from this diary of late due to writing it in a rush, particularly when other things have been on my mind. In some ways, the music making part of my life should be the easiest. Why should I complain about workloads? It's a privilege, a sort of 'calling', a natural by product of my being. It's unavoidable, automatic, self-evident. It's essence. On the other hand... it's dangerously unhealthy, sometimes questionably unhinged and, whichever way you look at it, time consumingly hard work. For anyone else to understand just how hard, they'd need to be with me throughout an entire year, spending the same time as myself (in this tiny room that I'm audacious enough to refer to as my 'studio'), working constantly without reference to real time or real life, being totally immersed in the creation of something that begins with blind faith and usually ends up with what I can only describe as either self-doubt or godless despair. The former is preferable to the latter but neither are much fun. I wonder how many people would continue to put up with it, the boredom , the insecurity, the selfishness, the obsessive and remorseless attempt to elevate a meagre musical ability beyond its sorry limitations? (And why the hell do I do it?) How quickly would the fun wear off, the glamour be exposed for what it really is? A few months, or, as in my case, more than thirty years? And yet, despite all this angst-ridden, pathetic, mock dramatic chest beating, I still can't give it up. Sometimes I'm actually disgusted by the hold this thing has over me, how weak I've become in its grasp. Too eager to swoon, that's me. Too desperately in need of love from strangers... But, oh, how wonderful to be given the chance to try, to be given the gift of creating music from such dreamy weakness. What a stunningly beautiful two-edged sword I've been handed! Praise the lord and load the water pistols. You know, sometimes dealing with words is almost as much fun as making sounds. Almost. Everything is drama and our lives vain fictions that rarely advance beyond a short run at some local theatre. But, during the brief time that the footlights burn, we play the part to the hilt, believing every red velvet moment, playing it as if our lives depended on it. Which, perhaps, they do. Gilded fictions, beautiful illusions, fables made real by our sheer desperation. So what activities of mine have I forgotten to include in the last episode or two of this diary? Well... I omitted to mention my quite probably broken foot. It happened like this: A couple of weeks ago, I was reminded that, earlier in the year, I'd accepted an invitation to officially open a new recording studio at the College of West Anglia in Kings Lynn. The opening was scheduled for September 15th. At the time of accepting, I'd no idea that September would see me pushing things to the limit in terms of project completion. When I received the reminder about the opening, at the start of September, I realised that it had completely slipped my mind. However, determined not to let anyone down, I made plans to travel down to Kings Lynn to do the honours and to talk to the students. The night before the journey, I was dashing around the house trying to prepare clothes for the trip. I hadn't got my house slippers on and clumsily hit my right foot on the edge of either a door or a bookcase nearby, my toes taking the brunt of the blow. Instant pain but I thought it would fade after a few minutes. It didn't. That night, sleeping was difficult. The slightest contact of the bed sheets with my toes brought on more pain which kept me awake. The next morning I was a wreck, limping about the place and grimacing. My toes and foot were black and blue, badly bruised and it felt as if a couple of them might have been cracked or broken. For a moment, I considered calling Jon Lawrence (the tutor who had asked me to open the new studio), to beg off the engagement but I felt that this would not be a good thing. So I decided to go ahead as planned. Getting a shoe onto the injured foot was another problem. I had to force myself through the pain barrier but, once my foot was in there, I grabbed a walking stick from my collection and set off for the station by cab. Luckily, Emiko had taken time off from work to accompany me so she was able to support my injury, spiritually if not physically. It was a long journey from Yorkshire to Kings Lynn, involving a change of train at Peterborough and then again at Ely. It rained all day as we sat on station platforms awaiting our connections, gazing out at the grey skies. I felt like an old, old man, limping around, clinging on to my walking stick. I was also embarrassed to have to explain to the college staff why I appeared so decrepit. A stupid injury. Nevertheless, I managed to get through the event which involved an interview with local media, the opening ceremony itself and a question and answer session with the students. The tutors and staff were all very kind to me and I was glad that I'd made the effort to get there, despite the physical difficulty. Jon kindly gave us a lift to the station where we waited fifty minutes for the train before making the long trip back home. More long waits for connections at other stations required medicinal administrations of wine from platform bars to ease the pain. By the time I got home, I was pleasantly inebriated. Now, over a week later, the foot is looking much better although still bruised in some places and my little toe continues to be uncomfortable, particularly when walking. But on the mend. Last Friday brought me another invitation. This time to travel to Liverpool where Gretsch guitars were holding a promotional roadshow event. The show was at the Cavern Club, appropriate considering the late George Harrison's endorsement of Gretsch guitars. Fans of my own music will already be aware of my passion for Gretsch instruments and will have seen them grace the stage of my concerts over the last few years. Once again, Emi accompanied me on the train journey to Liverpool, another unusually long trip, especially considering the distance. Not a high speed intercity train though, just a sprinter type that stopped at many stations en route. We were met at Liverpool station by Fender/Gretsch artist relations whizz Hoda Armani, a lovely man who did his utmost to make us feel comfortable and welcome. After treating us to dinner, we were taken to the Cavern Club where a very tempting array of Gretsch guitars glittered from the stage, including the new 'Billy-Bo' model, an adaptation of Bo-Diddley's unique custom built Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird guitar that Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top has helped Gretsch to adapt from Bo's original design. As I said... tempting, very tempting! I was introduced to Gretsch's current main man, Mr. Mike Lewis who was going to give the audience gathered at the Cavern a talk about the history of Gretsch guitars. Not only did Mike do this in an entertaining and informative manner but he 'illustrated' his talk by playing guitar instrumentals to backing tapes, in a similar fashion to the way I do at my solo concerts. Not only was Mike knowledgeable about Gretsch guitar history, he could play the hell out of them as well. He opened with a wonderfully affectionate instrumental version of The Beatles 'Please, Please Me', but finished his talk by playing one of my all time favourite instrumentals, Santo and Johnny's 'Sleepwalk'. Mike has an adult understanding of the roots of rock guitar and his playing was direct and soulful and I sat there with a big smile on my face. He even played some Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins and Eddie Cochran licks so it was worth the trip just to hear him perform, as much as to see all those juicy guitars. I wanted to stay longer, pick up some instruments to try out, talk to people more, but the trains back to Yorkshire were a somewhat inhospitable. We were left with two alternatives, catch the 9:30, change at Manchester and arrive home just after midnight, or catch the 10:30 and get home around a quarter to two in the morning. My foot was still playing me up too so we opted to catch the 9:30 train. Hoda bundled us into a cab and saw that we got to the train in time. Eventually arrived back at Rancho Nelsonia around 12:20, feeling tired but happy, not least because of Hoda and Gretsch's generosity with the occasional glass of vino! Another recent(ish) thing of mine which I seem to have overlooked in the diary, was my concert at the Lewes Guitar Festival, not far from Brighton. The event took place in what was once a small but very pretty church. There was a full house and I spent some time after the concert chatting with fans and friends, a very pleasant evening altogether. Someone asked me what guitars, if any, I might still lust after. Well, as I once said, you can never have too many guitars and there are certainly a few out there I wouldn't mind getting my hands on, from the cheap and cheerful to the seriously luxurious. Of course, Gretsch have a few models that would be nice to own, including the 'Jupiter Thunderbird' adaptation mentioned above, but also a Syncromatic 400 acoustic archtop, the big one without cutaways, a real swing band of a guitar. Then there's the 6120 model that apes Eddie Cochran's guitar with the P90 style neck pickup and transparent pick guard. Then there's the White Penguin, or the Duo-Jet. Of course, what would really constitute a dream come true would be to work with Gretsch towards a custom instrument. I already have strong ideas about styling and so on... but, pointless going into details, it's just a dream. Another guitar would be a re-issue sixties Fender Stratocaster in Fiesta Red, just like the one Hank Marvin played in the Shadows heyday. But with a rosewood fretboard , rather than a maple one. (I think Hank's had both at different times.) The semi-hollow Partick Eggle Vienna is very tempting too, a kind of larger version of my Berlin model, but with 'f' holes. And of course, a full sized, big bodied D'Angelico archtop would be fabulous for my sojourns in the jazz joints of my imagination. As far as cheap and cheerful guitars goes, well, there are things like the De Pinto Belvedere Deluxe, which is a cool retro styled guitar that doesn't cost the earth. The same company's 'Galaxie 4' guitar is fun looking too. Another U.S. company, Eastwood Guitars, do some great reproductions of 60's era cheapo guitars. They have a wonderful version of a Guyatone LG 200-T solid body which looks great in white and costs only 399 dollars direct from their site. They also do a nice reproduction of two Airline guitars... the one with full set of pickups and trem is a real mad scientist of a guitar. Nice in red, this one, or white. Of course, all this is sheer greed on my part... an addiction, but one that I manage to turn into music, somewhere along the line. Enough of guitars, I'm starting to drool. The weekend has been mostly spent dealing with artwork tasks. I'd already spent most of last week sourcing images to use for the 'Sailor Bill' album. It can take a while to find ones that are interesting, and just as long to discover where the actual 'feel' of the album might lay in visual terms. There's a fair bit of trial and error to start with. Some of my earlier image selections were too much on the jolly or jaunty side. Whilst looking at the ones I'd accumulated, I played back the 'Sailor Bill' album to see if they fitted. The album's moody and melancholic nature ruled out some of the more modern, zippy images and I ended up making the decision to go down the 'antique' route. A call to Dave on Saturday morning to prime him on the general direction and things got properly underway. The initial searching around now done, we're currently in the fine tuning stages (apart from the possible addition of today's coastal photo's to the package). The album will be mastered this coming Thursday and the artwork should be ready to go off to the pressing plant along with the master by the start of October. Same goes for the Nelsonica album, 'Orpheus In Ultraland'. Before long, these two intensely detailed projects will be set aside as 'finished'. All that will remain is the process of getting them into peoples hearts and minds. Last week, I gave an interview about the creation of the albums. The interview will appear in the forthcoming issue of 'The Dreamsville Rocket' on-line newspaper and is intended to prime the imagination for the music's arrival. The 'Sailor Bill' album requires 'slow ears...' It isn't an album that reveals itself in a hurry but, with a little care and patience, should reward the diligent listener for some time to come. A quaint and old-fashioned album but not for the narrow minded. I'm hoping to have a playback/preview party for friends and members of the Dreamsville-Nelsonica team. I'm thinking of holding this at Fairview studios so that the album can be heard on some pro-standard studio monitors. Another side project now completed (and I may have mentioned this before in the diary), is my contribution to a book that is being published by Leeds University. This is a book about the Beat Generation, written to coincide with the university's School Of Music celebration of the 50th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'. I've written, for the book, a piece about my own encounter with the Beats and the inspiration that they generated in terms of my work. And, amongst even more new work ('though I'm keeping real details under my hat for a short while...) is a project I've undertaken for Sound On Sound magazine's anniversary issue. I can't say any more at this point in time (sworn to secrecy) but Dreamsville will inform you of what this involves soon. Stay tuned! Bob Dylan documentary on TV tomorrow evening. Must make time to watch this... essential viewing for me, being a great admirer of Dylan's work. Recently finished his 'Chronicles Vol 1' autobiography which Emiko bought me last Christmas. Only recently got around to reading it but it was an interesting book. Not much time for reading now, though, still far too much to do. Nelsonica rushing up, as is the solo tour. I ought to start thinking about the material I'll perform... God knows how I'll get that AND the accompanying video together in the few weeks that are left before things get underway. If I'm exhausted now, what state will I be in by the start of November? I hope things work out. Looking forward to a break in December... 'though Christmas will take up a fair amount of time and energy. Before I know it, it will be new year and a new set of projects to get to grips with. As tough going as it sometimes is, the joy is in the making of all this stuff. Well, I must enjoy it to devote so much of my life to it. All photographs by Bill Nelson Top of page William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) September 2005 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Oct Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

Acquitted By Mirrors - Issue Eight - Published January 1984 Back to Top

Holey Moley, It's A Parallel World Bill Nelson download single - 15 December 2010 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: 01) Holey Moley, It's A Parallel World NOTES: "Holey Moley, It's a Parallel World!" is a track Bill composed and recorded exclusively for the Sara's Hope Foundation . The charity's aim was "to provide holiday breaks for children living with cancer, giving them smiles, hope, and precious memories". Fans could download the song in return for a modest donation to the charity. "Holey Moley, It's a Parallel World" was announced first by Ged Hoburn of Sara's Hope Foundation on 30 November 2010 in a Dreamsville post that reflected on the events at Nelsonica 10, at which a charity auction was held on behalf of the foundation. Nelson confirmed his plans to release a new track for Sara's Hope Foundation in a diary entry dated 1st December 2010, two weeks ahead of its release. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Currently unavailable but may be made available again as a charity download at some point. BILL'S THOUGHTS: "This vocal track will not be available elsewhere...it has been exclusively created to raise funds for Sara's Hope Foundation. It's a whimsical, mid-tempo sexy little number with a catchy, 'sing-along' chorus...I think you'll like it!" To Sara's Father, Ged: "I'm proud to be a patron of Sara's Hope Foundation , Ged. You and your family are helping to provide a very special service for the children (and their parents), who are suffering the effects of this cruel disease. I hope that Dreamsville citizens and fans generally will download this year's special Bill Nelson track and donate something, no matter how small, to this worthwhile cause." Singles Menu Future Past

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) January 2009 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Saturday 3rd January 2009 -- 6:00 pm For the last seven days, I've not been out of the house. And for the first five of those, I haven't been out of pyjamas or dressing gown...and for the first three of those, not even out of bed. Yes, I'm laid low with a nasty 'flu bug again, the third I've succumbed to since the completion of Nelsonica 08. I feel as weak as a kitten. Each time I've caught a different type of virus. The first one, in late November, early December, seemed to be focussed on the chest area more than anywhere else. It was pretty rough but the worst of it vanished after a couple of weeks, leaving me feeling drained. Not long after, Emiko suffered an inner ear viral infection which caused her to lose her sense of balance. She found it impossible to stand up or walk for a couple of days and couldn't go to work. A visit to the doctor and some prescribed medicine helped her to recover over a period of a week and she was back on her feet sooner than expected. I then, (typically), developed similar symptoms...dizziness, moments of panic whilst out and about. These subsided after a few days but I suspect it was exactly the same viral problem as Emi's, though not quite as acute. All this illness put us way behind with our seasonal preparations. The last couple of weeks before Christmas became a frenzy of dashing around, trying to find gifts for family and friends and then the last minute posting of cards. Far too stressful... Also, Emi had managed to secure a temporary and much needed job at a gift shop in town, so she wasn't available to help with Christmas duties, therefore it all fell to me, though that has been the situation for the last few years, even before she was made redundant from the flower shop. As readers of this diary already know, my childhood Christmases were magical, traditional affairs, (as they were for most children of my generation). I've faithfully attempted to preserve that vintage Christmas spirit for my own family, but I have to admit it becomes harder to maintain as time goes by. Perhaps I'm getting too old, or too cynical. This year, our own decorations didn't go up until a few days before Christmas and I didn't find time to display any of the cards we'd been sent until Christmas Eve. That was when I finally dragged the stepladder from the cobwebs of the utility room and pinned the Christmas cards to the wooden beams of our living room ceiling. This has been the first Christmas since my stepfather's death, last January, so I was naturally concerned about my mother being left alone. It's been a tough year for her, one way or another. Emiko and I had been invited by our friends, Julia and Steve, for Christmas dinner over at their house. It's become something of a tradition as we've (very splendidly), dined there just about every Christmas Day since we've lived in the area. I'd explained to Steve and Julia that I felt I should look after my mother this Christmas but they generously suggested that we bring her along to their house for dinner too. Mum can be a little shy with people she doesn't know so well, so when I brought up the subject with her she seemed, at first, a little uncertain. I assured her that she would be made very welcome and that our friends had three splendid dogs for her to pet. My mother adores dogs and this seemed to tip the balance towards the positive and she agreed to accept the invitation. I drove over to Wakefield to pick mum up on Christmas Day morning, then drove her back to our place before setting off down the lane to our friend's house for dinner. As usual Julia and Steve had prepared a huge feast...traditional fare with all the trimmings, a warm welcome and their family and friends along to share the day. Mum ended up being adored and fussed over by the dogs and I ended up in our friend's music room with their children and Julia's mum, (who is a talented pianist). A fun filled hour or so followed with me jamming on guitar alongside Julia's two youngest sons, (Eddie and William), on the drums. Then a run through of some old standards and evergreens with Julia's mum leading on piano and me trying to spontaneously figure out the melodies on guitar. A very mellow, woozy, enjoyable Christmas Day afternoon. My mother stayed over with us that night and then on boxing day, my daughter Elle and son Elliot came to our house for food and drinks and gift-giving. Another pleasant, warm family occassion. We took my mother back home to Wakefield later that night. She seemed to have really enjoyed herself. The following day, I began to feel out of sorts. I had developed a sore throat and sensed the onset of yet another 'bug.' The day after that, it shed all pretence of being an imaginary condition and revealed itself as a fully blown flu' virus and I felt so rotten that I couldn't get out of bed. Today, (one week on), I'm far from being free of it but I think I can finally sense a minute improvement, even though my body still seems pre-occupied with the mysterious manufacture of endless amounts of vile green alien goo. Nights are spent coughing and retching and days are filled with perpetual nose-blowing and throat-clearing interrupted by moments of vacant staring into space, numbed and distanced from the wider world by dull aches and sudden shivers. Emiko has caught this latest bug from me too, for which I'm feeling most guilty. Django and Tink, our telepathic cats, look up at us, concerned, then curl up in our laps like living, breathing hot-water bottles. Emi went back to work today which was, I think, a foolish thing to do, considering the state of her health at the moment. In fact, she's just now telephoned to say that she's about to come home early as her cough is so bad. I'm not surprised. These viruses seem to be everywhere and virtually unavoidable. The pre-Christmas crowds were full of people coughing and sneezing. It's impossible to stay clear of airborne germs in tightly packed shops. One other side effect of this latest flu bug is that I haven't bothered to shave for a week and am now sporting a full beard. It's several years since I last grew a beard but this time I've been surprised by its colour. My bristles are no longer dark but are now what I think is referred to as 'salt n' pepper,' (with the balance tipped far more towards the 'salt' side of the equation). Strange this as the hair on the top of my head shows relatively few signs of grey. I'm now trying to decide whether I should keep and maintain this beard. In the mirror it gives me a rather scruffy, tramp-like appearance, a sort of Dharma Bum persona, a ragged, crazy Zen monk look, even a bit Bukowski, which is quite at odds with the 'glam' image of my early career. Yeah, maybe I'll keep it for a while and see what music hides in it! I need to record here some of the other events of the last two months as my previous diary entry was October of last year. Nelsonica 08 was the main event during this time. The stresses and strains of getting everything in place had dramatically built up during the few days before the event. When the actual day arrived I was feeling totally drained before I even drove to the venue. I was little more than a bundle of nerves when I first took the stage but the audience, (the biggest attendance so far), were warm and wonderful. The live performances, (both solo and band), were extremely well recieved despite some hilarious mistakes due to the amount of material the band and myself had tried to learn in the two days available to us. There were some onstage technical and sound problems too, which caused a certain amount of confusion but none of this seemed to matter somehow. I felt shattered but happy at the end of it. Everyone commented on the quality and scale of the convention's decorations, which really transformed the room. The whole thing was run professionally with thought and care and a lot of love. I've said it before but Nelsonica feels more like the gathering of an extended family than a mere fan convention. This fact has very little to do with me but everything to do with the good people who attend the event and the organising team themselves. I just tag along with my guitars...and chat a bit. Anyway, the day was considered to be a great success and the best Nelsonica yet. This is extremely gratifying to know but always puts more pressure on the team and myself to come up with something to top it next time...which is never an easy task, bearing in mind how much we pack into the event as it is. I'm always super-critical of my own input anyway and usually find fault with my performance regardless of how well received it is. I suppose I have to accept that I'll never come up with a performance or recording that will satisfy me 100%. But that doesn't stop me from trying. Another feature of Nelsonica 08 was that it doubled as an early celebration of my 60th birthday. Fans were extremely kind and generous, bringing cards and gifts which I took home and saved until my actual birthday rolled around on the 18th of December. I've never had so many birthday cards in my life. Amazing! On the morning of my birthday, I had an enjoyable time unwrapping the thoughtful gifts I'd been given at Nelsonica. Such perfect gifts...it would be unfair to name just a few of the people and too time consuming and complicated to name everyone, but I'm attaching a photograph of all the gifts alongside this diary entry. There were some absolute gems amongst them too, things which I'll treasure for a long time. Emiko had bought me, (for my birthday), an Airline Lap Steel guitar in red with a black pickguard. In Japan, when you reach sixty, it is traditional to be given something in red, so this guitar was an appropriate gift. I've already got a track part completed which features the Lap Steel. I added a vocal too, before the flu' kicked in. All this helped to make my birthday a special one, even though I'm still having problems trying to grasp the fact that I've actually reached the venerable age of 60! Seems like only yesterday that I was unwrapping Christmas presents as a 1950's child. Another post-Nelsonica, pre-Christmas task was the making of a special, seasonal audio-visual piece for the Dreamsville website. This one was titled 'The Silver Bells Of Christmas Valley' and, whilst being quite simple, it turned out to be a charming little video Christmas card for fans. Seems to have been well received. I also wrote and recorded a single which I gave away as a free download on my site, a Christmas gift from me to everyone who has supported my music this last year. It's called 'I Hear Electricity.' Has a nice vocal too, as does the 'b' side: 'Kiss You Slow.' And, whilst on the subject of downloads, I'd also recorded another new song, titled 'A Million Whistling Milkmen' which I've donated to 'Sara's Hope Foundation,' a very worthwhile charity run by a good friend of mine who is also a loyal member of the Nelsonica organisational team. If you haven't already done so, check out the following website to find out more: www.sarashopefoundation.co.uk The 'Milkmen' song has been made available as a 'flac' lossless download, and can be obtained in return for a modest donation to the Foundation. It's a nifty piece of pop music and won't scare the horses. And now it is 2009, already rushing towards 2010. We should be in science-fiction land, enjoying the shining, clean, peaceful future we were promised in the fantasy comic books of the 1950's...but the reality is a continuing bloody conflict in the middle east, threats of religious wars and terrorism, the ongoing collapse of the global financial system and a very bleak midwinter to get through...and whatever dark clouds may lurk beyond. So much uncertainty. Music and art may seem, to some, to be a frivolous luxury in such difficult times. But art at its best helps us to transcend these things, to slip through the cracks to a place where regeneration dances amongst blasts of electricity. Here is a landscape of hope in a world of eternal beauty. Here is the best of us, the most worthy of our endeavours. These bright dreams, I'd venture, are worth preserving. Diary Of A Hyperdreamer wishes its readers a HAPPY, HEALTHY, PEACEFUL 2009! ***** The images accompanying this diary entry are as follows:- 1: Bill's photograph of Django the cat, admiring a minimal flower arrangement created by Emiko. 2: A vintage pack of 'Monopole' guitar strings, retained by Bill from his 1960's guitar playing days. 3: A previously unseen polaroid photo' of Bill playing live in his very early Be Bop Deluxe 'glam-rock' days, probably at 'The Fforde Greene' pub in Leeds or 'The Staging Post' pub in the same city. Possibly early 1973 but certainly no later.(Nick Dew in the background on drums. Note Nick's stage makeup, quite some time before Kiss did something similar!) 4: A few of Bill's favourite guitars photographed in the rehearsal room prior to Nelsonica 08. 5: Some of Bill's 60th Birthday cards on display in his home. 6: Bill's 60th birthday gifts from fans and the Airline Lap Steel guitar that Emiko bought for him. Top of page

Nelsonian Navigator - Issue One - Published July 1995 Back to Top

Infotainment single - 1990 The Rhythm Sisters Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer, Guitar, Sitar and Keyboard. Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

William's Study Diary Of A Hyperdreamer 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

Museum of Memory A collection of pictures from Bill's personal archives Pictures of Bill and his family as a youngster. Select image for expanded mode and description. Early pictures of Bill's family. Select image for expanded mode and description. Bill's Childhood locations. Select image for expanded mode and description.

Thursday 16th June 2005 -- Mid Evening. Damaged my left hand last week, mainly middle finger, by accidentally hitting the bannister on the stairs whilst rolling up my shirt sleeves. Yes, I know, a dumb thing to do but, as pathetic as it sounds, it hurt like hell. The blow pushed the finger inwards, against the joints and tendon. It's been painful, swollen and red and I couldn't play guitar for a few days. Difficult to grip things and to drive without discomfort too. Finally on the mend but still a little tenderness. I seem to be either much more clumsy in my late middle age or simply more accident prone than of yore. Two envelopes from Harold arrived in the post last week, one containing photographs of the desert house within which he composed the 'Bride In The Trees'/'Widow In The Trees' pieces that we duetted on at the Brighton concert. The other envelope contained a letter with Harold's thoughts on his 'retirement', his reflections on the concert itself, and more general chit-chat. Harold's letters are always a joy to read and I consider myself fortunate to receive them. Whilst on the subject of communications, I received a long and generous email from artist Russell Mills recently. Good to hear from him. I'm going to try to contribute a few 'off cuts' of music to a sound assembly project he's working on. Lots of interesting people involved in it. Hopefully, I can donate some prima materia to the communal sonic soup. Also recieved an email from Kate, (St. John), and spoke with her on the 'phone. As I've mentioned before in this diary, I'm very fond of Kate, she's one of those rare people who I can relax around and talk openly about anything. I hope to ask her and Theo Travis to join me for parts of my London concert this coming November, if I can come up with some music worthy of the two of them. Actually, the writing of new music is not going too well right now, and not just because of my hand injury. After I returned from Brighton the other week, I listened back to the unfinished tracks I'd been working on prior to Harold's concert and suddenly decided to abandon them. They just didn't tweak my nipples. Not a writer's block, just a barking up of the wrong tree. You'd think that, after completing the Rosewood project, I'd be full of confidence and optimism... but I'm not. All I can hear is its flaws. Perhaps I need to lose my current 'weight of the world' worries, rid myself of the various doubts and fears that have been bothering me, just let things flow more. I've often given this same advice to friends who have hit a similar sort of creative obstacle but, typically, I find it hard, if not impossible, to deal with myself. I just seem to be overburdened with self-doubt and existential angst at the moment. Or is that my regular condition? Anyway... I've consigned the unfinished pieces to the, 're-consider several months hence' bin. I've now started on an entirely new piece, a vocal one, for both the tour and the tour album. I've completed a couple of mixes of it but... not sure if it's right yet. So, still more tweaking to be done and then a backing track mix of the song to be made for the shows. The song is called 'AND THEN THE RAIN', yet another melancholic rain song, the sort that seem to have become a regular part of my musical vocabulary. This particular one could be said, (by some), to be a 'classic' Bill Nelson romantic rock/pop tune. (Is there such a thing?) There's nothing stylistically new about it but it certainly fits into a certain melodic niche that a lot of people tell me they like. Not that I composed it with that specific result in mind. Like everything else that happens to me, it just happened. More worryingly, I'm pretty much ambivalent about it right now. I'll see how it stands up after I've forgotten about it. Let it settle. Because my digital recording system allows me extra control, further options, I tend to spend far more time recording each piece than I did with the old analogue tape system I used for so many years. An inclination to fiddle about presents itself. And then, because I spend longer working on each piece, I become bored, indifferent or immune to it. There's a lot to be said for working quickly with limited means. It certainly speeds the process and stops the rot setting in. Not that I'd really go back to the old technology, even though I do, ultimately, prefer the warmth of tape. The major creative problem I'm having at the moment is caused by the pressure to come up with lyrics. Perhaps it's because I'm not in a vocal-oriented state of mind right now. My passions are pulling me more towards the instrumental end of the spectrum. In fact, not just the instrumental end of the spectrum but the very abstract end of it. The bit that verges almost on silence. Nevertheless, I've been pursuaded to present some vocal songs, (as well as instrumentals), at the autumn concerts so I have to come up with something worthwhile. Maybe, I'm panicking unduly, but panicking I definitely am. What I really need is a holiday or at least a healthy break away from all of this. (How often have I said that?) I don't seem to have stopped for the last few years now, a constant chasing of my own tail. Is it so surprising that I'm feeling exhausted? My own fault, of course, no-one to blame but me. But... Because of the amount of work I've produced over the years, people often think it comes easy, that it's stress free and constantly on tap. If only that were the case. The reason I've produced so much stuff isn't because it's easy, it's because I work very hard at it and with a passion, to the point where I regularly endanger my physical health and mental well-being. Sounds dramatic, I know, but it often feels like I'm emptying my life and soul into these things. I love doing this work, but it's much more of a struggle than people might realise. Adrian at Opium asked if I could suggest four tracks from my catalogue that could be given to the agent to play to promotors to give them some idea of what my solo concerts are like. I certainly can do this, if it helps, but I'm pretty amazed that, after the extremely well attended 'Romance Of Sustain' solo tour I presented in 2003 and last year's sell out solo+band tour, that it's neccesary for me to 'audition' for promotors in this way. Or am I presuming too much? I'm not exactly expecting two weeks at the Albert Hall, after all. Maybe these people are too worried about losing money to really make any, too concerned with certainty to take chances. It's almost boringly predictable, safe bets all round. As my father used to say: ' jobs for the boys.' How unexciting, how banal. Unfortunately, such attitudes don't sit comfortably with my own. It's way too sleepy slow for me. Still, musn't grumble. I'm just as effective and happy in my little studio as out on the stage, probably more so. If the tour happens, it happens, if it doesn't, I've certainly got plenty of other things to get on with. My CD burner still not fixed. My fault for not unwiring it from the studio set up and hauling it over to Leeds to get it repaired. Must do this soon. Must also do same with my Line 6 Vetta combo which is still sporting a broken volume control. Domestic repairs needed all over the house, too...not just my studio equipment. Serious repairs. Trouble is, I get terribly distracted by the ongoing creative stuff. It grabs me by the throat and won't let me think about anything else until it's had its wicked way with me. And not just that but administrative stuff too, little niggly things that take up time and make the things I really want to do more pressurised than they need be. Life at this end of 'the business' is far tougher than when I used to play the commercial game. God knows if it's art or not but, whatever it is, it's bloody hard going sometimes. One area of progress: A new keyboard is on order, a Yamaha Motif ES 88. To replace my busted Emulator E4 K workstation. I should try to sell the latter, even though some of the keys need replacing. I've used it for the last ten years or so, some great sounds in it plus it operates as a sampler. It would be a fine instrument for someone who was prepared to get the keys fixed. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to getting the new keyboard in the hope that some unfamiliar sounds will spark fresh creative ideas. Car troubles this last week. Both Emi's car and mine have been in the repair shop for work to get the vehicles through their MOT's. An expensive business. Cars are generally a nightmare, especially old, high mileage ones like ours. Four-wheeled money vampires. A nice series started on tv last Sunday, about the English landscape and how it has influenced artists throughout history. Beautifully photographed and uplifting. Of course, Yorkshire figured highly in the first episode. God's own county, as they say. I never tire of having that glorious landscape on my doorstep. I consider myself blessed to live amongst it. It's not all glorious landscapes though. Royal Ascot horse races are being held in York this week. A Royal pain in the arse, I call it. (Arsecot?) It disrupts the roads around here dramatically. An entire week of being stuck in traffic on some routes. (And when I say 'traffic' I mean mostly those flashy, 'look how much cash I've got' sort of cars, the type I gave up for lost 20 years or more ago.) Still, I've been able to giggle at all the drunken, flimsily clad women tottering around town on their high heels with their spotty boobs hanging out. Bolly dollys a-go-go. Cheap as chips and twice as greasy. Pink and purple and yellow and green...and that's just their faces. You can tell I love 'em though. Flirty tarts dancing to dated disco music around their tacky pink handbags at after race parties all over town. Pissed as arseholes. Absolutely! Desperate! The men are as just bad too, puffed up like red faced baboons in grey morning suits and top hats. Makes the place look untidy. It's hilarious to see the fuss being made about the event locally. Shove the Queen (and the few other Royals that bothered to show up) into the equation and everyone starts strutting around as if they're suddenly in on something of earth shattering importance.. 'It's The Queen, you know... Yes, my dear, here in our town, on our doorstep...' (Actually, she's staying in our village, just a short walk from our house, so shove that down your majestic pipe and flush it. Of course, me and ol' Charlie were down the local boozer the other night, riffing about Abba. We're the same age, don't cha know...) What this event has proved is that most people are so transparently desperate for celebrity that any slight brush or association with it will be gobbled up greedily. Endless lines of local traders clambering over each other to genuflect in front of the old boiler. Sad really, if it wasn't such a comedy. Still, keeps 'em in idle chit-chat if nothing else. Maybe I'm cynical and jaded, the 'been there, done that' attitude. I shouldn't begrudge them their little stab at self-aggrandisment. God knows life's dull enough for most folks around these parts. Let 'em enjoy their brush with 'royalty' whilst it lasts. Mind you, the weather has been less than cheerful for the event most of the week. Certainly dampened the silly hats down a bit. Then again, it's made those exquisitely flimsy dresses even more amusing. Wish I'd have had my camera handy to show you what I mean. What's the word you're looking for to describe me? Incorrigible? Rude? Disrespectful? Scandalous? Anarchic? Jealous? (Gimmie a break!) Probably something much stronger if you're a saddo royal limo chaser. If nothing else, this event has provided me with a useful stage on which to act out my grumpy old man scenario. Royalty and advocates of blood sports...ripe for scorn in my book. Still, the betting shops and bookies will be happy. Plenty of pseudo-posh dosh being squandered, despite the current local opinion that the event has been something of a failure. Not enough people bothered to show up apparently. A case of Southern snobbishness and indifference meets Northern greed and shiftyness. Hotels and other local businesses were hoping to be run off their feet, dreaming of train-loads of cash flowing in from the migrating Southerners. Local prices went up with local expectations. Trouble is, the buggers stayed home in droves, (thankfully). Well, it's crowded enough 'round here at this time of year without mock-toffs and posh totty adding to it. Obviously, I've never been one for frequenting the old betting shop... can't afford it of course, being a tortured artist and all that. And probably wouldn't if I could. My Dad used to like the 'gee gees 'though. But personally, those high voices and beards never appealed to me. Actually, Dad used to occasionally win some money on the horses. Even though he was far from being a wealthy man and couldn't place large stakes. But he had a certain way with 'accumulators', the winnings from one race being immediately placed as a bet on the next, and so on. A sort of a 'system', he claimed. He was pretty good at it. Won enough to pay for our family's entire holiday in Blackpool once. The bookie behind the Pleasure Beach banned him from placing bets there ever again, told him not to come back. Dad cleaned him out, it seemed. Oh, how we laughed. It was extra sticks of Blackpool rock all round. My Dad liked soccer too but that never appealed to me either. I do know the name of one football player though... Stanley Matthews. Little guy with big shorts and Brylcreemed hair from what I recall. A 1950's schoolboy hero for some. Actually, (and obviously), I'm playing the fool a bit here... I did actually go to a soccer match once. My Dad took me to a game in Blackpool, when we were on holiday there, (but not the time when he got banned from the bookies). He hoped I'd be enthused by a real live soccer match but I was bored rigid. Much preferred going to the Tower Circus or listening to Reginald Dixon play the mighty Wurlitzer in The Tower Ballroom. Or go for a spin on a promenade childrens ride called 'Fairyland'. My mother says I really liked that one. Sounds about right. I was, so I'm told, a sensitive kid and according to my school chums something of an odd-bod. And there's me thinking that it was everyone else that was strange. Times change but maybe not so much. Watched Fellini's delightful and shouty 'Amacord' on DVD the other night. Music by Nino Rota. Great name that, 'Nino Rota'. I really like Fellini's colour sense and the way that his camera moves against the wonderfully choreographed crowd scenes. 'Juliet Of The Spirits' is one of my Fellini faves. And 'Eight And A Half' of course. Great opening scene in that one. Lets go fly a kite but dreamy-weird. I'm reading 'In The Half Light' by Anthony Lawrence. The author is a poet and this is his first novel and it's a cracking one. The entire book is imbuded with the quality of poetry, a flowing, beautiful, compulsive read. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys intelligent, unusual, imaginative and elegantly written prose. This is a book that doesn't treat its reader like an idiot. I was initially attracted to it by the cover image which is subtly haunting. These days, in my opinion, book graphic design has overtaken album sleeve design for inventiveness. Recently bought a 'moleskine' blank notebook and a graphite pencil from Salt's Mill. Had a late Sunday lunch there again last weekend. Emi and I love visiting the place. The combination of Hockney's work and the historic 'utopian model village' setting creates a very civilised atmosphere. The excellent book shop in the gallery previously had several copies of my 'Diary Of A Hyperdreamer' book on the shelves, but they've sold out now. (I know because some Japanese friends whom we took there recently wanted to buy copies but the assistant at Salt's Mill said they'd all gone.) Anyway, I intend to carry the moleskine notebook with me in my shoulder bag at all times, to use as a sketchbook. Always to hand should inspiration strike. Of course, I'll either forget I'm carrying it or I'll be too busy trying to create music for the autumn tour to get any sketching done, more's the pity. Must write to John Foxx soon. Harold and John and I should try to get together to record something. Despite Harold's retirement. I meant to contact John a week or two ago but seem to be constantly distracted by one thing or another. I really should make more of an effort to stay in touch with people. By 'people,' I mean those whose sensibilities would encourage me towards a less pessimistic outlook. Those who would inspire me to take a few more sunlit chances. Positive creatives who understand all this stuff. But, left to my own devices, I retreat into shadow, spitting and hissing to no effect at all, other than to alienate those who might otherwise share their time with me. Darkness and light, and not much of the latter. Something's up, but what? Depression again? Maybe... but as I said, it doesn't get any easier. Come on, William, you're raving. Buck up... just get on with it! Sound of helicopters passing overhead, ferrying the wealthy to and from their royal race meeting. There must have been thirty or more 'copters parked in a field near the race course at the start of the week, just opposite the allotments. Less now though. Some local farmer will probably be making a few extra bob by allowing them to land there. I've seen the pound signs in so many people's eyes these last few weeks, the sudden lust for personal glory. Can't say it's a surprise. Police everywhere too... What this nonsense is costing us locals is anyone's guess. Outrageous, probably. Never mind... Back to normality next week. The right wing nouveau-rich will be back in their kitsch little boxes where they clearly belong. What a relief! All that frilly, fluffy pink bad taste makes the place look untidy. Pip pip! Cheerio chums! Top of page William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) June 2005 Feb Mar Apr May Jul Aug Sep Oct Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

Novel Romance single - 1981 Nash the Slash Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

And We Fell Into A Dream Bill Nelson album - 27 October 2007 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) And We Fell Into A Dream 02) Somewhere In Far Tomorrow 03) Fever Dream Of The Starlight Man 04) The Raindrop Collector 05) Night Song Of The Last Tram 06) Dreamt I Was Floating In A Summer Sky 07) The House At The End Of Memory Lane 08) A Line Of Trees Gives Rise To Thought 09) Blue Amorini 10) Here Come The Rain Comets 11) Cloudy Billows Kiss The Moon 12) The Rose Covered Cottage At The End Of Time 13) Streamlined Train, Passing Fast 14) At Home In High Clouds 15) Chapel Of Chimes ALBUM NOTES: And We Fell into a Dream is an instrumental album issued on the Sonoluxe label in a single print run of 1000 copies. Work on the album was effectively commenced in mid-2007 when Nelson was developing an album project called Frankie Ukelele and the Fire in the Lake . Before that album had been fully realised much of the completed material was transferred to the And We Fell into a Dream album, with the residual material initially retained for a revised Frankie Ukelele album which fragmented further into a number of albums including Silvertone Fountains and Illuminated at Dusk . The album was issued at Nelsonica '07 with remaining stock then sold through SOS. The track "At Home in High Clouds" is erroneously listed as "At Home in the Clouds" on the artwork due to a proof reading error made during production. It was announced on 6 January 2016 that the album had sold out. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Several of the tracks are from the same sessions that produced the Gleaming Without Lights album...AWFIAD uses exactly the same instrumentation as Gleaming but offers a more deliberately 'composed', melodic, economical path." _____ "The similarities to Dreamland to Starboard are deliberate but there's a more minimal element at work here. There's more of a minor key feel, a touch of melancholy, even a hint of 'unease', (especially in "Fever Dream"). Dreamland , by contrast, has a lighter mood, is generally a 'sunny' album. And We Fell Into A Dream purposely plays the moon card in response to this. Dreamland is Solar, Fell Into A Dream is Lunar. They're complementary works, two sides of one coin. "More and more, my music is cross-referenced. Albums are not made in isolation but as components in one epic structure. There's a web of connections, a grid on which ideas are passed back and forth and modulated and modified." FAN THOUGHTS: BobK: "Whilst all of BN's albums are hugely enjoyable there are certain releases that, in my opinion, can be classed as 'career peaks'. In recent years I personally think Romance , Dreamland and Sailor Bill are in this category. (Possibly Plaything and Rosewood ?). Well, I think Dream is another. It is absolutely wonderful...The top line melodies are rather gorgeous, but I think the real pleasure (as is often the case) is what is going on BEHIND the guitar/piano melody. Personal preference I guess, but the noises/sounds/instruments etc that often come in and out of the mix are fascinating to listen to." Peter: "The little touches, the subtle musical elements and the fun little whirs and buzzes and swooshes...they add delightful character and depth that no one else equals. I think of them as part of the "Bill Nelson-ness" of Bill's music..." "This is a beautiful album...love it from beginning to end." steve lyles: "It is a magical experience...almost too rich to take in in one sitting...even for me. It is one of Bill's richest musical paintings...a masterpiece." Johnny Jazz: "This CD is very special...It's bloody lovely. Ambient soundscapes, a retro, jazzy feel. I love it" Holer: "Bill - the jazz elements are definitely there, as are many of your signature sounds and motifs that echo other recent albums. The thing that I find really striking about this album though is the way you deploy those different aspects of your arsenal. I get an overwhelming sense of the absence or stripping away of certain sounds, almost like there is just enough of something to remind me how little it is used, or that it suggests more than it actually reveals. I feel like you are minimising or stripping away familiar themes to reveal new sounds and experiences, but even the new stuff is presented in a spare, almost austere fashion...It's like you are paring away layers to get to an essential sound, reducing and concentrating the experience...An outstanding record all around for me." Kalamazoo Kid: " AWFIAD is certainly beautiful...Like Gleaming Without Lights , it is understated but intricate, quiet but large. Enveloping." "I think the gradual drift of Nelson's music has been away from the traditionally structured song into a far more narrative mode, in which the song unfolds with evident themes and variations, but also with a gradual development that is strongly beginning-middle-end...Seriously, I think that he has cast off traditional forms far more than in the past. In the instrumentals this ranges from a fairly constrained investigation of improvisational possibilities and minimalist patterns to very systematic constructions that justify Nelson's comparison of Gleaming Without Lights to "progressive" music... On And We Fell Into a Dream , he seems to want to pare it down to a minimum, while still filling up the composition to a maximum. At a distance, this album can be enjoyed the same way as Simplex . But up close, it's often as active as Atom Shop ." wonder toy: "What an excellent album!!! SO much great stuff from top to bottom...This is one of those records that when you first listen to it you never want it to end." Terminal_Street: "This album has some cracking stuff on it and every time I listen to it I hear something new to excite me. I think this one will last the test of time and be added to my personal faves in years to come. Great stuff Bill." Radium Girl: "What a perfect title for this gorgeous ensemble. I did fall into a dream that day, and in fact - I'm still in it! I am particularly in love with "Fever Dream of The Starlight Man" at the moment. Though I have to admit every time "The Raindrop Collector" starts I get the most exquisite shudder all the way through me." Lonnie: "Fever Dream of The Starlight Man": "Oooooooo! What a tasty, jazzy, smooth as glass groove. Bill solos on that one like a mother! The man can play jazz." wadcorp: " And We Fell Into A Dream may be the standout release of the Twenty-First Century for Bill. Tops my list. "The Raindrop Collector", "Fever Dream of the Starlight Man", "A Line of Trees Gives Rise to Thought" and more. Classic in every way." felixt1: "One of Bill's absolute, absolute best guitar instrumental albums." Andre: "It may be Bill's most romantic sounding music, AND on top of that his sexiest album cover. Everybody on this planet should own a copy of And We Fell Into A Dream . And THAT'S the bottom line!" Albums Menu Future Past

Optimism album - September 1988 Orchestra Arcana Albums Menu Future Past Currently unavailable TRACKS: 01) Exactly The Way You Want It 02) Why Be Lonely 03) Everyday Is A Better Day 04) The Receiver And The Fountain Pen 05) Welcome Home, Mr. Kane 06) This Is True 07) Greeting A New Day 08) The Breath In My Father's Saxophone 09) Our Lady Of Apparitions 10) The Whole City Between Us 11) Deva Dance 12) Always Looking Forward To Tomorrow 13) World Thru' Fast Car Window 14) Profiles, Hearts, Stars 15) Daughter Of Dream Come True 16) Alchemia extra tracks: 17) Um, Ah Good Evening 18) Kut Up In Cartoonsville 19) Short Wave ALBUM NOTES: Orchestra Arcana is a pseudonym Bill Nelson initially devised to overcome contractual issues with CBS/Portrait, that, by the time of this second release, no longer applied. So although Optimism was credited to Orchestra Arcana in the UK, it was credited to Bill Nelson's Orchestra Arcana in the US. Optimism was available on vinyl, cassette and, for the first time in Nelson's career, simultaneously released on the UK CD edition contained 3 bonus tracks that were not replicated on the US release on Enigma the following year. US vinyl copies (on Enigma) came with a sticker that read "Vocals Discovered and Music Constructed by the Brain and Fingers Behind Be-Bop Deluxe". PAST RELEASES: Both the Iconography and Optimism albums were collected together with all their extra tracks and released on CD as The Hermetic Jukebox in 2003 (out of print). CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Currently out of print and a potential future Bandcamp digital download reissue. BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Whilst these recordings are "lo-fi" in nature, I have always been fond of them. These recordings serve as a reminder that expensive technology isn't always the key to creativity." _____ "It takes quite a while to get [the voice samples] to sit within the metre of the music. That's why they are sometimes 'slowed down' so that they fit the feel of the song's tempo. Its not simply a matter of just sampling them and then spraying them randomly all over the track. A lot of time is spent choosing their exact placement and fine-tuning their 'groove.' There are lots of carefully considered details in these instrumental pieces, not just the voice samples, but all the little background ornamentations, the subtle textures of individual sounds, the echoes, reverbs, modulations, eq, filtering, etc, etc...every component has its own reason for existing, its own aesthetic requirement. I spend a lot of time thinking about these tiny sub-structures. My goal is to produce worlds within worlds, spheres of sound and different but complimentary ideas spinning inside each other, gyroscopic fields of sound and meaning. The surface appears as one complete shiny thing, but the hidden interior is a galaxy of dark stars whirling around each other, waiting for the listener's telescope." FAN THOUGHTS: wadcorp: "Really like the samples used in the Iconography & Optimism discs. They are also some of my most-played Bill Nelson tracks." stormboy: "I also think Bill was the best sampler of the 80s. Orchestra Arcana, Map of Dreams , etc. all had fantastically, magically manipulated samples played as though another instrument, whilst the rest of the world nicked beats and bass-lines." paul.smith: "Um Ah Good Evening" (love it - always have) always tests friends of mine who claim to have broad musical tastes, resulting in comments such as 'what the fuck is this!?'...heh,heh,heh." Numbat: "The Receiver and the Fountain Pen": "I love that track. I always wonder where Bill found that voice sample. My guess is it's from some old instructional tape for aspiring secretaries. And yet it's so mysterious and alluring." Peter: "I hadn't listened to Optimism in a long time, and gave it a spin the other day, and quite enjoyed it. I was struck by how fresh so much of it sounds to me even now. One can hear foreshadowing of the Demonstration of Affections period, and even After the Satellite Sings , in some places. This album combines ambient with songs you can dance to (and I did dance to them, as several tracks from the album were featured on party tapes I made "back in the day"), loads of Bill's trademark voice samples, interesting rhythms and a lot of very nice compositions." Dar: " Optimism has that other mellow gem from the same era, "The Receiver and the Fountain Pen". I've got my early dreamy Nelson mix minidisc on now...you're all getting fuzzy...this stuff is so good it makes me feel all liquified and colorized inside...goodbye..." Albums Menu Future Past