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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

The Boy's Own single - 1981 Moving Targets Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Production and Photography Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Sunday 2nd July 2006 -- 11:00 am THE TOKYO CAPER: PART THREE. As previously mentioned, our trip to Japan was dominated by an intense schedule of meetings, mostly connected with Emi's family obligations and with her friends. Her diary was crammed with appointments throughout each day and we hardly had a moment to ourselves. These meetings were sometimes difficult for me as, due to my small grasp of Japanese, I couldn't really join in the various conversations and so had to politely sit there smiling, offering an occasional "Domo Arigato" when someone would re-fill my beer glass. I did, however, appreciate that this was a rare and important opportunity for Emi to meet up with her old friends and I felt content to just sit on the side-lines and allow her as much time and space as she needed to talk with them. She bought a mobile 'phone as soon as we got to Tokyo, (at under 20 pounds it was actually cheaper than renting one,) and within a few hours had set up a network of connections. We were deluged with invitations, so much so that we couldn't fit them all in to our 12 day schedule so some meetings had to be politely declined. Of course, one of the most important reasons for our trip was for Emi to see her mother and two brothers. She hadn't seen them for three years, the last time being when her father died. Emi's mother is in her eighties now and looks frail although her health is reasonable at the moment. She was, naturally, extremely pleased to see Emi. Emi's family have always been very good to me and they all made me feel very welcome. Food and eating plays a central role in Japanese family and social life so there was lots of sitting around tables sampling various delicacies and much uttering of the word 'Oishi', which means 'delicious.' I do enjoy a lot of Japanese food but there are a few things that don't particularly appeal to me. These tend to be things of the glutinous variety, certain sweet things and, whilst I'm a firm lover of seafood, I'm not a fan of the eel-like fish that are sometimes served up and which Emi adores. Not because of their flavour, but because of the tiny bones one must encounter whilst eating them. Good wine tends to be very expensive in Japan and cheap wine is, to western tastes at least, almost unpalatable so I contented myself with Japanese beer which was very clean and refreshing, particularly with all the heat and humidity that we encountered. Every day required us to do a fair amount of walking and also to take train rides on the busy Tokyo local railways and subway systems. At rush hour, these trains are crammed full of commuters. It's amazing how many people are compacted into each carriage, squashed up together like sardines in a tin. It can be a little disturbing to the unwary 'gaijin' such as myself. I'm sure that, in this country, such intense overcrowding would break all safety regulations but no-one seems to think anything of it over there. There's even uniformed, white gloved platform staff who help push people through the doors, squeezing as many of them into the trains as possible. This makes for some rather intimate physical encounters between the passengers. For a still red-blooded male like myself, it can provide one with a pleasant few minutes of travel if one is lucky enough to be crushed up against an attractive Japanese lady or two. (And yes, I really should feel guilty about admitting that!) Less so if it happens to be a halitosis stricken Japanese businessman bearing down upon you. But my, oh, my...aren't the girls out there skinny? It's kind of worrying. Many give the appearance of being virtually anorexic. There seems to be a widespread obsession with being super-thin. I get the impression that this is connected more to fashion's dictates than anything else. One of the first things I noticed upon returning to the U.K. was that women here have dangerous curves and full breasts. Of course, these variations and sexual preferences are cultural inheritances as much as anything else, 'though it seems that many Japanese men hanker after a more 'meaty' physicality and fantasise about western women quite a lot. But then, we English men often find the Japanese female face and form beguiling, so maybe it's our perception of 'difference as exotic' that makes the grass appear greener on the other side of the fence. Oh dear, I fear I'm beginning to sound like a stereotypical, old-school, un-reconstructed, politically incorrect male here, (or one of those cartoon randy old-goats of the Leslie Phillips variety...) Perhaps I should change the subject! Not all of our time in Tokyo was given over to Emi's busy schedule. I was allowed a couple of indulgences of my own. One of these was to accept an invitation to visit the Terada guitar factory in Nagoya, which is a two hour train ride from Tokyo on the super-fast Shinkansen train. We were met at Nagoya station by one of the factory's executive staff, Mr. 'Chet' Nakagawa who turned out to be a lovely guy. Chet treat us to lunch at a small restaurant that served one of Emi's favourite Japanese dishes, 'Unagi', (The eel-like fish I mentioned earlier.) She was very pleased to have an opportunity to eat this. I ate some very good Sahshimi, (raw fish), washed down with Japanese beer. Chet then drove us to the guitar factory. The Terada factory makes guitars for Gretsch, (which is how I came by my invitation), but they also build guitars for D'Angelico, D'Aquisto and several other companies. They seem to specialise in building archtop style guitars. It began as a family business in 1915 when the company made violins and it is still a family run business today. The tour of the factory that we were given was fascinating. I'd expected something very high-tech and modern but was surprised to find a series of quite modest, semi-dilapidated buildings that looked as if they were at least 50 years old. Each building dealt with different stages of a guitar's construction, from stacked piles of raw wood to beautifully finished, shiny instruments. The craftsmen building them are mostly young guys, all with university degrees in guitar-making. Everyone who works there is a guitar player too and they take a tremendous pride in the high quality instruments that they create. I was impressed by the obsessive attention to detail and obvious care that went into each guitar. I also was introduced to Mr.Terada who runs the factory. Terada-San was very gracious and told me a little of the company's history. He also let me in on some new work the factory is planning to undertake but that's to be kept under my hat. Unfortunately, I didn't take any still photo's of the work being done there but I did manage to shoot some camcorder footage which I hope to incorporate into a little documentary video about my Japanese trip which, all being well, I'll screen at this year's Nelsonica Convention. After the factory visit, Mr. Chet Nakagawa became our tour guide and generously took us to see the impressive Nagoya Castle which looked like something from the animated film, 'Spirited Away.' He kindly took a photo of Emi and I standing in front of the castle, (which I've attached to this diary entry). Afterwards, he drove us back to Nagoya station for our two hour trip back to Tokyo on the bullet train. We invited him to look us up if he should visit England in the future. We'd be very happy to put him up and show him the beauty of Yorkshire's moors and coastline. A very nice, warm man. Another guitar related event on our busy schedule was my interview and photo session for 'Player Magazine.' As mentioned in an earlier diary entry, I wasn't expecting anything more than a brief interview and therefore hadn't prepared clothes for a photo' session but, as the magazine said they wanted to create a six-page feature about me and my guitar collection, it seemed churlish to complain. The photo session and interview was held in a professional photographic studio in Tokyo. No-one complained when I kept my dark glasses on, so I was reasonably happy. Actually, from what I've seen of the polaroid roughs, taken as the shoot was being set up, the end results shouldn't be too bad at all. But I genuinely do dislike being photographed these days. I much prefer being behind the camera, rather than in front of it. Another enjoyable part of our trip was the evening when we had dinner with my good friend Nick James and his wife Yoko. Nick has, astonishingly, been living in Tokyo for 17 years now. He originally hails from Selby in Yorkshire, which is where we first met. He was a young guy trying to get into the music industry at that time, his main interest being in studio engineering. But Nick is also a fine musician who plays keyboards and, in recent years, some guitar too. He owns a beautiful Martin acoustic which I envy. Nick and I have worked together in the past, most notably on my old Cocteau Records single 'Life In Your Hands'. Nick engineered that and played piano on it too.These days he's in demand in Tokyo as a producer and composer as well as an engineer and has created musical scores for films and tv there. His wife Yoko is a talented singer and they have a very comprehensive home studio set-up that makes my own equipment seem quite minimal and humble. When Nick and Yoko were married, back in the early 1990's, I was proud to be asked to act as Nick's best man. They married in England at Brayton Church on the edge of Selby. My after dinner speech was pathetic, I developed food poisoning at the after-reception party and ended up in a bit of a state, but it was still a memorable day and the only time I've ever worn the traditional full tie and tails regalia. I seem to recall that I looked rather smart, quite the gentleman toff in fact. Anyway, on this latest visit to Japan, Nick and Yoko took us to a little Italian restaurant where it was good to enjoy a meal without requiring the public display of my rudimentary chopstick technique. (Actually, Japanese people always seem to compliment me on my use of chopsticks so maybe I'm not quite as clumsy as I think I am. Either that or they're just being typically polite.) Of course, I once lived in Tokyo for almost 12 months so it was a matter of 'chopsticks or starve.' Well...I soon got the hang of it. Another evening was taken up by a re-union party of Emi's old workmates. When I first went to live with Emi in Tokyo, she was in charge of Kenneth Turner's flower shop. Kenneth Turner is a renowned English Floral Designer who is highly respected in Japan. The flower company that Emi used to work for, (Floral Vision), was chosen by Kenneth Turner to manage the Japanese branch of his business and Emi was chosen to run his shop for him. I was always impressed by Emi's efficiency and professionalism when I dropped into the Kenneth Turner shop, close to Tokyo Tower. Her staff showed an obvious respect to her and Kenneth himself thought highly of her. Her floral designs were regularly featured in interior design magazines in Japan and I'm pleased that she's kept a number of these magazines for her archives. But it's been several years since the company staff have been together in one place, many of them moving off to start their own flower businesses or going into teaching. On this latest trip though, a special party was arranged to honour Emi's visit to Tokyo and I found myself the only westerner amongst eleven Japanese girls and two Japanese males. There was much warm humour and, (unsurprisingly), lots of good food and drink. Once again, I found myself disadvantaged by my lack of conversational Japanese but everyone was extremely good to me and it proved to be less of an ordeal than I'd expected. What I love about these situations is that Emi is able to converse naturally in her native tongue. She seems quite different from her U.K. persona, when she has to carefully consider how to translate her thoughts into English. Even though she's made great progress since coming here to live with me as my wife, she still feels that she lacks confidence in speaking English and is often hesitant or uneasy about the matter. We understand each other in ways that only two people who love each other can so the technical side of any language problem is not such a big deal for us. But in Japan, Emi's steady, considered speech changes to rapid fire, energetic conversation, filled with laughter and sparks. I get a real pleasure from seeing her freed from the constraints of the English language. On another occasion, we had lunch with a different set of Emi's friends, one of whom, Gan-chan, turned out to be a collector of vintage Japanese toys. When I spoke to him about my fascination with an early 1950's Japanese cartoon character called 'Atom' (or, as he is sometimes known, 'Astroboy') he immediately left the table, hopped on his pushbike and cycled off in the direction of his home. Ten minutes later, he returned with two gifts for me from his private collection. One was a vintage plastic figure of the Astroboy/Atom character, the other was a now ten-year-old reproduction of an almost two-foot high statuette of the same character. I couldn't believe he was giving me these things as they're quite rare and therefore, I presume, quite valuable. I'm very pleased to have them on display here in my home. I'll try to take a photograph of the big one for the diary pages soon. There's still more to tell but it will have to wait until the next diary entry. Once again, exhaustion is taking its toll and I'm losing concentration. The heat here today hasn't helped much either, nor the running around getting Emi's car repaired, serviced and M.O.T.'d. My car's turn tomorrow. So...later. ***** The Photographs attached to this diary entry are:- 1. Buddha Head at a Kamakura Temple. 2. Bill and Emi at Nagoya Castle. 3. A Kamakura Temple Carp. Top of page Friday 7th July 2006 -- 7:00 pm THE TOKYO CAPER: PART FOUR. One of the duties/perils inherent in any trip to Japan is the buying of gifts to bring back for family and friends. This time, because of the crowded nature of our schedule, there was only a little time available for shopping, 'though I managed to grab some extra time whilst Emi dealt with other matters. I put in a lot of walking...hard work, due to the humidity. Nevertheless I managed to grab quite a few things to take home as gifts. The problem with Tokyo is that the city is virtually one giant department store and there's so much on offer. Seeking out things that are suitable for a wide range of friends, not 'over the top' expensive things but sensible ones, practical for packing into suitcases is not an easy task. It's all about context. The shops in Tokyo are so beautifully designed, carefully lit and laid out that even the most mundane goods take on the glamour of jewels.Things that, in the U.K, you would normally pass by thinking them frivolous or slight, become super-stylish objects of desire. The background music in these shops is equally evocative and sleek. No Brit-pop lads with lagers, monkey legs and '70's guitar re-treads here, just spare, minimal, ambient backdrops. Clear notes hanging in the air like chimes from heaven, subtle beat manipulations, all discreet, knowing, swish, elegant, elite. The carefully sculpted sounds add to the sense of exquisiteness in the stores. In some ways, it's style taken to extremes, artificial, phoney, far too obviously studied and mannered. But it does the trick. Some of the things we bought, when we got them home, looked far less impressive in the cynical light of a Yorkshire living room. Of course, there are less sophisticated shopping areas. There are back streets around Harajuku that cater to a very young generation of Tokyo shoppers. Here the music is a Japanese interpretation of rap or reggae. Sometimes hilarious in its misappropriation of those particular genres. The street fashion is often a meaningless mix of styles, no coherence, no awareness of the negative effect that certain combinations of clothes have on the wearer's body. There's one very odd, (though tackily interesting), trend that I noticed. I saw several girls dressed in what I can only describe as 'Kate Greenaway' chic... ('though it's far from 'chic' in reality). These girls look like something from a vintage English nursery rhyme, 'Little Bo Peep' perhaps, all layered lace, bibs and pinafores and mop hats tied under the chin with pink ribbons. When encountering them in the street, it is as if the cast of an English pantomime has left the theatre in full costume. In some ways, it's quite perverse. There's a knowing hint of fetishism in the eyes of the wearers. It's like an inverse 'Goth' look. For all its super-tweeness, there's something dark and sinister about it. But 10 out of 10 for bravery. Japan is full of these surprises and contradictions. For someone such as myself, a person with an interest in trash culture, fine art and the blurred boundary in between, walking down the street for an hour or two can cause one to re-think the world. Whilst we were in Japan, I deliberately severed all connection with the western hemisphere. (Apart from a couple of 'phone calls to my mother.) At the same time, I was wondering what would await me on my return. I knew that there was a long list of projects requiring my attention. These days, being a cottage industry type of chap, music is only one of my pre-occupations. As regular readers of this diary know, my work doesn't stop there. I personally oversee every aspect of what I create. It's very hard work and often deeply frustrating, but its the path I've chosen so I shouldn't complain too loudly. Not so much a control freak but more of a 'vision freak.' I suppose, ultimately, I'm the only person who knows what my work is about. I spend a lot of time trying to explain it to others in the hope of some fortunate connection or other. I DID try not to worry about the project list in the U.K. But my thoughts strayed across the oceans to England and the next few months busy schedule. (And beyond.) I've commented on it before, but it is often quite a struggle. Earning a living from my music, and earning the right to make more albums, is a precarious thing. My age, my personal musical preferences, my refusal to deal with the industry on its own terms, all these things, well...they often work against me. Still, I continue to try it on. To bang my head against that old brick wall. Maybe it's a habit. Eventually, we had to pack and prepare to leave Japan. It was hard, particularly for Emi, to say goodbye to her mother and brothers, but, if truth were told, we were not sorry to leave Tokyo itself. Yorkshire and it's beautiful moors and coastline beckoned us and promised us a spiritual sense of space denied to us in our temporary hole in Shibuya. Quality of life, I guess. At least Emi and I are able to recognise the difference and appreciate our luck at being able to access those places and spaces within our Yorkshire habitat. Beyond price, really. The journey back was longer than the outward one. I drowned myself in alcohol again. After a seemingly endless flight we arrived in Holland. The hours that we then spent at Amsterdam's Schipol airport were hyper-boring. We holed up in a cafe called 'Sandwich Island.' It was dreadful. The staff were hopeless, got conversion rates wrong, short changed us, served up poor food. Then, as we sat at a table finishing our meal, two rats ran across the cafe's floor and between our legs. And all this in a shiny, chrome, steel and glass airport that prides itself on its modernity. We were not impressed. Eventually, Emi and I boarded our transfer flight to England and soon found ourselves flying over the coastline of Yorkshire, just above Spurn Point on the Humber estuary. Spurn Point is one of those special places for me. A place I've visited since childhood. It's magical and romantic, sand dunes, sea grass, shells, wild birds and an old lighthouse. It reminds me of my father and three or four romantic relationships from my haphazard past. To see it from the air, particularly after two weeks in Tokyo, was a wonderful 'welcome home' treat. I watched the Humber estuary twist and flow into the river proper, saw the city of Hull and the elegant Humber bridge pass by below me, and then, in what seemed like a few scant minutes, the pilot announced our descent into Leeds-Bradford airport. There is only one place in the world I'm reluctant to leave when I fly abroad, and that is the South Coast of France. Villefranche-Sur-Mer and it's environs is the only place where I would be happy to stay, to settle, if, by some miracle, I could afford a home there. Anywhere else on this planet, no matter how interesting or entertaining, I can generally leave behind without a single tear. But, the Cote D' Azur aside, Yorkshire claims something of my soul and I have no qualms in surrendering to its charms. Our neighbour Steve was waiting for us at the airport. A good and true friend. We were both pleased to see him. I was by now, of course, inebriated in a haphazardly loquacious fashion. Part articulate, part incoherent. Babbling like an idiot but pleased to be home. Steve put up with this obviously over-tired tirade and drove us quickly and safely home. A stack of bills awaited us and a house that smelled damp and un-lived in. Our neighbours, Jim and Claire, had kindly watered the plants for us and kept their eye on things. Suitcases were opened, clothes assigned to the washing machine and gifts checked for breakages. In a very short space of time, it felt as if we'd only been away for a day or two. then the jet-lag. Several nights of sudden awakening, bedside lamps being switched on and reading glasses donned. Now it feels as if all this happened months ago. A vague memory, a dream. But, that's life. Now... the usual stresses have returned. I'm inundated with emails. There's a 'to do' list that freaks me out every time I think about it. I've been to visit my brother's grave in Wakefield cemetery, laid fresh flowers. Oh, dear...how I miss him, want to see him, hug him. I dreamt about him again. (Last night was the third or fourth time since he passed away.) I visited my mother last weekend but not yet found time to see Elliot, ('though we met in the street just over a week ago). Elle is due to visit from London soon so maybe then. I have gifts from Japan for them both. I managed to get both Emi's car and mine through the M.O.T., (though not without expense). I've photographed almost my entire guitar collection for Player magazine, (with the generous help of Jon Wallinger and Paul Gilby). A three day job in total. Had dinner out at a brand new restaurant in town, (with Paul), 'though it was a restaurant that was suffering from teething problems. (Wrong food arrived, etc, etc.) Spoke with Dean Campbell about the next stage of my signature guitar and am looking forward to seeing what may turn out to be the final design soon. Dean called me 'Gretsch boy.' (He'd read my diary.) Well, maybe I'm just a guitar-whore and he's jealous...;-) All I can say is that it's a good job it's guitars and not women, otherwise I'd really be in trouble! Today I posted a CDR of photos of my guitar collection and home studio to Player magazine in Tokyo, arranged emails of a couple of extra photos for their forthcoming feature on my work, (including a Martin Bostock portrait). I also spoke to Opium Arts about the go-ahead on my deal to licence my 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across' album for re-issue later in the year. (First official release of the album on CD.) Various details discussed regarding distribution, review copies, release dates, etc. I now need to speak with my graphic art buddy Dave Graham about various things, including a new design for the 'Holy Ghost' album's re-packaging. Spoke with my good friend John Spence about mixing the Be Bop live tracks for the EMI RECORDS box set...studio time pencilled in for next week. Will I remember what I wanted to do with this material? It seems unlikely...I listened to it months ago and made mental notes. All lost in fog now. (I also need to talk to John about booking some time at Fairview to remaster 'Holy Ghost,' and SOON too as I need finished copies of the album to put to the media for review by the start of September.) Today I took delivery of a lovely little Greco L-10P archtop jazz guitar that I bought in Tokyo. (Can't wait to use this on something. In fact, more than anything right now, I'd like to start work on a new album but...there's no time available. And I have such a lovely list of titles to inspire me at the moment.) I also need to do more preparatory work for this year's Nelsonica convention, make a start on the 'Ghosts Etched On Glass' film, attempt the 'Romance Of Sustain volume 2' album, work on the 'Arcadian Salon' convention album, create some drawings for the convention, and several more things that I either can't recall or am recklessly trying to avoid. 'Neptune's Galaxy' is due for official release soon too...maybe next week although no-one should attempt to order it until the official announcement is posted on the site. The Dreamsville/Sound-On-Sound store can't deal with pre-orders due to the nature of the computer system used but, once the album is in stock, there will be no problems and people can order at will. It's a superbly apt album for this time of year and will compliment a relaxing day in the garden or by the sea. It also has the power to transform a cold autumn-winter night into something more balmy and paradisiacal. Despite the work pressures, I've managed to write a few diary entries, answer several emails, (but still more to deal with), looked through some household bills, (but not paid any yet), made another couple of trips to the supermarket for domestic supplies and am duty bound to help Emiko with a freelance flower job tomorrow. There is, as diary readers may have noticed, nothing 'nine-to-five' about my life. Only one week returned from Japan and I'm even more exhausted than before I went there. It's a kind of endurance test. Why do I do it? Because I have no choice. The luxury of leisurely contemplation is denied me. It's simply all action, compulsion. Nervous energy, empty mind. Orgasmic Zen. Now I will open the case of my little Greco guitar and play some blues in the heat of my tiny recording room. Summer hums in the dark outside my window. ***** The photographs attached to this diary entry are:- 1. Tokyo train. 2. Shibuya Scene. 3. Bill Nelson Signature Model Campbell Transitone guitar prototype. Top of page Tuesday 11th July 2006 -- 9:00 pm Tokyo has now faded into the mist of memory and I've picked up my workload with a vengeance. It's been almost non-stop since returning home. It seems as if something new appears on the horizon every day. The latest development concerns a deal with Sony Records to license my 1980's 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across' album from them. The terms of the deal, which will allow me to re-issue the album on my own Sonoluxe label, have finally been agreed. When the album surfaces it will be the very first time that it will have been officially available on cd. I'm looking at late October as a possible release date. Of course, I have to pay Sony a cash advance and a percentage of the album's sales as part of the deal, (ironic, as it's my own damn music and it's normally the artist who gets an advance), but those are the terms Sony have laid out. I must comply if I'm to be allowed to re-issue it. (And even then, it's for a limited time only.) Sony do not seem to have any interest in releasing it themselves though. I also have to pay the costs of transferring the original tapes to the digital domain from the analogue masters.Then I will re-master the tracks at Fairview and create, (with the assistance of my pal David Graham), a brand new visual package for the album. I also need to write some new sleeve notes, setting the album in its historical context. Then, once all that is done, the album and its artwork can be manufactured. Putting all this together isn't cheap, in fact the whole process is much more expensive than usual. If I rely on website sales alone, I may well lose money on it. The amount of albums I sell via the site is so small that, if my usual album sales figures were applied to 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across', it simply wouldn't be worth doing. The production/licensing costs add too much to the equation. However, if I can sell some copies of the album, through a distributer, to record shops, I may be in with a chance. (Or at least, hopefully, break even.) The album really needs to come to the attention of those people who are unaware of my Dreamsville site or who may be newcomers to my music. So...the distribution route is being looked into at the moment, as is the possibility of getting review copies to various magazines. It's all a bit of a financial gamble. Let's hope that the regular fan requests for this album to be re-issued are followed up by firm orders. One of the problems of being an independent artist is that it is impossible not to have to deal with these things. Music is the starting point but the process doesn't stop there. There are so many other things to consider and to work on. It's extremely time consuming and often frustrating. But perhaps that's the price of artistic freedom. I've also been debating the title of the re-issue. It's original title in the U.K. was 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across' but this was changed for the U.S.A. release. The package design was changed too. CBS Records, (since bought out by Sony), who originally released the album, were concerned that several right-wing Christian fundamentalist-owned record stores in the U.S. wouldn't stock the album due to it's 'controversial' title and mystical-alchemic-occult art work. It seemed that there was a paranoia about anything that might smack of 'magick'. So, in America, the album was re-titled: 'On A Blue Wing' and an entirely different package was designed, one that could not possibly cause any offence to anyone. (Except the artist, of course. I was not particularly pleased about it at the time.) But with the re-issue, I really want to re-think the packaging, bring it up to date. I intend to reproduce both the U.K. and U.S. front cover art on the inside of the jewel box insert, just for the sake of the album's history, but I do want to try and create something to set the re-issue apart from the original. The 'Holy Ghost' title is quite restricting in some ways... 'On A Blue Wing' is much more flexible in terms of visual interpretation. On the other hand, the 'Holy Ghost' title was my original title for the project, back in the '80's. However, I am no longer involved with the various occult orders that I belonged to back then and, whilst my personal experiences within them were appropriate for my development at the time, that particular path has, in recent years, become overgrown with weeds and I feel less comfortable signposting it for others. But one can't re-write one's own history. (Unless one happens to be a mega pop star with an appetite for fame and fortune outweighing one's integrity. And there are plenty of those around without me adding to the myths.) But it's up in the air at the moment. My starting point is the original title and I'll only revert to the secondary title if the first one doesn't inspire a suitable visual style. I've already searched through my old alchemical books for something that might work, but in a 'lower key' than the original art. I want it to be somewhat more subdued and enigmatic. It's needed quickly though, if the deadline for press/media copies is to be met. The songs on the album are less 'occult' than they might seem, once the listener has the key to their true inspiration. They are, in the main, about my first romantic encounter with Emiko, long before I was in a position to marry her. We had an intense but brief relationship the year before I started work on the album. Because the situation wasn't yet right for us to stay together, there was a lot of tears and heartache. The music reflects that, particularly the song, 'Because Of You.' In many ways, it's a typical '80's album in style, all post-modernist funk, some tracks veering towards a hard, jazzy blues. The late Dick Morrisey plays sax on the album, as does my much missed brother Ian. Some great bass playing from Ian Denby too. But it is, for me, perhaps the one album of mine that declares the era of its creation. It is unmistakably a product of those Linn Drum driven '80's. Studio time at Fairview has, (yesterday), been confirmed for next week, but in connection with an entirely different re-issue project. This is to mix the unreleased live concert Be Bop Deluxe tracks for the forthcoming EMI Records Be Bop Deluxe complete recordings box set. I start work on this project on Monday. I can't say it's something I'm particularly excited about, (regular diary readers will know how, er, 'amoral' I am about dealing with old material beyond a certain point,) but...better that I personally mix it, rather than a complete stranger to the band's history. Nevertheless, I'm very much looking forward to spending a few days with my friend John Spence who will be working with me on the mixes. John transforms even the dullest task into a pleasure. His engineering skills are second to none so I'm certain that the tracks will sound fabulous when the two of us are done with them. Enough of all this 're-issue' stuff...it makes me feel so pathetically old. But...There's NEW music afoot! Much more satisfying... I heard, an hour or so ago, that stocks of 'Neptune's Galaxy' have finally arrived at the Dreamsville Department Store and are available for ordering with immediate dispatch. I've limited this one to 500 copies. If the demand is there, I may press up more, but 'Sailor Bill' has still not yet sold out so I'm being cautious. I'm glad that 'Neptune's Galaxy' has become available before the summer expires though...it's a perfect complement to an afternoon on the beach, or a picnic on the clifftops. Or even a barbecue by the garden pond. In winter, a bath with aromatherapy oils whilst listening will provide the listener with an equally blissful experience. Is this a soft hard-sell? Maybe I should've been a salesman...(But maybe not.) As I've mentioned before, the album is a companion piece to 'The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill' but it sails on a purely instrumental, drifting, ambient tide. It's a mellow, relaxed seascape of an album and sits comfortably alongside my 'Dreamland To Starboard' and 'Crimsworth' projects with a hint of 'Rosewood' thrown in. Another recently completed album, 'Return To Jazz Of Lights' is waiting in the wings for it's own debut...but NOT until autumn. This is a vocal-based album and quite different to 'Neptune's Galaxy'...Its release is definitely being held back for a few months, 'though it's champing at the bit. I now really feel the urge to start something new, as noted in a previous diary entry, but there are several other projects clamouring for my attention. I have no idea why there is so much music in the air and why my internal antennae seems so eager to beam it down. I seem to exist in a permanent monsoon of sound. It's always stormy weather, but of the most beautiful, ravishing kind. The view from my window is of lightning dancing over hills and valleys, illuminating tiny details normally invisible to the naked eye. Lovely. I received confirmation today, via email, that the CDR containing photographs of my musical instrument collection and my studio arrived safely at the headquarters of 'Player Magazine' in Tokyo. The magazine also confirmed that my photo's were of good enough quality to be used in the article they are planning for an autumn issue. The magazine's visual standards are high so it's a relief to know that everything has worked out o.k. I couldn't have faced another attempt at photographing everything again, it took me so long to do it the first time. It hasn't all been work though. On Sunday, Emi and I drove out to Nunnington Hall, a National Trust property with 15th century rooms. It isn't too far from Helmsley, north of York. The weather was good too. Our visit wasn't purely to see the lovely old house but to also take in the exhibition of photographs of Bob Dylan that were on display in the house's upper rooms. It was a very good exhibition. I would have dearly loved to purchase a print for myself but they were too expensive for me, averaging about 900 pounds but the more expensive ones nearer three thousand pounds. I still adore Bob Dylan. First found his music when I was at art school in the '60's. He's a hero of mine. I did spend a small amount of money though, (seven pounds), on a book in the shop in Nunnington Hall. It was a book about Christies' pop memorabilia auctions with photos of various items that have passed through the Christies' auction rooms over the years. The real reason I bought it was that it contained a picture of the first guitar I ever played, (not the ACTUAL guitar but an identical one). This was a plastic, toy instrument, made by a company called 'Selco' and had an Elvis Presley theme. It was originally bought, in the late '50's as a Christmas present for my brother Ian but he was a bit too young for it at the time and, fatefully, it ended up in my hands. It was made from brown and cream plastic and had a picture of Elvis Presley on the headstock. I figured out how to play the 'Third Man' theme on this guitar, then my dad taught me three or four banjo chords on it. And that was how I began a life-long love affair with the guitar. I would dearly love to get my hands on one of those old Selco Elvis Presley toy guitars again. One really should be in my collection. It's where it all started for me and even seeing the photograph of it in the Christies' book flooded me with a deeply emotional nostalgia. Perhaps I should ask the Dreamsville site's citizens to keep an eye out for an example. There may be one out there somewhere, just waiting for me to claim it. Driving back from Nunnington Hall, Emi and I stopped off at a hotel in Hovingham for a drink before heading home. All in all, it was another of those really nice days that we try to spend together at weekends. Emi is not just my wife, but my best friend and I treasure the times we share travelling around our beloved North Yorkshire. She's the perfect companion for me. Last night provided us with another social occasion. Jane, a good friend of ours, celebrated her 50th birthday. She, her husband Mark, Emi and I, were all invited to the home of our mutual friends, Steve and Julia. Julia had prepared a really excellent dinner for us all. As usual, I ended up merrily mellow. A 'phone call this evening to Dave regarding artwork. Some emails sent to various people, (including Dean Campbell regarding the actual written signature to go onto my signature guitar), but more still to write...and more work to deal with tomorrow. Tired now though...maybe enough for today? ***** The images attached to this diary entry are:- 1: A 'Neptune's Galaxy' advert. 2: A 1950's Selco Elvis Presley toy guitar, exactly the same as Bill's first ever guitar. 3: Bill's studio in an untidy, busy moment. Top of page Friday 14th July 2006 -- 7:00 pm Tomorrow is the 15th of July. Approximately 33 years ago, events transpired that gave birth to the song '15th Of July, (Invisibles)'. This song was part of Be Bop Deluxe's live performances at the time, but the song was not included in the recording sessions that produced the band's first album 'Axe Victim.' The only evidence that the song ever actually existed, (apart from fading memory), is provided by Be Bop Deluxe's very first BBC radio one session on the late and much missed John Peel show. I don't think the band had even consolidated its deal with EMI Records at that time. Thankfully, the BBC kept a recording of the show in its archives and the track was eventually immortalised on cd when it appeared, a few years ago now, on an album called 'Tramcar To Tomorrow', which focused on those long ago John Peel sessions. Some fans may already know about that particular song's origins, how it sprang from a relationship that I had with a certain girl, a girl who inspired the song 'Teenage Archangel,' (Be Bop Deluxe's first, independently made single,) and who also inspired 'Love Is Swift Arrows,' amongst several other, later titles. Be Bop Deluxe had a regular monthly gig at 'The Duke Of Cumberland' pub in North Ferriby, near Hull in the early 1970's. The band were young and naive and we met girls, as young bands do. I was married to my first wife, (Shirley), at the time and shouldn't really have been looking for romance... but I was. It hadn't turned out to be the ideal marriage, either for me or for Shirley. Not Shirley's fault at all really, just me and my usual saying 'yes' when I really meant 'no.' I'd plunged into it far too young and hardly knew what I was doing, 'though as a result, I have a wonderful, intelligent daughter that I couldn't live without. (Julia Tuesday Nelson.) It was, as the old cliche has it, 'just one of those things.' Nevertheless it has become a vital part of my history and an important, formative, invaluable experience. In those days, I had a day job working for the West Riding County Council's 'Supplies Department,' a miserable enough job that offered no real future, other than a daily shuffling of papers from one desk tray to another until old age and retirement when I could look forward to a mantlepiece clock and a briefcase full of good wishes. I tolerated it as cheerfully as I could, along with the well meaning but relatively unambitious people I worked with. No, let me be honest here, I hated the damn job, grateful as I was to have enough income to maintain my two-up, two-down, industrial-age terrace house, nestled just outside Wakefield's high security prison in an area known as Plumpton. (In fact, just across the road from the one-time site of Mariott's Buildings, my grandmother's house, where I was born.) I felt like a man from Mars in that rank and file environment...and people treated me as if I WAS someone from another world. I was greeted with a mixture of suspicion, derision and thinly disguised prejudice. My liberal, non-conformist attitudes were seen as threatening by some of my fellow workers. I was an enigma or a curiosity to them. My enthusiasm for art and music was simply their confirmation that I was weird, oddball, maybe even slightly crazy. I did my best to live with it, believing, somewhere inside, that my instincts were right and that it was they who were odd, mutant, deviant almost, and that I had a much more healthy, broad and open attitude towards life. My life and its daily grind were in some ways responsible for my dreams of an idealistic, romantic, creative lifestyle. Anything to escape. Under all the paper-filing, telephone-answering mundanity lurked the ecstatic, melancholy, heart of a poet. Let's not be coy here, that is what I was and what I still am. (And always have been since the day I was born, despite my occassional protests and faux-modest denials.) I still believe that everyone is a poet, given the right situation, environment, opportunity to express themselves, or whatever. (And poetry, as I've said so often before, is not a 'form' but a quality.) But...blah, blah, blah...easy to say or think this back then in my youth, with no evidence of very much at all. No visible track record, very few marks in the sand. Not like now. Song after song after song, still yearning, searching, harvesting every last straw for the thatched roof of my own private cottage museum. The proof, for what it's worth, is there. 33 years worth of proof or more if needed. 58 this coming December actually, all taken into account. Undeniable then...A life devoted to it, whatever IT is. But...yes, I was right, THAT is what I am, for better or for worse. Poet, artist, imagineer...How wonderful, how privileged, how highly UNLIKELY! Regardless of good, bad or indifferent. I can't judge what it's worth and ultimately don't care. (Or do I?) But there's something there...an integrity of sorts. Maybe nothing more. Around 33 years ago, on the 15th of July, Be Bop Deluxe's gig at 'The Duke Of Cumberland' was cancelled due to summer thunderstorms that caused an electricity cut in the North Ferriby area. The band had made friends with various locals since first playing there. Instead of jumping in our van and heading back to Wakefield, we were persuaded to spend the rest of the day with various locals. We were adored by our regular audience at the Duke and there was no shortage of offers to go and relax with them. I'd fallen head over heels in love with a beautiful, intelligent, dark haired, half-jewish girl called Lisa. We'd met at one of the earliest of 'Duke' gigs. She was stunning and I was smitten. It was as if I'd been granted a miracle. I couldn't believe my luck. Why was she interested in me? An unhappy, married man from a working class background with nothing but a pocketful of dreams. Her family was wealthy, sophisticated, everything that I wasn't. On that 15th of July, Lisa invited me to go with her in her car to her parent's house in Kirkella, an upper class village not far from North Ferriby. I worried about the fact that they did not know that I was married, 'though Lisa was aware of this from the start of our relationship and accepted it. She said not to worry and off we went to her home. The house was called 'West Acre' and was, by my standards at the time, almost a palace. Her parents were gracious and her home was large and luxurious. I recall it vividly, it made such an impression on me. Lisa cooked me lunch, Steak and chips, if I remember correctly. Her father proudly showed me his hi-fi system, built into an expensive antique cabinet and Lisa showed me her bedroom. She kept a photo of me pinned to a set of drawers next to her bed. The house was filled with expensive furniture and objects d'arte. Maybe I wouldn't be so impressed now, but then...I was stunned. It was raining, though warm. Some of Lisa's friends called around to see her and we all sat in a lounge in the front of the house. I could see the lane, outside the front garden's perimeter, with its line of green trees and an old fashioned lampost a few yards or so away. It reminded me of an illustration in an old children's book from my childhood, sort of '30's or '40's upper class, 'proper' English society. I'd grown up on a council house estate and this was magic to me. I felt out of place, 'though I was desperately glad to be sitting next to Lisa, who I adored. One of Lisa's friends commented on how bad the weather was, with the rain and everything. Lisa just smiled, squeezed my hand and said, "It couldn't be better..." And that was the exact moment that the song, '15th Of July, (Invisibles)' sprang into being. Perhaps it was the painfullness of our situation that was 'invisible.' Only she and I knew that I was married, her friends and parents being unaware of it at the time. The song's lyrics start like this: 'It rained all day across the world, and turned the dark trees deeper green...' It goes on to portray the house, Lisa's friends and quotes her comment...and plainly states my yearning for her. For all its innocence and naivety, it's one of the purest, most heartfelt love songs I've ever written. And it's 33 years old tomorrow. I received CDR masters of the 'Holy Ghost' and 'Spangled Moment' recordings from Sony today. When I played them back, I was shocked. I haven't listened to these recordings for many years, (apart from the song 'Contemplation' which I had to reference for the band tour of 2004). My first impression was that I'd dearly love to get my hands on the original 24 track tapes and completely remix them, get rid of that terribly dated 1980's crashing reverb snare drum sound. Too much reverb overall in fact...and not enough bass. It all sounds very brittle and insubstantial. William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) July 2006 Jan Apr May Jun Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 Ironic that the majority of it was recorded on what was then considered to be state-of-the-art early digital equipment. My current home studio mixes are infinitely superior. But it would be too expensive and time consuming to remix the album, so I will have to content myself with simply re-mastering it. Try to add some weight to the overall sound. Good songs, on the whole though. Better than I'd remembered. If only I could remix them to bring out the vocals more.The vocals are really quite good, 'though at the time I tended towards the opposite opinion, making them subsidiary to the instrumental mix. More fool me. If I could do it all again, (mix the tracks that is), I'd make the entire thing much dryer, more focussed, more vocal centred...and feature the bass guitar of Ian Denby more, AND my late brother's saxophone and clarinet too. One thing I CAN do, and WILL do, is re-think the track listing, especially as I am now able to integrate the 8 song, 'Living For The Spangled Moment' mini-album into the project. The running order would definitely benefit from the years of experience granted to me since the original album's release. I need to bring the entire project into the 21st Century, at least in its presentation. Next week I'm in Fairview, mixing the EMI Be Bop Box Set live tapes, so I'll have to put Holy Ghost on ice for a short while. But it needs to be worked on very soon if I'm to keep things on schedule. So busy. Work on my Campbell signature model guitar goes on apace. I got photo's of the naked, carved mahogany body last night. I also emailed Dean Campbell regarding some cosmetic details and gave him a title for the red paint colour that will be used. I've called it 'Rocketship Red.' There will be 'atom' style fret position markers at the 12th fret too. The model will be known as a 'Nelsonic Transitone.' Looking forward to seeing the final version. I need to approve it before production starts. 'Neptune's Galaxy' finally going out the door of the Dreamsville Department Store. People already posting their response to the album on the website forum. I think that the music is low-key but beautiful. Gentle tides and drifting clouds. Perfect for a summer afternoon. Perfect for dreaming. Now it's the weekend. But no rest...I need to think about the revised 'Holy Ghost' running order. AND new artwork. The weather is so nice outside my window. ***** The images accompanying this diary entry are:- 1. An early photo' of Bill Nelson and Be Bop Deluxe taken around the same time that they first played at 'The Duke Of Cumberland' pub. 2. Bill Nelson in the '80's around the time of the 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across' album. 3. Dutch and Justin, luthiers at Campbell American Guitars with the mahogany body of Bill Nelson's 'Nelsonic Transitone' guitar. A work in progress. Top of page Monday 17th July 2006 -- 10:00 pm Today was the first day of work at Fairview Studios, mixing the previously unreleased Be Bop Deluxe live recordings. John Spence and I managed to get one track completed and in the can. ('Swansong,' originally a track from the 'Futurama' album but, for the first time ever, now presented in its live performance state.) It feels a little strange, working on these 1970's live recordings after such a long time. The mixing process dictates that the individual components of the recording are listened to in great detail, each instrument or voice isolated from the others whilst sound is adjusted and a proper relationship between the parts established. Listening to Simon Fox's drums without the rest of the instruments took me back to those days in Abbey Road Studios, or to Villa St. George in Juan Les Pins, near Antibes, in the South Of France, when John Leckie and myself would spend hours trying to get the drum sound together, microphones moved from one position to another on each drum, equalisation tweaked until a 'good' drum sound was arrived at. Thud, whack, bang! Listening to the drum parts on 'Swansong' today reminded me how complex some of our arrangements were. The songs were much more puzzle-like than I would accept today. My current songwriting is leaner, more focussed, less inclined to show-off. But I was young back then and had the hapless energy and naivety that youth inevitably entails. I'm not favouring one approach over another here, just noting that sensibilities shift with age and experience, for everyone. We have little choice in the matter, (unless we are complete fakes). There was a problem with the recording of the first opening verse of 'Swansong.' Microphone / monitor feedback ruined almost every line of that particular verse...it screeched, squealed and howled in a very unpleasant way, right through it, burying the vocals, and there was nothing that John nor I could do to get rid of it. The more we listened to it, the more unpleasant and ugly it became. In the end, we decided to copy the final verse of the song and paste it in place of the first one. This may be seen as technical trickery by some purists, but it is infinitely preferable to listening to several bars of high pitched microphonic feedback at a level that would induce migraine in most listeners. Maybe on the first two plays, it might be accepted as part of the scenario...but it would soon have everyone's teeth on edge and their hand reaching for the skip button on their CD player. So...with a little digital sleight-of-hand, the offensive verse has been banished and a more palatable one substituted. A particular treat for me was being able to listen to Charlie Tumahai's voice in isolation. He was a very good vocalist and had been the lead singer in bands previous to Be Bop Deluxe, (and in bands afterwards, I think). Charlie sadly passed away several years ago which is why there will never be a re-formed Be Bop Deluxe. Even if Simon, Andy and myself unexpectedly felt the urge to get together again, it simply wouldn't be the same without the happy fountain that was Mr.Tumahai. And that 'if' is a fairly big one, for I can't imagine that Andy would be in the least interested in such a thing. As for me, well...I was fortunate enough to get my retro-band fix in 2004 with the Be Bop and Beyond tour. I'd love to assemble a band again but it would have to be one that could play a lot of new material created specifically for it. Even if it did dip into my song-writing treasure chest for some 'vintage' material here and there. But, as my friends all know, despite my somewhat, sometimes, nostalgic tendencies, when it comes to music, I just love the smell of fresh paint. Anyway...back to Fairview tomorrow to continue working on the live track mixes. 'Forbidden Lovers' and 'Terminal Street' up next. Not the best time of year to be stuck in a windowless studio all day though. It's been blisteringly hot out in the sunshine today. More heatwave to come too, apparently. Yesterday, (Sunday), I decided to make the most of the weather before confining myself to the studio control room for the rest of the week. I bundled Emi into the car and we set off for the East Coast of Yorkshire, driving to Bridlington and then up the coast to Sewerby, then to Flamborough Head, then Filey, Scarborough, then past Robin Hood's Bay and on to Whitby where we had dinner at our usual favourite seaside restaurant, 'The White Horse And Griffin.' Unfortunately, the food wasn't quite up to the restaurant's usual standard, nor the service, I thought. Maybe this was because of the summer seasonal rush, or new staff? I really have no real idea. Still, it wasn't terrible either, so I'll give them another chance, next time we visit. I DID have a positive moment though, when I found a copy of the third part of John Betjeman's biography, written by Bevis Hillier. I'm a fan of the late Sir John B. and of Bevis Hillier's writing too. In fact, my son Elliot's full name is Elliot Walter Bevis Nelson. Walter after my father, Bevis after Bevis Hillier. Visiting Flamborough Head was a treat. Incredibly, I haven't been there since the mid 1960's. I fondly remember reclining on the cliff's edge with my then girlfriend, Lynne Holiday, listening to my little red and white plastic transistor radio...It was playing the latest songs of the day, "When you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair..." ('San Francisco' by Scott McKenzie.) There was also a Frank Sinatra hit...either 'Send In The Clowns' or 'Strangers In The Night.' Plus some other half-straight, half-psychedelic pop from various artists trying to catch the wave that was beginning to break on these shores...the kind of music that turns up on those 'remember the 'sixties' compilation CDs these days. (Every supermarket has them.) It seems that my generation has, in recent years, become a prime target for that style of marketing. But what excuse do I have? Damn it...I'm mixing material more than twenty-five years old! Give me strength! But on that warm summer day back in...1966 was it? (Yes, give or take a year.) Well, all seemed wonderful with the world. We youngsters had found our voice, our cause, our raison d'etre. An all-inclusive, arms-held-wide, big welcoming peaceful hug for everyone, regardless of age or background. We'd swallowed that SanFrancisco, West-Coast, peace and love ideology lock stock, barrel and flowers. We looked the part, we walked the part and talked it, ten to the dozen. And the amazing thing is, we actually felt it. We thought we could bring it about, turn the world around, ring the changes. And in a positive, non-violent fashion, everyone included. So, where did all that hope and love vanish to? Look at the world outside our window now..see the horrific hatreds that poison our planet. Even on a basic, local level, its hard not to be aware of several generations of cynical, negative, heartless chancers, grasping, filching, fiddling while Rome burns. What have we lost? What have they missed? Still, despite all that: Yesterday afternoon, a clear blue, BLUE sky stretching down to a blue, BLUE sea. A pure white lighthouse gleaming against all heaven. A skylark singing fit to bust somewhere so high in the blue beyond that I couldn't even see it, but, oh! How I could hear it! White-capped waves lapping far below the yellow-white chalk cliffs, coarse grasses swaying in the sea breeze...Man, it just doesn't get much better or more blissful. I was gone, sent, away with the birds. I WAS that skylark, that little winged insect with bright red wings flitting from wild flower to wild flower. I was every one of those cricket-like bugs rubbing their legs together in some summer-fuelled mating song. I was so HERE and THERE and EVERYWHERE, so deeply in tune with it all you wouldn't believe. I had a ball simply looking and feeling. Wow! And I remembered Lynne and our youth and those times and that music and I was grateful to be alive and to have lived through those times. And AMEN to that then and AMEN to this now. Despite the terrors we endure, despite all that. Ain't life grand when you're in the mood for it to be so? ***** The images attached to this diary are:- 1. Bill Nelson at Flamborough Head, July 16, 2006. 2. Flamborough Head Lighthouse, July 16, 2006. 3. Flamborough Cliffs. July 16, 2006. Top of page Saturday 29th July 2006 -- 8:20 pm The heat goes on, externally, internally and weather-wise. Just returned home from an evening out with Emiko. A meal at Ceasar's restaurant, the best value for money Italian in town. Nothing too fussy, just down to earth cooking and warm, friendly staff who always recognise us and treat us well. I generally try to put a little time aside for Emi at the weekends. She patiently puts up with me working long hours in my studio during the week, so, as much as possible, I give my my weekends over to her. I think I'll drive her out to Castle Howard tomorrow afternoon. It's not far from here and a late lunch at the Castle Howard cafe, followed by a gentle stroll around those magnificently landscaped grounds will be a nice treat for both of us. Especially under these big blue summer skies we're being blessed with right now. But, my, oh my, it has been so HOT! The summer has baked our day to day lives without mercy these last few weeks...a heatwave that now seems to have stretched on forever. Nights have been sticky and interrupted by bouts of insomnia and perversely lusty dreams. Apparently these are a result of the sun shining on the pineal gland on the top of one's head. It's maybe why mediterranean men and women are so erotically charged. Well...I don't know about that but something's up in the land of nod. My studio room has felt like a sauna lately. Or an oven set to 'roast.' Impossible to work during the day, at least from 12 noon until early evening. The sun beams down through my skylight window and fries everything to a crisp, me, the guitars, the mixing desk, my imagination and anything else that I need to make music. I can't open any windows for fear of annoying the neighbours. Haven't got air-conditioning so I either have to work stark naked or abandon recording completely until things cool down a little during the evening. The latter, these middle-aged days, is generally preferable I'm sorry to say! I HAVE managed to finish mixing the Be Bop Deluxe live tracks for the forthcoming EMI RECORDS box set. These mixes were made at Fairview Studios, not far from the river Humber, rather than at the Abbey Road studios of the band's heyday, but the results are equal to anything from the past, if not better. My good friend and long-time recording engineer John Spence has helped me to bring about what I think will be universally accepted as an absolutely classic set of Be Bop performances, none of which have been previously available to the public. There's no doubt that fans of the band will be extremely excited when they hear these live recordings. The memories that came flooding back to me were poignant. Despite my reservations about this old material, there's nothing for me to be ashamed of. And what a band..! Listening to the individual parts in isolation brought home just how distinctive and sympathetic my three fellow musician's were. 'Swansong,' Forbidden Lovers', 'Terminal Street' and 'The Modern Music Suite' have all been mixed to bring out their naked beauty. They sound wonderful, even though the technical aspects of the performances are raw and bleeding. But I'm so glad that they've been preserved for posterity. It's been incredibly moving for me to work on these rare recordings after all these years. Part of me was smiling, part of me was lamenting, but all of me was proud. It was also lovely to hear John Spence say that he was thrilled to become part of Be Bop Deluxe's legacy too. Our collaboration, (and John's experience and technical expertise,) has served the band's history well. Since completing the Be Bop live mixes, John and I have been working on the remastering of the 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across' album, also at Fairview. I've added the 'Living For The Spangled Moment' mini-album to the disc too, (AND an obscure track called 'The Yo-Yo-Dyne'). Dave Graham and myself are still working on the repackaging of this album and have now found a suitable starting point to build the design around. Dave's close understanding of my visual style will, once again, contribute towards a highly appropriate layout. It will look quite beautiful when it is completed. I decided to stick to original track-listings and running orders, partly because my currently hyper-busy schedule hasn't allowed me time to experiment with the hoped-for re-shuffle, but partly because a large number of fans have expressed their preference for the songs to be kept in their original sequence. So...new cover art, new improved mastering, extra tracks, but same running order. In between bouts of heat exhaustion and indoor nudity, I've managed to make a start on the tracks which are to be included on this year's limited edition Nelsonica convention album, 'Arcadian Salon.' It now seems likely that there will be 10 or 11 pieces on the album, if I can stay on top of things during the next few heatwave-cursed days. There will be a couple of brand new numbers, all being well, plus some pieces that didn't make it to 'Return To Jazz Of Lights' because of time limitations. And two or three instrumentals, including 'Sound-On-Sound,' (the instrumental that I composed and recorded to celebrate Sound-On-Sound magazine's anniversary last year). It's shaping up to be an eclectic mix of music, as is usual with the convention recordings...another collector's piece and all the more controversial because of it. I've been having a very nice, surprising guitar week (or two) lately. I won't go into details for fear of embarrassing a couple of 'super-fans' who have been incredibly helpful in helping me to acquire a new instrument or two but...well...A childhood dream of a flamingo pink Fender Stratocaster, (via a Rickenbacker 12-string), has come true, as has a 'full-circle' situation regarding a toy Elvis Presley guitar that once, long, long ago, was responsible for capturing my pre-teen imagination and putting my feet on the path to a lifelong career in music. I don't think I'm permitted to name names here but the people involved will know that it is they of whom I speak. All I can say is that I'm blown away, deeply grateful, totally amazed and sincerely moved by their generosity. I'm blessed with some tremendously loyal and kind fans.They sometimes take on the role of theatrical 'angels' or art patrons. Their involvement often goes beyond basic 'fandom' and enters the realms (and ideals), of a long-ago Golden Age when aesthetically refined connoisseurs once helped artists to bring their work before a wider world. Or is that just me being romantic again? Nevertheless, these instances prove that that spirit of patronage and support is not dead, and that it IS possible to produce a music that does not need to bow down to the rigid limitations of the mainstream music industry. I'm eternally grateful that there are several special people, (some are fans, some are friends, some are business people), who help to create an atmosphere of freedom and creativity around me within which I'm able to achieve my life's work. Without their support and generosity, I'm lost. Different subject:- I noticed, in the latest issue of Mojo Magazine, reference to two new albums (by other artists), themed around sea-going concepts. One is called 'Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys' (odd spelling of the latter word?) This album is apparently co-produced by Johnny Depp, the well known Keith Richards impressionist. The album actually features my Channel Light Vessel dreamboat Kate St. John, as well as the somewhat less erotically charged Bryan Ferry. It also features Sting, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Rufus Wainwright and various other pop-tastic media stars, the most interesting and worthy of which are David Thomas of Pere Ubu, Van Dyke Parks and Mary Margaret O'Hara. The Mojo reviewer says that the album will "shiver your timbers in the most rewarding of ways..." The other album is: 'Ocean: Songs For The Night Sea Journey' by Jennifer Cutting's Ocean Orchestra. The review says it employs synths and samples alongside accordions, pipes and strings. Well, well...looks like I've been rolling along on the crest of a wave but, of course, my 'Lighthouse Signal Mechanism Orchestra' came into that particular harbour almost a year ago now. Perhaps my ship is equipped with a more finely attuned compass. Oh, well... But what a pity that 'The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill' didn't receive the media attention that the above two albums seem to be currently enjoying. I may be ahead of the wave but I'm under the radar, or so it seems. Went to see my friend John Foxx last week...he was playing at 'Fibbers' in York. Haven't had chance to meet with him since we both took part in Harold Budd's 'farewell' concert at the Brighton Dome last year, 'though we've exchanged several emails since. John braved the heat of summer (and of Fibbers), to give a vibrant, almost 'electro-punk' show which delighted his audience. He got a great reception, not least from my neighbour and good friend Steve who has been a big fan of John's since the early Ultravox days. And I gained brownie points from introducing Steve to John after the show... It was really good to see John enjoying himself and celebrating an energetic, 'roots' approach to performance. He and I still plan to get together, both with Harold and with each other.The only thing slowing us down is lack of time. One of these days though... This coming week, I must seriously try to overcome the heat (and my exhaustion), and finish recording the 'Arcadian Salon' album.Then I must decide upon a track running order and master the album as soon as possible as there is no time available for me in Fairview Studio from the middle of August on. This thing HAS to be ready for the convention in early October. It's rushing up like a runaway express train, as usual. More than ever, I'm way behind schedule. Haven't begun to make any inroads at all into the autobiographical film 'Ghosts Etched On Glass,' (an excerpt from which I'm supposed to present at Nelsonica 06 as a 'work in progress'). In fact, the list of jobs I have to tackle for the convention is becoming an increasingly scary and, maybe even impossible, task. How on earth can I get all this stuff together in the scant time remaining to me before the convention date? Yes, o.k...I ALWAYS panic but, it seems that each year I take on more and more work, projects that, despite all good intentions, are increasingly difficult to complete without tremendous effort and sacrifice. I guess the recent tasks I've had to undertake regarding re-issues and associated items have thrown the proverbial spanner into the works. I have to admit that my trip to Japan robbed me of two weeks working time also. But there's nothing left for me but to plough on, to do the best I can under the circumstances. No point in working myself up into a paranoid, desperate panic about it all. After all, I love it don't I? And it usually works out o.k...Doesn't it? Well...too hot right now, even though it's late evening. Can't sit here typing. I'll continue this in a day or two when I'm less exhausted and there's more progress to report. And less sweat dripping onto my computer keyboard. POST SCRIPT: SUNDAY 30th JULY 2006 -- 9 PM. Went to Castle Howard with Emi as planned. Lunch was good, sitting in the grounds of the house, watching white fluffy clouds drift by in a high blue heaven. Apparently, Jools Holland and his pals played at Castle Howard on Friday, (I think), a big outdoor bash or something grand. Emi and I are thinking of attending the annual classical 'Proms' concert at Castle Howard, in August. It's a picnic hamper / champers type of affair. Maybe even grander than Jools' big do. We could dress up in our summer finery, get completely, joyously blathered, then slip away into the woods to frighten the peacocks. Pan chasing his favourite nymph through a sylvan glade, and that sort of thing. Libido a-go-go. Let's hope the weather holds up. Last ever 'Top Of The Pops' on tv tonight. Caught the back end of the final show, (when I switched on the television during dinner). Tonight's special, farewell programme seemed to have been full of clips from across the ages. Don't know whether they showed anything from the time when pop music actually resembled pop ART, when it genuinely had something to say for itself. (Jimi Hendrix, Syd-era Floyd, etc, etc.) Whatever, the last five minutes of the programme illustrated perfectly why it has finally been axed by the BBC. Pop music has become irrelevant, hollow and dull and is, to all intents and purposes, dead. I met Jimmy Saville once. (Be Bop Deluxe were on Top Of The Pops at the time, drooling over Pan's People backstage.) I also saw Jimmy standing at a bus stop across the road from the Music Ground guitar shop in Leeds, maybe only a year ago at most. Perhaps I was the only person in the street who noticed. He was nice enough to us when we were on Top Of The Pops. He may even have played our records on his radio shows. Sooner or later though, we all come to resemble decrepit old age pensioners. No pop star remains unscathed. And thank goodness for that. Insufferable narcissists, the lot of 'em. ***** The images attached to this diary entry are:- 1. The fields near the Humber Bridge, Swanland Hill view, July 2006. 2. North Ferriby Foreshore, July 2006 3. An ad for 'Neptune's Galaxy.' Top of page

Willerby album - 1991 The Rhythm Sisters Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer, Guitar, Sitar and Keyboard. Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Hard Facts From The Fiction Department Bill Nelson ep - May 1984 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A1) Hard Facts From The Fiction Department A2) Daily Bells B1) Rhythm Unit B2) Junc-Sculpture ORIGINALLY: All four songs were initially non-album tracks. NOTES: Hard Facts From the Fiction Department is a 4 track EP of instrumentals issued on the Cocteau Records label. This was the fifth in the series of Cocteau Club EPs issued to fan club members, included in Issue #9 of the club magazine, Acquitted By Mirrors . All four tracks had been recorded at The Echo Observatory. PAST RELEASES: A1) was later included on the 7" and 12" releases of the Acceleration single (see separate entry), and The Two Fold Aspect of Everything comp (out of print). A2) was later included on the US 2CD version of The Two Fold Aspect of Everything comp (Enigma, 1989), which is also out of print. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: All tracks are available on the retrospective compilation album Transcorder (The Acquitted By Mirrors Recordings) . BILL'S THOUGHTS: From the Acquitted by Mirrors fan magazine: "With this magazine you will find included the first of the club EPs. "Hard Facts from the Fiction Department" was recorded in the autumn of 1983 for the BBC as part of a programme about the Orwellian 1984. The remaining three pieces come from the instrumental archives of the Echo Observatory." Singles Menu Future Past

Listen album - 1983 A Flock of Seagulls Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer on one song: a new re-recording of "(It's Not Me) Talking". Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Stereo Star Maps Bill Nelson album - 10 November 2014 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) The Golden Age Again 02) Luminatron 03) Light In The Head 04) Drift Fictions 05) The Sleeping Body Sings 06) Stereo Star Map Number One 07) These Minutes Are Ours 08) Wondertown 09) Tangle Of Wires 10) Atoms, Neutrons, Strangeness And Charm 11) The Art Of Thinking 12) Tingalary Man And The Scarlet Fever Kid 13) Chiming Church With Rusty Bell 14) Another Planet 15) Stereo Star Map Number Two 16) The World Is Lost To Us All In The End ALBUM NOTES: Stereo Star Maps is an album mixing vocal and instrumental pieces, issued in a one-off print run of 500 copies on the Sonoluxe label. The album began life with the working title of Drifters and Steamers , with news of it first appearing on the Dreamsville forum in March 2014. By the following month it had been renamed Stereo Star Maps , although both titles remained possibilities through to May. At this stage in development the album was being planned as a double album, although Nelson kept his options open, admitting that it could turn out to be 2 separate single albums. With 21 tracks completed, 14 of which were instrumentals, Nelson began to assign particular tracks to other album projects, including Swoons and Levitations and Shining Reflector , which between them swallowed up all but 4 of the completed tracks. The remaining Stereo Star Maps material was produced during the second half of May through June, with a draft running order announced on 4 July 2014. This was ultimately finalised with some very minor adjustments to the order at the tail end of the album. Shortly after finishing the music for Stereo Star Maps Nelson was diagnosed with conductive hearing loss in his left ear, which effectively forced him to give up live performances, and sadly brought an end to events such as Nelsonica . However these restrictions in turn led to an increase in his already prolific recorded output, as it gave him more time to devote to making music. Stereo Star Maps went on sale on 10 November, and was removed from sale a week later due to an overwhelming number of orders being received at S.O.S. Unfortunately, it appeared to some that it had sold out, and at least one copy was sold on eBay for an extortionate amount before S.O.S could put the last few copies on sale again. It finally sold out of its print run on 1 December 2014. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY: Shining Reflector , Swoons and Levitations , Fables and Dreamsongs , Dreamshire Chronicles , Loom , Fantasmatron , Blip! , The Awakening of Dr Dream , Signals From Realms of Light , Quiet Bells BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Some of you may be aware that I'm working on a possible DOUBLE album for early autumn release. The album's title is Stereo Star Maps . Quite a lot of material recorded so far, but I really want to keep going with this one and build up a large number of tracks worthy of inclusion. When it comes to the cut-off date for assembling the final running order I will decide whether to make it a double album or two individually-titled single ones. A recent acquisition of a Fractal Audio Axe FX unit has inspired a couple of ambient guitar improvisations which sound wonderfully ethereal. They definitely fit the title Stereo Star Maps . "Of course, a variety of styles have been embraced by the tracks I've already recorded for this project, but a certain, nebulous direction is beginning to emerge, based on the two tracks hinted at above. (Well, for one of the discs at least.) As always, these things are in a state of flux until the Muse says that it's done, but, right now, she's rocking me in her arms and has stars in her eyes! Hopefully, another treat in store when the leaves begin to turn gold." _____ "The title I initially came up with for this project was Drifters And Steamers , which was inspired by a Felix Kelly painting. Also, because the first gathering together of possible tracks for inclusion was fairly eclectic in style, I thought of some of them as being 'drifters', (ie: fairly gentle, contemplative pieces in no hurry to get anywhere), and others as 'steamers', (rather more 'driven' or in a hurry)." _____ "The guitar atmospheres on many of these tracks have been created via my recently acquired Fractal Audio Systems 'Axe-FX 2-XL' digital processor. The approach I've taken has been to attempt to slightly blur the structures of these pieces, to locate them in ambiguous, spectral spaces, to scramble the arrangements and sounds in such a way that the songs seem to emerge from a benevolent digital fog, yet still embrace meaning and melody, albeit in nebulous form. You'll have to hear it to understand what I'm driving at. As always, I'm still struggling with my music, still trying to locate my deeper self within it, and, hopefully, guiding it towards your deeper self too...xxx" _____ "Tingalary Man and The Scarlet Fever Kid": "This is a weird one: I didn't write any lyrics down before singing it, just opened up the mic and sung whatever entered my head. No going back over it either, just one single, spontaneous first take. Stream of consciousness stuff, straight from some deep well within. When it was done, the song turned out to be about a long ago childhood experience when I was four or five years old and caught Scarlet Fever, a dangerous illness which has now been eradicated from the world but, back in the early 1950s was very serious. I was hospitalised and not just sick with the disease but deeply traumatised by the experience of being taken from my parents. After a week or so, my father, against the hospital's advice, insisted on taking me home where I slowly recuperated in my own bedroom, the walls of which were hung with sheets soaked in some sort of disinfectant solution. One morning, during this recuperation period, I awoke to see a snowman materialise alongside my bed, walk down to the foot of the bed, cross over to the other side of it and walk back towards my head and vanish through the wall. A hallucination from the fever, perhaps, or a ghostly figure from the beyond which my infant self interpreted as a snowman? Anyway, that strange incident came back in the free association of the song's lyric. "And the 'Tingalary Man?' Apparently, when I was a very young child, I had a tin toy which was a kind of a circular music box which had a handle on the side. When you turned the handle a short musical phrase emerged, with a sound similar to an African 'thumb piano'. This device was referred to, by my dad, as a 'Tingalary'. Somewhere in the back of my mind it echoes still. So, this is basically what the song is about, a sick child, a snowman/ghost and a man turning the handle of a tin music box...all set to a kind of abstract, ambient, semi-atonal guitar loop. It's a very strange thing." FAN THOUGHTS: jetboy: "From the opening guitar effects on "The Golden Age Again" to the closing bars of "The World is Lost to Us in the End" this album opens yet another door to the seasoned listener and welcomes all to yet more musical discoveries from the creative mind of Bill Nelson - a world Bill is constantly exploring, and, thankfully for other fans and visitors to this site, releasing in limited edition albums. Stereo Star Maps is release number 35 under the Sonoluxe imprint and yet again, for this listener it breaks new ground. This album has a sense of playfulness and lightness, is dreamy, haunting and at times relaxed and contemplative." Tourist In Wonderland: "Isn't it just a fabulous album and listening experience?! "Bill pushing forward, moving into unchartered waters, mapping a new course of wonderful musical possibilities for us to discover and share, if we dare take the plunge...Well I'm in!...100% and all the way, following the guiding, twinkling star on the horizon and what a wondrous journey lies ahead... Stereo Star Maps is really having a very deep and profound affect on me, something I've not experienced quite so intensely in a record for some time, (although I do think the last six or seven years has seen Bill Nelson release consistently progressive and fabulous albums, some of the best of his career so far IMHO) and for that, I am truly grateful, nobody does it quite like Bill..." "I have found some of my best experiences when listening to this particular album are when I'm a little frazzled, a bit stressed mentally, a little 'world weary'...it always seems to get me back on track. Sometimes I feel like an old negative roll of film, neglected and left on a shelf, but gradually being reanimated by an infusion of mesmeric Bill Nelson aural chemicals and alchemy...shaped, bent, stretched...pulled back into focus...becoming a proper picture once more...the healing powers of 'proper' music... Stereo Star Maps is a wonderful experience...I love Bill Nelson music..." Holer: "Ahhhhhh Bill...I do love it when you are in Interstellar Space Transmission mode. I've been listening to your new album all week as I drive to work in the dark, rain and fog and am finding it to be the perfect contemplative accoutrements to my travels. About the only critique I would level is that this record should come with a warning label that listening can transport you to other realms. I've had hallucinating snowmen dancing through my head all week." tm14: "I can't pick out individual pieces as special because the whole album has that touch of magic about it. I was only going to play a couple of tracks a second time but ended up listening to the complete disc a second time. I think I have a new favourite. Don't miss this one." Palladium: "Drift Fictions":- "one of those seemingly effortless organic pieces that makes me think Bill has a device from the future which enables him to record direct from his unconscious to disc." "There's so much I love about this album. By the end of track six, you've already got "your money's worth", but the album's only just begun! Current favourite track: "Stereo Star Map Number One" - one of those atmospheric instrumental pieces that puts you straight into another world." December Man: "The Sleeping Body Sings":- "Takes you by the hand and walks you into one of those strange fictional worlds hinted at previously, where 'church bells chime their rusty bells' and 'ghosts' and 'demons' inhabit the darkest hours of night...the past not only haunts the 'now' but also seems to give it a strange kind of meaning by breathing new life into it and feeding the imagination which is the 'life blood' that keeps the artist creating his/her art... "Tingalary Man and The Scarlet Fever Kid" feels like a folk song from out of a contradictory wrinkle in the space-time continuum where Mr. Nelson seems to enter and exit at will...a kind of future-past dimension where dreams become part of the waking world and the waking world enters the realm of dreams...it's a place Mr. Nelson inhabits effortlessly like a musical shaman in order to return and report what’s been revealed to him... In "Stereo Star Maps Number Two" Bill sings for guidance to be brought back 'home' to his own ' centre ' or true self. He repeats the refrain like you would a prayer or incantation as a way of focusing all efforts and energies into traveling back toward that (musical) place that can only be found by following the direction of your own instinctual 'stereo' map of the heart... "The World is Lost to Us All in the End" completes the SSM journey on a poignantly sad note...an honest summation of the realities facing all of humanity...all the beauty as well as the sadness of life that even the artist is at a loss to explain and can only offer us his own sense of helplessness in our struggle to find hope and meaning when we reach that final hour...(and the rusty church bell begins to ring...) Thanks Bill...really enjoying this one!" Albums Menu Future Past

Sister Surprise single - 1983 Gary Numan Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Co-Producer on b-side, "Poetry and Power". Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Third Eye album - 1983 Monsoon Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: E-Bow and Electric Guitar on "Wings of the Dawn" and "Tomorrow Never Knows". Also bass on "Tomorrow Never Knows". Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Luxury Wonder Moments Bill Nelson album - 8 May 2017 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Blue Dawn 02) Cloudwater Canal 03) Parade Of The Inhabitants Of A Phantom Fairground 04) Spindrift 05) The Elegant Parabola 06) Axiomata 07) Rain Falls On Sleepytown 08) Sweethearts In Swimsuits 09) What Time Is This Space? 10) The Clouded Mirror 11) Like Clockwork 12) Astro-Astoria 13) The Gliding Club 14) The Grand Magician Brings A Blessing 15) And There I Am 16) We Hail The Wind Down Long Arcades 17) Another Luxury Wonder Moment 18) Snow Light ALBUM NOTES: Luxury Wonder Moments is an album of guitar instrumentals released on the Sonoluxe label in a limited print run of 500 copies. The album was first mentioned on the Dreamsville Forum on 6 November 2015. The album grew out of material left over from a vocal album called Amplified Dreams and Wild Surprises which was completed in November 2015, but which currently remains unreleased. In early November Nelson revealed a draft running order for Luxury Wonder Moments comprised of 11 tracks, including one track "Thought Bubbles" which didn’t make it to mastering stage (at least not for this project). By 16 November 2015 the track listing had expanded to 17 tracks, although Nelson was determined to add an extra track before considering the album complete. A few days after announcing this intention, Nelson was unable to make any further progress on the album when his mixing desk finally failed on him, requiring it to be dispatched off for much needed overdue repairs. This would prevent him from completing any further new work until the New Year. Meanwhile, in the run up to Christmas 2015, Nelson confessed that he hadn’t managed to record a new tune for his by now customary Christmas Video Card, and so lifted a track from the Luxury Wonder Moments album called "Snow Light" (which wasn’t on the running order revealed in November 2015). "Snow Light" and "The Christmas Gift" (from Simplex ) were set to various stills of his guitars. The album was mastered on 4 March 2016 at Fairview Studio, by which time Nelson confirmed he had added that 18th track. Artwork would however take over a year to complete, and although Nelson dropped a number of hints that the release of Luxury Wonder Moments was high on the list of unreleased albums, it would take 14 months from mastering to its eventual release. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Luxury Wonder Moments is, as the title suggests, a rich, lavish album of gleaming instrumentals with an array of sounds, guitars and keyboards. Containing 18 tracks in total, it offers a dreamy, immersive listening experience." FAN THOUGHTS: Palladium: "Really enjoying this extremely classy guitar album. Such a clear, "true", direct sound - a master at work, and one of those albums you'd expect to win awards, in a more reasonable universe. Anyone who loves, say, Silvertone Fountains or And We Fell Into A Dream , should purchase this immediately, if you haven't already." "I must say I find this album very accessible, with much that grabs you straight away, intriguing and lovely melodic detours and surprises, etc." Returningman: "This release is up there with Quiet Bells , And We Fell Into A Dream and Mazda Kaleidoscope , yup it's that damn good. "The first track harks back to "Raindrop Collector" (from And We Fell Into A Dream ) and continues with this mellow vibe throughout the whole album. Genius. Buy it now (if you have yet to take the plunge) dive in and savour the moments." Debtworker: "Really stunning tracks, red hot guitar work." "It reminded me very much of And We Fell Into A Dream - cannot say fairer than that! Beautiful music." JohnR: "I normally prefer Bill's vocal albums but Luxury Wonder Moments oozes class. An entire album where every track is as good as or better than the best of Illuminated At Dusk and Silvertone Fountains . Comsat Angel: "Received Luxury Wonder Moments and listened to it last night. I found it wonderfully peaceful with excellent subtle moments. I loved it just as much as Dr Dream and Kid Flip but for very different reasons." scooter59: "This is the second new release in a row that grabbed me right away and forced a complete listen on first play (rare anymore with so many distractions). "Can't wait for a second play today in the office. I always get one or two people that pop their heads in going, "Who is that?" MondoJohnny: "Got mine yesterday and listened on the way in this morning...and as of now I think that album is the only thing keeping me sane!" "Its got just that right balance of beauty and quirk if you ask me!" andygeorge: "Well, after all the very positive comments on LWM I thought, "hang on, what am I missing here?" I've been playing it again over the holiday weekend and yes, it has 'clicked'...big time! "The Gliding Club" is absolutely gorgeous! Bill at his glorious best, beautiful guitar soaring above the clouds!" Merikan1: "Heavenly. Another classic. Thanks Bill." Albums Menu Future Past

Free Downloads Discography Menu Please enjoy these gifts from Bill Click on the cover to access the download Brave Flag/Mondo Bravado Released August 2022 Ukrainian appeal charity single The Lockdown Song (It's All Downhill From Here) Released November 2020 Variation On The Theme Of A White Christmas Released December 2017 The Rumbler/Perfidia 2017 Released October 2017 Loom Released December 2015 For track and album info - Click here Silent Night Released December 2012 Think And You'll Miss It/Beat Street Released December 2012 Hip Pocket Jukebox Released December 2011 For track and album info - Click here Frost-O-Matic Released December 2010 Soluna Oriana Released June 2010 The Jingler Released December 2009 I Hear Electricity/Kiss You Slow Released December 2008 Dreamsville Poetry Experiment Released December 2007

Disguise in Love album - 1978 John Cooper Clarke Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Guitar on three songs, "I Don't Want To Be Nice", "Readers Wives" and "Health Fanatic". Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Sunday 24th July 2005 -- 11:45 pm A long gap between the previous diary entry and this. Far too long. Work demands have been overwhelmingly intense and I've had little time or energy for anything else. Perhaps this is not so unusual considering how many projects I seem to regularly juggle these days... .but I do seem to have bitten off more than I can chew this time. I've been constantly struggling against physical exhaustion and a kind of mental/spiritual malaise, every day being tinted and tainted with a combination of dread, self-loathing and panic. Just too many things dragging my concentration this way and that, a sense of hopelessness gradually overwhelming whatever optimism I've attempted to muster. I've felt as if my work has suffered as a result too, 'though this may be entirely subjective. Whatever, it still feels like too little energy spread too thin. The task taking up most of my time is the continuous writing and recording of my forthcoming album. For reasons not quite clear, many of the pieces of music have turned out to be long and complex. They are mostly heavily layered, orchestrally textured songs with intricate, fussy arrangements. Each song has taken several days to complete, not just in terms of the writing but also in terms of the actual performance and recording. Mixing the finished recordings has proved problematic too, as there is so much going on just beneath the surface of the music. Getting the correct balance between the myriad interwoven components is not exactly a quick and easy job... so many details to consider. I'm still toying with the idea of remixing a couple of songs, though I'll hardly have time for such a luxury if the finished package is to be ready for the autumn release schedule. There's all the artwork/packaging to consider too. If these songs were ever to be performed in a completely live context, (ie: no use of backing tracks), they would require a large group of very broad-minded and eclectic musicians in tandem with a small symphony orchestra to duplicate the recorded effect. As I originally intended to write intimate pieces that would only require three or four musicians to perform the songs live, it's a shock that what eventually came down my cantakerous muse's pipe ended up being so densely layered and epic sounding. I haven't a clue as to why this should be, it's just as mysterious to me as to anyone else. I'm subject to the surreal dictates of my own unconscious and am often as much a victim of its unpredictability, as well as a beneficiary. The songs' lyrical content has been problematic too, reflecting, perhaps, my troubled state of mind. They're not overtly angst-ridden, heart-on-sleeve, chest beaters, but they do seem to suggest a certain world-weariness and resignation. These are confusing, dualistic, personal songs whose shiny veneer maybe hides something deeper and darker. As I so often say these days, maybe it's just a result of my age and the weird times we live in. Not entirely a waste of time, however, as the abandoned tracks have helped direct me towards some of the other pieces that I feel are much more succesful. These 'keeper' tracks are now the spiritual core of the album, which has revealed, or given birth to, a concept of sorts. (Although it is not strictly a 'concept' album in the old school sense of the term.) But... I have to consider the amount of time this music is taking to formulate and complete itself. If I were to continue at the current rate of progress, all my other creative responsibilities would have to be dropped from my agenda. (Not a good idea.) Not sure that I like being gripped quite so viciously by a single piece of work... but this one seems to be a difficult beast to escape from. I have to admit, however, that there is a part of me that says, 'just dump everything else and spend the next six to eight months concentrating exclusively on the new album.' In fact, I was actually on the point of doing this, including cancelling/postponing the autumn tour, when Adrian, at Opium's office in London, suggested a more practical, pragmatic alternative. He pointed out that it wasn't absolutely neccesary for the album to be one of my extra long, 'filled to the brim with tracks' ones. In fact, Adrian said, it might work equally as well as a 'mini-album' or an ep. This would take some of the pressure off and allow me more time to prepare the video material for the tour and also to deal more comfortably with all the other projects I'm currently juggling. (Against the odds.) An obvious solution, staring me in the face I suppose, but one which I'd somehow stupidly missed... but a very good proposal nevertheless. BUT... even if I do decide that it will be a 'mini' album, (in terms of track count), it could still turn out to be 'full length' as most of the individual tracks are unusually long, so much so that the total listening time may add up to being the same as a 'normal' album. Adrian pointed out that it is probably already as long as Anthony and The Johnsons' recent album (which apparently clocks in at approximately 32 minutes or somewhere about that). But, regardless of these thoughts, I still want to push on, to see where the current thematic or conceptual thread leads me. Luckily, the idea of making it a 'mini-album' provides a much needed safety net... At least I now know that I can 'switch off' the project and deal with the rest of my workload when the time comes to do so. A little bit less pressure, though there's still plenty more to deal with. As an explanation for my sense of urgency and panic I'll list the current workload in this diary entry, in a moment or two, BUT before I do, here is the latest information about this 'album in progress' of mine:- The songs I've decided will be on the 'possible inclusions' list are as follows:- 'The Ceremonial Arrival Of The Great Golden Cloud.’ 'Dreams Run Wild On Ghost Train Tracks.’ 'And Then The Rain.' 'The Man Who Haunted Himself.' 'Tin Sings Bones.' 'Duraflame.' All these are vocal pieces. There are also two as yet unfinished and untitled instrumentals to add to this list... The list does not include everything that I've recently recorded, i.e.: abandoned tracks or tracks that have been completed but set aside for other possible projects (as they proved unsuitable for this one). The album is very much a work in progress at this stage, although it now has a reasonably fixed title. What is the title? Well, unless I radically re-think the album, it will be called 'The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill.' There are deeply personal reasons for this apparently surreal and light-hearted title, which I may explain at some point in the future. Needless to say, it springs from my usual internal pre-occupation with the absurdity and seriousness, beauty and ugliness of our human condition, and mine in particular. So... the cut-off point with this album will be entirely dictated by the deadlines and demands of my other work... Whether 'mini' or otherwise, there WILL be a new album, depite the pressures. And here, by way of example, is the list of the work I'm attempting, as promised above:- 1. Prepare autumn tour set, including the making, choosing, mastering and assembly of performance backing tracks, both old and new. 2. Design tour advertising material, flyers, t-shirts, posters, etc, for above. 3. Shoot and edit new video material to use as back projection on the autumn tour. (An extremely time consuming job, this one.) 4. Prepare various items and performance events for Nelsonica 05 , (to be held in October), including design and preparation of all visual material, tickets, limited edition screen print poster, etc. 5. Create a Nelsonica 05 convention cd, including the selection and mastering of appropriate musical material, and suitable visual content, sleeve design, etc. 6. Create an exclusive music track for Sound On Sound's magazine's 20th anniversary issue. 7. Give a talk to music college students in September. 8. Prepare tracks, both old and new, for the early August guitar Festival performance in Lewes. (And boy, am I behind schedule with this one!) 9. Choose and assemble an appropriate selection of music onto cdr to send to Ronald Nameth with regard to a possible collaboration on the Ginsberg 'Howl For Now' event documentary film. 10. Contribute an article/written Q+A for a book being written about the above event. 11. Transfer to Mackie removable media hard drive and then mix the very early Be Bop Deluxe Decca audition tapes for possible release in autumn. 12. Design packaging for above. 13. Help to oversee the release of major label back catalogue. (Mercury and EMI.) 14. Select appropriate equipment for upcoming live shows, unwire from my studio and repair where required. Then pack and haul downstairs in preparation for transportation to venues. 15. Schedule a full day's rehearsal for autumn tour and ensure that everything is in place that needs to be. 16. Allocate sufficient time at home to allow a personal rehearsal schedule for the tour material so that the main reheasal is freed up to concentrate on technical/equipment/sound mixing matters, rather than musical ones. 17. Complete the writing and recording and mixing of the new album. 18. Decide track running order, book Fairview to master the final album and design packaging art for it. 19. Attend and possibly contribute towards the performance of Ginsberg's 'Howl' poem, annniversary reading. 20. Begin a possible collaboration with John Foxx. 21. Ditto with J. F. and Harold Budd. 22. Ditto with Cipher. (Theo Travis and Dave Sturt.) 23. Try to get back on track with my collaboration with American comic book artist Matt Howarth. 24. Open up further areas of the Dreamsville site, including the long promised 'Museum Of Memory' feature, the 'Academy Of Art' and the 'Guitar Arcade.' But, as I've already said, the priority for me at the moment is to constantly work on the new album. (11 am to 11 pm, with a 45 minute dinner break, every day, with a couple of guilty Sundays off to give Emiko some kind of life other than sitting downstairs watching tv whilst I furrow my brow in the studio.) So... this is the kind of life I lead right now:- obsessive, unhealthy, anti-social, grumpy, angst-ridden, insecure, depressive, stressful, etc. (Oh, poor, poor me, so many guitars to play!) But also, dreamlike, magical, creatively fulfilling, educational, enlightening and priveleged too. Yes... it's that special. I'm just one of those common or garden, pathetic but fabulously lucky tortured artists that you read about in tacky romantic novels... AND I've got the dysfunctional lifestyle, psychological quirks and expanding waistline to prove it. And now on to other, more serious matters:- Terrorist attacks on London. What can I or anyone else say ? The horror, disgust and revulsion that we all feel about these events requires no explanatory comment from me. Nevertheless, I'll say this, if only to release a little of the pressure in my own angry heart:- That people commit such acts of depravity in the name of religion, (whatever religion), is a sickening measure of the ignorance, stupidity, gullibility and downright self-centred, ugly righteousness of those who think of themselves as 'agents of god'. ('God' is, increasingly it seems, a convenient concept for abdicating individual responsibilty for vile criminal acts.) The indoctrinated dupes who carry out these cruel, pathetic and ultimately ineffectual attacks are deluded lost souls, terminally infatuated with the ecstasy of self-immolation, death and glory, holy-martyrdom and all the other banal, historically tested, psychologically potent appeals to the dangerous idiot within us all. These young fools bought the tired old lie of a righteous martyr's paradise... and couldn't see past the illusions weaved by their hate-filled puppet masters. What a tragic world we live in. As always, the innocent suffer the most. And don't get me started on the political issues. There's ignorance on all sides. Enough disgust from me? More than you need... let's move on. Despite my relentless work schedule, I have conspired to take a couple of Sundays off. A visit to Castle Howard and visits to the East and North Yorkshire coast, Reighton Sands, Whitby, Spurn Point. The latter two locations allowed me a chance to paddle like a kid in the ocean, to savour the waves and breath some fresh air, ('though I wish I had more time to do it properly and without guilt). I justified the time away from my studio by taking along my camera and camcorder to capture images that might prove useful for the tour's video projection, or for this very website. Some of those photo's scattered amongst this diary entry... a couple of seaside days to share with you. My trip to Reighton Sands, or 'Reighton Gap' as it was known to my family in the 'fifties, was only the second time I've been there since I was a child. (My earlier diary entries reference this.) On this latest visit, Emi and I ventured down the steep incline, cut into the cliffs, to the beach. It was the first time I'd walked on these sands since I was a very young boy. Nothing much had changed, apart from some coastal erosion, but the view of Flamborough Head from Reighton Sands was just as striking as I remembered, the beach just as sparsely populated. The crumbling ruins of the concrete World War 2 bunkers, almost exactly as they were in the early 'fifties when my family stayed at a bungalow in Reighton Gap, still stand, braving the North Sea winds and guarding the little pools in which I once, all those years ago, sailed my cream and red painted, battery powered, toy boat, 'St. Christopher.' I wrote 'Hello, Sailor Bill' in the sand with my walking cane and Emi took a photo. Emi and I then stood, trousers rolled up, at the edge of the sea, up to our calves in the incoming tide, which was cold and sharp and clear. We'd done the same thing at Spurn Point the previous weekend, (where I'd photographed the patterns made by fishermen's tractors in the sand on the Humber river side of the estuary peninsula). I love this entire stretch of coastline, its variety, its history, and never tire of it. My late father loved it too, as I've probably mentioned before... in fact, he loved the ocean and the coast generally, wherever we roamed as a family back in those simpler times. I still vividly recall standing next to him on cliff tops on the east coast, or on harbour walls in Ilfracoombe in Devon, watching the storm tossed waves. The wilder the seas, the more my father enjoyed observing them. He could be a difficult, sometimes angry and occasionally volatile, violent man, but also generous, kind, thoughtful and soulful. Certainly contradictory. Those moments standing beside him, in awe of the waves, stay stronger in my memory than his darker moods. One of my latest songs directly references my father's love of the sea. In fact, it starts with a simple statement: 'my father loved the sea, summertime, wintertime, anytime... My father longed to be, a sailor on the sea...' It sounds much better in the context of the whole song. (The song is called:- 'The Ceremonial Arrival Of The Great Golden Cloud.') It's over eight minutes long. Weather cool verging on cold today, cloudy and no sun. The recent warm weather vanished for a time, or so it seems. But it's been frustrating to have to stay in my hot, airless studio whilst the sunshine has been transforming the surrounding landscape into an archytypal English pastoral summer scene these last few weeks. It will soon be harvest time though, fields of barley have turned from green to gold already. Leaves turning before we know it too, I suspect. The seasons change so rapidly. I continue to make music and must optimistically return to the work, pushing on regardless. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months. Time passes and life sings. All photographs by Bill Nelson. Top of page William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) July 2005 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Aug Sep Oct Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

Maid in Heaven Be-Bop Deluxe single - 20 June 1975 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A) Maid In Heaven B) Lights ORIGINALLY: "Maid in Heaven" was lifted directly off the Futurama album, whereas "Lights" was the same version of the non-album cut that had appeared as the 'B' side of the previous single. NOTES: Maid in Heaven was the fourth Be Bop Deluxe single issued during the band's existence. The single was issued in a generic record company sleeve. UK Promo copies exist with the words "Demo Record Not For Sale" and a large 'A' printed on the label. US Mono/Stereo promo copies were pressed to encourage airplay on both AM and FM radio. PAST RELEASES: Both tracks would be included on The Best of and the Rest of Be Bop Deluxe double album (1978), and the Singles As and Bs compilation (1981). "Lights" would appear on CD as a bonus track added to Drastic Plastic (1991). CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The single is long deleted, but both tracks can be found on the Cherry Red/Esoteric Recordings reissue of Futurama (2019) - both in physical form and as a digital download. Singles Menu Future Past

Silver Moon single - 1986 David Sylvian Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Guitar on the title track. Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Model Village Bill Nelson album - 1 October 2011 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Morning's Herald 02) Dance Of The Orchard Angels 03) The Curate's Cassock Is Troubled By The Breeze 04) Cross Country 05) Pamela And The Pony Club 06) Windmill Interlude 07) Thicket And Loam 08) The Fabulous Foals Of Faraway Farm 09) Thunder Blooms In The Heat Bruised Sky 10) The Wind In The Wood 11) Merry Are The Wind Blown Crows 12) The Tree That Dreamed Of Violas 13) Twilight And The River 14) The Village Dreams Beneath The Stars ALBUM NOTES: Model Village is an instrumental album released on the Sonoluxe label issued in a single print run of 1000 copies. The album represents a significant departure from Nelson's past instrumental work in that it employs a vast array of synthesised orchestral instruments conceived as a film score for an imagined movie. The album concept was first announced on the Dreamsville forum in August 2010 and initially was planned as an album mixing vocal and instrumental pieces. Among the songs written with this in mind were "The Blossom Tree Optimists" and "Gathered at the Gloaming" (later renamed "Gathered in at Gloaming"), both of which were transferred to the Songs of The Blossom Tree Optimists album. Model Village was the first release that Nelson designated as part of his 'Special Listener Series', which indicated it to be a more challenging prospect. The series has so far run to 4 albums with every prospect of this continuing. 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 Signals From Realms of Light on the 1st of October, 2011, before going on general release through S.O.S. just 3 days later. Model Village sold out in November 2019. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "It's a pastoral 'sound painting' which attempts to materialise the romantic, poetic, English village of my dreams...a kind of 'Bill Nelson Brigadoon' I suppose. Every time you play the album, the village appears from the mists, unspoiled, sun drenched, and summer-sweet. It's an album which (I hope) works on several levels at once." _____ "Imagine an idealised, dreamily romanticised (but charmingly surreal) country village somewhere around the earlier part of the 20th century...maybe it's not far from the coast, surrounded by rolling hills, sun-kissed meadows, orchards and windmills...but inhabited by a smilingly perverse vicar and an eccentric pub landlord, buxom farmers wives, rampant milk-maids, all with an appetite for quietly illicit but gentle sensuality, all this coupled with summer thunder, fruity orchards, golden harvests and gorgeous twilights that backdrop magic stars...Well, that's what I'm aiming at." _____ "I guess it's partly inspired by the books I read as a child, many of them beautifully illustrated with scenes of an idyllic, unspoiled, endless-summer England, books which my own mother owned when she was young. "Inspiration also comes from certain works by the English neo-romantic painters, artists such as John Minton and John Piper. (Peter Blake once told me that he'd studied under John Minton at art school). Plus some paintings by Stanley Spencer. "Other inspirations for Model Village come from various British between the wars films such as 'Painted Boats' and certain films by Powell and Pressburger, (especially 'A Canterbury Tale'). Even some of the old GPO Film Unit documentaries have helped inspire the mood. "But also, I guess, it's the memory of school holidays in the 1950's when the neighbourhood kids would go off to play in the nearby orchard and wheat fields, becoming our own version of ' The Famous Five' or 'Secret Seven'." _____ "This one has its own unique place in my 'canon'. It's an imagined soundtrack to an equally imaginary inter-war, rural life, English film documentary...Powell and Pressburger perhaps...'A Canterbury Tale' filtered through the prism of a childhood adventure annual, Enid Blyton on hallucinogenics, Humphrey Jennings with a cup of whimsical breakfast tea." FAN THOUGHTS: John Spence: "Indeed a unique and interesting piece of work from Bill. We mastered it at the same time as Fantasmatron and for me Model Village just kind of jumped out of the speakers. I don't know why...sometimes things just grab you like that. The beauty of great music I guess. Enjoy it." Andre: "THIS IS ONE VERY SPECIAL ALBUM! It is so evocative. I have never driven through the English countryside (unfortunately), however I can feel it. "Model Village is not a guitar album. All music is performed by the renowned Sunday Best Symphony Orchestra at The Palace of Strange Voltages in Yorkshire. "The music is superb, and yes the album IS a masterpiece and a treat to your ears. HIGHLY recommended by at least 99% of those who have heard it. Bill released it on the Sonolux Super Listeners Series as it is rather special. I dare say it is worth your money." felixt1: "I'm amazed at how much Bill achieves with his keyboard. Let's not forget that most of this is played in real time...It's just so....open in its scope. It's very hard to imagine the amount of work Bill has put into this, I mean it sounds like an orchestra, in the true sense!!! "There's a certain sense of playfulness that is very much a part of Bill's music in general that I feel is represented on this album. I get the feeling that in Model Village , there is mischievousness to be found. It is not a place that takes itself too seriously. "The imagery it evokes is plentiful, almost too much to grasp in one sitting, that is until you are more familiar with the twisty paths and hedgerows within the Village and the adjoining fields. "Bill's musicianship and sense of melody are fully on display here, incredible when you consider his prime instrument (at least, as far as the casual listener is concerned) is not to be heard on this album at all!" JMH: "This is such a "must have" offering...I am at a loss for words... There is much that is satisfyingly familiar, comfortable etc, yet... I believe the Artist has also created something amazingly New with this record. I am dazzled by the beauty, nostalgia and light that is elicited by this album. Not to mention the stunningly deep and beautiful tracks: "Thicket and Loam" and "The Fabulous Foals of Faraway Farm." Sue: "I love this album...it's like a sleepy, dreamy Sunday afternoon on a warm summer day, totally relaxing and so easy to listen to." BobK: "As a lover of English pastoral music, (Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Delius, Holst - yes, he was English!), must say I find Model Village rather fascinating. As always, listen on headphones to enjoy the subtleties!" paul.smith: "It reminds me of Eric Ravillious' wonderful countryside illustrations from half way through last century and that feeling of timeless flight in childhood that we all mourn and lament." MG: "Windmill Interlude" - "is a beautiful piece... It creates images for me of couples on bicycles riding down country lanes with picnic baskets (in glorious monochromatic 1950's cinematic style)." martin jordan: "I need help - I can't stop listening to Model Village . Biggest problem is there is only one way to listen to it - from start to finish every time. Having myself left the Leeds/Wakefield city life 3 years ago and now living in a midlands village in the National Forest, I find Bill's new CD a fantastic soundtrack to village life. So many of the sounds and feelings are felt on an daily basis when taking the dog out for a walk." zebrapolish: "The one I was sure wouldn't click with, but now have to have a daily dose of. "I LOVE IT. Lush, beautiful, outstanding. I can really visualise the village and its inhabitants, and the artwork sets it off brilliantly." Albums Menu Future Past

Thursday 12th May 2005 -- Late Afternoon/Early Evening A huge sigh of relief: My 'Dreamsville' site is finally up and working and has received a very generous outpouring of appreciation from its visitors. The response has been even more positive than I could have hoped for and there are vibrant, lively conversations continually buzzing in the virtual saloons of 'Dreamsville Inn Forum '. A genuine community spirit permeates the place. Excellent! The next task is for me to install visuals and text into the other areas of the site. First priority is 'The Museum Of Memory'. I've already gathered a large number of exhibits together for this location, as I've mentioned in earlier diary entries. These items now need to be loaded into the 'Museum' itself. Next in line, after this, is 'The Academy Of Art' and 'The Guitar Arcade'. Other duties have forced this to be put on hold though. Next week will be taken up with preparations for Harold Budd's concert on the 21st. Before that, I have equipment to repair, prepare, pack away and so on. Then a lengthy trip from Yorkshire down to Brighton for rehearsals and the concert itself. At this point in time I still don't have an inkling about the pieces I'm to perform on. Harold is playing it very close to his chest although he has recently told me the titles of the pieces that he's prepared for us to play together. Other than that, though, no clues. Nevertheless, such a last minute approach may add an edge to things as I'll have to invent something on the spot. I have to admit that I'm flattered that Harold has confidence in me to pull whatever rabbits are required out of my hat. But at the same time, (and predictably, for readers familiar with the self-doubts that regularly fuel this diary), I have very little confidence in myself at all. But fear not... the muse will find a way. Said he, setting down his glass of Merlot and adopting an inane grin... Perhaps I really shouldn't get myself quite so worked up about it. After all, I dive in the deep end as a matter of course with my own compositions on a fairly regular basis. (Or am I just foolishly trying to reassure myself with that last comment?) Anyway, it will be what it will be. A long time ago, when Harold and I played in Portugal together, Harold said, "Don't worry Bill, it doesn't have to be the greatest thing that came down God's pipe". But on this special occasion, particularly as it is Harold's public finale, I really want it to be wonderful, not for me, but for Harold who deserves the absolute best I can muster. A shift of shadows, a different and far more mundane topic:- Woes of all kinds on the domestic front. So what's new? Well, here's something: Back in January, I bought a new bathroom suite from MFI. Yes, I know... if only I could afford not to shop there. Anyway, I obtained what I'd thought was a bargain in MFI's January sales. Lots of convincing chat from their salesman who assured me this was the chance of a lifetime, free taps, waste traps and fittings, a Hollywood film starlet of my choice thrown in to scrub my back, complimentary bubble bath, and so on and so forth. 'Lovely', I thought, imagining Sharon Stone's nipples giving me the Soapland treatment. I placed my order and gained brownie points with Emiko. ('Though not for the Sharon Stone fantasies.) Eventually, I arranged for them to fit the damn thing too, not just supply it. "We have qualified fitters, Mr. Nelson,, they can do any extra work you might require, such as tiling, Mr. Nelson... whatever your heart might desire, very good quality, Mr. Nelson... a comprehensive service tailored to your needs, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah...". Out came my credit card and my hard-earned cash electronically whizzed into MFI's bank account. I left the store, trying to ignore the horror stories that several people had told me about their own, or friend's, experiences with the company. "MFI? Oooh... (big intake of breath and shaking of head), "you don't want to go there!" Time passed as we waited for their fitter to set a date. More time passed, weeks, months, an eternity it seemed. I went into MFI's store and raised a quiet storm of complaint. My face turned black, red horns popped from my skull, lighting flashed in my immediate vicinity, my voice dropped a couple of octaves, the sky went dark and I noticed that they had to switch the store's lights on. The MFI assistant appeared indifferent to any of these ominous pyrotechnics, acting as if my frustration was something so commonplace as to be not worthy of anything more energetic than sneering disdain. Actually, I'm trying to paint a picture of myself as a strong and indigant customer here...the truth is I was really quite reasonable, calm and polite. Of course, I should have been much heavier with them. Nevertheless, the assistant eventually wandered off to contact the fitter.... "Wait here Mr. Nelson, just a moment, Sir...". 20 minutes or so later, the assistant returned to say that they'd spoken to their fitter who had apparently said: " Fitting on May 5th...definitely". The assistant confidently wrote on my MFI paperwork:- 'Delivery: 5th of May, fitting: 5th of May'. At long last, I thought. So, On the 4th of May, Emiko and I spent the entire day clearing the bathroom of all furniture, of piles of magazines, of dozens of bottles of cosmetics, colognes, fragile mirrors, framed pictures, vintage radio, etc, etc. We also cleared an area of access from the front door, up the stairs, through the bedroom to the en-suite bathroom. Then we scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom....Everything ship-shape and ready to go. I put my various work projects on hold so as to be available for the following day's delivery and fitting of the bathroom suite. I'd also bought boxes of tiles for the fitter to fit around the bathroom walls. All of this work agreed with him several weeks previously. AND paid for in advance, as is MFI's rule. (Note: always read the small print, preferably with an electron microscope.) Meanwhile, Emiko dreamed of a new bath that didn't leave rust marks on her skin. I dreamed of getting lathered up in the welcoming vicinity of Sharon Stone's thighs. On the morning of the 5th, Emi and I are up really early, eager and ready for the arrival of both fitter and our new bathroom suite. A few hours later, Emi has gone to work and I'm still waiting. After a while, I start to worry so I call the fitter's number, as given to me by MFI. An answer machine answers. I leave a message. Three-quarters of an hour later, the fitter calls to say that MFI hadn't told him he was supposed to be fitting our bathroom that day. In fact he's doing another job. (I find this unbelievable as MFI had actually spoken with the fitter on the 'phone in my presence some weeks before. And it was he who gave MFI the date of the 5th.) I ask him when he can come to do the job and he says, "call me when the bathroom suite arrives". I say:- "it's arriving today, so are you coming over later to fit it?" He says, "can't do it until next Monday at the earliest, I've taken on other work". (This is Thursday.) In a state of shocked stupor, I put the 'phone down. I eventually recover my composure and call MFI who begin to make outrageous excuses. I demolish these firmly and methodically and ask them what they propose to do to remedy the problem. They eventually say, "well, why don't you just take delivery of the suite and we'll arrange another fitting date". I then explain to them, (as I've already explained on several occasions since ordering the damned thing), that we have absolutely no where to store a boxed bathroom suite with all its fittings, other than in the garden and there's no way I'm leaving it there. I suggest they postpone the delivery until they organise a new fitting date, perhaps Monday or Tuesday at the latest, as now suggested by their fitter. MFI say they'll call me back. Once again I sit by the 'phone, trying to grasp the banality of the situation. When they eventually do call back, they say that they can't stop the delivery as the truck driver doesn't have a 'phone and therefore isn't contactable. They suggest I wait for him to arrive with the suite, then tell him to go away, and take it back to the depot with him. By now, steam is coming out of my ears. I sit in the house all day, fuming and hoping the delivery truck will arrive soon. It doesn't arrive. At four thirty, I decide to go out into town as I have better things to do. When I get back, Emiko has returned home from her day working at the flower shop. She says that the delivery man actually telephoned her at the shop, saying he had a bathroom suite to deliver to our house, but no-one was in. (And this after MFI had told me that the guy didn't have a 'phone in his truck.) Emiko explained the situation and the delivery man laughed... "it happens all the time with MFI" he said. He then took the suite back to his depot. I then await MFI to inform me of a new fitting date. I'm hoping it will be either Monday or Tuesday, as was suggested by their fitter. I hear nothing, not a sausage. On Monday, I call MFI to see if they've sorted things out. They say, "No, but why don't you call the fitter directly?" I do so, wondering why I'm doing their job for them. All I get is the fitter's answering machine. I leave a message, explaining the urgency. No one calls me back. I call again, leave another message. This goes on for a while. By Wednesday, I've abandoned hope and call MFI to tell them that the fitter hasn't answered my calls and ask them to get it sorted out or I'll consider cancelling my order. They say they'll try to contact the fitter. Ten minutes later, they call back to say they've spoken with him and that he can't fit it for at least another three weeks as he's taken on other work. In a daze, I tell them I'll speak with my wife about it. Emi and I then talk through the problems we've had and decide that, although it makes life more difficult for us, we really don't want to give our custom to this company any more. It's simply not good enough. I call MFI back and once again explain that they've had my money since January, it is now almost the end of May, and I still don't have my bathroom suite and that enough is enough... I want a refund. The girl on the 'phone invisibly sniggers and says "Fine, come into the store and we'll arrange it". So today, I locate all my paperwork, receipts, etc and go into the garden to get into my car to drive to MFI to ask for a refund. And here comes domestic screw up number two:- As I swing behind the wheel, I look up to see that my windscreen is sporting a large hole with cracks radiating out from it, right across the entire screen. I get out of the car in disbelief and look at the damage. A real mess... not at all safe to drive. The cause? Our next door neighbour has been erecting a workshop the size of a small house at the bottom of our garden and the builders have, it seems, lobbed a brick or something extremly hard through my car's windscreen. Their last day today, too, apparently. A parting shot? How they did this, I have no idea. It couldn't have been something dropped from the building as my car wasn't underneath it, or the surrounding scaffolding. There was no sign of a brick or a missile either...(They must have removed it.) Whatever it was, it would need hurling away from the structure to hit my car's windscreen. My blood pressure went up along with my hackles but the builders had gone home. On tip-toe, I presume. I urgently had to get into town so I grabbed my things and set off to walk into the village where there is a bus stop. I then waited almost thirty minutes for a bus. By this time, I'd tried to apply my Buddha head to the situation. Stay calm, let go, be cool. The problem with this, of course, is that people often take advantage, thinking that placidity equals pushover. I really should show them the other side of the coin once in a while, but they wouldn't like it and neither would I. Just like many other good-natured folk who try to let go of their anger and frustration and put themselves in other's shoes, when the pressure eventually builds up to bursting, I really blow my top. All those pent-up feelings of exploitation and injustice erupt in a very forceful way. And then those same people who had me sussed as a wuss and who were happy to take advantage of that presumption, suddenly whine and complain that I'm a nasty and vindictive old so and so. Well, tough titty. Sometimes bad behaviour begets the same. Oh, the horror! There's even more bullshit going on around me right now but I'm damned if I'm going to get into it here in this diary. O.K... calm down, William. Don't over-dramatise it for the sake of your audience. Just call your insurance company and see if you can get them to send out a windscreen repairman. Or whatever it is you're supposed to do in these situations. Sometimes, although I'm the first to say money can't buy happiness, I think that if I could afford it, I'd put a certain distance, physically and spiritually, between me and these kind of things. The older I get, the less attractive they become. Man, I'd live on a little island in the middle of some warm stream, away from the herd, counting the buttercups in the meadows and listening to the skylarks sing. The rest of the world could get on with its manipulations and acquisitions without inflicting its shit on me. I'm a fuckin' misfit and shameless with it. Top of page Friday 13th May 2005 -- Postscript to entry dated 12th May Early Afternoon. Last night, the man in charge of the builders was summoned to look at my shattered windscreen. He says he already knew about it. (Well, there's a surprise.) He casually apologised and suggested I get it fixed on my car insurance. I said I'd need to see what the insurance policy covered in respect to that. He said he reckoned the replacement screen would be free but, if there was an excess charge to pay, he'd pay it. I called the insurance company this morning who put me on to Autoglass who told me there would be an excess charge of sixty pounds to pay. I had to pay for it there and then, on my credit card over the 'phone. Unfortunately, they say that they can't get to the house to repair it until late Monday afternoon, which means I can't use my car until Tuesday. (The car can't be moved until the new windscreen 'sets'.) Someone else just told me that I was stupid to do it via my insurance company at all as it will affect my no-claims bonus. I should simply have made arrangements to get the screen replaced directly and given the entire bill to the builder as it was his responsibility. Too late now, of course, as I've messed about on the 'phone all morning, trying to sort it out. Typical. Now I have to catch up with the chores I intended to do yesterday, pick up some dry cleaning, go to MFI and get a refund, pay some household bills, etc. I've had to borrow Emiko's car as a result of mine being out of action, which means I've had to take her to work and will need to pick her up later on when she finishes. Time consuming. On the MFI front, I heard this morning that my brother Ian had also recently bought a new bathroom suite from MFI. and it seems he's had very similar fitter problems, even though he lives in a different part of Yorkshire to me. I won't relate Ian's story here as it is just as complex and frustrating as mine. I'll just say that he too had heard similar stories from other people about poor quality service. It's nice to know we're not alone in this. An entirely different subject:- the latest issue of 'The Word' magazine carries a feature about important albums that have been underated or overlooked. In amongst them is Be Bop Deluxe's 'Axe Victim' album. Nice to see it being acknowledged in this way. The writer makes some interesting points 'though I have to say that the concept for the album was not quite as naive or innocent as he seems to think. The 'glam/Bowie' thing was done quite deliberately... but in a knowing, ironic, almost parodic fashion. Particularly as, at the time of the band's formation, we had no master plan to land a record contract or to become professional musicians. It was, in many ways, just a bit of fun, the concept emerging from my art student background and incorporating the Pop Art and Warholism that had informed my art-school years. Plus, the glam look turned the girls on, as I hoped it might! Oh, yes, David Bowie and Roxy Music were touchstones but they also were seen as a source of pastiche. Remove the whole thing one step further from the point they might have removed it from. Shine a different light into the hollow centre of pop music. At least from a more personal angle. In any case, by the time EM I Records had become interested in signing the band, I was already steering things away from the glam style, but it was EMI who pursuaded me to hang on to the look, (and that specific batch of material), a little longer as they felt that the band's original fan-base would expect that image and style on our first album. Actually, when 'Axe Victim' was released, I'd already written most of the material that would later emerge on 'Futurama'. But, perhaps I'm being overly fussy here... maybe I protest too much. Everyone has to start somewhere and, whilst I'm now somewhat squeamish about the early Be Bop material, I have to admit that it was bright and fun to play... and the dressing up thing was a bit of a lark, a foppish in-joke on one hand and a crowd pleaser on the other. It helped get us noticed so served its purpose. And I met some really sweet girls. It was of its time and its time was ripe. Time changes things and the music must change too... Sometimes on a daily basis, according to mood. This is the hardest thing for some people to deal with. Artists who move on and regularly challenge themselves inevitably have a tougher time of it than those who establish a popular product and simply stick with it. People like to be able to label or indentify things, whether it be the easy familiarity of an Elton John or, (and I admit I'm on controversial ground here), the equally predictable siginfiers of the so-called 'avant-garde'. It seems to me that things at either end of the spectrum have much more in common than they'd be prepared to admit. (These days, the avant garde is just as marketed and targeted a product as pop.) A bit of a hobby-horse of mine this subject, I know, but just stand back from it a student bed-sit's metre or two and you'll see what I mean. At the end of the day it's all disposable, ephemeral, fickle, fashion-shackled and tribally oriented. Music, for all its grand pretensions and aspirations, is ultimately a commodity. (Unless it never escapes from one's bedroom.) The minute it emerges into the world, it surrenders to the possibility of profit, either financially or in terms of perceived 'artistic' status. It gains weight, (like me), and begins to live a life of its own, out of control. Perhaps Harold, with his current vow to quit and to move on into a new phase of his life, has the guts to do what I fear the most... to leave it all behind, drop the weight and walk upright again. But despite my carping, cynical protestations, I'm hooked like a junky on the stuff. Sometimes, I resent this fact so much. Too pathetic and insecure to live without my regular sound fix. A weakness or a strength? Who knows... I can't tell any more. My next album will be called 'Brickie Victim' and will feature songs about breeze-blocks and blocked views. It could only happen to William. Top of page Sunday 29th May 2005 -- 9:30 am (All photos by Bill Nelson) An entire week has passed since Harold's concert in Brighton and only now have I found time to sit down and write an entry for my increasingly late diary. When I returned home, at midnight on the Sunday after the Brighton event, I found my inbox full of emails, mostly accumulated whilst I was away. I seem to have spent all of last week trying to catch up, plus dealing with other pressing problems, all requiring my slightly-out-of-focus attention... many of them of a domestic nature but most of them musical or creative Music is a lovely thing to dedicate one's life to but, in my neck of the woods, it's a 24 hour, seven days a week job. There's always something waiting for me to work on. Not that I'm complaining, you understand. I'm just moaning a little . I like to glamourise my passion, gild it with a little self-inflicted angst. Oh, how we artists suffer! So... here we go, my extremely nebulous and probably unreliable reflections regarding the Brighton concert: A long train journey from Yorkshire to get there on Wednesday, 18th of May. Emi and I have to drag our suitcases from London's Kings Cross Station, dodging traffic and pedestrians along busy London streets, until we reach the Thameslink Station. Then we struggle to carry our cases down flights of stairs to the platform to catch the Brighton train. (No escalator, no lift... only in England.) As usual, we've taken far more clothes than required but, as the weather seems so changable, we've packed items for any eventuality. How I regret it whilst struggling to get those heavy cases down the stairs. We're both getting far too old for this kind of thing. The Thameslink train to Brighton is packed solid with commuters, all looking absolutely pissed off with their lot, overloaded with stress and thwarted ambition. The train is uncomfortable, hot and stops at virtually every station en route. It feels like an eternity in hell before we finally arrive in Brighton, a genuine relief to get there after the tiring day's travel. We're met on the platform by a bright and breezy young lady called Amanda, who is acting as artist-coordinator for Harold's concert. Amanda's cheerful demeanour instills confidence as she whisks us off to our hotel. I've been feeling nervous about the event for days but Amanda's calm personality soothes things a little. Our hotel turns out to be 'The Old Ship', situated right on the sea front, halfway between Brighton's main pier and the old Victorian one that was fatally destroyed by fire and water not so long ago. This latter pier's rusting hulk, stark, ghostly and forlorn, is plainly visible to the right of 'The Old Ship's' main entrance. Sad that it has apparently deteriorated way beyond repair now. The surviving Brighton pier, to the left of the hotel, has a funfair at it's furthest end, complete with a traditional, inverted 'ice-cream cone' helter-skelter. Later, I will take some photographs of this, hoping for a possible album cover image for the future. Or at least one that I can use on the Dreamsville website. The sea-front promenade itself has traditional seaside cast-iron railings, painted in what I like to call 'corporation green and cream' Very similar to the one's found in Blackpool, but a little less art-deco, 'though from a similar period. A few scattered old public shelters along the prom too. Architectural whimsy... my kind of thing. I wonder if Brighton ever had trams, like Blackpool? Within minutes of checking in, Harold Budd calls my room and invites us down to the hotel's bar for a reunion drink. I haven't seen Harold since our ill-fated jaunt to Mexico, maybe over two years ago now. (Our scheduled concert in Mexico City was cancelled after we'd arrived there.) Whilst we didn't get to play in Mexico, Harold and Emiko and I spent a week hanging out in Mexico City's museums and galleries and cantinas, enjoying a pleasant time, despite the fact that 'Gulf War Round Two' had just erupted and was dominating the tv news to depressing effect. (Check out my 'Diary Of A Hyperdreamer Book' to read more about this period.) Since that time, we've each been back in our respective habitats, Harold in LA and the desert around Joshua Tree, Emi and I in our heavily insulated nest in Yorkshire, but we have stayed in regular contact via letters and emails, as always. Harold looks well, dapper and not a single day older than the last time I'd seen him. (How does he do that?) He remains one of my dearest friends and time spent with him is full of laughter and companionship, even if I fall speechless sometimes. The fact that he happens to be a musical and artistic treasure is simply an extra bonus... It's only when I hear him play that I feel absolutely awestruck. One minute, we're laughing at some stupid, inane reference to peas and carrots being served up to us in a pub in Selby over 12 years ago, the next I'm being elevated, uplifted and, yes, educated by the way that Harold touches the piano's keys and brings forth a chord of such exquisite shape and resonance that I could weep with envy. I hear it but don't understand it, nor would I want to... this is a mystery worth preserving. I never ask Harold how or why, I just let it sink in and settle. Somewhere down the line, the lesson that I've learned by this method makes itself known. This is part of the generosity in his art. Harold and Emi and I then decide to have dinner at the Hotel, rather than go out and brave the unreliable weather, which is by now looking windy and damp. The hotel restaurant isn't the best choice... it serves up a fairly dry and mediocre meal, but our happy conversation enlivens the table and the less than sparkling food becomes secondary to the enjoyment of each other's company. Much wine is consumed. Outside the hotel dining room window, a pedestrian crossing's light is sillhouetted against a background of dark sea and grey sky, first a little red electric man lights up, then a green one. The sea and sky broods as the green and red lights alternate. I make a mental note to take a photograph of this before we leave Brighton. Later, as Emi and I retire to our room for the night, we discover that it is crippled with noise: rattling sash windows that sound like distant cannon fire, a taxi-rank beneath the window that echoes to the mad shouts and incomprehensible songs of a seemingly endless chain of drunks, (this unholy racket continues well into the early hours). Then, the noise of a heavy street cleaning vehicle, followed by a garbage truck, followed by screaming, vicious seagulls as dawn breaks. After that, the regular early morning traffic, motorbikes, delivery trucks, police sirens. By 8am, I've managed no more than three hour's intermittent sleep. I get up to attend the first day of rehearsals, feeling terrible. I'm well past the age when I can rise above such things. I need a full eight hours to feel human. One of the problems is that I'm used to a quiet, country environment, backgrounded by gentle early morning birdsong and little else, save the occasional distant cuckoo or skylark. No chance of that here. I stagger about the hotel room, wondering how I'll cope with the rigours of rehearsals. I've not heard anything of the music Harold requires me to play. It's all unknown. The morning weather is windy and wet and so the ever efficient and cheerful Amanda whisks Harold, Emi and I off to the Brighton Dome in a taxi. Us old folks need a wee bit of molly-coddling. The first day of rehearsals is being held here in the Dome, an entirely acoustic rehearsal too, without either monitors or pa system. The Dome is a lovely venue, right next door to Brighton's famous Pavillion It's a long time since I've visited Brighton, way back in the 1970's actually, when Be Bop Deluxe played there a couple of times. The first of those Brighton Be Bop Deluxe concerts was a happy but poignant one for me. A girl, who I once fallen hopelessly in love with some time previously and who had, in both presence and absence, provided me with a muse-like inspiration, had moved from East Yorkshire to Brighton to attend university there. This girl was Lisa Rosenberg who, as long-time afficionados of my music will probably be aware, I'd fallen for in a big way during Be Bop Deluxe's earliest days, when the band first played at The Duke Of Cumberland pub in North Ferriby near Hull, around 1973. It was one of those trancendental affairs that change one's entire outlook... Lisa and I shared a sweet, but all too brief, romantic relationship that survived just12 months or so... I was married to my first wife, (Shirley), at that time, though the marriage was not a happy one. (All my fault really, too young to handle it, too wrapped up in music to pack it in and tow the line, too ambitious to be the nine-to-five husband that Shirley wanted. I'm neither ashamed nor proud of that time, it happened and I did my best, which wasn't particularly good enough.) Anyway, The Duke Of Cumberland gigs provided Lisa and I with an opportunity to be together, albeit fleetingly. (She lived near North Ferriby in the somewhat upper-class village of Kirkella.) In between Be Bop's three sets per gig we would moon and spoon and pour out our hearts to each other in the Duke's rear garden, or on a bench in Coronation Gardens by the village crossroads, or down by the side of the river Humber in North Ferriby, watching the boats drift by on the rising tide, listening to the brass bell on the sand bank warning buoy gently toll, this accompanied by the more distant bells of North Ferriby's church. The band usually had to come looking for me to drag me back on stage for the next set. I could have remained by her side, looking into her eyes all night, music forgotten. In between these monthly gigs at 'The Duke' we would write letters of longing to each other... Lisa sent hers to me at my place of work as our relationship might have been discovered if she'd sent them to my home. At that time I still had a day job with the West Riding County Council's supply department. For my sins, which were many but generally innocent, I was a Local Government Officer. I hated the job... but how easily we are diverted from our dreams. It seemed that this was all that was available to me. And in truth, it was. I doodled guitars and song lyrics on scrap paper whilst sitting at my desk in the office, much as I had when I was at school. The idea of making a living from music seemed way beyond my reach. But I lived for those few gigs the band could get back then. During that time, I wrote floodgates of songs about Lisa and our melancholy, ecstatic romance... 'Teenage Archangel', 'Axe Victim', and 'Love Is Swift Arrows' being the earliest. I was totally transformed by the depth of my feelings for her. Eventually, Lisa moved away from Hull to take up her law studies in Brighton and I wasn't to see her again until my first concert there, quite some time later. I can still recall the surprise and tender nervousness I felt when she came backstage to say hello to me once more, at the Brighton gig in the 'seventies. Be Bop's professional career had started to gain momentum and I had changed the line up from the original one that had played at 'The Duke'. I was thrilled, pleased, flattered, devastated, shaking like a leaf to see Lisa again. And proud of her too. I remember introducing her to Simon and Andy and Charlie, who, unlike the original band, hadn't been witness to our earlier, aching love affair. I was like: 'this is the girl who inspired me to write those songs... Now you know why!' The impression she'd made on my life had been profound. A year later, Be Bop Deluxe played in Brighton one more time and another member of the band's road crew told me that Lisa was in the audience again and that she had asked him if she could come backstage to say hello to me. But this time, my second wife Janice Monks was with me and Jan, who knew all about my old flame, said 'no way!' I can't really blame her for that as she knew exactly how besotted I was with Lisa. So I reluctantly asked the roadie to make an excuse, and not allow Lisa backstage, even though I desperately wanted to see her. I fretted about the situation for months afterwards... nay, years. I guess I've always been, (as must be obvious to those who have gone beneath the surface of my songs), an incurable romantic. Still am, by the way, and damn the consequences. The heart has its reasons. So, Brighton revisited, but now it's the 21st Century, 30 years later and Lisa's faint ghost glows soft in the ever darkening rooms of my memory. But still there, still there, never completely vanquished... First day of rehearsals with Harold:- Now I finally get to hear the two pieces he's prepared for us to play together. I was expecting akward keys for the guitar but the first piece apparently starts in E minor. A moment's relief. Then it shifts to something less comfortable, a key that denies me the safe harbour of open strings. Not beyond my reach though, with a little thought and telepathy. The second piece is in a slightly trickier, key... C-sharp or B-flat, can't recall which now. I jotted it down in a notebook, then forgot about it. Harold skims through each composition with me, he on piano, me on acoustic guitar. All quite naked and vulnerable. He steers me away from going over the pieces too many times. In fact we hardly go into them in any fine detail at all. And this is the first time I've heard them. I do, however, presume to understand his approach... Perhaps this is just Harold's strategy to keep an edge to my performance, to stop it from becoming too slick, too busy The less I know, the more careful, sparingly and thoughtfully I'll play. Scary for me but, obviously, Harold must feel confident that I can provide a spontaneous response to the music. I feel a nano-byte more confident than I did on the train journey down from Yorkshire... but only just. A pleasant meal at a Thai restaurant that evening, with Harold, Guy Morley, (the show's organiser), Amanda, visual artist Russell Mills, (who has designed the stage sets and lighting scheme for the concert), Steve Jansen, (gong and drums for the second half of the concert), and Theo Travis, (flute) I immediately feel comfortable around Theo who is unassuming and straightforward..but gifted. Russell too... he's a lovely chap whose humour belies his tremendous talent as a visual artist. I love being around people of this calibre, even if I do genereally feel as inferior as hell. Next day, after more sleeplessness, we rehearse again, this time with monitors and PA system. Robin Guthrie arrives from his base in France and sets up a lap-top processed guitar. Robin is a lovely guy too. Everyone's lovely. Harold decides I should play on the number he's performing with John Foxx as well as the two pieces Harold and I are doing together. He then adds one more, extra piece for John and I to play with him. So now I'm to take part in four numbers during the first half. Wow! I'm not complaining at all, in fact I'm thrilled and flattered... but I'm also terrified. Another meal with everyone that evening at a restaurant close by the Dome, right next door to a theatre that advertises, on a banner hung outside the theatre's foyer, a production called 'Julia Pastrana, The Ugliest Woman In The World'. The banner next to this one carries the qualifing message: 'Performed In Total Darkness...' I'd told Hal about these banners earlier in the day... I thought their message was hilarious. The idea that the central character was so physically awful to contemplate, so dangerously ugly that the show had to be performed in total darkness, seemed absurdly and surreally funny. More wine back at the Hotel. I'm flagging, finding it hard to concentrate. Another night of hotel room noise with only three hours sleep and then it's sound-check and band rehearsal time. A busy day as we have to work on the long group improvisation that will fill most of the second half of the concert. John Foxx, Harold and I run through the trio vignettes that we are to perform, but not my own duos with Harold. Harold says we don't need to do these, that we have them down fine. I, on the other hand, can't even remember what keys they're in. John sings some very lovely, semi-operatic, sort of gregorian chant style vocals, processed through various vocoder/harmoniser effects. I play some half-reversed guitar chimes under Harold's piano arpeggios, trying to stay out of the way of the top line as much as possible. It seems to work. John is a really nice guy too and I'm pleased to be part of his performance, minimal as my contribution to it is. Jah Wobble arrives from his gig in Paris. I've previously only met Jah once, in Leeds, when he'd involved Harold in his 'Solaris' band project. (This was a few years ago and Harold had invited me along to see the concert.) I didn't really have time to get the measure of him then. Now, I spot him in the 'rest lounge' area of the Brighton Dome where some of us are taking a refreshment break. He's just arrived from his Paris gig in time to run through our band improvisation piece. I go up and say hello and shake his hand. Within seconds I've decided I like him a lot. He has a good sense of humour and seems warm, genuine and down to earth. My kind of person. Harold, earlier in the day, has been rehearsing the string quartet pieces with The Balanescu Quartet who sound magnificent. The quartet's leader, Alex Balanescu, is to join us in our group improvisation. Another musician taking part in the improv section is an old friend of mine from 'up north', Steve Cobby, who will provide lap-top sounds. Steve, who arrives not long before Jah, is his usual, absolutely cheerful self, a valuable and positive force. It's good to see him again. We finally get to run through the group improvisation. Rough and not really ready but Harold seems fine with it all. Some technical problems:- noisy buzzes due to earth loops and lighting interference, but... the tech guys seem to sort it out. I've got Pete Harwood and Dave Standeven with me, not just to look after my gear, but to help out with the other player's equipment too, which they willingly do. Robin has been suffering some strange noises, clicks and pops through his own system. Perhaps part of the overall electrical oddness that envelops us and our equipment. Everyone lends a hand where needed. A supportive atmosphere. I ask Harold if we should run through our duo pieces one more time. He says we don't need to as we're cool. I swallow hard and hope that I'll be cool enough to come up with the right notes. The concert itself is a bit of a blur: I'm feeling the negative results of my lack of sleep and my nervousness has really kicked in. We all sit in the wings to watch the Balanescu Quartet perform Harold's string quartets. Absolutely beautiful... A crowning achievement, I think. Then Theo takes the stage with Harold and they play together, a lovely, poignant performance. Theo negotiating his parts with skill and insight. I reflect on the fact that it will be good to hear Harold's music in all these different contexts, with such a variety of textures... strings, wind instruments, guitars, voice, piano, keyboards, laptop, percussion, bass... The audience really seem to be appreciating it too. Their concentration is tangible. Then it's my turn... I walk onto the stage, Pete hands me my acoustic guitar and I perch on a stool next to Harold's piano, trying to remember how the pieces fit together. Harold glances across at me, we nod to each other and off we go... like a dream, my hands moving of their own accord, the audience fading away, the music spinning its spell around us, binding us together. Just like at the first days rehearsal, I feel exposed, naked to some degree, with just acoustic guitar and grand piano, and so much space in the music itself... nowhere to hide. But things seems to gel, the guitar and piano blend sounds good from where I'm sitting. There's a tenderness to some sections of the two pieces that feels sweet and fine. I'm enjoying it tremendously, despite my nerves. Harold looks like he's enjoying it too. I hope that he is. Then a switch to electric guitar, (my Gus 'Orphee' custom), as John Foxx joins us to sing beautifully, his voice transformed by harmonisers and vocoders. I take no chances, laying right back and allowing John space to do his thing. It all seems to work wonderfully. Then I'm off stage, relieved about the way that things have gone so far. Glad that I didn't keel over from lack of sleep... I go back to the seats in the wings to observe Harold's solo section, he alone at the piano. What a wonderful touch he has. I wrote to him earlier this week and said: '... your solo piano pieces, so perfectly judged and executed. That business about you having no pianistic technique is utter tosh. You have fabulous technique... I have only to hear you play a single note to realise that. Your touch doesn't so much 'make' the note as 'unveil' it. Your fingers point to the invisible and it appears, singing... ' After Harold's solo performance, the interval, a quick glass of wine to steady my nerves, then Part Two. This begins with Steve Jansen performing a five minute version of Harold's solo gong piece, 'Lirio'. Steve brings forth different tones and textures from the gong using mallets, varying the amount of of attack and playing different areas of the gong's surface... it's a deceptively tricky piece to make work, and Steve executes it brilliantly. Then Robin Guthrie takes over from Steve with an ambient, delayed, looped wash of chorused guitar chords, building the atmosphere for several minutes. He's then joined by Steve Cobby, who adds lap-top digital swoops, bleeps and phase shifts, gently distressing and punctuating the piece. Then Harold joins in on piano, then Theo on flute, then Alex on violin, then me on electric e-bow guitar, then Jah on bass guitar and Steve J. on drums, setting a rolling groove in 5/4 time, solid as a rock for everyone else to dance around. Various sound problems on stage though, it becomes increasingly difficult for me to pick out the other soloists. My eye proves more reliable than my ear for this task. I can see Alex energetically bowing his violin so I lay right back, stopping completely in some places, resisting the urge to push harder, doing my best to not impose my personal will on this thing. Let it roll Jah and Steve's groove is relentless, urgent, appropriate. An anchor for us all. Then, a high pitched microphonic squeal emerges from somewhere, feedback but not of the guitar variety. Definitely caused by a microphone. Someone will kill it soon, I think. They don't and it goes on, and on, squealing like a stuck pig, a youth club pa system run amok. Why hasn't someone located the cause and muted or adjusted the microphone? Harold seems to be indifferent to it. He sits, not playing, just digging the groove and enjoying the accumulating chaos. By now, I'm absolutely detached from it all, can't find a way into the music or think of anything worthwhile to add, so I do very little, other than just be there, adrift in the sonic ether. Then, suddenly, it's all over, the big machine grinds to a hesitant halt, the microphone feedback continuing for a few seconds before being finally silenced. We all move forward to bow before the audience. A good feeling but also a sad one for most of us: It's Harold's final farewell to live performance. But what a fabulous way to end a beautiful career. Harold's contribution to contemporary music remains unique and irreplacable. I'm humbled and honoured to have contributed a tiny something to this. After the show, lots of socialising, wine, hugs and exchanges of emails. General happy drunkeness. I'm feeling dizzy with it all. Richard and Adrian from Opium are there, as is Permanent Flame webmaster Chuck Bird and long time fan Eric Tilley who have flown over from America just to see the concert. I'm given gifts by the pair of them: Toy rockets and an autographed photo of a U.S.astronaut who shares my name. Whatever fog I've been inhabiting these last few days becomes even foggier, but with sparks and flashes of electric colour, warm smiles and feelings of empathy. And all I've consumed is wine and music! Emi and I get to bed sometime after 4am. Up early on Sunday morning to catch the train to London. Before leaving, we grab breakfast and I grab some photo's of Brighton's seafront. That pedestrian crossing. Then a taxi to the station and a coffee on the platform before departing for London. Upon arrival in the big city, Emi goes down to Surrey to attend one of her Buddhist meetings, whilst I stagger on alone, like some hung-over, sleepless zombie, along the South Bank, weaving my weary way to the Thames Modern gallery where I treat myself to a solitary lunch and a video of Lotte Reiniger's 'The Adventures Of Prince Achmed'. An exquisite, 1926 animated feature film that I recall seeing on tv when I was a very young boy. Then an afternoon of obscure bookshops and window shopping before I meet Emi for dinner at Trader Vic's bar/restaurant in Park Lane, prior to catching the late train back to Yorkshire. We arrive home just before midnight... exhausted but happy. Since then, it's been a game of catch up. Tons of emails to deal with, some tweaks to the design of the Carlsbro Nelsonic Deluxe amp that is soon to go into production, website postings to attend to, this that and the other... including this diary entry. Busy as ever. None of it means much. All of it means everything. This is what I do, for what it's worth. Rosewood out now. Finished copies sounding and looking good. Not pop music but not beyond understanding. It's a heartfelt album, all the way. Well, that's one way of rationalising it. But does it need to be rationalised at all? Of course not. It's what it is. Nothing more to say about it than that. Other than an outpouring of joy. Now: New technical breaks and breakdowns in my studio. My stand-alone cd burner hardware has developed a fault and needs repairing. As a result, I'm currently unable to burn cds of my home mixes until it's fixed. When will this be? Knowing my form, someway down the line from here. Also, my Line 6 Vetta 2 combo amplifier returned from Brighton damaged... the master volume control broken off, a snapped spindle. (Probably happened in the van.) The amp will need to go back to Line 6 for a new volume pot, spindle and control knob fitting. These are distractions I could do without. I really need to be working on the new songs for my autumn tour, recording a new album to release at that time too. Plus I need to shoot new video footage to create a stage backdrop video. And design a tour programme, t-shirt etc. There's also several Dreamsville website things to deal with, more design work to complete for Carlsbro, the Nelsonica fan convention to try and pull together... No time to rest, as usual. Re Nelsonica: The venue I'd hoped to hire for this year's convention turned out to be horrendously expensive. I would have been looking at well over £8,000 plus to use the rooms I had in mind. It would have been a very nice venue, with comfortable facilities, but, it was way outside the budget. I'm now looking at an alternative venue and awaiting prices but... it may be that I have to rely on the old Duke Of Cumberland again this year... we'll see. If that proves the case, I'll research a better venue for next year's convention instead. That way I'll have more time to check out different options. With the workload I've had so far this year, plus the two Rosewood albums, the urgent need to build a new website, etc, etc, my convention plans have become somewhat last-minute. Hopefully, I can pull something together, even at this late stage. I'm still aiming at the end of October. Fingers crossed. Had an email from Matt Howarth, enquiring about the music for our Neon Cynic project. I've not sent him a CDr of the music I've created so far. I meant to and should have done this ages ago. I'll try to get something off to him this coming week. He's apparently finished all the visuals and has coloured the entire comicbook novel. The only thing that's needed now is my accompanying music. Here at home, (on the 'domestic' front...) these last three days, we've had two of Emi's friends from Japan visiting us. I've been driving them around the Yorkshire tourist spots. Howarth yesterday... (adventures in Bronte land), and today we're off to Whitby. The intention is to introduce them to 'The White Horse And Griffin' and its seafood delights... if I can drag myself away from this diary and actually get dressed, that is. Must hurry It's a bank holiday weekend and the roads will be a nightmare. Caravans, pensioners, 'recreational' vehicles, 'people carriers' full of screaming kids, whimpering dogs and snarling husbands. The usual highway of life. Luckily, I know some back roads and scenic routes. Top of page William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) May 2005 Feb Mar Apr Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

Don't Argue single - 1987 Cabaret Voltaire Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Guitar Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Secret Club for Members Only Bill Nelson album - 27 October 2007 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Blues For A Broken Time Machine 02) Symphony In Golden Stereo 03) Station Clock In Cloud Of Steam 04) All Hail The Happy Captain 05) Boyhood Shadows 06) I Remember Marvelman 07) Secret Club For Members Only 08) Venus Over Vegas 09) Superhappyeverafter 10) The Futurian 11) Ghost Show 12) Jet Pack Jive 13) That Was A Beautiful Dream, She Said 14) Men In Search Of The Milky Bosom 15) Astron 16) Hey, Bill Diddley! ALBUM NOTES: Secret Club for Members Only is an album mixing vocal and instrumental pieces issued exclusively for Nelsonica ‘07 on the Discs of Ancient Odeon label. Due to the previous convention CD selling out in 11 days, the decision was made to increase the print run of Secret Club to 1000 copies, although this was not declared in advance (maybe to protect interest in the convention). In a genuine attempt to stem the practice of selling the Nelsonica CDs for extortionate prices, the decision was also taken to officially offer copies of Secret Club at 'Buy It Now' prices on eBay over the Nelsonica weekend. This back-fired to a degree, and caused some criticism on the Dreamsville Forum, as it left fans unsure whether to trust the listing. For whatever reason, this approach was never repeated. As soon as Nelsonica was over, the remaining copies of Secret Club for Members Only were sold through SOS, and on 14 January 2011 an announcement was made that the album had completely sold out. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download in the Dreamsville Store . IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY: Return to Jazz of Lights , Here Comes Mr Mercury , Arcadian Salon , Fantasmatron , Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms , Clocks & Dials , Astral Motel , Whims y BILL'S THOUGHTS: "I Remember Marvelman": "Weird and Beard are very much tongue in cheek...those who have the requisite background and are as old as me may have a knowing chuckle at the entire song. At least, that was my plan. The song refers to an English comic book hero from the '50's, 'Marvelman', whose everyday persona was a youngster called Mickey Moran. If Mickey shouted the word 'Kimota' a flash of power zapped down from the skies and transformed him into the mighty Marvelman. If you reverse the word 'Kimota' and change the 'k' to 'c' it spells 'Atomic'. (And Mickey's surname only needs a one letter change to transform it into 'Moron'. Don’t know if this is what the character's creator intended though!) The "weird" and "beard" refer to '50's beatniks, as perceived by the popular media of the time. The connection of that with Marvelman is an obscure but personally resonant one and I approached the song in a humorous, pop-art, nouveau-kitsch, bubble-pop spirit of surrealism style. It's meant to raise a smile and the Dali-esque eyebrow of absurdity. OK, so it's an art-student's song. As someone once said, "the art school ball goes on forever". And I'm just an old-school beardy-weirdy art student at heart!" _____ Bill's Listening Suggestion of the Day: "From my cabinet of musical erotica: "Men in Search of the Milky Bosom". (And let's face it gentlemen, old habits die hard...) This one comes from the Secret Club for Members Only album and takes a quiet, improvised, piano-led path over a mid-tempo trip-hoppy beat. For those of you into compiling compatible tracks, this would sit nicely alongside some of the piano-based pieces on the Theatre of Falling Leaves album. Music for a bedroom lit only by scented candles and shining eyes." FAN THOUGHTS: Peter: "My god, Bill...you are simply amazing. What it must be like to have that much unbelievably great music just flowing through your being...you are blessed, dude, blessed. As are we who are lucky enough to be listening. Pity the fools who are missing out on all this musical treasure." Sue: "I love the title track, it has a really different feel to it...dark, brooding and mysterious." Pathdude: “Jet Pack Jive”: “is the highlight of the album (although it’s crammed full of goodness).” emotionalhooligan: "JET PACK JIVE": "..............what a track. Proper old school Nelson." PhilK: "I think of all Bill's albums I have this one has the near perfect mix of vocal and instrumental tracks. Particular favourites for me are: "Station Clock in Cloud of Steam" (my current favourite Bill track, an absolutely beautiful instrumental, perfect for chilling to). "Symphony in Golden Stereo" "Boyhood Shadows" "The Futurian" "All Hail the Happy Captain" "Men in Search of the Milky Bosom" "Hey, Bill Diddley!" In fact I could list the whole album, what other artist has so much high quality material to be able to give an album of this brilliance away to his fans [at Nelsonica ], amazing." major snagg: "This is high class collection of material...songs and melodic instrumentals. This is a fabulous CD. I've just been rediscovering the hidden jems on it. "Symphony in Golden Stereo", "Ghost Show", etc. These are just two that I like, and how different they are from each other. The first is a lush optimistic 'ballad' (?) and the later, an exciting up tempo, 'Rocker'! This is why I continue to be a 'fan' of Bill Nelson." A Kinder Light: "Symphony in Golden Stereo": "is really hitting home...I don't know why I'm surprised after all of this time that you continue to exceed your own high standards, but I have to tell you that these last five years or so have been an absolutely stellar period for those of us that are enjoying it." Merikan1: "I think that this one is highly underrated. A classic Nelsonica CD encompassing many styles and moods." Kalamazoo Kid: "Academically, I can get from "Heavenly Homes" to "Men in Search of the Milky Bosom," but 30 years have gone by between those songs and in our lives. It's the fact that BN has happily discarded his past to pursue his present (and imagine a bunch of futures) that makes the story worth following. I've certainly enjoyed BN's nostalgia for the past, but only because it has been refracted through steadily older and more restless perspectives - and communicated through dramatically different aesthetic approaches. Change is the measure of life. Stasis is the measure of death. And Bill Nelson is alive and well at 60 - which puts him in a class nearly by himself, in any artistic genre at any time in history. 60 is the age of retirement, of coasting, of resting on dusty laurels, of reunion tours, and of being 35 years past your last startling piece of new work - or of being 35 years dead. All hail BN, delighting and pissing people off into his seventh decade." Timbaugh: "My copy of Secret Club arrived yesterday...in the last week I obtained five of Bill's CDs and am yet to be disappointed...Sell your wife and buy the lot..." Albums Menu Future Past

Blip! More Listening Notes Go to Album Listening Notes to accompany the album Blip! by Bill Nelson General introduction: Towards the end of 2012 I began work on a series of recordings which were ultimately intended for release as a double album titled 'Grand Auditoria.' The idea behind 'Grand Auditoria' was that it would touch on the diverse musical styles explored throughout my life as a musician. I hoped each track would reflect a different genre from my past, but with a contemporary twist. These were not to be re-arrangements of old songs but brand new compositions. The album would feature rock, pop, jazzy instrumentals, acoustic pieces, neo-classical orchestral compositions, minimalist electronica, ambient and avant- garde experiments, and so on. It would be a way of celebrating the breadth of my music over the years and, hopefully, illuminate the threads that tie it all together. As each track for the project was completed, I set it to one side and immediately began work on the next. I didn't dwell on the end result of each piece, didn't even listen back to it beyond the final mix but eagerly moved on in anticipation of the next track. Gradually, over some months, enough pieces were completed to fill the album's proposed two discs. I called a halt to the recording process and listened through to the accumulated tracks to choose a running order. To my surprise, (and somewhat to my horror,) I realised that what had actually emerged from the months of 'heads down' writing and recording was not at all what I'd originally had in mind. True, there was a certain amount of variety in the material but it appeared to have followed a far more 'pop and rock' direction than I'd originally hoped for. Worryingly, I had no idea why this was the case. I couldn't recall any particular inner or outer reason for it straying into such territory. Somehow, it just turned out that way, seemingly of its own accord. Creating music in such an intensely focused and seamless manner can instigate a sort of trance- state in the mind of the musician or composer. Hours melt into days into weeks into months and life beyond the studio door becomes an intrusion. I often feel as if I'm existing in an intermediary realm between sensible, pragmatic reality and something far more nebulous, otherworldly and strange. No matter how poetic or romantic that particular description may sound, I am not entirely convinced that such a realm is a desirable or healthy place to locate one's life but, worryingly, it seems that I've long ago lost the will or ability to escape. Eventually I had to concede that 'Grand Auditoria' had been weirdly hi-jacked by something just beyond my reach and it became clear to me that this was now quite a different album from my original concept and as such required a new title to suit its altered nature. So... I temporarily put the 'Grand Auditoria' idea to one side for possible future use and decided to re- think the album's title to better embrace the music that had emerged from the months of recording. Almost immediately after making the decision to shift my creative gears the word 'blip' came to mind. It made me think of an unexpected event emerging from an ocean of possibilities, a bubble on the surface of a calm pool, a 'blip on the radar,' a happy surprise, a little explosion of air and light against a dark background. The word seemed to resonate with the way this music had 'popped up' out of the void, and it evoked a sound, an acoustic-organic, but also synthetic-electronic sound. It was this coincidental sound inference which led me to the idea of creating short instrumental pieces to link the main vocal tracks together. This, I realised, would be a similar approach to the abstract guitar instrumentals I'd used to link the songs on the 'Joy Through Amplification' album, though this time I would be working with more whimsical, analogue synth textures. I immediately began to record some brief 'linking' pieces, recording them quickly and resisting the temptation to polish them too vigourously. The intention was that they would be be simple, direct, relaxed...light, concise and, hopefully, fun. Just as with the 'Ampex' interludes on the July 2012 'Joy Through Amplification' album, listeners are free to treat them as an album within an album or, alternatively, a set of 'sonic sorbets' to refresh their ears between main courses. Once these interludes were recorded and set in place within the general running order I then made the decision to release the album as a single disc, rather than as a double, choosing certain tracks for inclusion over others, tracks which I felt offered the listener a more cohesive, developmental journey from the beginning of the album to its conclusion. The tracks which were 'left over' from this process have been gathered together to create a limited edition, hand-signed CDR album, which I am giving as an exclusive bonus to those fans who have supported the 'BLIP!' pre-release launch party by attending the event. This limited edition pressing bears the title 'The Tremulous Doo-Wah-Diddy, (BLIP 2.') It further illuminates the process by which these recordings came about. It also has some more loosely arranged songs with longer improvisational sections. Well, that's the background to the album. Now here is a track by track breakdown: 1: 'BATS AT BEDTIME.' 'Bats At Bedtime' wouldn't have felt out of place on the 'Joy Through Amplification' album. It's perhaps my favourite track on the album, which is why it's right up front. I've incorporated non-musical sounds into my music for many years and this track features the sound of the jack plug on the end of an electric guitar cable being shorted out by tapping it on the edge of a metal table which supports my mixing desk in my home studio. The same sound also works in unison with the bass drum in the first verse of the song. One of the guitars is heavily fuzzed and features a broken, asymmetrical solo with both fuzz and octave divider effects. As well as the bass and drums and layers of guitars, an imaginary, utterly synthetic Indian orchestra enters for the bridge section. The opening lyrics make a surreal, 'wink-wink' reference to 'The Wizard Of Oz,' as follows: "I am the great and powerful Oz, I am the wizard of what once was, I am ecstatic, drunk and giddy, I am the tremulous doo-wah-diddy-wah-diddy..." After an instrumental section the lyrics continue: "I drive a blue car through the stars, in search of miracles and small surprises, boost my mind into bloom of Spring, bumble bees and bats at bedtime..." More Indian orchestra, then a segue into a gentle coda with chiming guitar and ambient choir. 2: 'YOU DO LIKE MUSIC?' (BLIP No 1.) This is the first of the short Blip interlude instrumental tracks. It's based on a found voice sample which speaks the tune's title. Perhaps this piece connects with my 'Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus' album in that it conjures up a whimsical sci-fi carnival atmosphere via its plastic, '60s Farfisa organ and space-age waltz time rhythm. It's patently a track with its tongue set firmly in its cheek, a candy-floss, sugar pink confection, an antique seaside postcard apparition, a steam-driven fantasy written for a parade of pavilion ghosts. 3: 'WHERE YOU IS, IS WHERE YOU ARE.' A combination of layered electric guitars, hard drums, distorted Hammond organ, bell-tone electric pianos, a subliminally pulsing string section and lyrics which suggest that we are only ever in the moment, even though our minds are constantly turning over past events and anticipating future ones. A sample of the lyrics: "I see the moth fly to the flame, I see myself in all but name, sometimes I feel like John Coltrane, like a saxophone in the pouring rain..." The ecstasy and exuberance of the artist versus the banality of the weather. A pair of wah-wah infected, neo-psychedelic guitar solos puncture the chiming backdrop, tubular bells enter later as the lyrics sing cheerfully of "ghosts in your window pane..." 4: 'BELL WEATHER.' (Blip No 2.) The second of the eleven Blip instrumental interludes. The title of this one goes some way towards describing its mood. Glockenspiel, a high pizzicato bass, synthetic strings, a brief, light-filled change of mood. Some things exist only in passing moments. 5: 'YOUR NAME COMPLETES THIS FREQUENCY.' A sort of techno-psychedelic fantasia embracing reversed guitars, fragmentary electronics, artificial strings, hovering synths and a lyric whose chorus states, "It seems to me that recently, your name completes this frequency..." A short, acid inflected pop-trip into luminous realms of the mind. 6: 'A DREAM OF THEE.' (Blip No 3.) Pulsing synths, sitar decorations, retro TR808 percussion, mini-moog squiggles suggesting a Blade Runner-like off-world exotica and a voice sample which anchors the title in a vague, mock-religious, nowhere-land...A chirping bird of an instrumental. Evaporates after only one minute and forty two seconds. 7: 'THE FABULOUS MR FUTURISMO.' Begins with a brief soundscape of abstract noise, leading into an angular piano, radio dial and orchestra riff. The lyrics sing thus: "The Captain's captured his caution horses/kept their treasure in crystal cages...The fabulous Mr Futurismo/waves from his window high in the sky..." A full orchestra joins the piece stating an oblique melodic theme. Elements akin to 'The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill' album begin to colour the mood before the lyric sing : "Where were you when the snow was falling...where were you when the sun was rising..." Later there is mention of "pie in the sky." (Is that a God shaped pie or a corporate McDonalds one?) The mood shifts to describe a girl with a 'wiggly walk.' Guitars join the orchestral flow as the song winds its way to a rusty needle-static coda, distressed and patinated. But just who is this nebulous Mr Futurismo? A time-travelling philanthropist from some utopian world of Far Tomorrow? A techno-gnostic being from beyond space and time? Or, your next door neighbour who has the secret ability to levitate through the ceiling of his 1930s semi-detached bungalow and hover like an angel under silver suburban stars? Well...only you know the answer... 8: 'SPARKLETTE.' (BLIP No 4.) Another brief instrumental interlude, this one hinting at the textures and moods of the 'Model Village' album, but with a central glockenspiel motif. Also connects with certain tracks from the 'Picture Post' album. The title comes from the name of a vintage soda water syphon company. I do enjoy creating music inspired by the minutiae of memory! 9: 'YOUR SEXY THUNDER.' Another of my personal favourites from this album. Possibly a song about sexual dalliance, or at least flirtation. It begins with a stuttering electric guitar and a brief blast of electronic sound before mutating into a kind of twisted heavy metal riff over an asymmetric, crippled drum pattern. Features wah-wah guitar, a non-linear arrangement and lyrics which state: "I saw your luxury lingerie in a dream inside my head, you were in my most mysterious thoughts, here in my celestial bed...Your sexy thunder, was always under my skin..." Chorus changes to a more major key mood with Blackpool Tower organ overtones. Wailing, ecstatic wah-wah guitar spurts crazily. Mad piano ending. This too could have fitted nicely on the 'Joy Through Amplification' album. 10: 'METEOR BRIDGE.' (Blip No 5.) A mysterious start leads to a rattling percussion loop and a squirmy mini-moog melody followed by a cute, bleeping bridge and more moog style leads lines...brief piano section followed by mock '80s synth horns. A track filled with deliberately cheesy, '80s synth irony. The title is a play on 'Meter Bridge,' the area of a recording studio's mixing desk which houses its VU meters. Is this real or is it Memorex? 11: 'IN A CLOUD OF STARS.' Keyboard intro, joined by pulsing string quartet then french horn, oboe, xylophone and choir, leading to melodic, harmonised vocals. The opening lyrics state: "Restless are the ides of March, the wind that howls beneath God's arch...but here at home by hearth and fire, I fan the flames of heart's desire..." A neo-classical hymn to nostalgic, romanticised domesticity, or something like that. 12: 'BRIGHT AND GLITTERING.' (Blip No 6.) Another brief instrumental interlude. This one has a rather spooky feel with electronic percussion, electric piano, flanged synth and a sampled voice which repeats the phrase "Bright and glittering in the smokeless air..." An airship gliding by, high in golden sunlight. 13: 'WHIRLWIND WINTERS WIND THE CLOCKS OF SPRING.' Floating synths, reggae organ, sub-bass, filtered guitar, hand-bells, mellotron-flutes and lyrics which begin "There's a half moon in the sky, a full moon in her eye, but right now the sun is shining in her garden...Birds are singing in the trees, her skirts are blowing in the breeze, and I'm down on my knees to please my darling..." As John Peel might have said: 'a song in praise of fair weather and sturdy thighs.' 14: 'FLUTTERBYE.' (Blip No 7.) The title is a play on the word 'butterfly,' which infants sometimes charmingly pronounce as 'flutterbye.' This short instrumental evokes the shining flight of a cabbage-white butterfly as it dances, Tinkerbell-like, amongst the flowers of an idealised English country garden. Mini-Moog lines and a delicately arpeggiated keyboard backdrop hark back to my earliest synth recordings on albums such as 'Sounding The Ritual Echo' and 'The Summer Of God's Piano.' 15: 'PAINTING YOUR SKY WITH MARVELLOUS BIRDS.' A gentle, trippy ballad decorated by speeded-up backwards guitars, clockwork percussion, electric piano, floating synths and, on an extended coda, a twisted sample of an orchestra which, with the addition of further guitars, gradually transforms into something a little more sinster. Opening lyrics are "Soft treble sings in amber light and all is well beyond the night..." 16: 'PURE IMAGINATION.' (Blip No 8.) This retro-styled instrumental interlude has an almost cartoon like atmosphere...toytown reggae with a munchkin-like sampled voice. Lead lines are handled by a series of mini-moog tones evoking some of the synth sounds used on Be Bop Deluxe's 'Ships In The Night.' A short burst of musical surrealism. 17: 'NO TWO THOUGHTS.' A strange one, this. Opening lyrics state: "Weird thoughts wind my clockwork brain...and no two thoughts are ever the same..." Sung over a repetitive, filtered choir sample,Wurlitzer piano and electro-bleeps. The chorus shifts gear and becomes pseudo-romantic with smooth synths, chiming guitar and lyrics which sing of 'lantern light.' A love song for shiny robots. The song ends with a short coda which changes the landscape yet again. 18: 'AEOLIAN MAGIC.' (Blip No 9.) The word 'aeolian' comes from the greek god 'Aeolus,' the god of wind in greek myth. An 'Aeolian Harp' is a stringed instrument whose strings produce sound when the wind blows across them. This short keyboard instrumental does not attempt to evoke a wind harp but used a sampled voice which speaks the track's title over a brisk percussion track, electric piano, synths and orchestra. Another blip on the radar. 19: 'DARLING STAR.' Opens with electric guitar, keyboards and e-bow. First verse lyrics sing: "Sunday morning's little swimmers, seek thou swift the sleeping egg..." Reverse guitars and choir lead to the repeated refrain "Holy River...Holy River..." Features guitar solos which change texture and direction throughout and a trippy looped guitar coda. I didn't quite realise until after recording the song that it is probably about the mystical nature of conception and the urge of life's essence towards incarnation and birth. Sometimes interpretation comes after the event of creation. 20: 'DAZZLE.' (Blip No 10.) The title is spoken by a sampled voice over pulsing synth and jigsaw-puzzle toy xylophone patterns on this short instrumental interlude. 21: 'AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.' Another of my favourites on the album and, in some ways, one of the 'straighter' more orthodox tracks. Predominantly guitar driven, this is a philosophical sort of song with lyrics which state: "Man goes to the mountain, the mountain disappears...Man goes to the fountain, with all his hopes and fears...Behind the wizard's curtain, nothing to be found, of this I am quite certain, our clocks are all unwound..." The song contains two nice, contrasting guitar solos and coda with guitars that peal like church bells. 22: 'I DANCED IN A DREAM.' (Blip No 11.) The final instrumental interlude and the last track on the album...A sampled voice states the track's title over a hybrid acoustic guitar/harpsichord pattern whilst a distant choir and curious backwards sounds decorate. Little melodies emerge from synths to dance freely over all. Ends with the words "And everything glowed with a gleam..." Music and Lyrics Copyright Bill Nelson 2013 All Rights Reserved. More Listening Notes Go to Album

Acquitted By Mirrors - Issue Twelve - Published July 1985 Back to Top

Blackwater single - 1991 Rain Tree Crow Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Guitar on A-side. Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Cinema Menu Miscellaneous Videos Interviews, appearances & selected oddities The Making Of Futurama - May 2019 Bill Nelson chats with Cherry Red's Mark Powell, telling the story behind the making of Be Bop Deluxe's 1975 album 'Futurama'. The Making Of Sunburst Finish - Feb 2019 In this mini-documentary, Bill Nelson & producer John Leckie tell the story behind the making of Be Bop Deluxe's legendary 1976 album 'Sunburst Finish'. Fairview @ 50 - Bill Nelson Interview - 2017 An interview with Bill which was included in the compilation album 'Fairview @ 50' Bill shares fond memories of recording at Fairview, both as a solo artist and on various other projects throughout the years. His track 'Playbox' was included on the album. Bill Nelson: Blip album launch and solo concert - 2013 Bill Nelson Blip album launch and solo concert at the University of Leeds, June 2013. This is very much a 'fly on the wall' video edited from available footage. It features live excerpts from 'Gloria Mundae', 'I Always Knew You'd Find Me' and 'A Dream For Ian'. Bill Nelson - 40 Years Of Recordings - Interview by Mark Powell - 2011 This interview covers the entire career of Bill starting from the recording of his first album, 'Northern Dream;' in 1971 right through to his 8 CD retrospective box set 'The Practice Of Everyday Life' released in 2012. Bill Pesents Award to Duane Eddy - 2010 The MOJO Icon Award presented to Duane Eddy by Be-Bop Deluxe's Bill Nelson. Bill Nelson Interview - Nelsonica 07 - Part 1 Mike Robinson, President of Eastwood Guitars interviews Bill Nelson at Nelsonica 2007 - Part ONE. Recorded Oct 2007, YORK, United Kingdom. Bill Nelson Interview - Nelsonica 07 - Part 2 Mike Robinson, President of Eastwood Guitars interviews Bill Nelson at Nelsonica 2007 - Part TWO. Recorded Oct 2007, YORK, United Kingdom. Bill Nelson Interview - Nelsonica 07 - Part 3 Mike Robinson, President of Eastwood Guitars interviews Bill Nelson at Nelsonica 2007 - Part THREE. Recorded Oct 2007, YORK, United Kingdom. Bill Nelson Interview - Nelsonica 07 - Part 4 Mike Robinson, President of Eastwood Guitars interviews Bill Nelson at Nelsonica 2007 - Part FOUR. Recorded Oct 2007, YORK, United Kingdom. Bill Nelson Interview - Nelsonica 07 - Part 5 Mike Robinson, President of Eastwood Guitars interviews Bill Nelson at Nelsonica 2007 - Part FIVE. Recorded Oct 2007, YORK, United Kingdom. The Rhythm Sisters 'Infotainment' - 1991 Produced by Bill Nelson Bill Nelson Interview - 1985 A great interview broadcast on the Tyne Tees television show TX45. Bill Nelson Riverside Interview, BBC 2 - 1983 Mariella Frostrup interviews Bill Nelson for the music show Riverside. Including some great footage of Bill at work in the 'Echo Observatory'. Bill Nelson on 'Pop Quiz', BBC 1 - 09-04-1983 This popular TV show was hosted by Mike Read, featuring Bill as a team member with Steve Askew, under the captaincy of B.A Robertson. The second team consisted of Rick Wakeman and Stella Barker with captain David Grant. Cinema Menu

Dreamland To Starboard Bill Nelson album - 3 October 2004 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Girlfriend In Mini-Skirt 02) Creamy Clouds 03) Gondola 04) The Singing In The Air Above The Village Green 05) Lost To Tomorrow 06) I Am The Only Monster Here 07) Burnished 08) Tarnished 09) Radio Waves Lap Memory's Shore 10) Moments Flash Like Stars Between Them 11) Ghost Of Gilded Ruin 12) Circo Infantil 13) Standard Fireworks 14) All A Dream, After All 15) The Diving Bell 16) My Ever Gleaming Dreamertron 17) All's Well In Wonderland ALBUM NOTES: Dreamland to Starboard is an album of guitar instrumentals issued in a one off print run on the Universal Twang label. It is believed that 1000 copies were pressed. The album was one of three albums issued on the same day (initially available on the merchandise table on the Be Bop Deluxe and Beyond tour). Copies were then sold via S.O.S. Dreamland to Starboard sold out in January 2006. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Dreamland to Starboard is one of those albums that I'll always be able to stand by, to be eternally proud of, and one which, I predict, will rate high in my list of musical achievements. I think that it is a FAR more sophisticated recording than Romance of Sustain and, for me at least, fits perfectly into a guitar pantheon alongside Plaything and Rosewood Volume One . Add Practically Wired to these three and you have, perhaps, THE defining statement regarding my guitar instrumental work. A quartet of six-string dreams." _____ "There is a thread that runs from The Romance of Sustain right through, Plaything , Wah-Wah Galaxy , Dreamland to Starboard , Rosewood Vol 1 and Rosewood Volume 2 . It's the story of my instrumental guitar style in 21st Century terms. All these albums, along with some of the guitar instrumental tracks from Luxury Lodge and Astral Motel give you a complete picture of where my guitar dreams are these days." FAN THOUGHTS: BenTucker: "This album presses all my buttons. I regard it as a crime that it's not enjoyed by millions." "Dreamland to Starboard sounds, to me, almost crystalline, cerebral - but also has that romantic/emotional depth characteristic of Bill's music." Peter: "A fascinating album, this one. Rich with guitary goodness, dripping with invention and adventure. Not one of those albums with lots of layered production -- more stripped down and airy. Many songs don't even include percussion. "One major stand-out for me, personally, is "I Am the Only Monster Here," which struck me as what it would sound like if you could clone Bill, give the other Bill a guitar and then have the two Bill's face off in a jazz-style "guitar duel". The wonderful jazzy soloing is amazing. Another one I especially like is "Tarnished", which is just really lovely, as is the next track, "Radio Waves Lap Memory's Shore". So much to like here, Bill...love it." krieger: "Can't avoid listening Dreamland to Starboard without a smile on my face..." Sue: "Loved it, beautiful perfection in one album." Twilightcapers: "Dreamland is better than Romance or Custom Deluxe . As you say, deeper, more textural. Very trippy and dreamlike." Dar: "My Ever Gleaming Dreamatron": "The sort of thing you could go get lost in and never come back, finding yourself with no reasons to ever want to either." steve lyles: "I had Dreamland to Starboard playing at high volume and was struck (once again) by the absolute beauty of this recording, it is one of those rare pieces that flows and entwines the listener...a timeless quality." "My Ever Gleaming Dreamatron": "is pure brilliance...Dreamland to Starboard I have never found to be difficult listening...but Bill's work just seems to hit my G spot." "I often wonder how Bill Nelson can come up with so many beautiful pieces of music...and then go on to do even more." Albums Menu Future Past

Do You Dream in Colour? Bill Nelson single - 9 May 1980 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A) Do You Dream In Colour? B1) Ideal Homes B2) Instantly Yours B3) Atom Man Loves Radium Girl ORIGINALLY: A) appeared to be a non-album track upon release, but eventually (nearly 12 months later) ended up on the Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam album. B-sides) were all non-album tracks. NOTES: Do You Dream in Colour? was the first release to be promoted solely under Nelson's name since the Northern Dream album in 1971. This 7" single was the debut release on Nelson's own Cocteau Records, and sold well enough on release to achieve a respectable No. 52 on the UK singles chart. It helped to raise Bill's profile after Red Noise were dropped by EMI, and led to a new solo deal with Mercury. The single was promoted by a video that Nelson directed, made on a shoe string budget. Shot in a combination of colour and black and white, the video made imaginative use of mask, props (such as a rocking horse and various items of technology) with Nelson in bed seemingly connected to monitors being used to decipher his dreams. The exact same 7" single was later included in the Permanent Flame box set of five 7" singles in 1982. In 1989 a 7" pressing in a die cut Cocteau sleeve was released featuring exclusive edited versions of both "Do You Dream in Colour?" and "Life in Your Hands". It is believed that the edit in "Do You Dream in Colour?" (removing the line "Video Junkie Looking for a Fix") was done to encourage BBC Radio 1 to play the song. PAST RELEASES: A) was included on Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam and on the What Now, What Next? compilation. All 3 b-sides were available on The Two Fold Aspect of Everything comp (available from Bandcamp). B2) was also available on The Strangest Things compilation (out of print). CURRENT AVAILABILITY: "Do You Dream in Colour?" is available on the remastered Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam CD (Mercury, 2005). It is also available on The Practice of Everyday Life , which is out of print physically, but available as a digital download. All tracks are available on the remastered Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam box set (Esoteric Recordings 2025). B1, B2 & B3 are available on the retrospective compilation album Transcorder (The Acquitted By Mirrors Recordings) . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "I started Cocteau Records in retaliation to the dropping of my recordings by EMI. "Do You Dream In Colour?" (which I secured from the EMI contract), was the first ever Cocteau Records release. It was prior to Phonogram's involvement." _____ "You have to remember that Red Noise was intended to be a 'flexible' project, rather than a fixed band with a fixed style or line-up. The whole purpose of moving on from Be Bop Deluxe was to escape being stereotyped and to avoid the limitations imposed by product and audience expectations. "In that respect, you might say that every album I've made since Be Bop has been a Red Noise album! So, yes, whilst many of the songs that were recorded immediately after the Sound-On-Sound album were somewhat different, they were, at that time, intended to be released under the 'Red Noise' umbrella. But, when the deal with EMI ended, I just thought, what the heck, just put it out under my own name." _____ "There was also a problem with the lyric 'video junkie looking for a fix' which the BBC interpreted, (quite wrongly), as being indicative of heroin addiction. It was merely about people who can't pull themselves away from their tv set, people whose lives exist only via an obsessive involvement with tv soap operas and suchlike. Anyway, the BBC refused to play the record with those lyrics and I seem to recall eventually having to make a mix with the offending line replaced by something else, purely for radio." _____ "Made the "Do You Dream in Colour?" video myself, way, way back in time. Filmed it on my super-8 home cine-camera in Haddlesey house which was then my home. My brother Ian is in the Monroe mask, me in the Superman and old man mask. My ex-wife Jan is the Pierrot on the rocking horse at the end. Lighting was done by borrowing a couple of old coal miner's pit lamps from a friend who worked as a mining engineer. I had no means of auto-synching the film to the soundtrack so the final edits were synched by hand, which took AGES. Nevertheless, it's a quirky, humorous and surreal piece of filmic art, is it not?" Singles Menu Future Past

Still Looking For Heaven On Earth album - 1987 Crazy House Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Guitar on three songs: "Burning Rain", "Feel the Fire" and "Shake (Sell Your Soul)". Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

The Dreamsville Poetry Experiment Free download track Click image for cover Artwork Special FREE download track - Released December 2007. THE DREAMSVILLE POETRY EXPERIMENT Currently unavailable on any album The Dreamsville Poetry Experiment was based on contributions to the Dreamsville Poetry Experiment. Bill asked participants to submit a line for a 'found' poem. The project created a 69 line surrealist poem for which Bill composed a unique 13 minute musical accompaniment/soundtrack. Lyrics by the 69 contributors...see lyric sheet for details. Written, performed, recorded and produced by Bill Nelson. All rights Bill Nelson 2007.

Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen Bill Nelson album - 26 April 2017 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen 02) Atoms Orbit Around The Sun 03) I'm Dancing 04) From Another World 05) The Golden Soul Of You 06) Science Fiction Times 07) Wonder Of The Age 08) Dark Is The Spark 09) The Void Beyond The Line 10) Old Haunts 11) Emptiness Sings (A Lonely Boy) 12) Monster Man 13) Shine Your Light 14) Paradise And Purgatory 15) Shining Through 16) Hello, Hello 17) Golden Spacemen Rock N' Roll ALBUM NOTES: Kid Flip and the Golden Spacemen is a vocal album issued as a digital download only on the Tremelo Boy Records label. Work on the album commenced in mid-November 2016 and was completed in a little over 2 weeks. Nelson first announced the track listing on Dreamsville on 12 March 2017, revealing it to be a 17 track, 71 minute collection. With the mastering session booked for a few days’ time, Nelson remixed and partly re-recorded his vocal for the title track. Mastering of the album took place on 14 March 2017 concurrently with The Awakening of Dr Dream , issued later that month. Kid Flip and the Golden Spacemen was released on April 26th, 2017. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "I've got the creative bee in my bonnet at the moment and am now working on another new album. This one firmly in the rock and vocal camp for all you retrograde types out there. "I've no idea when this one will surface, as I've only just begun to work on it, and there's an absolute treasure trove of music, (of different kinds), already awaiting future release...but it's a fluid situation with albums being made available purely on a whim at the moment... "But, right now, I'm laying down tracks for this new rock/vocal album which seems to have a flavour of 'Be Bop Deluxe' about it. Tentative, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, its title is Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen (Tales Of An Imaginary Band)." _____ "Kid Flip is a fairly heavy, rock orientated, vocal album. Those of you who gravitate towards the more noisy rock albums, (particularly with vocals), will find Kid Flip particularly exciting." _____ "Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen is actually about an imaginary rock band. (I guess a more contemporary version of "Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus" though musically nothing like that track...it's much more rock and less pop.) The lyrics go: "Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen, playing blues in a bar in heaven...Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen, turn their amps up to number eleven..." " _____ "My idea is to make it sound like an imaginary band, the 'Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen' of the album's title. I'm picturing them playing in a big hall in some illusory world...I've produced many of the tracks to sound like a band playing live, captured with the raw edge and lo-fi qualities that often accompany live gigs. The tracks surge and pump, throb and punch as if you were hearing the music from the back of a concert hall. It sounds pretty exciting, if a bit raw and slightly punishing." FAN THOUGHTS: andygeorge: "Another little gem from Bill, highlighting his knack of 'knocking out', for want of a better phrase, instant pop.....lovely melodies here, both vocal and instrumental, from the very catchy opener "Kid Flip" to the closing track "Golden Spacemen Rock and Roll"...fantastic guitar! ...and the ones in between like "The Golden Soul of You", "Monster Man" and "I'm Dancing"...instant favourites!..." CoachMatt: "Science Fiction Times", "Dark is the Spark": "are pure gems! And the funk of "Monster Man"...o yes Bill...getting funky! "Shine Your Light" has a wonderful breezy feeling, telling us about the times we live in I believe. And "Golden Spacemen Rock N' Roll", ya gotta love the sentimental beauty this song rings out, and how Bill can undoubtedly make a guitar sing, rip, and explode with joy! I am totally enjoying the tunes through my short lunch period and looking forward to putting the headphones on!" BobK: "Blimey, I ferl like dancing! What a super fun album this is. I think i need to sit down, knees are hurting a bit....." Uncle Sam Humanoid: "I am really liking this one... Awesome album Bill, You're certainly on a roll sir!!!" December Man: "Nice to see (hear) this pop-rock manifestation of Bill(y) (the Kid) surface. First listen after downloading today and loving the vibrations of 6 heavenly strings in the skilled hands of one Mr Nelson!" major snagg: "I'm really enjoying Kid Flip . "Golden Spacemen Rock N' Roll" and "The Golden Soul of You" are firm favourites already." "How lucky we are to have so much great music as a soundtrack to our lives in these troubled times." Albums Menu Future Past

Nelsonian Navigator - Issue Two - Published December 1995 Back to Top

The Lockdown Song (It's All Downhill From Here) Free download single Click image for cover Artwork FREE download single covering some of the issues associated with the Coronavirus pandemic - Released November 2020. THE LOCKDOWN SONG (It's All Downhill From Here) Currently unavailable on any album Performed, recorded and produced by Bill Nelson. All rights Bill Nelson 2020.