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

So...who is Bill Nelson? Founder of Be-Bop Deluxe in 1973, guitarist Bill Nelson, with the exception of one track, wrote all of the bands material. Signed to EMI, the band released five studio albums and scored a top ten UK hit with the single "Ships In The Night." In 1979 Bill disbanded Be-Bop Deluxe and launched Red Noise whose 'Sound-On-Sound' album is often cited as an inspiration by many younger bands. Bill then formed his own independent record label, Cocteau Records, and throughout the 80's and 90's he released many solo albums as well as collaborating with other musicians such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, David Sylvian, Harold Budd, The Associates, Cabaret Voltaire, Sandy And The Sunsets and Channel Light Vessel. As a producer he has worked on albums for Roger Eno, The Skids, Gary Numan, The Units, The Rhythm Sisters, Nash The Slash and many others. Bill has composed and recorded music for film, television and theatrical productions. Since 2000 he has released many solo albums on his own label. Explore this website to discover the astounding amount of work that Bill has created throughout his career!

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

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

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) April 2007 Jan Feb May Jul Sep Oct Nov Dec Tuesday 24th April 2007 -- 9:00 pm Was it really as long ago as Februrary that I posted my previous diary entry? Almost the end of April now and the gaps between writing seem longer and longer. Unfortunately, because of this, each subsequent entry contains a punishingly large amount of text. Unavoidable if I'm to allow the reader to catch up on what's been going on in my life, I suppose. But a less than desirable situation, I'm afraid. Let me see if I can possibly limit this diary entry to essentials, even though I suspect that it's the less essential ramblings that provide my readers with the most revealing and entertaining experience. There's an element of voyourism involved in scanning these pages after all. (Isn't there?) Perhaps there's also an element of exhibitionism involved in the writing of them. So...a kind of symbiotic relationship. Well, let's not worry unduly about that. Just accept it as one more aspect of the artist/audience dynamic. AIl part of the act. Yesterday was emotionally difficult. April 23rd marked the first year since my brother Ian passed away. It would also have been his 51st birthday. The fact that it feels like only yesterday that I first wrote about losing him in this diary is a testimony to the fact that I'm far from over it. It's exactly 12 months ago yesterday but still so vivid and fresh and shocking. So sharp it cuts to the heart. Emi and I attended a memorial service for him at a church in Wakefield on Sunday the 22nd. Ian's wife Diane was there, along with Ian's daughter and two sons and several good friends of Ian's. My one-time painting tutor from my Wakefield Art-School days in the '60's, Peter Murray, was there too. He is better known, these days, as the founder and current director of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where Ian worked happily for several years. Also present was Ian's good friend and musical collaborator, John Nixon. John informed me that the cd album that he and Ian had been working on will very soon be available for purchase. He is awaiting an immanent delivery of stock from the manufacturers. Of course, the memorial service poured salt into what is still an open wound for many of us. It was an emotional and at times uncomfortable event. Painful to get through. Ian would probably not have been particularly enthusiastic about the idea, being very much 'anti-churchianity' and highly sceptical of anything to do with religion or for what passes as 'spirituality' these days. His acid wit regarding such things would have turned holy water to dry dust. In this respect he was very much like my late father who regarded any religious matter as a fair target for a thorough tongue-thrashing. Certainly, there were moments of what Ian would have interpreted as high absurdity. I could hear his voice, twisting the sermons and hymn lyrics around until they shrieked with Dadaist humour.The two of us, if we'd been standing side by side, would have had all on to contain ourselves, outraged one minute, reduced to giggles the next. Not nice for those sincere and devout people who find solace in this kind of thing. And, as the service was for several people who had lost loved ones, there were members of the congregation who, I'm sure, sincerely benefitted from the event. It's far easier to pour scorn than have faith, I guess. Nevertheless, regardless of any religious cynicism, Ian is still around in the lives of those of us who love him. Whether this 'around' is created by supernatural means or by the heartbeat of personal memory depends on one's philosophical point of view. His framed photograph hangs on my studio wall, just above and to the left of my keyboards, (as I've probably mentioned before in this diary). In the photograph he is blowing his saxophone with what, in the literature of my youth, would be referred to as 'gusto.' And this was how he lived his life, with GUSTO, with abandon, with an appetite for the joyous, laughing moment. And, (it has to be said), sometimes without thought for his own health and well-being. How well I know and understand that temptation, being far from immune to self-abandonment myself. (Shhh...don't tell anyone.) But we choose our personal path and follow it, regardless of the judgement or advice of others. We live our OWN lives our own way, for better or worse. After the memorial service, we all, (family and friends), went to the cemetary and stood around Ian's grave, waiting for him to show up and make fun of us. A big bouquet of flowers, sent by my cousin Ian, (after whom my brother is named), was laid on top of the grass in front of the grey marble headstone with its silver lettering and musical note motif. The trees that line the little avenue that leads through the cemetary to Ian's resting place were abundant with spring blossoms. If our hearts could have charmed him to appearance, he would have been there amongst us in 3-D and technicolour. Actually, no doubt about it, for a moment, He WAS there.. ("Fuck off," comes Ian's voice, "no bloody resurrections for Christ's sake!") Then, my mother, Ian's three children, (Lucy, Louis and Julian), Emiko and I drove up to 'The Kings Arms' pub at Heath Common, on the edge of Wakefield. I've written about this place before, how it was a haunt of my art-school years in the '60's, how it is 'woody' and 'stoney' and full of ghosts and gaslamp atmosphere...how I sometimes had a drink there with my brother in years gone by. Yes, I've written about it, I'm sure... Anyway, we all ate a meal together in the modern conservatory built onto the rear of the pub. I much prefer the older part of the building with it's unspoilt, oak panelled, gaslit, low ceilinged dark, tobacco-stained rooms, but there were no available tables for us all to sit together so the conservatory had to do. I felt that this provided a much needed opportunity to sit down and relax with my nephews and niece. They don't really know me quite as well as I'd like them to...not their fault, mine entirely, being so insular and pre-occupied with my music. I guess I'm not the easiest person to get to know. Still, I hope that I can correct this shameful fault in some way, I hope that my nephews and niece can grow to understand their father even more from my own fond memories of the childhood years (and beyond), that Ian and I shared. Ian's eldest son, Julian, is to be married in June of this year. Emi and I and Elle and Elliot are all invited and we're very much looking forward to attending the wedding. The Nelson family NEED something to look forward to at the moment, something connected with joy and hope for the future. There's been far too much sadness. Another positive note: My stepfather George is now out of hospital and on the way to recovery. The major surgery he underwent has left him skinny and frail, but he's on the mend. The current priority is to fatten him up. All the foods he was once advised to avoid he's now been told to devour as often as possible, (the things we all love but fear are not good for us). Until he reaches a weight appropriate to good health that is. My mother is much relieved to have him back at home and I'm relieved to see at least a little of her burden lifted. She worried terribly about him when he was in the hospital but, hopefully, things will improve for them both from here on. I drove to Wakefield again yesterday, (Monday 23rd), to take my mother up to the cemetary once more, but this time to deliver personal bouquets and birthday cards to Ian. Just mum and I there, in the light April rain and wind, cleaning and arranging flowers. What remains of the Wakefield skyline of my long lost childhood slipped in and out of my peripheral vision like a half-glimpsed ghost. I took a tissue, soaked it under the nearby water tap and used it to wipe clean some bird shit from Ian's headstone. Strange that whenever we go there on this particular date, to remember both his coming and his going, (a shocking irony), it will always be spring and the trees will be heavy with blossom. Just as they were on Monday. Nature continues to renew itself in the midst of our sadness, indifferent to the human condition and yet in perfect harmony with it. If I was a poet of any sort, perhaps I'd suggest that this was some kind of cruel but beautiful mystery. But what has been stemming the flow of this diary? What negative magic has banished words from these pages for so long? Depression? A stupidly intense work schedule? Well, yes, a lot of the latter and perhaps too much of the former. Dark night of the soul and all that. It seems, despite all efforts to the contrary, that I can be as angst-ridden and self-pitying as the next man. (Maybe even more so, given a chance to conjure a little love from out of the void.) A studio filled with brightly coloured toys does not neccesarily a Disney mentality make. Sometimes we're crippled by longings beyond easy articulation. Enough.... My Leeds University School Of Music concert is immanent, this coming Saturday in fact. (28th April.) I've spent at least three months physically working on it, ('though I'm sure the actual performance won't reflect this mad effort). Pointless or not, it's been non-stop: Long, long hours, every day, making new pieces of music, devising video backdrops to go with them, etc, etc. (11 new video pieces in total.) The audience won't ever realise just how much hard work has gone into this. It will probably appear seamless and effortless, just another concert. But it has taken SO much out of me. But why? And for what? Where's the point? I really can't answer that one. I genuinely don't understand why I should apply so much energy for such a meagre result. It's really not a sensible thing to do at all. Some might say that it borders on obsessive behaviour and is extremely unheathy. The latter point is clear to me: I've put on weight, sitting day after day in my little studio surrounded by buzzing electrical fields, getting no exercise, hunched over either a mixing desk or a computer keyboard. Absolutely crazy, stupid behaviour. Look...see? I'm still hunched here, tap tap tapping away. Went to 'The Clothworker's Hall' in Leeds today...the venue that I'm performing in on Saturday at Leeds University School Of Music. The purpose of the visit was to allow John Spence the opportunity to see the space he will be mixing my live sound in. Paul Gilby met us there too. He will be projectionist for the concert. It's a beautiful environment...perhaps much more suited to an acoustic classical recital than the guitar/electronica I will be unleashing there. A careful manipulation of sound levels will be needed to get the best of the space, acoustically. Not too loud, I think. The piano provided for my use sounds nice, a good action and a full size grand to boot. I won't be playing it a lot, but just a little. Same with the marimba...a hint of colour here and there. A tinkle and a twinkle, tap, tap, tappity tap. The totally improvised piece I'm hoping to perform with Steve Cook on keyboards now has a proper title. It will be called 'Seance In Suburban-Semi.' The title alludes to a seance I personally conducted at a suburban semi-detatched house in Stanley, on the edge of Wakefield at a Christmas party during the 1960's. I faked the 'results' of the seance to great effect. It scared the participants to the point where they ran shrieking from the house. The improvisation that Steve and I intend to embark upon on Saturday will have as much uncertainty and spookiness as that long ago party prank. Hopefully, the audience will remain in place, despite the uncertainty of the musicians. Here is the set list for Saturday's concert, minus the encore section. (Hopefully, there will be one!) Leeds University School Of Music Concert: April 28th 2007. 'Memories, Dreams And Gleaming Guitars.' SET LIST. 1: 'This Very Moment.' 2: 'Blue Amorini.' 3: 'Skylark's Rise.' 4: 'Beyond These Clouds,The Sweetest Dream.' 5: 'A Day To Remember.' 6: 'Fuzzy Dux.' 7: 'Only A Dream But Nevertheless.' 8: 'Steamboat In The Clouds.' 9: 'The Girl On The Fairground Waltzer.' 10: 'If I Were The Pilot Of Your Perfect Cloud.' 11: 'Neon Lights And Japanese Lanterns.' 12: 'Secret Club For Members Only.' 13: 'I Was A Junior Spaceman.' 14: 'Seance In Suburban-Semi.' (No backing track.) Loop piece. 15: 'A Dream For Ian.' Now a brief run through of other things before closing. This has already become a longer entry than planned. Spent a wonderful Easter weekend with my good friend Harold Budd and his family who were visiting Yorkshire. Went to Castle Howard, Harrogate and York...and a hidden village called Bolton Percy for Sunday lunch at 'The Crown' pub. Sam Smith's ales and Yorkshire pudding. All served in a tiny, unspoiled village pub with a tobacco-stained ceiling and hearty local chaps sporting natty waistcoats and World War Two Spitfire pilot's mustaches. A welcome break from my work schedule and, to tell the truth, a much needed one. Despite the guilt I felt at switching off my studio for a few days, the chance to sit and relax with Harold was such an easy joy. Prior to that, I'd taken in David Lynch's new film, 'Inland Empire,' at the local art cinema. Loved the rabbits...(Tremendous sound design too.) Blossoms out in our garden now, a riot of pink and white. Absolutely beautiful. So much still to prepare for Saturday's concert during what remains of this week. The video creation has dominated the last couple of months to the exclusion of music. I have new videos, new backing tracks, but little knowledge of what I will play over them. Improvisation in the main. I can't deny that I'm nervous. Performing live isn't one of my favourite things, yet the challenge taunts me. It will be, as always in these situations, very much touch and go. Weather dependent, mood permitting, wind in the right direction and so on. Unfortunately, it's not a simple matter of trotting out tried and tested, crowd-pleasing favourites. It's more like looking at a guitar for the first time in my life and thinking, 'what the heck am I supposed to do with this?' Performing live is sometimes a frightening experience for me. No matter how much I succeed in giving the audience the impression that I'm in control, behind the facade, it's all hanging on a very slender thread. The other day, my mother gave me a pencil. It was a magic pencil because it once belonged to my father. The pencil came from the 1950's and had been hidden away in a drawer for many, many years. My dad had brought it home from the place where he worked, a radio and television shop in the Hunslet area of Leeds during the 'fifties. On the pencil was the name of the shop that he managed back then: 'R. BROUGHTON AND SONS.' The shop stocked radios, tvs, washing machines, cycles, electrical goods and, (to my great delight as a young boy back then), toys, including Hornby Train sets, Dinky Toy model cars and Meccano. This long lost, ancient promotional pencil not only bears the name of the shop my father managed but it's address of 40-42, Waterloo Road, (now long gone), and a list of its stock in trade. It also bears my father's teeth marks where, after using it to mark out some measurement or other, he'd placed it in his mouth whilst sawing DIY wood in his garden shed, or maybe in the garage with me watching him. It probably sounds nostalgic and overtly romantic to say this but, the recent rediscovery of that old pencil brought my father and I suddenly close together, even though he passed away in his seventies, in 1976. It goes to show that even the most mudane of objects can become a modern-day holy relic, a bridge to another shore, given enough time to mature... At a certain point in our lives, we each become a museum surrounded by weeping willows. ***** The photographs attached to this diary are:- 1: The river and railway viaduct at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. 2: The Rose Gardens in Wakefield park. 3 and 4: My father's old pencil with the name and address of the shop where he worked printed on it. 5: Emiko's Buddha-flower-blossom arrangement. Top of page

Acquitted By Mirrors - Issue Fourteen - Published Autumn 1987 Back to Top

Monday 5th June 2006 -- 9:00 am Spent most of today at Fairview studios with John Spence. We mastered my two newest albums in preparation for their manufacture. I'm hoping to release 'Neptune's Galaxy' in July, although this has yet to be confirmed. 'Return To Jazz Of Lights' will be held over until autumn. It's a relief to know that the musical and technical aspects of these two projects are finally complete. All that remains for me to do is work with David Graham on the tidying up of each album's packaging art. John was kind enough to comment on the quality of the recordings as he mastered each album. He's always positive and supportive and understands that, recording alone as I do, encouragement and appreciation of my work is very much needed. Sometimes I feel as if I'm working in a vacuum and that only a small number of people grasp the implications of the music I make. But that's partly a result of ploughing an individual furrow, or because I willfully ignore pressures to either conform to my own past or to someone else's present. Occasionally it's tough but it's absolutely the correct way forward. Ultimately, I have no regrets or qualms about any of the difficulties that this approach throws up. I follow where the muse leads and damn the consequences. Is this why the character of Orpheus has always fascinated me? Or Don Quixote? My trip to Japan soon...very soon. In fact just over a week away. I have to start packing clothes. I'll probably take too much, as usual. (I find it impossible to travel light.) Like Don Quixote, I need my armour. I'm not looking forward to the flight. It's not a direct to Tokyo one as there's a long wait at an airport in Holland for our connection to Narita. I don't enjoy flying at all, hate it actually, so I'm now wondering whether I should have stuck to my original plan of staying at home. But, if I'd done that, I'd have been terribly lonely without Emiko and not taken care of myself properly. I'm hopeless at self-sufficiency, at least in real world terms. In creative terms, I'm the captain of my own ship, but that seaworthiness limits itself to the world of art and music. Elsewhere, I'm a fish out of water. Emiko has become my life support system as well as my wife, lover and friend. So...off to Tokyo I go! Actually, it will be good to see my mother-in-law and my two brother's-in-law. Plus my old friend Nick and his wife Yoko. And there's bound to be a guitar adventure or two. We're staying in a inexpensive business hotel in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. When I say 'inexpensive' I mean inexpensive by Tokyo standards. It's still a largish chunk of cash for Emi and I, even though it will be a room the size of a broom cupboard. At least I know the surrounding area like the back of my hand and will be able to find my way around. Shibuya is quite lively and we'll only need the cupboard for sleeping. We're planning a trip out to Kamakura and the Gretsch guitar company have invited me to visit their factory which is about two hours out of Tokyo by train. (In Nagoya, I think.) When I return, a long list of work projects awaits my attention:The EMI box set's live recordings need mixing. I also have a long list of Nelsonica 06 tasks to work my way through. (The annual conventions get more and more elaborate, partly my own fault for trying to raise the bar each year.) Then I have to seriously get down to business with the film I must make for next Spring's contemporary music festival at Leeds University....such a lot of work needed for that. I made a sort of start last week when I paid a visit to Wakefield Museum to talk about the possibility of accessing their archives for info and still photographs.The film is intended to be a poetic, autobiographical exploration of memory. It's working title is 'Ghosts Etched On Glass.' I've also discovered two film archives, one in London, one in York, that may be able to supply me with some historical footage that I'd like to weave into the film. At a price though, from what I can tell. When I get back from Japan, I have to make an appointment to see the curators of Wakefield Museum and also of the two film archives. Just researching this project will take time, before I even begin to deal with its creative practicalities. Nevertheless, I have an outline vision of how this thing should develop and I'm prepared for it to be a long and ongoing process. It's initial showings will be as 'a work in progress' rather than a completed film. I've been speaking with Dean Campbell about my Transitone signature guitar. I gave him a list of my thoughts after working with the prototype model. The prototype plays extremely well but Dean tells me that the finished model will be even better. He seems to think that he can accomodate the majority of things I've suggested. Looking forward to seeing the finished item! Emi and I went to Whitby yesterday. It took ages to get there as a section of the road over the North Yorkshire Moors had been closed by the police due to an accident that apparently killed a biker. A large, yellow, air-sea rescue helicopter was brought in. It landed, just ahead of us, on the road at the site of the crash. After an extensive wait, the police directed us towards an alternative route, a long way 'round but picturesque. We eventually got to Whitby, only just in time for lunch last orders at 'The White Horse And Griffin.' But I couldn't stop thinking about the biker and how his family's life had been changed in the instant of that accident. After lunch, we walked out on the harbour walls to the very end, where the two small stone, lighthouses stand.The sea and sky blurred into one another, a smear of pastel pink and hazy blue, small white-sailed yachts floating in the early summer sunday luminescence, big blue sky arcing overhead. It was blissfull, transcendant. And I hadn't brought my camera. Then, on our way home, we stopped off at Robin Hood's Bay and marvelled at the view from the top of the hill that leads down to the old village. Again, absolutely sublime, so magnificently beautiful, the cliffs of the far coastline framing the bay, sea stretching out to horizon. I turned to Emi and said, " This is what makes life worth living. A place like this and someone to share it with..." Emi said, "That's the important thing, someone to share it with.." We both treasure the times we can get out into the Yorkshire countryside together. No surprise to us that North Yorkshire has just been voted the most beautiful county in the whole of England. I'm intimately connected to this particular landscape. My heart beats in it. Visited my brother's grave last week with my Mother and Emi. We laid flowers. I need to speak with Diane about our plan to raise a headstone for Ian. I must call her before I leave for Japan. For now, that's all I can write. Tired. I'll try to write another diary entry before my trip to Japan. Oh, still reading Lindsay Anderson's diaries and have four new books to take to Tokyo with me. (Or one if I can make up my mind which one to read first.) They are: 'The Necropolis Railway' by Andrew Martin, (author of 'The Blackpool Highflyer'). 'The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana' by Umberto Eco. 'Attention All Shipping' by Charlie Connelly and 'Strange Angel' by George Pendle. But right now, I'm going to sit downstairs with my wife and eat strawberries and ice cream. ***** The images attached to this diary entry are as follows: 1. The latest cover art for 'Return To Jazz Of Lights' (The model is Emiko, photographed in the 1960's.) 2. A view of Robin Hood's Bay. Photo by Bill Nelson. 3. An early Campbell Transitone Bill Nelson signature model sketch Top of page Monday 12th June 2006 -- 12:00 pm Only two and a half days until the start of my trip to Japan and I'm feeling unwell. Last Thursday, I awoke in the middle of the night with an excruciatingly sore throat, really painful.This continued for three days before easing off a little but has been replaced by a flu-like lethargy and clamminess. My chest is a bit tight too, irritated but not a fully blown cough. It feels virus-like but is sort of veiled, fogged over. Maybe my system is trying to fight it off or maybe it hasn't yet fully developed. Whatever it is, it's come at a bad time as I have had so much to prepare before we leave for Tokyo. I've been taking my usual daily multi-vitamins and have supplemented these with echinacea which is reputed to boost one's immune system. I just hope that I can shake this thing off before Thursday. All those hours cooped up in an aeroplane won't help matters at all. I've put a few things in place before we leave. Album artwork for 'Neptune's Galaxy' and 'Return To Jazz Of Lights' has now been fully completed and signed off. I need to speak to Paul (Gilby) before leaving to let him know that 'Neptune' is all ready to go to the pressing plant. 'Jazz' can go a little later, once 'Neptune' has been available for a while. I've also made an image for the central 'logo' of Nelsonica 06. It's a fairly free-handed drawing of a satyr-like creature with ram's horns and goatee. I've framed the original. Not sure if I should keep it for myself or offer it for auction at Nelsonica. Further refinements to my Campbell Transitone signature model guitar and another drawing sent off to Dean. Maybe there will be something solid for me to look at when I get back from Tokyo. I've packed everything, suitcase-wise, now. Just a few final toiletries to cram in on the morning of our departure. I had second thoughts about some of the clothes I'd packed and did a bit of a swop around. A token attempt to cut back on the bulk. I think I've got fractionally less in there now but it still feels damn heavy. Emi's case is smaller. (But then she's a lot smaller than me anyway. Her clothes take up less room, even when the quantity is the same as mine.) Have also packed my carry on bag. I need to charge my camcorder batteries before packing that though. All that boring waiting around at Amsterdam airport will give me plenty of time to wander about the concourse with video and still cameras. See if I can come up with images that could be used in future creative projects. I have two pairs of trousers to collect from the alterations shop this afternoon. Damn! Does this mean I'll have to find space in my case for them? Probably. Have been trying to catch up with emails again but with only partial success. People must think that I don't care to respond but I'm actually full of good intentions to do so. It's just that my life is so full of distractions. One has only to look at my creative output to understand that. Went over to Wakefield to visit my sister-in-law Diane last week. Life has hit her hard again...her mother has just passed away, only six weeks after she lost her husband, (my brother Ian). I couldn't believe it or come up with anything to say that would have been of any solace. I just felt absolutely inadequate. It's mind-numbingly sad. Her mother was buried at the weekend in a plot directly behind Ian's. Diane's mum and he were actually very fond of each other, not at all the cliched comedy relationship of 'mothers-in-law' perpetuated by the likes of Les Dawson. I'd last seen Diane's mum two days after Ian's funeral. I'd gone with my mother to visit Ian's grave and, by coincidence, Diane and her mum and dad had also chosen to visit the cemetary at the same time. Diane's mum was in a wheelchair and she'd shed a tear at Ian's graveside. She spoke warmly of him. My generation has reached an age when the harshness of mortality is brought home to us on a fairly regular basis. Knowing that doesn't make it any easier to accept though. Diane told me that she missed Ian even more at this sad time. He would have been a pillar of strength for her in such a situation. After years of marriage, he understood her emotional responses more than anyone and knew exactly how to steer Diane away from too much despair. Other, less depressing news: Emi and I took my son Elliot out for a meal last week. A local Tapas place. We sat on the roof terrace surrounded by sun-tanned girls in skimpy vests. A bit of a cleavage exhibition. Of course, I'm far too old and decrepit to notice such things, (but Emi sometimes points them out to me... She knows I'm an art lover). Got an email from my daughter Elle in London. She's picking up some work designing websites at the moment. The plan to licence my 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across'/'On A Blue Wing' album from Sony is going ahead. It's ironic that I have to pay them an advance and a royalty share as part of the deal for them to give me permission to re-issue the album on my own label. But that's what happens when you dance with the galloping majors. I just hope that enough people want to buy it to warrant me paying out so much to Sony. Still...it will be the first time its officially beenavailable on CD. I really want to start work on 'Romance Of Sustain' volume two. I have several unreleased guitar compositions that I've been performing live over these last two or three years. They should be put onto an album. I still need to dub the lead guitar parts onto the backing tracks, though, and mix them carefully. It shouldn't be too difficult a process as most of the 'writing' is done and the basic recording too. (Nevertheless, I'd like to write at least a couple of brand new pieces for the project.) I'm thinking of calling this album, 'The Last Of The Gentleman Rocketeers.' (Or perhaps have one of the instrumentals called that.) But...before I can even contemplate starting on the project, I have to mix the ancient Be Bop Deluxe live recordings for EMI RECORD'S forthcoming box set. And begin work on my 'Ghosts Etched On Glass' film. Plenty to do. Now I have to attempt to weigh our suitcases. Emi called from work just now to say that she'd heard that new airline regulations restrict the weight of individual cases, rather than the collective weight of the total. If this is so, there may be a last minute frennzy of re-packing to distribute the tonnage between both our cases. As if the trip to Japan wasn't difficult enough already. I do get so stressed out by travel these days. I'll try to take a notebook to Tokyo to jot down some day to day happenings so that I can write them up in this diary when I return. Hopefully, I'll have some photos to attach too. ***** The images attached to this diary entry are: 1. Bill Nelson's drawing for Nelsonica 06 'Arcadian Salon.' 2. Another of Bill's sketches for his Campbell signature guitar. 3. Another photo of Emiko from the 1960's. Top of page Thursday 29th June 2006 -- 7:00 pm THE TOKYO CAPER: PART ONE. Returned from our trip to Tokyo last night. A long journey and a busy, exhausting time in Japan. Far too frought and intense to be called a holiday, but we were not really expecting it to be anything other. I'm feeling jet-lagged and sleepy but Emiko went to work at the flower shop this morning so she's had a much tougher day than me. I spent the day unpacking suitcases and gifts for friends and family and then headed off to town and later to the supermarket to stock up on food and other essentials. It now feels as if we've not been away at all but while we were in Tokyo it felt like we'd been there for at least a month, so much activity did we cram in to our stay. There's too much to tell in a single diary entry and I'm too tired to tell it all in one attempt anyway, so I'll spread it out via two or three entries over the next few days. I also have several photo's to add to the forthcoming diary entries so will select three images for each. I returned to find dozens of emails and Dreamsville Forum private messages awaiting my attention. And a pile of posted mail in the letterbox. (Various bills, unfortunately.) I will only be able to deal with the most pressing correspondence as there is a long list of work-related projects to catch up with. My list of 'things to do' seems to have doubled since I've been away. The most recent of these is the task of photographing my musical instrument collection for a Japanese magazine called 'Player.' This magazine, one of the largest musician's magazines in Japan, interviewed me whilst I was in Tokyo for a six page feature which will appear in an Autumn issue. They arranged a two hour photo session along with the actual interview. Emi acted as translator. It was the first time I'd been in a proper photographer's studio for several years and I wasn't really looking forward to it, (nor was I 'sartorially prepared'), but, as it turned out, it was reasonably painless. I've attached two rough polaroids from the sessions to this diary entry along with a self-portrait that I snapped whilst visiting Zen Master Dogen's memorial monument in Kamakura. The most difficult part of the Player magazine feature is the photographing of my musical instrument collection. The editor wants me to take individual photos of every guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukelele, keyboard, amplifier etc, etc, that I own. The magazine also wants a list of all the serial numbers of the instruments, (a typically Japanese thing, detail being everything) and also would like photos of my recording room from various angles. The individual items must each be photographed against a plain background, keeping the proportions identical. As there are no plain backgrounds in our house, (due to shelves of books, ceramics, paintings, prints, etc), I'll need to go out and buy a roll of plain coloured cloth to pin and drape from the house's ceiling beams to provide a suitable backdrop to photograph the instruments against. Once the photographs are taken, I have to get them burned to a CD to post to Japan...and they must have them by July 10th if the feature is to meet their Autumn schedule/deadline. It looks as if I'll have to make a start very soon as it will take at least a couple of days to photograph everything, if not longer. On the positive side, it will provide an opportunity for me to catalogue my collection and will also double up as source material for the Dreamsville site's 'Guitar Arcade.' As my computer doesn't have a disc burner, I'll have to enlist the help of a more technically articulate friend to get the pics stored to disc for posting to Japan. I desperately need a more up-to-date Mac but can't afford it at the moment as there are so many other, more pressing, domestic problems around the house. Both Emi's car and mine are in need of repair too and I've just booked them in for servicing, repairs and MOT examinations. They have to go in to the garage next week, one at a time so that we're not without transport. Of course, the Tokyo trip has been mind-numbingly expensive. Despite talk of the Japanese economy being less strong these days, we were horrified by how much things still cost. A small glass of fresh orange juice, an iced-tea and an iced- coffee at the hotel cafe came to just over 15 pounds. A two-hour trip from Tokyo to Nagoya to visit the Terada guitar factory cost us one hundred pounds each. A similar length trip from here to London and back can be had for around thirty pounds each, so we were shocked by the quite dramatic difference. Nevertheless, the Japanese Shinkansen is a superb way to travel and makes our British rail system seem antiquated and slow. The trains in Japan are marvels of engineering, clean, fast, smooth and silent...I was seriously impressed. I was also tremendously impressed by my visit to the Terada guitar factory, a family business begun back in 1915. I was expecting something very high tech and modern but it's a very old-fashioned set up and labour intensive. This factory is number one in Japan for building artchtop guitars. They build for Gretsch, D'Angelico, D'Aquisto, Sadowsky and some other makes. the quality and attention to detail is remarkable. I took some camcorder footage of the craftsmen at work which I'll try to assemble into a little video documentary- souvenir of my Japan trip to show at this year's Nelsonica convention in October, (another addition to the day's events. It's going to be a jam-packed convention this year). Tomorrow I have to hunt for plain fabric for those 'Player' magazine guitar photograph backgrounds so I'll keep this diary entry brief. But much more to follow over the next few days. Stay tuned. ***** The images attached to this diary entry are:- 1. Bill Nelson 'Player' magazine Polaroid number one. 2. Bill Nelson 'Player' magazine Polaroid number two. 3. Bill Nelson 'Self Portrait at Zen Master Dogen's memorial, Kamakura, Japan. All photos taken in Japan during Bill and Emi's visit in June 2006. Top of page Friday 30th June 2006 -- 6:00 pm THE TOKYO CAPER: PART TWO. Perhaps I should start at the beginning of my recent trip to Japan, see if I can recall all the relevant details. It seems to have already become a distant blur but this may partly be due to my jet-lag and low energy level. As noted in my diary entry of 12th June, I wasn't feeling well two days prior to leaving. This was due to a virus I'd picked up and, in fact, I was feeling even worse the night before we were due to leave...(so much so that I seriously considered not going at one point). I couldn't imagine how I could endure the long journey. I'd been dosing myself with all the usual remedies but to little avail. I felt weak and decidely virus-stricken. Nevertheless, I decided to pack as much 'medicine' as I could, 'Night Nurse' tablets, vitamins, sore throat tablets, pain killers, etc, etc...(my carry on bag resembled a mobile pharmacist's shop), and made the effort to get myself half-way around the world to Japan, for Emi's sake, if nothing else. I hardly slept the night before the flight, a combination of anxiety and sickness. Our friends Steve and Julia had generously offered to drive us to the airport but we still needed to be up early to get there two hours ahead of our scheduled take-off time. When we got up at the crack of dawn, I was in grumpy old man mood from lack of sleep. My mood didn't improve when we arrived at the airport to find that the airline had seated Emi and I in totally separate parts of the aeroplane, on both legs of the journey. (We were flying first to Amsterdam's Schipol airport, then transferring to another flight to travel to Tokyo.) On top of this, due to new cabin baggage restrictions, one of our carry-on bags was deemed too heavy so some items had to be taken out. During this messing about, my electric razor fell on to the floor and broke. Time for a beard development fortnight, I thought. Eventually we made it through to the departure lounge and grabbed a light breakfast from the cafe before boarding the plane to Amsterdam. Luckily, we were able to wangle two seats together which cheered me up a little. The trip to Amsterdam was short, around 55 minutes actual flight time, but we then had a long wait in the transit zone of Schipol Airport before boarding our Boeing 777 for the connecting flight to Tokyo. We passed some of the time sitting in one of airport's many cafe bars. I nursed a glass of red wine which, in turn, nursed me. By the time we boarded the aeroplane, I was feeling pleasantly, er...shall we just say 'vague?' Once again, we negotiated to obtain seats sitting next to each other and finally succeeded, 'though it was in a row of three. As it happened, our third party companion spoke nary a word throughout the 12 hour flight. After taking off, I had my cutomary Bloody Mary cocktail, something that I only ever seem to drink whilst on long-haul flights. (It's a habit going back to the days of Be Bop Deluxe touring America in the 1970's.) Anyway, it did the trick and my virus-stricken discomfort was slowly buried under a rapidly increasing alcoholic haze. I looked through the list of movies available on the in-flight entertainment centre, a surprisingly large selection covering several tastes. Of course, each seat has its own integral video screen nowadays and each occupant their own individual selection of films and entertainment, but I can recall when things were somewhat different. On those long-ago Be Bop Deluxe U.S. tours of the mid 1970's there was just one solitary screen at the head of each section of cabin and an equally solitary RGB projector suspended from the cabin's roof. As far as having a choice of films goes, there simply was no choice at all, passengers just watched whatever was selected by the airline. Usually, there was a main feature plus a supporting one. (A bit like the old, early '60's days of British cinema minus the ice-cream lady, the cinema organist and the agonisingly slow attempt to slide your hand beneath your new girlfriend's angora sweater, then under her bra...Oh, what sweet joy when the target of one's lust was reached...) But even those 1970's Be Bop American tour long-haul single screen flights seemed high-tech to us back then. I can recall an incident when Charlie Tumahai, a little 'worse for wear', decided to start up a running commentary on the film being shown. He did this in a loud, pantomime 'aussie' style accent, shouting out perceptive phrases such as 'He's behind ya, yer dim-brained bastard!!' and 'I'd shag the arse off that Sheila, mate!" He was always ready with a sophisticated turn of phrase. When the cabin staff asked him to stop spoiling the film for the other passengers, he sulked for a couple of minutes before coming up with the idea of using his hands to cast shadow puppet images onto the screen.These hand shadows, representing birds, elephants, foxes, etc, interacted amusingly with the various characters in the film, although the other passengers seemed to think otherwise for some reason. Eventually, cabin staff and the rest of Be Bop Deluxe had to pursuade Charlie to cease and desist. It wasn't easy to get him to stop but eventually, with the aid of a trip to the toilet for him to smoke a clandestine 'jazz woodbine', he'd settle down and eventually drift off to sleep for the remainder of the trip. A right card was our Charlie...I still miss him. Back to the 21st century and our KLM flight to Tokyo: I decided to watch the recent re-make of King Kong which was listed on the in-flight movie menu. I hadn't gone to the cinema to see it when it was released, (last year?) as I'd always been fond of the black and white original with Fay Wray and didn't feel that a new version would add anything to that. However, after watching the first 15 minutes or so, I was sufficently impressed to decide to rent it out on video when I returned to the U.K. and view it on a larger screen, rather than watch it on the tiny one built into the seat on the aeroplane. So I stopped the playback of 'King Kong' and selected 'Wallace And Gromit And The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit' instead. Well, in the absence of 'Meshes Of The Afternoon' or 'The Testament Of Orpheus', what did you expect? After an amusing chuckle at the wayward adventures of the much celebrated animated plasticine man and his dog, I settled down to read 'The Necroplis Railway' by Andrew Martin which turned out to be not too bad at all. (Now there's a riveting, perceptive review-cum-advertising quote for you:- "Not too bad at all"... Bill Nelson, KLM Airlines.) The author skillfully evokes a vivid picture of the sooty, grim, steam-driven London of the early 20th Century. The fact that the central character hails from Robin Hood's Bay, just outside Whitby, is an extra bonus for me. At this point in time, I'm just over half-way through the book, having found little time to read whilst in Tokyo, but I've been gently entertained by the story so far. Perhaps Mr. Martin and myself have some interests in common. The flight to Japan seemed endless. I slept fitfully, sporadically. Actually, it wasn't sleeping at all, just a semi-unconcious state, the Boeing's engines droning like a million bees in a metal hive, a constantly humming background to the half-stupor I found myself in. The in-flight meals were slight and inconsequential but the little bottles of wine that came with them found whatever edge I had left and hammered, then smoothed it into a rusty bluntness. After what felt like an eternity, we landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport. Emiko, because she is still a Japanese passport holder, was able to go through passport control/immigration like a knife through butter. Myself, being a foreigner, (or 'Gaijin'), went through it like a feather through stone. I joined the back of a long, long line of non-Japanese and awaited my turn to be given entry to the country. After such a long flight, this long wait proved difficult. I felt dizzy and exhausted but eventually I reached the head of the line and presented my passport to the immigration officer. After a few moments of checking on his computer screen to make sure that I wasn't on any list of known terrorists, football hooligans, drug smugglers or people who cross the road whilst the little walking-man signal is still on red, I was waved through to the baggage reclaim area where Emi was waiting patiently for me. But our journey was not yet over. We now had to haul our luggage onto the Airport Limousine. This vehicle is actually not nearly as glamourous as it sounds. The 'limousine' is nothing more than a plain old bus that ferries passengers from Narita airport into Tokyo. We bought our tickets and climbed on board and found two seats at the back, settling down for the two-hour drive into Tokyo itself. Not exactly Tokyo airport at all, really, as Tokyo is a two-hour ride away. But that's Japan. I dozed as the bus swept along the motorway but woke as we hit the first traffic snarl-ups that signalled that we were entering the city at last. We finally, gratefully, got off at the Hotel Excel, (one of the buses several scheduled stops) and wearily hauled our luggage to a taxi to drive to another, much less expensive 'business hotel' that we'd pre-booked from England.The taxi driver, much to my annoyance, stood by and watched me struggle to load our heavy and bulky cases into the boot and the back seat of his cab. Not once did he offer to help me. I was, by this time, beyond verbal complaint and felt like a mere robot switched to automatic...A suitably appropriate condition for Tokyo life. Our cheap business hotel was in Shibuya, up a little hill on a small side road, not too far from Shibuya station. The hotel was due to close down, three days after our check-in, but for now, it was to be our home. The room was tiny, the bathroom even more so, almost microscopic but we were too exhausted to care and simply unlocked our cases, took a bath and wandered out into the neon Shibuya night. It was as if I'd never been away from the place. Tokyo is a kind of glittering hell, a consumer orgy lit by advertising signs, giant video screens and scored by dozens of discordant broadcasts from loudspeakers situated on every building.The message is simple, "Buy me! Buy Me! Buy Me!" It is, as so many first-time vistors say, 'just like Blade Runner'...but the more often you visit, this romantic, futurist impression is diluted and then replaced by something far more mundane. In fact, Tokyo is neither 'Blade Runner' nor 'Lost In Translation' but instead is a city of millions of lives banged up together in a desperate fight for either survival or aquisition. In many ways, it embodies everything that has gone awry with human society, even though, as the tour salesmen say, there is much less crime than in the West. But in Tokyo, to one degree or another, nothing is as it seems and almost everything is fake, simulated or appropriated from somewhere else. I've known this from the beginning of course but, with each subsequent visit, it becomes more and more apparent, less interesting, less humourously ironic, less 'post-modern'. Eventually, it simply becomes something to be endured. A candy-coloured purgatory that can only be safely navigated by a wallet full of cash and a credit card willingly sacrificed to the max. Outside of Tokyo though, Japan has its compensations, its unique solaces. Emi and I spent a day with two of her Tokyo friends visiting Kamakura, a not too long train ride out of Tokyo, near the coast. Kamakura has become a kind of spiritual theme park. It has what seems like an endless collection of old temples which one can visit. A tourist thing, not just for westerners but for the Japanese too. We crammed several of these into one day and it became something of a blur. I can't recall the various names of them, 'though I paid attention to each one that we visited. Each temple seemed to involve the climbing of a hill. In the June heat and high humidity, this was even more strenuous than normal for me. But there were one or two brief moments of grace and beauty. And some very good, locally brewed Kamakura beer. No wonder those Zen monks were looking so blissed out. At one point on our tour of the temples, I got Emi to take a snapshot of me standing in one of the Zendo rooms, where the monks would sit in meditation. I wanted to climb up onto the sitting area mats and pose in Buddha fashion but Emi said I'd better not. Perhaps I would have profaned the space with my lazy Buddha posture... But this opportunity to behave like tourists was an anomaly as the rest of our time in Japan was taken up with a punishing schedule involving meetings with Emi's relatives and friends, plus the Player Magazine interview and photo session and my visit to the Terada guitar factory in Nagoya. (Actually, this last was the highlight of the entire trip for me.) Now I'm tired again so I'll continue with the story in a day or two's time. Meanwhile, don't touch that dial. ***** The photographs attached to this diary entry are as follows:- 1. A Kamakura Temple. 2. Kamakura Beer. 3. Bill Nelson in a Kamakura Zendo. Top of page William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) June 2006 Jan Apr May Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

Orpheus In Ultraland Bill Nelson album - 22 October 2005 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) The Man Who Haunted Himself 02) Duraflame 03) Suburban Mermaid One Twenty Three 04) Dreams Run Wild On Ghost Train Tracks 05) Tin Sings Bones 06) Tantramatic 07) Every Tiny Atom 08) And Now The Rain 09) Super Noodle Number One 10) Moments Catch Fire On The Crests Of Waves (Alternative Mix) 11) Big Broken Buick 12) The Whirlpool Into Which Everything Must Whirl ALBUM NOTES: Orpheus in Ultraland is an album of mainly vocal pieces issued exclusively for Nelsonica '05 in the then customary limited pressing of 500 copies, on the newly created Discs of Ancient Odeon label. Due to problems with delivery of the artwork, Nelsonica 05 attendees were issued copies of the album in a plain jewel case with the artwork distributed by post on 23 November. The past practice of offering second copies for sale was ceased for this event, which meant that the remaining 250 copies or so were available (with complete artwork) on the merchandise desk on Nelson's UK tour, which commenced on 6 November. After the tour, the small number of copies that remained were sold through SOS, although within a day or so these were snapped up. On November 28 an announcement was made on the Dreamsville Forum that the album had completely sold out. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY: Satellite Songs , Fancy Planets , Joy Through Amplification , Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms , Electric Atlas , Fantastic Guitars , Special Metal , Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus , Golden Melodies of Tomorrow , Blip 2 BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Amongst the album's 12 tracks are some personal favourites of mine such as "Suburban Mermaid One Twenty Three", "Tin Sings Bones", (which has featured in my live concerts in recent years), "Tantramatic", "And Now the Rain". Plus an alternative mix of "Moments Catch Fire on the Crests of Waves". It's an accessible album which will appeal both to guitar fans and those who enjoy my vocals/songwriting." _____ "[The title] "Duraflame" comes from a cigarette lighter that my Dad had, back in the '50s, a 'Ronson Duraflame'. A nice design, chrome modernist/deco style. Very cool. I actually have one that I picked up from somewhere many years ago...it sits on a shelf in my little study, next to Dad's old Bolex clockwork cine camera, his (now vintage) Automobile Association enamel badge, his RAF official issue shoe brushes, and the Westminster Electric Door Chimes that sat inside the front door of 28, Conistone Cresecent, Eastmoor Estate when I was a wide-eyed, dreaming boy." _____ "Tin Sings Bones": "is about mortality and identity. 'Tin Sings Bones' refers to the human machine, the fact that we're almost like tin toy robots who dream of being human. The verses with their 'Maybe I'm a fly upon your wall, maybe you're the pride before my fall' lines, (and the rest), refer to a personal uncertainty about myself and things in general. My mid-life crisis hasn't ended, 'though I should be well past that point by now as I'm only three years away from my 60th birthday! But even at my supposedly settled and mature age, things can happen that test one's understanding of whom one is, and where one is in life. I'm as mixed up as I was as a teenager and very little wiser, I'm afraid. The song, whilst chirpy and poppy enough, is actually all about the fear of growing older and loss of certainty." _____ "The extended 'intros' and 'outros,' (or preludes and codas), are somehow, for various reasons unknown to me, set deep into my creative psyche. Hard to escape. The intros are a warm red carpet laid down a narrow corridor into the compositional heart of each piece. The codas are a reflection of possible alternatives, different resolutions, echoes of other potentials, the sound of a lingering kiss." FAN THOUGHTS: thunk: "What you would deem 'classic' Bill Nelson - appealing to the 'core' of fans, who love to hear Bill 'rock it' with fancy fretwork et al...it bursts at the seams with hooks & catches." "The work of the mature artist telling it like it is - young pretenders take a bow if you please!" Face in the Rain: "Provides an excellent link between Be Bop and where Bill is now. Most listeners manage to make the jump (it's all connected - it's all Bill, after all) but OIU is a great bridge if you feel you may need one." Pathdude: "Defiinitely one of the best Nelsonica discs. Every song is top notch with some mind-blowing guitar thrown on there." next move: "It is a very emotive piece of playing, when I first heard it I welled up!!" "Thank you so much for all your hard work, emotional input and creativity on this beautiful recording." jetboy: "Dreamyblisteringjazzrockblues with romanticeccentricenigmaticnosaltigic powerpoptecho undercurrents. A must for every admirer of Bill's work...believe me." John Izzard: "Cohesive collection of pieces - flows well despite the breadth of styles and the nature of its compilation. Lyrically very strong. Unsurprising attention to detail. Numerous musical points of reference, including nods at Bill's own past from Be-Bop Deluxe to Rosewood . It exudes passion - Bill is clearly loving what he is doing and continues to push the envelope...My wife likes it. Far more than a 'convention CD'. Or for a 'one word review'...enigmatic." Merikan1: "Orpheus is one of the best BN CDs - period. It is my personal favorite and a must have." "The Man Who Haunted Himself" - One of my all time favourite BN tracks. Killer. That opening just screams out of the stereo." dbodom: "Is it possible that "The Man Who Haunted Himself" from Orpheus in Ultraland has some of the most beautiful guitar work Bill has ever done? At the :35 mark, and again at 2:53, the guitar work is so overwhelmingly emotional that it brings tears to your eyes. I've always felt great emotion streaming out of his music over the years, and that's what makes Bill's music special to me. You only get better with age William. "And for anyone needing a reminder that Bill is one of the best guitarists in music today, just listen to "Tantramatic" or, if you just can't get enough of Bill's guitar work, listen to an old school number like "Super Noodle Number One". It will provide you with your guitar fix for the day." Wasp In Aspic: "This album is a must have for all Nelsonians...When "And Now the Rain" comes on I just have to stop what I'm doing and marvel at its poignancy and brilliance." BobK: "I think "Duraflame" has one of the most thrilling solos BN has ever played, namely the final one. Melody, beauty, technique, wow...I am drooling. BN has a unique ability to make the guitar sing." alec: "Tin Sings Bones": "This has entered my head and will never leave. It seems to be playing constantly. Hooks galore." "Moments Catch Fire on the Crests of Waves": "One of my favourite songs of yours, beyond a shadow of a doubt." neill_burgess: "Tin Sings Bones": "the standout song of Nelsonica 05 and the standout track on the CD. Voice and instruments combine in meaty & memorable riff. "The Whirlpool Into Which Everything Must Whirl" - An epic song, and not just because it lasts 8 and a half minutes and has tubular bells! The complexity and scope of this number would overwhelm most songwriters, but Bill pulls if off effortlessly. An instant classic for all Nelsonians. To Bill, thanks for a great Nelsonica , for this wonderful music, for constant surprises and for the oxygen of inspiration." eddie: "Get it downloaded, you are in for an absolute treat. Possibly the best Nelsonica album out there." Albums 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

A Flock of Seagulls album - 1982 A Flock of Seagulls Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer on re-recorded version of "(It's Not Me) Talking". Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam Bill Nelson album - 8 May 1981 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this box set TRACKS: 01) Banal 02) Living In My Limousine 03) Vertical Games 04) Disposable 05) False Alarms 06) Decline And Fall 07) Life Runs Out Like Sand 08) A Kind Of Loving 09) Do You Dream In Colour? 10) U.H.F. 11) Youth Of Nation On Fire 12) Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam ALBUM NOTES: Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam is a vocal album recorded between February and June 1979 at RAK studios, Rockfield, and on a mobile recording unit in Yorkshire. The album finally emerged nearly 2 years later on the back of a new 3 album deal that Nelson had signed with Mercury. The album sold well enough to achieve a top 10 placing on the UK album chart, entering the chart at No.7, a career peak for Nelson. Issued on vinyl and cassette, limited editions (10,000 of each) contained a bonus instrumental album Sounding the Ritual Echo , a collection of home instrumental recordings quite unlike anything Nelson had previously released - but a clear pointer towards future work. The original album featured an inner sleeve with lyrics and credits. The limited edition on vinyl was in a slightly deeper single sleeve to comfortably house the bonus album. The limited cassette had the bonus album on the reverse side of single long play tape. Following the deluxe box sets of the Be Bop Deluxe and Red Noise albums, Esoteric Recordings and Cherry Red Records obtained the license to give Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam the deluxe box set treatment. With a release date of 16th May 2025, following several delays from its original planned release, the 3-CD & 1-Blu-Ray Deluxe Edition comprised of: a freshly remastered version of the original album. a 2024 remix of the full album. a previously unreleased radio session from March 1981. a BBC John Peel session from June 1981. the rare promotional film of ‘Do You Dream in Colour?' the original album presented in a 5.1 mix. remixes of singles and b-sides from the time of the original album. Includes a lavishly illustrated book with many previously unseen photographs & new essay, plus postcards and a replica poster. The full track listing for the Deluxe Edition is: Disc One Remastered Original Stereo Mix 01) Banal 02) Living In My Limousine 03) Vertical Games 04) Disposable 05) False Alarms 06) Decline And Fall 07) White Sound 08) Life Runs Out Like Sand 09) A Kind Of Loving 10) Do You Dream In Colour? 11) U.H.F. 12) Youth Of Nation On Fire 13) Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam Disc Two Singles & Radio Sessions 1980 - 1981 01) Ideal Homes (Original Single Mix) 02) Instantly Yours (Original Single Mix) 03) Atom Man Loves Radium Girl 04) Dada Guitare 05) Banal (Extended Mix) 06) Turn To Fiction 07) Hers Is A Lush Situation 08) Mr. Magnetism Himself 09) Youth Of Nation On Fire (Extended Mix) 10) Be My Dynamo 11) Rooms With Brittle Views 12) All My Wives Were Iron 13) Living In My Limousine (Remix) 14) Birds Of Tin 15) Love In The Abstract 16) Konny Buys A Kodak (Radio Session 1981) 17) After Life (Radio Session 1981) 18) Boom Year Ahead (Radio Session 1981) 19) Art Of Vision (Radio Session 1981) 20) Rooms With Brittle Views (Radio Session 1981) 21) Stay Young (Radio Session 1981) 22) Sleep Cycle (Radio Session 1981) 23) Jazz (Radio Session 1981 Disc Three New Stereo Mixes By Stephen W Tayler 01) Banal 02) Living In My Limousine 03) Vertical Games 04) Disposable 05) False Alarms 06) Decline And Fall 07) White Sound 08) Life Runs Out Like Sand 09) A Kind Of Loving 10) Do You Dream In Colour? 11) U.H.F. 12) Youth Of Nation On Fire 13) Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam Bonus Tracks 14) The World And His Wife 15) Dancing Music Disc Four High Resolution 5.1 Surround Sound Mixes By Stephen W Tayler - Blu-R ay 01) Banal 02) Living In My Limousine 03) Vertical Games 04) Disposable 05) False Alarms 06) Decline And Fall 07) White Sound 08) Life Runs Out Like Sand 09) A Kind Of Loving 10) Do You Dream In Colour? 11) U.H.F. 12) Youth Of Nation On Fire 13) Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam Bonus Tracks 14) The World And His Wife 15) Dancing Music 16) Do You Dream In Colour? (Promotional Video) PAST RELEASES: Quit Dreaming was originally issued on CD by Cocteau (1986), on which the b-side "White Sound" was added as a bonus cut, and the remix of "Living In My Limousine" replaced the standard album version. When issued on CD in the U.S. in 1989, fans were presented with an altered version of the album. Fan favourite album track "A Kind Of Loving" and album single "Do You Dream In Colour?" were deleted from the original running order, while three songs from period singles were added. This was done in an effort to make sure the track listing on this independent (Enigma) CD reissue did not overlap with the CD of the major label (CBS) U.S. compilation album, Vistamix . 1989 U.S. CD of Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam: 01) Banal 02) Living In My Limousine 03) Vertical Games 04) Disposable 05) False Alarms 06) Decline And Fall 07) White Sound (B-Side from the Living In My Limousine 12" single) 08) Life Runs Out Like Sand 09) Indiscretion (B-Side from a 1983 club EP, Dancing On A Knife's Edge) 10) The World And His Wife (From a 1983 club EP of the same name) 11) U.H.F. 12) Youth Of Nation On Fire 13) Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam In 2005 Mercury reissued Quit Dreaming as a remastered CD, producing the definitive edition of the album. The package is well presented with sleeve notes and photographs, and contains the original version of the album as released in 1981, together with seven bonus tracks taken from current singles. Note that all of the bonus tracks on the Mercury reissue, except for "Birds Of Tin", had previously appeared on the Cocteau compilation The Two Fold Aspect of Everything . Extra songs on the 2005 CD: 14) Mr. Magnetism Himself (Banal B-side) 15) Living In My Limousine (12" remix) 16) Birds Of Tin (Living In My Limousine B-side) 17) Love In The Abstract (Living In My Limousine B-side) 18) Be My Dynamo (Youth Of Nation On Fire B-side) 19) Rooms With Brittle Views (non-album single, then Youth Of Nation On Fire double single B-side) 20) All My Wives Were Iron (Youth Of Nation On Fire double single B-side) CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The deluxe box set is available to purchase via the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "I was still with EMI Records when Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam was recorded. It was always intended that the album would be released under the Red Noise banner." ____ "The idea behind Red Noise was that it would be a flexible, ever changing unit, adapted to whatever ideas I came up with. It wasn't intended to be a permanent fixed band but a kind of cover-all concept for all manner of adventures. Unfortunately, the first Red Noise album proved too much of a leap for our American record company and, (for slightly different reasons), for EMI in the UK too. So, the second Red Noise album ended up being shelved until, quite some time after it was recorded, it was picked up by Phonogram/Mercury. This was, of course, the Quit Dreaming album...but, by the time it did eventually emerge, I'd become bored/disenchanted with the Red Noise idea and decided instead put it out under my own name." ____ "During the sessions for Quit Dreaming major changes took place at EMI Records and the label dramatically cut back on their roster of artists. The major labels were all nervous about releasing music that didn't sound immediately commercial and so I set up Cocteau partly out of necessity and partly out of an idealistic desire to release music that I wanted to hear. I got so swamped with demos that I soon realised that I only had time for Cocteau to mainly cater for my own music. "I used Cocteau to release one of the tracks from the unreleased Red Noise album, "Do You Dream in Colour?" as a single under my own name. Then, Dave Bates who was head of A&R at Phonogram Records heard the album and then decided to release it on the Mercury label. David came into the studio in which I was working and asked me what I was doing. I explained that I had recorded a second album for EMI which hadn't come out. David asked me for a tape which I got to him quickly and then he negotiated a deal with EMI to take the album off their hands." _____ "The Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam album was recorded using the [Stones mobile] truck...but, this time, no band was involved. It was just John Leckie and myself in the Yorkshire village of West Haddlesey where I lived at that time. We hired the village hall, (which was then a wooden hut-like structure), and parked the Stones mobile outside for several weeks. My equipment was set up in the village hall and cables for microphones were run from the truck into the hall. "Once a week, we had to push my guitars, amps, synth and drum kit to the back of the hall to make room for the village ladies keep fit class. "I remember John and I walking, under a starry twilight, from the village hall, down the narrow tree-lined lane back to my home, (Haddlesey House), to have dinner. John stayed with us at Haddlesey House throughout the recording. Sometimes we'd return to the village hall after dinner to overdub something or other, or maybe we'd just go for a pint in a local pub. Very happy days indeed." _____ On "Decline and Fall": "The guitar solo on the song is an artificially created thing. I recorded the solo on a standard two track stereo tape machine running alongside the main multi-track. Then a razor blade was taken to the taped solo on the two-track machine, cutting the tape into random lengths, some only an inch or two in length. All the pieces of cut tape were then unceremoniously jumbled up. Once this was achieved, the pieces of tape were picked up at random and stuck back together with splicing tape. This random method of assembly meant that some pieces of tape were running forward, (in the correct direction), other pieces were accidentally reversed...and NONE of the bits of tape were re-assembled in their proper order or sequence. "Doing this meant that a phrase that originally began at the start of the solo might now appear in the middle or at the end...and in fragmented fashion. Every phrase was now chopped up and re-assembled in a completely random way. This 'Frankenstein's Monster' tape, with dozens of spliced segments, was then 'spun-in' to the main multitrack tape at the appropriate point where the solo was to occur. The result is a totally bizarre, scrambled, 'non-linear' guitar solo that would be impossible to play live. It is, quite literally, all over the place." ALBUM REVIEW: Review by Graham Reid FAN THOUGHTS: Holer: "Certain albums not only hold up, but get better with age, and Quit Dreaming is definitely one of those. It was way ahead of its time and still enchants and invigorates me every time I listen to it. "It's still my favourite BN record and one of my top favourite albums of all time. 30 years from now, if I'm still alive, I will be grooving to it at the old folks home." "Deconstruction may not be the proper term for it, but it seems appropriate. One can almost draw a direct line from Drastic Plastic through Red Noise and into Quit Dreaming which is Bill's ultimate deconstructionist pop masterpiece. It seems as if, once he had completely taken himself apart, only then could he put himself back together in a completely different form. And indeed, from Love That Whirls onward, his music sounded very different. "It's fun listening to artists who dare to go through phases of artistic development rather than just pooping out another elpee's worth of tunes." Radium Girl: "This was one of those albums that upon first hearing it I was instantly transfixed and played it over and over and over. My original vinyl copy has several of the songs worn down past audible. This whole album is absolutely imbued with magic for me and I still listen to parts of it every week." sauropod: "This may be my very favorite BN album. In my not so humble opinion, it's *still* ahead of its time. "Banal" has one of the tightest, most musical lead guitar parts I have ever heard." Waspy: "Like many others, Quit Dreaming and "Do You Dream In Colour?" were my doorway into the fabulous world of Bill Nelson. I think the album was already a couple of years old when I first heard it, but it sounded newer than tomorrow...I was blown away. It was just so impossibly cool. Suave & stylish, manically optimistic while at the same time rather disturbing in a sort of comical way, it abounded in layers and layers of effortless, sparkling creativity. Of course I was hooked, and worked my way both forwards and backwards in time, picking up anything of Bill's that I could find. For a while, my post-punk musical prejudices were a barrier to enjoyment of BBD, but after a while it all clicked." Ed: "I played Quit Dreaming to death, and eventually knew every crackle and pop on the coveted piece of vinyl. At the time it seemed to me like a perfectly normal 'pop' record, but as time has gone on I've come to see it as quite a strange album, still pop, but in a rather abstract way. Some cracking tunes on there (always particularly loved the sneering, contemptuous "Banal", and the Stan Barstow homage, "A Kind of Loving"), but interspersed with some more esoteric stuff (eg, "Vertical Games"). I still find it quite amazing what a dramatic musical journey Bill made to get from Modern Music to Quit Dreaming - hard to believe in some ways that it was the same artist at work - I'm sure Bill would tell us that it wasn't..." alec: "Bill goes all out with the vocals on this album, all the emotions are hit and hit hard. They're all over the shop. Zany at times, wild and moody, and yet they sit so well in the mix and never overwhelm. "Disposable" is a great example. Love the vocals on this album, Bill!" MondoJohnny: To Bill: "I mean you listen to [Quit Dreaming ] and you were a wild man! You were like some kind of synth berserker impervious to musical harm." Martin Bostock: "Quit Dreaming was my first exposure to Bill's Music. I was around 13 and used to borrow records from the library in Blackpool (it was 50p to 'hire' them for three weeks). It was a great way to discover new music, and my choices used to lean towards the LPs with interesting or quirky cover artwork. I remember Quit Dreaming' s sleeve leaping out at me from the racks! I loved Bill's photography, it had a kind of surreal 'film noir' quality. Then, as an added bonus, the music revealed a whole new world to my young, adolescent ears - I was hooked! The cherry on the cake was hearing the 'bonus' album of strange instrumental music that was universally at odds to the pop sensibilities that dominated the music industry at the time. It was these I would often listen to in my first makeshift darkroom (a piece of black plastic over my bedroom window) and am sure that the sounds had a direct influence on the prints that would manifest under the dim red glow of the safety lamps. Good times indeed!" thunk: "Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam remains a classic of its time, brimming with energy and invention." Albums Menu Future Past

Special Metal Bill Nelson album - 8 April 2016 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Special Metal 02) Heaven Takes No Prisoners 03) Planets We Once Knew 04) Say Hello, Electric Ghost 05) The Fading Light 06) Edge Of Nothing 07) All Our Yesterdays 08) Fuzz Rocket Fantasia 09) Rocking The Dreamboat 10) When Beauty Came To Call 11) Life And Death 12) Up On A Star ALBUM NOTES: Special Metal is a mixture of vocal and instrumental pieces issued exclusively as a digital download album (April 8th, 2016), and the first release on the Tremelo Boy Records label. The album was first mentioned on Dreamsville on 20 January 2016, and was created during a period when Nelson's main mixing desk was away for repair. The desk used in its place was an old desk with a number of faults, but luckily this didn't present too high of a hurdle. Work on the album was completed on 9 February 2016 when Nelson revealed a 14 song track list. However, at the mastering stage, 2 tracks, "Symbiotic Situations" and "Into the Blue Beyond (Fabulous Beings)", were removed, leaving a 12 track album. There is also at least 1 track, "Moon in My Window (Light in My Lamp)", that failed to make it to the proposed track listing that came out of these sessions. It remains to be seen what – if anything – happens to the 3 jettisoned tracks. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Special Metal is not a heavy metal album, although it features some abrasive guitars in parts...it is, in the main, a vocal album with rock overtones and with a few twists and turns here and there. I've not laboured any of the material on it, working very spontaneously with both music and lyrics. It has a nice rough edge and some reasonably sophisticated ideas too. I may have to dumb it down a bit!" _____ "This one I just see as a fun thing, not a, 'furrowed brow' album, not a major 'bleeding heart' statement, just a little rock n' roll diversion, a quick and noisy set of recordings for those who might be interested in such things." _____ "It's turning out to be a melodic rock album with some raw guitar playing in it, but it also has a couple of more ballad style tracks plus my solo version of "When You Wish Upon A Star", which is simple and sweet. I chose the title, more for the images it conjures than any literal interpretation." _____ "It's coming along nicely at the moment, despite me having to work around various shortcomings with my 'standby,' B-team mixing desk. To a certain degree, the problems limit what I'm able do with the material, but those compromises won't be immediately obvious to the uninitiated. It all brings a little less sophistication to the sound, (though I don't think you'll really notice the difference), and makes for a more direct approach to the basic performance, which, in turn, brings out things which might prove interesting enough in their own right." _____ "With over half the desk's on-board effects not working, there's a general lack of polish...but it still sounds very much like me. I'm working rather quickly though, everything more or less first takes, especially vocals which I'm literally throwing down, improvising lyrics as I go, which makes for some strange, stream-of-consciousness, disjointed weirdness, (sort of), and some random melodies. But, really, it's not so different to my usual rock type songs." _____ "I'm in the lucky position to be able to indulge ALL facets of my music via my recordings, including rock, jazz, pop, ambient, electronica, country, folk and neo-classical. Don't make the mistake of thinking that only one of these genres represents me or has become my main direction. The truth is, they all represent me and it's sometimes nice to make an album from the point of view of having a bit of frivolous fun with it. Everything doesn't have to be deeply serious or brow furrowed all the time, there's room for occasional lightness and play, little romps around the garden." FAN THOUGHTS: Prey: "Bill is BACK! Wow...this old man can still doo eet! Rockin' dude." zebrapolish: "Downloaded. Played first 30 seconds. Holy Shit!!!!!!" "This is an instant favourite and I'm only two tracks in! Will be a gibbering wreck by track 12 if this keeps up." Andre: "The opening number sets off the engines, and it flies from there." wonder toy: "I am sooo happy. From note one. Where have you been hiding these songs, Bill? All it took was the Mackie to frustrate them out of you? World class musician hidden from the world, surviving the brutality of the music industry on his on terms and snubbing the stage at the same time. Powerful stance that will be talked about for a long long time. This is transcendent ." Tourist in Wonderland: "A definite rock & roll vibe to the first and last sample tracks (tracks 1 and 10), cool retro vox, great cutting guitar solos, all very shiny chrome in a non-harsh way, super-sexy vintage r & r which has definitely been souped-up to number 11 with a Bill Nelson modern twist... "The Fading Light"...man, that's just blown me away, absolutely beautiful...and if you're into guitar, well let's just say, that's what great guitar is for me...yeah, it's just wonderful, sad, wistful, reflective...just beautiful...a track that could easily sit on The Alchemical Adventures of Sailor Bill ...a brother/companion to "Moments Catch Fire on the Crests of Waves" maybe?" captainknut: "You call it an "outsider album". Well, I call it exactly the type of your music that I love the very best. I pray at the altar of your rockier side." james warner: "While this is not a 'Metal' album, by any stretch of the imagination, there is a definite growling and chugging feel to the guitar work throughout. It definitely rocks!" MondoJohnny: "You love to confuse us! First Jazz of Lights , which you say isn't really jazz, and now Special Metal which isn't really metal! I note the perverse pleasure you take in subverting genre!" "I really really like it a lot actually. It feels fun! It's a great vocal album!" "I really like the vocals on Special Metal ! They were really standout to me!...Kind of more quirky and vital sounding. Not quite similar to your 80's vocals exactly but something kinda like that? That same sense of cool and fun comes through in my opinion." "I remembered you saying this one was a bit of a trifle for you, which gives me a chuckle. Your standards are so high Bill. This could easily be another artist's pride and joy!" GettingOnTheBeam: "My favorites on Special Metal so far are "Fuzz Rocket Fantasia" and "Heaven Takes No Prisoners". But, as is typical with Bill's music, I am sure others will grow into favorites with time." "For me Bill is at his best when he records albums like Joy Through Amplification , Special Metal , and Fancy Planets . They are edgier, the songwriting and lyrics are great, and guitar is front and center." Runicen: "It's great to hear Bill cut loose and shred." "Great record with some tasty guitar work. Bill, you may have put the Vais and Satrianis of the world on notice. You make it sound effortless and fun! Definitely better than "side project" status though. I would like to state that I can listen to Special Metal alongside Be Bop Deluxe recordings and I hear the same guy on both; not in any sort of derivative or repetitive sense, but in that the river has yielded another turn but remained the same body flowing on. The ageless quality of the voice definitely makes it feel like only a few days have passed since the recording of Futurama . Health problems or no, Bill, this is some amazing work and you have every right to be proud of it. Thanks for sharing the ride." slipperyseal: " Special Metal is bloody brilliant. I may ask permission from Bill to play "when you wish…" at my funeral." major snagg: "I've been following your music since BBD & RN. I'm especially enjoying SM ( :oops: ) not that kind…this is a family forum." Albums Menu Future Past

Birthday tributes to Bill from his muscian chums...Harold Budd, John Foxx, Kate St. John, Iain Denby, Stephen Mallinder, Laraaji and Steve Malins Back to the Plectronica 2018 page Pl ectronica A celebration of Bill Nelson at 70 Birthday wishes... Here are some tributes that were sent to Bill as a nice surprise for him from some of his musician friends... Harold Budd I've known Bill since 1987, I think, since we were introduced by a mutual acquaintance at his then home in Selby, Yorkshire. We 'caught on' right away and to this day I regard him as one of my closest friends. At the time I had just moved to London from Los Angeles and I remember countless train trips north to York where Bill would meet me and we'd make the short drive to his home and family in his vintage, and very hip, Peugeot. Anyway, we would spend hours talking, talking about esoteric forms of religion and thought, travels, architecture -- especially medieval structures (of which Yorkshire has an abundance) -- as well as visits-by-the-dozen to country pubs and taverns (solidifying my always high regard for John Smith ale)... and not too much about music, which seemed relatively secondary, 'though we always ended up in his loft- studio laying down bits and pieces. Our travels together included Japan, Portugal, and a brilliant month in New Orleans, Louisiana, at Daniel Lanois' studio recording By The Dawn's Early Light. I'll stop now and save us all from going on and on till the last last page of recorded time and say simply Bill is a world-class artist and a personal treasure. An honor to know him. Harold Budd John Foxx I first saw Bill Nelson supporting Cockney Rebel at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London in the early 1970's. He played exceptional modern guitar, sang intriguing songs, looked skinny and sharp in a white suit and was more memorable than the main act. A little later, I had a beautiful girlfriend, Krystina, a model - she was entranced by Bill and played that Ships In The Night record very loud. Of course, that didn't endear him to me - but I figured he was a man to watch. As the years went on, I grew increasingly impressed by the kind of music he made and his independent spirit - recording at home in Yorkshire, setting up his own label, making all those explorations and experiments completely on his own terms. The conventional record labels just couldn't understand it - they hadn't developed the categories yet. A little later, he recorded at my studio, The Garden, so I also got a glimpse of all the sticky legal stuff Bill had to pull himself out of. It looked bleak for a while, but he got through it all and fired up again. Took some grit. Then the great Harold Budd signalled that he had a project or two going. Bill got there before me, entirely my fault - I thought the three of us recording together might be a case of too many cooks, (I'd also thought the same about recording with David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto, so what did I know). Later, I enjoyed singing with Bill and Harold at Harold's Sinatrian retirement do in Brighton, and realised there might be something worth working on. But the same thing happened with Robin Guthrie, so that took me off again on another adventure, with another great original. There were so many connections and musicians in common over the years - Harold Budd, Theo Travis, Stuart Adamson, John Leckie and Gary Numan among them, so we'd coincide at various points and always threatened to do some work together, but never pinned it down. Over the years, Bill has accumulated this huge, adventurous body of work. He's done it all by being an independent Yorkshireman - often working under the radar. My impression of him is - a gentle man, but a man with a vision, quietly stubborn as hell and always rock solid against any weather. An inspiration. John Foxx Kate St. John Bill Nelson is such a lovely man and one of the most creative and prolific humans I know. Working with him is liberating as he makes your creative soul feel free to fly. The world is a better place for all the intricate magic and wizardry he has conjured up in his songs and compositions Kate St. John Iain Denby I first met Bill in 1984 and what struck me about him immediately was that despite his iconic musician status there were no airs or graces with him, he treated me and everyone else as an equal. He's a down-to-earth Yorkshire lad at heart. I was a 24-year old full-time kitchen designer and had been invited by him to play on his new song after hearing my bass playing on a track I'd recorded with his sound engineer at the time. He didn't care I wasn't a professional musician, or that I had no history of session playing - I guess he just liked what he'd heard…and perhaps being a fellow Yorkshire lad was good enough for him! The day of recording was very stressful for me - I'd driven for hours to get to the studio. I was in there with a legend - someone I've paid to see in concert several times and here I was recording a bass line on his new single 'Living For The Spangled Moment' - no pressure then! Bill was generous enough to give me as much time as I needed to jam along with the track, become familiar with it and create a sympathetic bass line. I'm pretty sure he had his own bass line ideas, but he didn't reveal them - he was happy to let me do my own thing, only injecting ideas on parts when I was struggling for ideas. I was very happy with the result, and I guess Bill was too because he invited me to tour with him. Rehearsing for the tour that followed was quite intimidating - after all, I was just a hobbyist bassist, yet here I was playing with professional, full-time musicians - I didn't feel deserving. However, I remember the moment that feeling changed. It was during a break from normal practice and Bill played a rough demo of Contemplation to which we all jammed along. I started to mess about with chords high up the fret board and Bill looked up from his guitar playing and said, "Ooo, I like that!" Bill Nelson likes what I just did! I'm happy to say those chords developed a bit more and feature on the finished recording. Bill's generosity and encouragement continued through the recording process of 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across'. Anyone familiar with Bill's music knows that he creates some amazing, simple and effective bass lines - none more so than on 'Do You Dream In Colour'. So, for him to send me a cassette of twelve demo songs without bass lines, allowing me the freedom to create my own was amazing. Even during recording, and contrary to what one might have expected, Bill hardly interfered with my ideas and was happy to hear them materialise into the finished recording. And, nothing was lost in the mix…well, apart from the slap 'n' tickle bass on 'Heart And Soul' - relegated to the fade out. That's OK…the playing was probably a bit messy anyway! I still get a buzz today from other people's surprise when they learn of my name on his music, especially because they know me as an architectural illustrator and not a musician. However, I've recently brought my bass playing out of a long retirement. It feels good and I've had fun re learning the songs off that album, especially 'Contemplation' -my all-time favourite. My time working with Bill has been a highlight of my life, not just because of the privilege he gave me, but to spend time with someone whose musical genius status never got in the way of his generosity, respectfulness and kindness. Bill's just 'one of the lads'. Thanks Bill, and I hope we can do it again sometime soon! Iain Denby I'm not sure what it is, but there seems to be a certain strand of DNA that connects a group of massively significant artists: David Bowie, David Sylvian, Jon Foxx, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Bill…they're different from the rest of us, on a higher plain, best of all Bill's from Yorkshire. And let's not forget we are also talking about a wonderful, generous, fascinating human being. Big love Bill and Happy Birthday! Mal Stephen Mallinder In honour of Bill... I remember the first time I saw Bill play was in Sheffield, in a legendary pub called the Black Swan, one Sunday evening in I'm guessing about late 1975. He was with Be Bop Deluxe and although we (myself and Richard from Cabaret Voltaire) weren't particularly enamoured of guitar-centric bands Bill always had something a bit different about him - he had a certain style and panache that meant we gave him the benefit of the doubt…he was intriguing, a cut above and we gave him our time and money that Sunday night. Where he went from Be Bop confirmed Bill was a distinctive, unique artist. He not only survived the cultural killing fields of punk, that showed no mercy to many, he thrived and opened up really interesting doors for himself and the rest of us. Bill has a wonderful grasp of things and a hunger for challenges. It was great to be introduced to him, spend time and eventually get him to play on our records - his guitar work on CODE was perfect and he even agreed to be in the video (I remember on the day he charmed the entire production team). Visiting him in the castle near Wakefield was unforgettable - we spent the time discussing Cocteau, the Golden Dawn, Rosicrucians and got to see his collection of esoteric artefacts. And had a curry as I seem to recall. Laraaji Thoughts about Bill Nelson: Easy smile Musically intuitive Guitar style master Inspirational messenger Very harmonious to be in studio sessions with... LARAAJI☀️ Steve Malins I came to Bill's music in the early 80s when I was a young lad looking for new electronic music. I knew nothing of Be Bop Deluxe and indeed it's only in recent years that I've come to appreciate what a great band they were. It was the Cocteau recordings that pulled me in, especially 'The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything' and the instrumental albums - I wore out a cassette copy of 'La Belle Et La Bete' and would play 'Sounding The Ritual Echo' which came as a free vinyl LP over and over. They gave me a life-long fascination with a stripped-back, DIY approach to music, along with a love for primitive analogue synthesisers and drum machines and what a stylish way to release your own music! Oozing class and a profilic flow of brilliant releases, the Cocteau label slotted alongside 4AD and Mute in my awe-struck head. All these things have stayed with me as I've been extremely fortunate to work with artists (such as Hannah Peel, Stephen Mallinder, John Foxx, Gazelle Twin, Gary Numan, Benge, Blancmange) who record in their own home studios with passion and imagination and release records on their own labels. Oh and synths and drum machines still regularly figure too! Meanwhile, as my tastes have (hopefully) expanded over the years I've come to love all the twists and turns in Bill's recording career and some of his more recent albums such as 'New Northern Dream' and 'That Old Mysterioso' are among my favourites. Happy Birthday! Steve Malins (Random Music Management)

Tuesday 31st January 2006 -- 10:30 am Last day of January 2006 and no diary entry since 20th December last year. Should I put this down to a Christmas/New Year letting go of the reins? Or is it simply the usual pre-occupation with all things creative? A lot of the former and quite a bit of the latter is the answer. The usual over-indulgences at Christmas and New year have taken their toll, as they always do. Last year's constant pace came to a halt as soon as the shops closed on Christmas Eve and I dropped my accumulated stress at the door along with the final bags of shopping. I'd eventually posted all my Christmas cards, found gifts for everyone, bought enough food to see us through to the New Year and stocked up on wine, mulled and otherwise, to keep the cold at bay. It wasn't a white Christmas but it snowed a little the day after Boxing Day, enough to make the landscape momentarily magical. Walking through York's Museum Gardens at twilight, snowflakes spinning in gentle orbit around the amber glow of the old street lamps, the river gleaming silver at the foot of the hill beneath an indigo and rose pink star studded sky, I felt a welcome sense of wonder. It didn't last, of course, the snow that is. Within a couple of days it was a brown muddy sludge that made everything seem grimy and forlorn. A sudden grey plunge into the annual January doldrums. For a few brief days though, it had been a hedonistic, friends and family centred celebration of, not just the season, but for me, the completion of a year's constant work, a year with hardly a breathing space between one project and another. Early in the year, I had worked hard on the design of the Dreamsville website, gathering visual material and bouncing ideas back and forth with David Graham until we got a look that suited the site's purpose. Then 'stage one' of Dreamsville was opened up to the world, generating a very positive response from all those who accessed it. Later, there was the release of the two Rosewood acoustic guitar instrumental albums. Again, artwork had to be created for them, once I'd completed the composition and recording of the music. (And yet another challenge for Dave and myself.) These two albums, particularly Rosewood Volume One, I found very satisfying to make. I'd wanted to create a set of acoustic flavoured instrumental compositions for several years but, somehow, had never got around to it until the Rosewood project. What really took me by surprise though was the next of the year's albums: 'The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill.' For some reason, I was gripped more tightly by the hand of the muse with this album than anything I'd done for a long time. It completely took over my life and I worked longer and harder on the composition, arrangement and recording of the songs than I would normally have thought wise. Nothing's ever perfect, of course, but this set of songs comes as close to being personally fulfilling than almost any other album of mine. I think the reason for this is to be found in my current state of mind, conditioned as it is by advancing age and thoughts of mortality. Not morbid thoughts, mind, just melancholy ones... At least some of the time. 'Sailor Bill' successfully captures a certain mood, something that could, I think, genuinely be called an indicator of the 'essence' of myself. It is, if I may be allowed the indulgence, a 'mature' statement. In three years I'll be sixty, (and how fast three years travels in this light-speed era of ours). But sixty, damn it! I can't really comprehend this, it's somehow beyond belief, staggering. My childhood seems only a few heartbeats away, its memories still vivid, its hopes and fears hardly changed. Nevertheless, the face in the mirror reminds me that young Billy has vanished with the passing clouds of time and now only grandfather William remains, hobbled and earthbound. And do I feel my age? Well, yes and no but increasingly yes. Aches and pains and other little annoyances, a brittle creakiness, an inevitable erosion of flexibility, physical or otherwise, a stealthy dulling of the senses, an increasing world weariness. Life as she is lived, with wear and tear an inevitable part of the living. Yet still a mystery and still a wonder...Snowflakes under gaslight, a river beneath the stars. As good a reason to make music as any, I suppose. What else occupied my energies last year? Have I forgotten? Already it seems to have become a blur. A lot achieved though, all told. Here are some of the other things that I found time for:- The recording of the limited edition 'Orpheus In Ultraland' fan convention album. The Nelsonica 05 fan convention project with its attendant preparations and programming of content. The 'Popular Music From Other Planets' concert tour around the U.K. And yes, of course...lots of new music and video was created for that. But even earlier last year, before the above, more live concerts: The Harold Budd tribute that I took part in that was held at Brighton's Dome. Fun with Harold and John Foxx, Jah Wobble, Theo Travis, Steve Jansen, Robin Guthrie and others...a lovely, memorable event. Then the Lewes Guitar Festival with more new material to perform. And some other bits and pieces that slip my thoughts at this moment. Too much time spent in my room though, hidden from the world. Whichever way I look at it, the last two years have been intensely creative. Maybe I should feel a much higher sense of achievement than I currently do? Here and now, at the end of January, there's the usual weight gain to contend with, the usual promise to myself that it will be easier come spring, that the return of outdoor weather will coax the bike from the shed and encourage some sort of exercise... What usually happens is the opposite of course. I end up trapped here in the studio, hypnotised by guitars and keyboards and computer screens whilst time accelerates around my wristwatch in dizzy circles. A little vortex of used-up life. Some progress already: A couple of days ago, I completed the task of checking through Paul Sutton-Reeves' book about my career, ('Music In Dreamland'). It's taken me most of January to get through it all as I felt that I should explain to Paul in some detail my observations and reasons for suggested amendments. Due to approximately 30,000 words being edited from Paul's original text by the publishers, I felt that there were places where a little re-clarification might help. I've left it entirely up to Paul to incorporate or ignore these suggestions as he sees fit but I'm hoping that the time I've spent typing out emails to him will prove valuable to the book's integrity. It has been a weird experience reading about my career in this way. I imagine it would be disconcerting for anyone who had been made the subject of such a book, but I found it particularly strange. Sometimes I don't recognise the person on the page and am not even sure that I want to. At other times it's like being caught with my clothes off in public. I'm too unguarded, too ready to explain the music away, this eagerness to please resulting in some invented 'on the spot' descriptions of what the songs are about when often, in truth, I don't really have a clue as to their meaning. Do songs have to mean anything? It seems that, most of the time, mine do. I can't find a suitable justification for this though and would be equally happy if they contained no meaning at all. Here's something I've learned over the years but still regularly ignore: An honest pop musician does not generate as much public 'mystique' as a dishonest one. (Or one that plays his cards close to his chest.) And in pop music, mystique is everything. This indicates two things to me. First of all, I'm not by nature a pop musician, despite once, many years ago, pretending to be so. Secondly: I'm more interested in unmasking the conceits of celebrity than perpetuating them. This, of course, is not a formula for a successful commercial career, nor is it an attitude welcomed by those who benefit from such jiggery-pokery. The cult of fame, that so captures the imagination of the 'general public', thrives on fake glamour and artfully manipulated image-mongering. People, it seems, prefer being hoodwinked to being liberated. Certainly my own experience backs that up. Whilst the majority of my own audience appears to be reasonably intelligent and sane, there have been, (and sometimes still are,) worrying exceptions. I've occasionally gotten into quite heated arguments with overzealous fans who have taken issue with the fact that the 'real' Bill Nelson doesn't quite fit the 'virtual' Bill Nelson of their dreams. In fact, one sure way to experience just how negatively the cult of celebrity affects the human mind is to enter the arena of popular music. No matter how modest the level of celebrity one attains, sooner or later comes encounters with people who will obsessively claim you as the spiritual centre of their own fragile lives. You will be unceremoniously crowned the tin-pot God of their tin-pot universe... And woe betide you should you ever seek to unburden them of their illusion. Hell hath no fury like a fantasist brought down to earth. How easy it must be to create a spurious religion with so many willing, potential disciples. But such unhealthy mystification is all part of the entertainment business and is accepted as its general currency. Entertainment over enlightenment? As Brian Eno said in a recent article, 'we're all entertained to death.' Or something like that. Anyway, back to the book. All said and done, (and taking the above into account), I enjoyed reading it and expect that fans will enjoy reading it even more. It's Paul Sutton-Reeves' first published book and the first published biography of my career. A cause for celebration or trepidation? Well, perhaps we're both nervous of its reception. Will I have to hide from old girlfriends and ex-wives? Will my children understand their father any more than they do now? Will my friends still talk to me or look at me as if I've escaped from some travelling freak show? (Or do they already see me in that way?) The problem with books is they exile our frail lives to cruel islands of print. They banish fleeting experience to the state of permanence. Books adopt a form that appears, on the surface, substantial. We invest the printed word with a faith that would do the Pope proud. Words on a computer screen can be made to vanish with the click of a mouse but that thick brick of a thing that sits on your bookshelf or coffee table in constant view..? Well, it can't be denied so easily. It can't be switched off by the removal of its electricity. Well...let's see what this thing unlocks when it's published. Maybe I'll have to leave the country. There was some sad news just after Christmas which I've already commented on in postings on the Dreamsville Inn Forum. Derek Bailey, pioneer free-music guitarist and someone who has proved constantly inspirational to me over many years, passed away on 25th December, 2005. This came as quite a shock. I knew he had suffered some illness in recent years but didn't realise quite how serious things were. Derek died from complications arising from motor neurone disease. I learned of his death a couple of days after it happened. Ironically, I'd finally completed Ben Watson's lengthy biography of Derek and the free-music scene on Christmas Eve. On Boxing day, when my son Elliot and daughter Elle came to the house for a seasonal dinner, the conversation got around to Derek and I played them some selections of his music. The following day, the news came that he'd gone. Perhaps many of my fans might be puzzled as to why Derek was so important or as to why I found his work inspirational. It could be argued that, in terms of form and intent, our approach to music was quite different. Derek's playing might be seen by some fans of mine as being too abstract, too confrontational, too fractured, too something or other, but certainly not comfortable listening. But these 'too whatevers' were exactly what atttracted me to his work. He appealed to the part of me that resists the herd mentality, that akward, stubborn, 'I know best' part of me that rudely and clumsily and some times stupidly resists compromise. His music also worked as a purely aesthetic artform, sound and gesture for its own sake, open to appreciation without it always being dependent upon the academic theories that surround much of free music's barbed history. There were threads, I might have argued, that connected Derek's music to Cage and Partch, though I'm sure he'd have considered these slender and quite possibly totally subjective. Webern seems to have come into his equation though, through his own admission. There was also humour and mischievousness, grace and fire in Derek's playing. In his hands, the guitar was elevated to gallery status, a legitimate instrument of art. He was, in my mind, astonishing, revolutionary, the one player who I hoped I might one day be given the pleasure and challenge of playing with. Too late now. Like Cage, like Partch, like Picasso and Pollock and all of Art's far scouts and secret agents, the world required only one Derek Bailey. To attempt to play like him, (and some people did and still do), would be a travesty. What he created was his and his alone, unique, absolutely essential and unrepeatable. The world of music was made more curious, more kinetic by his contribution to it. And that's an achievement. There's an eloquent and reasoned account of Derek Bailey's life in the latest issue of WIRE magazine, a piece written by David Toop, (who curated the Hayward Gallery's 'Sonic Boom' exhibition that I contributed some music to a few years ago). It's worth reading, especially as David had the opportunity to talk with Derek on numerous occasions over the years. It's as fine an introduction to the man and his music as possible within the restrictions of a slim magazine. Derek's own book , 'Improvisation' is an essential read too, even for musicians who aren't naturally sympathetic to the free-music cause. Yet another positive force...gone, gone, gone...but not yet forgotten. Whilst on the subject of books. Christmas brought me new ones, as it always does. They were added to the small mountain of books that have accumulated throughout last year and which pressure of work has denied me access. I've made a start, although my reading is still done at the end of the day in the minutes before sleep. Here are some of the titles stacked by my bedside:- 'Despite The System: Orson Welles Versus The Hollywood Studios' by Clinton Heylin. 'Lovesick Blues, The Life Of Hank Williams' by Paul Hemphill. 'Dylan Thomas, A New Life' by Andrew Lycett. 'Quicksilver' by Neal Stephenson. 'The Sea' by John Banville. 'The Spirit Of Place, Nine Neo-Romantic Artists And Their Times.' by Malcolm Yorke. 'Untold Stories' and 'Writing Home' by Alan Bennett. 'Audio Culture, Readings In Modern Music' by Christopher Cox and Daniel Warner. 'The Rise Of The Sixties' by Thomas Crow. 'The Making Of Modern Britain' by Jeremy Black. 'Surrealism In Britain' by Michel Remy. 'Lost Highway' by Peter Guralnick. 'Ted Hughes, The Life Of A Poet' by Elaine Feinstein. 'American Odyssey, The Letters and Journals Of Wilhelm Reich' edited by Mary Boyd Higgins. 'Fritz Lang, The Nature Of The Beast' by Patrick McGilligan. 'Bill Brandt, A Life' by Paul Delaney. Some of the above I made a start on earlier last year but because I was so busy I broke off reading them and need to begin again when time allows. I also was given some very welcome DVDs, the most special of which is a boxed set of a mammoth twelve and a half hour long film/series called simply 'JAZZ, A Film By Ken Burns.' I'd caught some of this when it was screened as a series on tv, quite a while ago now, but never got around to buying the DVD, partly due to its high price. However, Christmas presents are one of life's little luxuries and Emiko generously bought it for me as a surprise gift. Whilst some have said that Ken Burns' view of Jazz history is a particularly selective one, for me the film is beautifully put together. I could watch it over and over again...it's uplifting, inspiring and heartfelt. Watching it is a wonderful way to unwind at the end of the day, the film's music and musicians providing a poetic reminder of why some of us became so besotted with music in the first place. It's the kind of programme that makes me feel proud to be part of a tremendous chain of musicians stretching back through history, meagre though my own contribution has been. Anyway, I'd recommend this fine piece of work to all music lovers, irrespective of whether Jazz rings their bell or not. If, after watching this film, the penny still hasn't dropped, then they're beyond redemption. In terms of musical listening, when I've found the time, (usually over dinner), I've been in a retro mood, albums by Ella Fitzgerald, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Django Reinhardt, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass. Also Bill Evans' 'Conversations With Myself' album and, (not exactly a 'retro' record), Bill Frisell's 'East-West' live album. There's a real sense of elegance, intelligence and sophistication in these jazz albums, qualities that seem to have gone missing in action amongst our current pop/rock luminaries. To listen to these classic recordings is to enter another world, a world, I have to say, in which I feel comfortably at home. So, what are my plans for this coming year? Well, the 'Music In Dreamland' book's obligations now discharged, the next thing on the agenda is the possibility of working with Russian musicians again. My old 'Nautilus Pompillius' friend Slava Butusov and his new band 'Jupiter.' Still awaiting budget conformation on this though. The next thing I'll need to do after this is to mix the Be Bop Deluxe Decca audition tapes. I'm hoping to make these available on my own 'Sonoluxe' label before very long. Current favourite title for this cd is 'Tomorrow The World.' (Which was the title of an early Be Bop Deluxe song but equally suggests the group's ambition back in those early days.) Also, I've been asked by EMI records to mix some later Be Bop Deluxe live album tracks, different takes from those that found their way onto the 'Live In The Air Age' album, but from the same tour, or so I'm presuming. These tracks will be part of EMI's proposed big Be Bop Box set which will contain just about everything the band ever recorded. This is due for release later this year. Then I must work on a new instrumental guitar album, volume two in the 'Painting With Guitars' series, (of which 'The Romance Of Sustain' was volume one). I've yet to choose the 'main' title for this album but it will contain versions of the more recent instrumental material that I've incorporated into my solo performances these last two years, tracks such as 'The Girl On The Fairground Waltzer,' 'Blue Amorini,' 'Blackpool Pleasure Beach And The Road To Enlightenment,' and 'Electric Milkcart Blues' amongst others. Also planned is an album of unreleased sketches and demos from my 1980's archives. The main focus of my attention will be a new vocal album, the next step on from 'Sailor Bill.' I want to take my time with this though and, bearing in mind the archive material already planned for release, I may not find time to complete a brand new album this year. We'll see... This year's fan convention, Nelsonica 06, is yet another project to deal with, and very soon too if it is to be ready for a proposed autumn event date. New venues to check out first. I have had an idea about including a sort of guitar 'masterclass' as part of the convention, a non-academically inclined one that will allow me to talk about aesthetic approaches to the instrument as well as technical ones. A special, limited edition CD will be required for the convention too, as is usual, and 'Snow Is Falling', a song which I featured in last year's tour, is definitely going to be one of the tracks on it. Live dates? Well...I have some ambitious plans but I'm not sure at this stage how practical they will be. As always, it's down to funding. And that's plenty to be getting on with, I think. Letters from Harold who is moving house, heart and head. A jolly note from Roger Eno too. Emails from Peter Coulombe and Chuck Bird with reference to a possible Nelsonica USA fan convention. They are starting to get results back from a survey to discover how many American fans would be interested in attending such a thing. I'm told it looks promising at the moment. If all goes to plan, it may be that there will be two Nelsonicas next year, one here in England and one in the States. Three new doors being fitted to the house due to weather damage. Awaiting quotations from decorators to repair all the exterior woodwork which will need doing once the new doors are fitted. One door has been hung today, ('though only undercoated at the moment). The other two were not quite the right fit so have been taken away to be adjusted and will be fitted next Monday I'm told. Elliot passed his driving test, first time! I'm pleased but now I've something extra to worry about. Part of being a parent, I suppose. My mother still worries about me when I'm out on the roads, even though I'm 57 years old and have been driving since the 1960's. (Why does that last sentence remind me of Alan Bennett?) Emiko has had one day a week cut from her schedule at the flower shop and is looking for a way to fill the financial gap. She's thinking about putting in some time at an old people's home as a carer. Whilst I'm sure that she'd be able to do this quite well, it seems a shame as her talent is really with flowers. Sometimes, I wish she had more ambition and would make more of her gifts but she says she's too old to do so. I think she's too easy going in some ways but, I love her as she is. She accepts the difficulties of being married to someone whose career is always up and down and insecure so I have nothing to complain about. I'm very lucky to have her share my life with me. Outside my window: grey, undistinguished January weather. Nothing much to uplift the spirits, just that typically flat, beginning of the year mood-dulling atmosphere. Roll on Spring and the saffron song of daffodils. Top of page William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) January 2006 Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

A B C D F H I J K E G L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ A - Z Song List Discography Menu A A Ablaze With Glory Abstracted Acceleration Acceleration (Dub Version) Acceleration (Long Version) Accessio Lucis (The Coming Light) Accordion Night The Ache At The Heart Of The World Aching Heart Acquitted By Mirrors Acquitted By Mirrors (Demo) Adventure Annual Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape (BBC Studio Version) Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape (Decca Studio Version) Aeolian Magic (Blip No 9) Aeroplane Mind Aeroplane Wings The Aerostatic Balloonist After All These Years After Life After Midnite (Twang, Echo And Hoedown) After The Rain, Pick The Fruit After The Stars Age Of Reason Airmail Guitar Albion Dream Vortex Alchemia The Alchemy Of Ecstasy Alice In The Palace Of Stardust And Pearl Aliumesque All Aboard The Skylark All A Dream, After All All Alone In A Boat Of His Own All Dressed Up In Your Art School Clothes All Hail The Dreamer (Miss Futurama Smiles) All Hail The Happy Captain All Hail The Witching Hour All I Am Is You All My Wives Were Iron All Our Yesterdays All's Well In Wonderland All That I Remember All The Fun Of The Fair All These Days Are Gone (For Ian) All The World Flies Kites Tonight All This And A Girl Like You All You Need To Know The Almost Invisible Man Almost Unchanging Aloha Niagra Alone In A Lunar Light Altar Natives Always And Everywhere Always Looking Forward To Tomorrow Always Summer Always You Amazing Things Ambiguity American Moderne Ampex Eight Ampex Eleven Ampex Five Ampex Four Ampex Nine Ampex One Ampex Seven Ampex Six Ampex Ten Ampex Three Ampex Twelve Ampex Two Ampex Xtra An Acre Of Sunshine Ancient Angels Watching Me Ancient Guitars And All The World Was Ours And Now The Rain And The Train Left The Station Trailing Sparks And Stars And There I Am And We Fell Into A Dream Andromeda Gardens An Electrical Christmas The Angel At The Western Window Angel In My System Angel Like You The Angel Of Hearth And Home Angels In Arcadia Angels Obey Bells The Angel With Television Eyes Annunciation Another Day, Another Ray Of Hope Another Happy Thought (Carved For Ever In Your Cortex) Another Kiss For Your Slender Neck Another Luxury Wonder Moment Another Planet Another Rainy Day Another Slice Of Wonder Cake Another Tricky Mission For The Celestial Pilot Another Willingly Opened Window Antennae Two Antique Gods Antique Interiors Antoria Aphrodite Adorned Appolinaire Apollonian Tremolo Apple Tree Swing Aqua Celeste Aqua Magica Arbor Philosophica (Tree Of Philosophy) Archetypes Arco Volta Ardent Hands Are You Listening? Arising Arrangement Of Roses Art Deco Dance Art/Empire/Industry Art For Art's Sake Artifex Art Is Long And Time Is Fleeting Artismo Loco Art Is My Aeroplane The Art Of Thinking Ashes Of Roses Art Of Vision As If It Was A Moment Ago As Quickly As A Kiss As The Stars Began To Glow Astra The Astral Tramways Of England Astro-Astoria Astro-Coaster Astro Logic Astroluxe Astron The Astronomy Of The Heart Astrophysical The Asylum At Home In High Clouds At The Center At The Gates Of The Singing Garden Atlantika The Atom Age The Atom Age (Demo) Atom Blasted Cadillac Atom Man Loves Radium Girl Atoms And Electrons Atom Shop (Is Closing) Atoms, Neutrons, Strangeness And Charm Atoms Orbit Around The Sun The Attempted Murder Of Jane Attempt To Re-Assemble My Fragmented Self Aura Hole Auraville Autosexual Autosexual (Demo) Autumn And Spring The Autumn Balloonist Autumn Drowns Apples In Golden Tides Autumn Fires Autumn Noodle No.1 Autumn Stars Autumn Tram (Yorkshire Raga No.2) Autumn Vapours Awakening The Awakening The Awakening Of Dr Dream Away Axe Victim Axe Victim (BBC Studio Version) Axe Victim (Decca Studio Version) Axe Victim (First Version) Axiomata Azure Extension Babe Baby Buddha Baby Robot Baby Ruth's Big Special Back Of Beyond Back To Dreams Bakelite (The 50th Birthday Song) Ballyboots Bamboozled Banal Barely There Batch # 70172 Bats At Bedtime BC1675 Beach Hut Beauties Beam Service Beams Of Light The Beast In Solitude Beatniks From Outer Space Beat Street The Beat That Can't Go Wrong Today Beautiful Big Boobies Beautiful Diamonds Are Falling From The Clouds The Beautiful Machine Beautiful Nudes Beauty And The Beast Beauty Enters The Castle Beauty In A Sparkly Bra Beauty Lifts Her Skirts Beauty Rides The Last Bus Home Beauty Secrets Beauty Secrets (First Version) Be-Bop-Bac Because Of You Beep, Beep, Beep Before We Fall Begin To Burn Be Here Now Behold Dumb Wonders Behold These Present Days Being And Nothingness Land The Bel-Air Rocketman A Bell Awakened Bell Bird Bell Weather (Blip No 2) The Bells Of Villefranche Bells Ring Sweet Across The Meadow Be My Dynamo Beneath Her Dappled Apple Tree Bending A Knee At The Altar Of Sacrifice The Best Of You A Better Home In The Phantom Zone A Better Home In The Phantom Zone (Demo) Between Autumn And Winter Between The Seasons Between The Worlds (Album Version) Between The Worlds (Single Version) Beyond All This Beyond Recall Beyond The Sun Beyond These Clouds The Sweetest Dream Beyond Yonder Bicycle Building Big Blue Day Big Broken Buick Big Empty Sky The Big Illumination Big Noise In Twangtown Big River Big Ship Big Yellow Moon Bikini Avanti Bill's Blues (Live) Bill's Last Waltz Billy And The High Blue Horizon Billy Beyond (Everyone's Clean In Paradise) Billy Builds The World Of Tomorrow Billy Infinity Billy's Blues Billy's Holiday Binky And The Dancing Astronomers Binky's Blues The Bird Charmer's Destiny The Bird Charmer's Destiny (First Version) Birdie A Bird Of The Air Shall Carry Thy Voice Bird Ornaments Birds And Blue Stuff Birds In Blue Sky Again The Birds In The Sky Say Hi! Birds In Two Hemispheres Birds Of Tin Bittersweet Black Fish/Silver Pond Blackpool Pleasure Beach And The Road To Enlightenment Blaze Ye Now The Golden Trail Blazing Apostles Blazing Apostles (BBC Studio Session) The Blazing Memory Of Innuendo Bless Me, Bless You Blimps Blink Of An Eye Blink-Agog Bliss And Abyss Blonde And Built To Last The Blossom Tree Optimists Bloo Blooz Blood Off The Wall Blowin' The Dust Off The Book Of The Future Blown Away Blue Amorini Blue As A Jewel Blue As A Jewel (Demo) Blue Beams Blue Cloud Blue Dawn Blue Distant Stars Blue Loop No.1 Blue Loop No.2 Blue Nude Blues For A Broken Time Machine Blues For Orpheus Blue Skies Listen, The Unstruck Bell Blue Sky Blue Sky Seeks Red Guitar Blue Sparks Flying Blue Spin Bluesy Ruby (BBC Studio Session) Bluesy Ruby (Decca Studio Session) The Blue Taint B-Movie Bug Boy A Boat Named St. Christopher Boat To Forever Body Of Light Boom Year Ahead Boy Chases Butterfly Boyhood Rockets Boyhood Shadows The Boy Pilots Of Bangkok The Boy Who Knew The Names Of Trains The Boy Who Learned Everything The Boy Who Lived In The Future Boy With Bubblepipe Bramble Brave Flag The Breath In My Father's Saxophone The Bride Of Christ In Autumn Bride Of The Atom Bridge Across The Void Bright And Glittering (Blip No 6) Bright Magic Bright 'N Breezy Bright Sparks Bright Star (Moonlight Over Ocean Blue) A Brilliant Night For Rain Bring Back The Spark Bringers Of Lights To The Feast Broadcast News (Theme From Right To Reply) Broken Broken Blues Bronze The Brotherhood Of Sleeping Car Porters Brutal Tinkerbell Bubbledreamer Bubbles In The Cosmos Bubbling Blue Buddha And The Rain Cloud The Buddha Boys A Buddha For My Brother Buddha Head Buddha's Eyes Are Everywhere Buddha Smoked My Cigarettes Bugging Me Bumpcycle Burning Down The Burning Question Burning The Grove Of Satyrs Burnished The Buzz, Buzz, Buzz Of The Forever Bee Buzz Was Honey B B The Cabinet Closes California Boombox Caligari Disciplines Cesare Caligari Feeds Cesare Caligari Opens The Cabinet Calling Heaven, Calling Heaven, Over Call Of The Wild Candelabra And Gargoyles Candyland Capricious Skies Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus The Captain's In The Wheelhouse (Fabled Quixote) Carnival The Carousel Of Time Cascade (Improvisation For Three Harp Guitars) Cassidy's Electric Campfire Song The Castle The Celestial Bridegroom Celestial East The Celestial Steam Locomotive The Celestial Travelator Celestina Swoons Celestrum Celluloid Ghosts The Century That Dared To Dream The Ceremonial Arrival Of The Great Golden Cloud Certain Circles A Certain Thought Passed Through My Mind Cesare The Somnambulist Chameleon Channel Surfing Chapel Of Chimes The Charm Of Transit A Charming Trick Chelsea Flash Chiffon Child Of The Dream Chills For You Chiming Church With Rusty Bell Chiming Shires The Chinese Nightingale A Christmas Cowboy Outfit The Christmas Gift Christmastide Christ Via Wires Chroma Chymepeace (An Ending) Cimbercom Cinnamon And Mint Circle The World In A Paper Canoe Circo Infantil Circular Tour A Circus To Remember The City Dreams Of Christmas City Of Tomorrow City One Clavis Angelicae (Key Of Angels) Clear Controls Confirmed Clear Skies A' Coming Climbing Clock Conscious The Clock That Time Forgot Clocks Wind Slow The Clockwork Light Machine The Clockwork Rocket Close Your Eyes (The Sleepytown Symphony) Clothed In Light Amongst The Stars The Clouded Mirror The Cloud Of Unknowing Clouds Above The Corn Clouds Drift North Cloudwater Canal Cloudy Billows Kiss The Moon Coastal Starlight Coasting Cold Tired And Hungry The Colonel Has An Anti-Decimal Scheme Colossal Figures Shrouded In Clouds Colour Floods The Bay With Blue Come Closer And See My Dreams Come To Me In My Dreams Comic Cuts Complicated Coney Island Confessions Of A Psychedelic Dandy Confused The Conjurer's Companion (Every Blessed Thing Is So Damned Fragile) Consolamentum Consolation Street Contemplation (Original ABM EP Version) Contemplation (Album Version) Contemplation (Redux 2007) Contrary Wise Cool Blue Heaven Coop's Place The Corridor Corrosive Cosmic Country Ghosts A Cottage On The Moon Country Cola Country Season Covered In Chrome The Cowboy Club Cowboy Christmas Cowboy Song Crazy Dreamer Crazy Right Now Creamy Clouds Cremona Crimsworth Cross Country Crying All Night Crying To The Sky Crying To The Sky (Alternate Guitar Solo) Crying To The Sky (BBC Studio Session) Crying To The Sky (First Version) The Crystal Escalator In The Palace Of God Department Store Crystal Gazing Crystal Gazing (Alternate Vocal Version) The Crystal Gazing Room (No Sleep For The Alchemist) The Crystal Lights Of Chrismastown Crystal Springs C-Shell Cubical Domes The Curate's Cassock Is Troubled By The Breeze Curate's Egg In Cup Of Grass Curiosity's Domain The Curious King Of Dreams The Cycle Factory Cyclebumps C C D Dada Guitare Daily Bells Dali's Dream Of Venus Dance, Mighty Robot, Dance! Dance Of The Anti-Gravity Enthusiasts Dance Of The Cosmic Signaller No. 2 Dance Of The Fragrant Woman Dance Of The Luminous Dials Dance Of The Mullard Valvemen Dance Of The Orchard Angels Dance Of The Pagan Energy Ghosts Dance Of The Sonic Culture Gods Dance Of The Uncle Sam Humanoids Dancing In The Moonlight (All Alone) Dancing In The Wind Dancing Music Dancing On A Knife's Edge Dangerous Lady Dangerous Stranger Dangerous Stranger (Demo) The Darcey Bussell Rubberwear Fantasia Dark And Bright Dark And Complicated Dark Angel Dark Eyes Dark Horse Dark Is The Spark Darkness (L'Immoraliste) Darkness Sparkles The Darkness Will Remain Darling Star Daughter Of Dream Come True A Day At West Acre Daydreaming The Day I Dreamed You Up Day Of Eternity Days Of Golden Dreams Days Of Wonder The Day That Came And Went Dazzle (Blip No 10) The Dead We Wake With Upstairs Drums Dear Mr. Fantasy December Days-Diamond Bright December Waltz Decimal Point For The Thousand Races Decline And Fall Decode Me Baby Deco Super Cruiser Deep December (Bright And Shiny Day) Deep Dream Decoder Deeply Dazzled Deep Sky Demon Raising The Departure Of The 20th Century In A Hail Of Memory Designer Dance De Soto Deva Dance Devil In Me The Difficulty Of Being Dig The Sparkles A Dip In The Sparkle Jar A Dip In The Swimming Pool Reactor Dippety-Doo Disneyland After Dark Disposable Dissolve Distant Town With Different Lights Distant Years From Now The Divine Raptures Of Sisterhood The Diving Bell Dizzy In The Head A Dizzy Spell Django Dreams Of Twinkleland Doctor Caligari The Doctor Was An Alchemist Dog Day Afternoon Domain Of Echo Don't Be A Stranger Don't Cry, Space-Guy Don't Touch Me (I'm Electric) Don't Touch Me (I'm Electric) (BBC Session) Don't Touch Me (I'm Electric) (Demo) Don't Wait The Door Do Space Trams Dream Of Fictitious Passengers? The Dove Consumed (The Serpent Slumbers) Down Comes The Rain Downhill Down On Terminal Street Do You Dream In Colour? The Drawing Room Dreamboat Situation Dream Car Romantics (In Death's Garage Antics) Dream Cities Of The Heart Dream Cycles One Dream Cycles Three Dream Cycles Two The Dream Dance Of Jane And The Sonambulist Dreamed Embraces A Dream For Ian A Dream Fulfilled Dreamgirl Dream Guitar Dreaming Of A Girl Dreaming Of Another World Dreamland Avenue Dreamland Illuminated The Dreamlike Day-To-Day Dreamlike World Dreamnoise And Angel Dream Of An American Streetcar Dream Of Imperial Steam A Dream Of Thee (Blip No 3) The Dream Of The Unified Field Dreams And Smoke (Flow With The River) Dream Ships Set Sail Dreams Of Yesterday Dreams Returning To The Night Dreams Run Wild On Ghost Train Tracks Dreamstate USA Dreamster 2.L.R. Dreams (The Merchant Sleeps) Dreams Turn To Dust Dreamsville The Dreamsville Poetry Experiment Dreamt I Was Floating In A Summer Sky Dream Up, Billy Drift Fictions Drift Of Narcissus Drive Shaft Drive This Comet Across The Sky Driving Through England Dr Synth's Disco Demento Duality Duane's Dream The Dubious Virtue Of Loveliness Duende Dumb Palooka Dumb-World Duraflame The Dusk Before The Dark Dust And Sunbeams And The Ticking Of A Clock The Dust That Falls From Dreams Dynatron Dynatron Blues D E E Earthbound Eastern Electric Ecclesia Gnostica Echoes Of The Age Echo In Her Eyes (The Lamps Of Oblivion) The Echo, The Shadow, The Empty Shell The Ecstatic Transfiguration Of The Great Northern Twang Magus Ectoplasm Turbine Edge Of Nothing Edge Of Recall Edge Of Tears Edge Of The World El Swingo Collapso Electric Atlanta Electric Milkcart Blues Electric Railway Overhead Electric Trains, Clean Oceans, Clear Skies, Pure Air Electrical Adepts Of The Celestial Bed Electrical Language Electrical Language (Demo) The Elegant Outsider The Elegant Parabola Elevated Railway Elliptic Waterfall Emak Bakia The Embarkation Song Of The Last Fast Airship Emerald City The Emperor Of The Evening Emphatically Yours Empire Of The Senses Emptiness Sings (A Lonely Boy) The Enchanted Cathedral The Enchanted Glove The Enclosed Garden Endless Autumn Endless Orchids Endless Summer Ahead Endless Torsion End Of The Seasons End Of The Future Enigmatron Enlightenment Erectoplasm Eros Arriving Eros Ghost Trails Gleaming Echoes Eros In Autumn Erotikon Escape Over The Rooftops Escondido Oleander Essoldo Stripshow The Eternal Fascinator The Eternal Female Eternal For Emiko Eternal Lightbulbs (For The Infinite Stars) Eternally Ethel's Attic (No.3, Marriot's Building, 1948) Evening Adoration Evening Illuminator The Evening Peal Evening Star Electric Park Evening Tide Ever The Dreamer Everyday Feels Like Another New Drug Everyday Is A Better Day Everyday Now Is Forever Again Every Moment Infinite Everyone's Hero Everything Changes With The Weather Everything Everywhere Everything Is Ancient Now Everything Permitted Every Tiny Atom Evocation Of A Radiant Childhood Exactly The Way You Want It Existentialism Experimental Erotica (Scene One) Experimental Erotica (Scene Two) The Experimental Time Traveller The Exquisite Corpse The Eye Of Heaven Shines F Fables Of The Future The Fabulous Foals Of Faraway Farm The Fabulous Fountain Of Your Savoir Faire The Fabulous Mr Futurismo The Fabulous Whirlygig Of Now A Face In The Mirror Face In The Rain Fading Away The Fading Light Faint Aroma Of Snow Fair Exchange Fair Winds And Flying Boats Fair Winds And Steam Machines The Fairground Fairyland Before The Fire Falling Blossoms Falling Into Blue Falling Water False Alarms Familiar Spirit The Family Fancy Planets Fantasmatron Fantasmo Loop The Fantastic Futurama Ride Fantastic Guitars Fantastico Far Beyond The West Of Me Far Side Of Nowhere Far Too Flip Fascinating Noise Fear (The Merchant Wakes) Fearless Beauty (Kisses And Cream) Feast Of Lanterns Feeling Floating Away Feels Like Up To Me Fellini's Picnic Female Form Female Nebula Fever Dream Of The Starlight Man The Fields Beyond 15th Of July (Invisibles) (BBC Studio Session) Filament Filigree Filigree Balcony The Final Curtain Finis Gloria Mundi Finks And Stooges Of The Spirit Fire Gods Of The National Machine Fires In The Sky First Boy On The Moon First Memory Fish Are Dancing In The Fountain Of Dreams Fish Owl Moon Five Flying Horses 598 Rundown Flaming Creatures Flaming Desire Flesh Flicker And Fade Flights Of Fancy Flipside Float Away Flower Kiosk Flowers And Stars Flowers Within (Version 2) The Flower Thief Fluffy Bunny Business Flutterbye (Blip No 7) Flux Of Desire Fontaine Fontana Footsteps Footsteps In Rain Forbidden Lovers Forbibben Lovers (First Version) Forever Ago Forever Blue Sings The Sky Forever Orpheus Forevertron Forked Tongues, Mixed Blessings Forms In Open Spaces For Stuart (Triumph And Lament) Fortune Favours The Fall Guy Forward Motion For You And I For Young Moderns For Young Moderns (Demo) Found In Foreverland A Fountain In The Middle Of Nowhere Fountains Are Singing In Cities Of Light The Four Square Citadel Fractious Electrons Frankie Surfs The Milky Way Frankie Ukelele And The Fire In The Lake French Promenade Friday In The Future Friends From Heaven From Another Place From Another World From Here To Far Orion Frost-O-Matic Frosty Lawns (Snowballs And Oranges) Fruity Ornaments Full Colour Fontana Full Of Desire Full Sail The Fundamental Blues The Funeral Furniture Music Furniture Music (BBC Session) Furniture Music (Demo) Futura Future Gothic Twang The Future Life The Future Now Becomes The Past The Futurian Futurist Manifesto Fuzz Rocket Fantasia Fuzzy Dux F G Garage Full Of Clouds 2 The Garden Garden In The Sky Garden Of Cascades Garden Railway A Garden That Sings To The Sky The Gates Gathered In At Gloaming Gazing Through Golden Windows Gentle Spirits Prevail Get Out Of That Hole The Ghost In The Machine Ghostland Ghost Of Gilded Ruin Ghosts Behind Glass Ghosts Dance In Ghostland Ghost Show Ghosts Of Ancient Houses Ghosts Of Ancient Orchestras Ghosts Of Invisible Things Ghosts Of The Space Age Ghosts Of Utopian Cities Ghosts Wind The Parlour Clock Ghost Train Ghost Trains Travel On Phantom Tracks Giant Hawaiian Showboat The Gift Gift Of The August Tide Girlfriend In Mini-Skirt Girlfriend With Miracles Girl From Another Planet Girl From A Satellite Town The Girl I Never Forgot The Girl In The Galaxy Dress The Girl In The Glass Aeroplane The Girl In The Park In The Rain The Girl On The Fairground Waltzer The Girls I've Loved The Girl Who Disappeared Into A Cloud The Girl Who Was Electrically Carried Away Give A Damn My Dear Giving It All Away The Glance Of A Glittering Stranger The Glass Breakfast Glass Fish (For The Final Aquarium) Gleaming Without Lights The Gliding Club Glisten Glittering Figures (A Gnostic Lullaby) Glittering Rails Glittering Star Gloria Mundae The Glory Days Glow World Gnosis God Bless Me God Glows Green In Small Town Park God In Her Eyes God Man Slain God's Own Neighbourhood The Gods Speak God Thundered Boy The Gold At The End Of My Rainbow The Gold Beyond The Blue Golden The Golden Age Again Golden Balloon The Golden Bough Golden Coda (Farewell To Electric City) The Golden Comet The Golden Days Of Radio Golden Dream Of Circus Horses Golden Girl The Golden Hour Golden Melodies Of Tomorrow Golden Mile Golden Moments The Golden Roundabout Rides Again Golden Satellites Golden Shrine The Golden Soul Of You Golden Spacemen Rock N' Roll Gondola Goodbye Golden Sands Gooseberry Jam Grand Arcade The Grand Magician Brings A Blessing The Great Hall The Great Magnetiser Great Plains Green Tiger In The Gold Greeting A New Day Greetings From Surf Guitar Island A Guitar For Christmas G H Haiku Detour (Bop Kyoto) Half Asleep In A Hall Of Mirrors (Theme From Dream Demon) Half-Man, Half-Static Halogen Hammertheme Hang This Moment On A Sigh Hank And Duane In Reverbland Hank Marvin Goes To Mars Happily Addicted To You The Happy Clock Happy In My Helicopter Hat Happy Little Hovercar Happy Realms Of Light Happily Haunted Hard Facts From The Fiction Department Hastening The Chariot Of My Heart's Desire A Hat Like This Haunting In My Head A Head Full Of Lights And A Hat Full Of Haloes Heading For Home In A Hillman Minx Headlamp Moon He And Sleep Were Brothers Heart And Soul Heartbeat Thru The Telephone Heartbreakland The Heart Has Its Reasons The Heat In The Room Heaven Holds A Grand Parade Heaven Is A Haunted Realm Heaven Is A State Of Mind Heaven Lights Its Lamps Heavenly Homes Heavenly Homes (Flashman Remix) Heavenly Message Number One Heavenly Message Number Three Heavenly Message Number Two Heaven's Happy Hemisphere Heaven Takes No Prisoners Helios In Memoryland Hello Children Hello, Hello Hello You Beautiful People Help Us Magic Robot Henrietta Through The Looking Glass Heptarchia Here And Now Here Come The Rain Comets Here Comes Mr. Mercury Here Comes The Big Blue Moon Here Comes The Sea Here I Am, (And You Can Hear Me) Here I Am For You Here Is Where I Dream Here On Earth Here We Go Her Laughing Torso Hermetica Automatica The Hermetic Garden Heros De Lumiere Her Presence In Flowers Herself With Her Shadow Hers Is A Lush Situation Her True And Perfect Serpent Her True And Perfect Serpent (Acoustic Version) Hey, Bill Diddley! Hey Ho, There You Go The Hidden Flame Hide And Seek Hieronymous Bosch Beyond High And Mighty High Beam Sensation Highway 2000 Hi Lo La Hip-No-tize The Hipster Gimmick His Astral Form Hi-Tone Saturday Hold On To Your Heart Holey Moley It's A Parallel World Holiday Express A Holiday In Dimension X Hollywood Still Burning Holy Of Holies (Waiting For The Night) The Home, The Light And The Third Honeybee In Autumn Honey Loop Honeymoon On Mars Hope For The Heartbeat Horse Eats Hat Hostess Twinkie Vapourised Hotel On Wheels Hot-Rod Racer The House At The End Of Memory Lane The House Of A Hundred Clocks The House Of Morpheus House Of Mystery House Of Sand Howlin' Wolf In Me How Many Miles To Babylon How Near We Are Humming In The Void/Girl With The Thousand-Watt Smile The Hunt Hymn Of The Old Albion Co-Operative Society Hyperluminal Hypnos H I I I Always Knew You Would Find Me I Am The Captain I Am The Only Monster Here I Am The Universe Ian's Radio Is On Ice And Fire Icing On The Cake Iconography I Danced In A Dream (Blip No 11) Ideal Homes I Dream Of Giant Telescopes I Dream Of Lightning I Dream Of Waves I Drift Away Amongst The Stars If I Was The Pilot Of Your Perfect Cloud If Love Were Gold If Stars Should Fall If Wishes Were Horses I Hear Electricity I'll Be Everywhere I'll Be Your Vampire The Ilfracombe Steamer Illuminated At Dusk Illuminated Promenade Illuminated Sky With Pale Blue Lightning Illumination Fascination Blues The Illuminator Illusions Of You I Looked At The Sea Imaginary Music I'm Dancing The Impatient Hour Imperial Parade Imps In The Undergrowth In A Cloud Of Stars In A Haunted Arcade In An Aeroplane In Anticipation In Arcadia In A Streamlined World In A World Of Strange Design Incident At Astral Motel The Indelicate Levitation Of Katie's Skirts Indigo Trees Hold Back The Stars Indiscretion Indoor Astronomy (Bella Luna) In Dreams Awake Infernal Apparatus The Infernal Machine Infernal Regions Infinite Station Infinity Meets The Moment Initiation Of The Heart's Desire Insanity In Search Of The Golden Sound Instantly Yours Intensia Interlooper Interstellar Courier An Interval In The Chapel Of Her Sparkles In The Forest Of Storms In The Land Of Far Beyond In The Land Of Nothing Doing In The Middle Of A Dream In The Neighbourhood Of Normal (My Style Of Writing) In The Palace Of Strange Voltages In The Rain In The Realm Of Bells In The Realm Of The Super-Cute In The Realms Of The Unreal In The Wings Into The Luminous Future The Invisible City Of Christian Rosenkruetz The Invisible Man And The Unforgettable Girl The Invisible Spectator The Invisible Venus Of New York City I Oil The Ticking Of Antique Clocks I Really Don't Exist I Recall Jets At Dawn I Remember Circus Boy I Remember Marvelman I Saw Galaxies I Saw You In A Sailplane I Send These Dreams To You Islands In The Sky Islands Of The Dead Islands Of The Dead (Demo) Islands Of The Dead (Take 4) Is This Alchemy? I Swear That The Girl In The Painting Moved It Just Doesn't Rain Like It Used To I Travel At Night It's A Big World And I'm In It (The Great Rememberer) It's A Comic Book World It's All True It's A Long, Long Story It's A Long Time Between Dreams It's Always Maybe It's A Simple Life It's OK I Wait For You I Want You I Was Speaking With Orson Welles I Watch The World I Wonder J J Jane Discovers Cesare Japan Japan (Demo) Jazz Jazzy Loop Jean Cocteau Jericho's Armband Counsel Jet Pack Jive Jets At Dawn (Single Version) Jets At Dawn (Album Version) Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus (Electrotype Version) Jet Silver And The Dolls Of Venus (Axe Victim Version) Jet Town The Jewel Jimi Sifts The Sands Of Time The Jingler The Jitters Jollytown Junc-Sculpture Junk The Funk Jupiter Commander Just A Kid And All That Sky K K Kaleidoscopic Windows Karma Kisses Katharos Katstatik Keep Your Feathers Fine (Version One) Keep Your Feathers Fine (Version Two) Keep Your Telescope Focussed On The Stars Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen The Kid With A Cuckoo Clock Heart Kid With Cowboy Tie Killing My Desires A Kind Of Loving Kinda Fuzzy The King And Queen Of Now Or Never Kingdom Of The Sky King Frankenstein King Of The Cowboys The Kingdom Of Consequence Kirkella Bells Kiss Goodbye Kiss It Off Kiss Me Goodnight, Captain Marvel The Kiss Of History Kiss Of Light A Kiss Recalled Kiss You Slow Kitchenette Konny Buys A Kodak Koolerator Kut Up In Cartoonsville L L Lacuna Ladders Leading Nowhere Ladies Removing Lingerie Lady You're A Strange Girl Lagoon Lakeside Lampdownlowland The Lamplighter's Lament The Lamp Of Invisible Light Lamps Are Lit In The Land Of Tomorrow The Land Of Dreams Is Closed The Land Of Lost Dreams The Land Of Lost Time Language Of The Birds Lanterns Are Lighting The Last Lamplighter (For John Henry Griffiths) The Last Romantic The Last Summer For Dancing The Last Transmission The Latest Delay The Latest Skyline Late Transmission: This Song Is History Laughing Sailors, Raging Seas La Vie Moderne Lay-Zee Boy Receiver Lazy, Lazy Bones Lazy Loop The Legendary Spaceman Blues Legions Of The Endless Night Les Amoureux Let Flow The Wine L et It All Pass You By Let Me Dream You From Afar Let's Dance Letter To Jacques Maritain Let Us Melt And Make No Noise Life And Death Life As We Know It Life Class Life In Reverse Life In The Air-Age Life In Your Hands Life Is Like This Life Runs Out Like Sand The Light Fantastic The Light Gathering Garden Of Omar Kadiz The Lighthouse Keeper's Waltz Light In The Head The Light In The Mirror (The Bone Beneath The Skin) The Light Is Kinder In This Corner Of Corona Lightning Strikes The Steeple Light Rain Lights Lights (BBC Studio Session) Lights Of Kingdom Come Lights Shine When We Dream The Light This Universe Attracts The Light We Cannot See Like A Boat In The Blue Like a Dream Like An Old Blues Like Autumn Leaves We Fall Like A Woman Levitating Like Clockwork Like Rain (Rust's Dim Lustre) Likewise Is Said Elsewhere Lilac Shirt, Dark Glasses A Line Of Trees Gives Rise To Thought The Listening Station Listening To Lizards A Little Bit Of Nelsonia Little Cantina Little Cosmos Little Daughters Of Light Little Kisses Wrapped In Chocolate Little Luminaries A Little More Time Little Motors Move The Moon Living For The Spangled Moment Living For Today Living In My Limousine Living On The Moon Tonight Lo And Behold Locarno The Lockdown Song (It's All Downhill From Here) Loco-Motive (Off The Track) The Lonely Spaceman Lonesome Cowboy Bill The Lonesome Cowboy Radio Show Long Ago, By Moonlit Sea Long Grey Mare Longing For Light The Long Lost Summer A Long Time Ago Looking For A Lantern Loom Loose Box Loose Chippings Loose Connections Loosening Up With Lady Luck Lost In Space Lost In The Cosmos Again Lost In The Neon World Lost In Tijuana Lost In Your Mystery Lost Light The Lost Planet Of Sunday Afternoon Lost Planet Sunset Lost To Me Lost To Tomorrow The Lost Years Lotus In The Stream Love And A Bucket Full Of Holes Love In Flames Love In Flames (BBC Studio Session) Love In Flames (Demo) Love In The Abstract Love Is Swift Arrows A Lovely Dazzle Lover Boy At Heart Lovers Are Mortal Lovers In The Pleasure Gardens Love's A Way Love's First Kiss Love's Immortal Shining Angel Love To Win Love Without Fear Love With The Madman Loving Tongues Luana Lucis Lucky Sometimes Lucky Star Lumia Luminatron Luminous Intelligent Sexy Adults A Luminous Kind Of Guy A Luminous Kind Of Guy (Acoustic Version) Luna On The Beach Luna Rosa Luxeodeon M M Machine Voodoo Machines Of Loving Grace Madam Midnight Madhouse Magic And Mystery Magic Hill Magic Radio Magic Star Magnetism Made Me Do It Magnificent (The White Horse) Maid In Heaven Maid In Heaven (BBC Studio Session) Maid In Heaven (Top Of The Pops Backing Track) Make The Music Magic The Man In The Rexine Suit Manipulating The Phonograph Man Machine Man Of Dreams Man On Fire Man Or Astroman (Cat Or Mouse) The Man Who Dreamed Of Glory The Man Who Haunted Himself The Man Who Was Tomorrow March Of The Metaphysicians Marine Drive Mars Welcomes Careful Drivers The Martian Boulevardier The Marvellous Model Kit Marvellous Realms Mass Equals Energy The Mastery Of The Thing Materialisation Phenomena Mathematical Prairie Maybe It's My Eyes Maybe It's The Future Maybe Strange Imagination Mazda Kaleidoscope Meanwhile, Elsewhere The Meat Room Mechanical City One Meek And Wild (The Ghost In Joe's Studio) Melancholia Melancholia Lagoons Melancholy Dreams Mellophonia Mellotronix Memo Recorder Dream Narrative No.1 Memory Babe Memory Is A Data Cloud Forever Primed With Rain A Memory Lost The Memory Museum (Room One) Memory Skyline Memory Time No 1: A Wakefield Adventure Memory Time No 2: The Rock N' Roll Years Memory Time No 3: Eagle, Beezer, Topper, Beano Memory Time No 4: A Dansette Fantasy Men In Search Of The Milky Bosom Mercuria Magnetica Merry And Bright Merry Are The Wind Blown Crows Meshes Of The Afternoon Mess Around Metaphysical Jerks Meteor Bridge (Blip No 5) Method Acting Mex-Arcana Mexico City Dream (For Gil Evans) Migrating Angels The Milky Way (Burning Bright) Mill Street Junction (BBC Studio Session) A Million Moonlight Miles A Million Whistling Milkmen Mind Is A Harbour From Which Dreams Set Sail The Miracle Belongs To You Miracles To Happen The Mirror The Mirror Maker's Daughter (Other Fish To Fry) Mists Of Time Mitsukini Mixed Up Kid Mobile Homes On The Range Modern Music Modern Music (Reprise) The Moment Has Gone Moments Catch Fire On The Crests Of Waves Moments Flash Like Stars Between Them Moments In The Day Mondo Bravado Monorail Monster Man Monster Over The Fence Monsters From Heaven (Flowers And Rain) A Month Without A Moon (Jupiter in Saggitarius) The Moon Came In My Window Moon Gold Palladium Moonlight Rider Moon Over Echo Lake Moon Rocket Highway More Rain More Than Glory, More Than Gold Morning's Herald Mortal Coils The Mount Fuji Ice-Cream Factory Mountains Of The Heart Move Through This World Mr. Magnetism Himself Murder Music For A Victorian Steam Cottage Music From Another Star Music In Dreamland Music In Dreamland (Phonogram Studios Version) Music Spins My Globe Mutually Enchanted My Amigo My Botticelli Angel My Catalogue Of Dreams My Dark Daemon My Dream Demon My Dreamy Life My Electrical Empire My Elevated Sweetheart My Empty Bowl Is Full Of Sky My Ever Gleaming Dreamertron My Favourite Atom My Favourite Urban Chrome-Green Sky My Giddy Levitation My Intricate Image My Life In Neon, My Life In Sound My Light My Light (Demo) My Little Book Of Secret Knowledge My Luminous Planet My New Erotic Guest My Pal Hal (For Mr. Budd) My Paranoia My Philosophy My Private Cosmos My Private Cosmos (Part Two) My Shadow Cast By Midnight Moon My Ship Is Lost To Semaphore My Ship Reclines On Clouds Of Sail My Sputnik Sweetheart Mystere The Mysterious Bath Mysterious Chemicals Of Love The Mysterious Echo Chamber Of Priapus Stratocaster Mysterious Mysterium Mysterious Object Overhead Mysterium Mysterium Magnum (The Great Secret) The Mystery Demo Mystery Engine Mystery Vortex (Oberon Touchstone) Mysteryworld The Mystic My Sublime Perversion My Wild Atomic Wedding Day My Wonder Book Of Wings And Sails My World Spins N N Narcosis Naughty, Naughty Naughty Boy, Dirty Girl The Navigator Near East The Nebulous Adventures Of Newton Kyme The Nebulous Land Of Nod Nebulous Trolleybus Neil Young Neither Puck Nor Pan Neon Lights And Japanese Lanterns Never A Dull Day (For Les Paul) Nevermore Nevernoon Nevertheless New Dream Island New Moon Rising New Mysteries New Mysteries (Demo) New Northern Dreamer New Precision New Precision (Demo) News From Nowhere New Vibrato Wonderland Nightbirds Night Boats Pass Beneath The Stars Night Creatures Night Creatures (Electrotype Version) Night Creatures (Spoken Word Version) Night Is The Engine Of My Imagination Night Song Of The Last Tram Night Thoughts (Twilight Radio) Night Tides 1948 Nipples Of Venus No Bee In His Bonnet No Fool For You No Meaning No Memories Here To Make You Sad Noonday Venus No Room In My Head North-East Northern Dreamer (1957) A Northern Man North Yorkshire Moors Rain (For Harold Budd) Nostalgia (For The Future) Not As Easy As It Looks Nothing Is The New Something Nothing Up My Sleeve Nothing Yet No Thoughts, I Think No Time Says The Clock (Version 1) No Time Says The Clock (Version 2) No Trains To Heaven No Two Thoughts November Fires (My Northern Dream) Nowhere Fast Nowhere In Particular Now I Come To Think Of It Now Is Not And Never Was The Now That Never Was O O Ocean Afternoon Ocean Full Of Wishes Ocean In The Sky Ocean Over Blue The Ocean, The Night And The Big, Big Wheel The October Man October Sky Odeon The Offering Oh Moon In The Night I Have Seen Thee Sailing Old Brown Town Older Joe Old Goat Old Haunts The Old Nebulosity Waltz Old Weirdola On An Ocean Of Dreams On A Train I Never Boarded Once I Had A Time Machine Once More Around the Moon Once Upon A River One A.M. One Day At A Time One For You One Man's Fetish Is Another Man's Faith One Summer Night One Thing Leads To Another One Way Track Only A Dream But Nevertheless Only Dreaming Only Love Can Tell Only One Blue Moon On The Beach On The Beam Opening Opium Opus Hermeticum (The Work Of Hermes) Orange Turning Blue Ordinary Idiots Ordinary Idiots (Original Demo) An Ordinary Man Ordinary Storm, Waiting For Rain Organola Orient Of Memphis Orient Pearl Orphans Of Babylon Orpheus Dreams Of Disneyland Orson's Ghost The Orson Welles Memorial Sleighride Osram Diadem Otherworld Our Friends In The Stars Our Lady Of Apparitions Our Lucky Stars Out Of The Window, Into The Night Out Of Touch Out Of Touch (BBC Session) Out Of Touch (Demo) O Vee Over Ocean Over The Moon Overture P P Pageant Paging Mr. God Pagoda Dreamhouse Painted Boats On Still Waters Painting Your Sky With Marvellous Birds Palace Of Gnosis Palais Des Marine Pamela And The Pony Club Panic In The World Panic In The World (BBC Studio Session) Panic In The World (Juan Les Pins Mix) Pansophia Parade Of The Inhabitants Of A Phantom Fairground Paradise And Purgatory Paradox Jukebox The Paradox Machine Parklands Drive Parks And Fountains, Clouds And Trees A Parting Of The Ways The Passion Past And Present (And The Space Between) Path Of Return The Pavilion Of Diana Pedalscope One Pedalscope Two Peppermint Forever Perdita Rose Perfect Bliss Perfect Monsters A Perfect Night - The Dawn Rejoices Perfect World Perfidia 2017 Perfidio Incanto Phantom Gardens Phantom Island The Phantom Palace Of The Prince Of Dreams Phantom Sedan (Theme From Tail-Fin City) The Phonograph Bird Photograph (A Beginning) Photograph: A New Beginning Piano 45 Piano Angelica Piano-Guitar The Piano Lesson The Piano Room Picture In A Frame Picture Perfect Piece Of Mine (BBC Studio Session) Pilgrim (Fantasia On A Distantly Remembered Hymn) Pilots Of Kite Pink Buddha Blues Pink Poodle Parade (Organ Version) Pink Poodle Parade (Piano Version) Pink Trick Panties A Place We Pray For Planet Of Ghosts Planet Of Guitars Planet Of Sleeping Buddhas Planets We Once Knew The Plastic Flower Show Plastic Mac Playback Playbox Playful Playing Jesus To Her Judas Pleasure Bikes The Pleasure Boaters Plectricity Pointing At The Moon Pokus Polishing The Chromes A Pond For The Moon The Pond Yacht Pondering The Mystery Popsicle Head-Trip Portrait Of Jan With Flowers Portrait Of Jan With Moon And Stars Possession Possession (BBC Studio Session) Possession (Demo) Possession (Rough Mix) Postcard To A Penfriend Powder Blue Powerglide Prairie Hula Prayer For The Living A Prayer To Sleep With Mercurial Women Preamp Prelude: The Night Is Lit By Diamonds Premium Standard No.1 Pretty Little Bubble Of Dreams Prima Materia (First Matter) Prisoner Of Love A Private View Prize Of Years The Profaned Sanctuary Of The Human Heart Profiles, Hearts, Stars A Promise Of Perfume Propellor Of Legend Puckish Pure Imagination (Blip No 8) Pure Joy Purple Loop Push Button Bang Push The Button, Spin The Dial Puzzlepop Q Q Quarter Moons And Stars Quarter To Eleven The Queen Of Atlantis Queen Of The Infra-Red Queer Weather Quest For The Harvest Of The Stars Quest For The Harvest Of The Stars (Demo) Quick As A Flash Quiet Bells Quiet Planet Quietly Now (Manipulating The Phonograph No.2) Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam R R Radar In My Heart Radar In My Heart (Demo) Radiant Nature Knows Not The Worker's Sorrow Radiant Spires Radiated Robot Men Radio Andalusia Radio Control Radio Rialto Radio Waves Lap Memory's Shore Radium Cocktail Rain And Neon Rainboy And Whistledog Rainclouds Over Paris Of My Dreams Rain Dance The Raindrop Collector Raindrops Raindrum Rain Falls Fast On Faded Ruin Rain Falls On Sleepytown The Rainiest Day In The World Raining Rain Made Us Shine Rain On A Caravan Roof Rain Town Rambling Through The Meadows (Wonder Wise) Rapture Parade Rattlin' Trams The Real Adventure Real Gone Reality Check The Reality Of Imagination Real Men With Ray Guns Realm Of Archons Realm Of Dusk Realm Rider Real Thing This Time Real Worlds And Dream Worlds The Receiver And The Fountain Pen Red Planet Blues (The Ritual Transfiguration Of Spaceman Albert Fitzwilliam Digby) Reflect On This Rehearsal Of Thought Reighton Sands Rejoice Relaxin' With Bill At Luxury Lodge Relaxo Supremo A Reliable Bicycle And A Map Of The Heart (Trip Two) The Rest Of The World Rolls By The Retro Modernist Retronauta The Return Of Magnificent Return To Jazz Of Lights Revenge Of The Coda Kings The Revenge Of The Man In The Burning Ice-Cream Van Reverse Engineering Reversing Through Willows Revolt Into Style Revolt Into Style (Demo) Revolving Globes Rhythm Unit Rialto Riders Of My Love Riding The Go-Tubes Right, Then Left Ringing True Ripples On A Blue Pool Rise (Above These Things) Rise Like A Fountain The Rise Of Pandemonium And The Fall Of Kingdom Come Rising Sap The Ritual Echo River Of Love A River On The Edge Of Time The Road To Elsewhere Robots On Parade Rockarolla Rockers Of The Rosy Cross Rocket Billy Blues Rocket Cathedrals Rocket Cathedrals (First Version) Rocket Rabbit's Secret Dream (Osram Energy Device No.1) Rocket Science Ranchboy Rocketship Rocket To Damascus Rocket To The Moon Rocking The Dreamboat Rolling Home (Yorkshire Raga No.1) Rooms With Brittle Views Rosalia The Rose And The Beast The Rose Covered Cottage At The End Of Time Roses And Rocketships Roses, Haloes, Crown Of Thorns The Rossetti Effect Roto-Scope Roundabouts And Swings Royal Blue Royal Ghosts The Roy Rogers Radio Ranch The Ruins Of Youth, The Twang Of Tomorrow The Rumbler (For Duane) Runaway Running Running From My Own Shadow Rural Shires Rusty Bells S S Sacrament Sad Feelings Safe Inside Her Wonderwear Sail Away Sailing My Boat Sailing Through Skies Of Blue Sailing To The Moon Sailor Blue Same Shape, Different Meaning Sanctus Illuminatus (The Sacred Illuminated) Santos Saturnalia Saturn's Groove The Saxophonist (Demo) The Saxophonist (Juan Les Pins Version) Say Hello, Electric Ghost Scale Model (Assembly Required) Scenic Elevator Science And Sacrament Science Fiction Times The Science Of Extraordinary Things Seaglass Search And Listen Searching For An Island Off The Coast Of Dreams Searching For Utopia And Other Shangrilas Secret Agent At Science Park Secret Ceremony (Theme From Brond) Secret Club For Members Only Secret Song (Oh, Emiko) Seduction (Ritual With Roses) See It Through See-Through Nightie Selectatone Self Impersonisation Self-Initiation Sell My Soul Send The Rain Senor Mysterioso Sentimental September Promenade Sequinned Skeleton Blues Serene In Silver The Serpent Holds The Secret Set Me As A Seal Upon Thine Heart Set Your Dials For Dreaming Seven Keys To This City 17 Electric Women Seventh Circle 72 Christmases On Planet Earth Several Famous Orchestras Sex And Drums And Saxophones Sex Magic Sex Party Six Sex, Psyche, Etcetera The Shadow Garden Shadow Haunting Me Shadowland Shake It Up Shaker The Shape Of Things To Come She Dreams Of Fires She Gave Me Memory She Sees Me Sleeping She Sends Me She's Got Flower Power She's Got Me Floating She's Got The Power She Signals From Across The Bay She's So Extreme She Swings Skirt Shibuya Screen Shifting Sands The Shimmering Threshold (On Your Bike Emperor Ming) Shine Shine Your Light Shining Reflector The Shining Staircase Shining Through Ship In A Bottle Blues (The Modern Mariner) Ship Of Summer, All Lights Blazing Ships In The Night Ships In The Night (Alternate Vocal Version) Ships In The Night (First Version) A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain A Short History Of The Future Short Wave The Shot Shower Of Sparks Show Home Showtime Science Fiction Times Signal Destinations Signalling As We Go Signals From Earth Signs And Signals Signum Natura (Symbolic Nature) Silent Glides My Armstrong Siddeley The Silent Hour Silent Night The Silver Darkness Whispers Yes Silver Rain (Marooned In A Fairytale) Silver Sailboat On Samsara Sea Silver Sparks And Coloured Stars Silver Stars Will Shine Silver Tears Silvertone Fountains A Simple Thought Flashes Through My Mind Sine Waves Singing In A Silver Tower Sing Ye Golden Sunbeams, Sing The Singing In The Air Above The Village Green Singing My Life Away Sister Seagull Sister Seagull (BBC Studio Session) Sisters And Sedan Chairs The Six Coiled Serpent Six Legged Critter Singing In The Trees Six String Skyway Six Strings For Sara Skidoodling Skies Are Not Cloudy Skimming Stones Skull Baby Cluster Sky Loop Sky Scooter The Sky, The Sea, The Moon And Me Skylark's Rise Sleep The Sleep Of Hollywood Sleep That Burns Sleepcycle The Sleeping Body Sings Sleepless City Sleepless In The Ticking Dark Sleeplessness Sleepy Snakes Slinky Incantations Slippery Loop Slow Clouds Slow Jig And Whirligig Slow, Slow, Slow Slow Smoulder Slow Sundays Slumberlite Small Red Birds Smiles Smoke And Vine Smoke And Wires Smoke Drifts Silent In Autumn Air Snakes With Wings Snoozy Winks Snowfall Snowing Outside Snow Is Falling Snow Light Soakin' In The Bathtub Soda Fountain Swing So Far Soft Light So Insane And So In Love So It Goes Solid Spaces Soluna Oriana Some Days It's Orange, Some Days It's Blue Some Distant Time Some Jiggery Pokery Something's Going On Sometimes, These Times Somewhere Else Is Here Somewhere In Far Tomorrow Somewhere, Nowhere, Everywhere The Sonambulist And The Children A Song Of Heart And Mind The Song My Silver Planet Sings Soon September (Another Enchantment) The Sound From This Recording Travels To The Stars Sound Track Southport Space Ace Gets His Girl Space Age Dreamer Space Country Loop Space Cowboys Spacefleet (The Golden Days Of Dan Dare) Spacehopper Spaceport Space Ranch Spaceship Away! Spacesuit Parade Spanish Galleons Cruise The Sunrise The Spark Sparkle And Spin The Sparkle Machine (Phenomena 77) Sparklette (Blip No 4) The Sparkling Idea Sparky And The Spearmint Moon Spearmint And Moonbeams Special Metal The Spectral Waltz Of Venus Speedboats From Another World Speed Of The Wind Speed Of The Wind (Demo) Spindrift Sphinx Spinnin' Around Spinning Creatures Spinning Dizzy On The Dial Spinning Pentagrams Spinning Planet The Spirit Cannot Fail A Spirit Map Of Montparnasse The Spirit That Remembers Spooks In The Shed Spooky Little Thing Spring Springtime Comes A Dancing Spring Will Come Spy Vs Spy Squeaky Toytown Squirm Stage Whispers Stage Whispers (BBC Studio Session) Staircase To No Place Standard Fireworks The Standard Fireworks Stomp Stand By: Light Coming... Standing In A Starlit Room Standing On Tiptoes, Reaching For The Sky Stanley Blues Tail A Star Named Desire Star Sugar Sky Stargazing Whilst Smoking An Imaginary Pipe (Pipedreams) Starland Starlight And Moonbeams Starlight Stories Stars Will Shine Start Beaming And Get On The Gleam Starward-Ho! Station Clock In Cloud Of Steam Stay With Me Stay Young Stay Young (BBC Session) Stay Young (Demo) Steam Radio Blues Steamboat In The Clouds Stereo Star Map Number One Stereo Star Map Number Two Still Shining (BBC Studio Session) Still Waiting Stone In Your Palm Stop/Go/Stop Stop/Go/Stop (Demo) Strange And Wonderful (That's My Life) Stranger Flowers Now Than Ever The Strangest Things, The Strangest Times Streamlined Train, Passing Fast Streamliner Strictly For The Birds Strolling With My Father Strong Enough Struck Dumb By Beauty Again The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of Stupid-Stupid (Deep And Serious) Substitute Flesh Substitute Flesh (Demo) Suburban Mermaid One Twenty Three Suburban Pearl Summer Comes In Colour Summer Hums In The Bee-Loud Glade Summer Over Soon Summer Shower Summer Woman Sun At Six Windows Sunbeam Sunglasses After Dark Sun Kings Suffer (As Time Goes By) Sun Loop Sunny Bungalows Sunny Day For A Happy Postman Sun On Water, Wind In Wire Sun Will Rise Superadventure (Sound-On-Sound) Superenigmatix Superenigmatix (BBC Studio Session) Superhappyeverafter Super-Hyper Hocus Pocus Super Noodle Number One Superscope The Super-Sensualist Superserene Superslippy Surf King Sails In Surreal Estate Surreal Estate (Demo) Suvasini Swan Song Sway And Swoon Sweet Dead Bunny Sweethearts In Swimsuits Sweet Is The Mystery Sweet Little Dreamer Sweet William's Epiphany Swept Away Swing Swing Song Swing With The Rhythm Boys Switchback Switch Off That Desert Sunset Switch On The Sky, Light Up The Stars Symphony In Golden Stereo Synchromatic T T Take It Off And Thrill Me (Jazzy Option) Take It Off And Thrill Me (Rock Option) Tales Of The Intergalactic Glee Club Talk Technique Tangle Of Wires Tantra Tantramatic Tarnished Tears As Diamonds (The Gift Reverses) Teatime In The Republic Of Dreams Techno Punk Gets Rhythm Teenage Archangel Telepathic Cats A Telescope Full Of Stars Tender Encounters (States Of Grace) Tender Is The Night Test Card Testify Test Of Affection That Old Mysterioso That's The World That Sunburst Sound That Was A Beautiful Dream, She Said That Was Then Theatre Of Falling Leaves Thematix Theme From Uncanny Valley Themis Aurea Theology There Are Ghosts Here There Are Stars Beyond The Night There Is A Moment There's A Star Somewhere These Are The Dreams These Minutes Are Ours These Stars Are Fire These Tall Blue Days (Are Lark Amazed) Theurgia They Tell You This, They Tell You That Thicket And Loam A Thing About That Things To Come Think And You'll Miss It Third Floor Heaven Third Floor Heaven (BBC Studio Version) This And That This Clockwork World This Dangerous Age This Everyday World (Instrumental Version) This Everyday World (Vocal Version) This Gilded Age This Information Arrives From Dreams This Is Destiny This Is Like a Galaxy This Is Not A Dream This Is True This Land Is Haunted This Leads To That Leads To This This River Runs Deep This Very Moment (Version 1) Thought Bubble No 1 Thought Bubble No 2 Thought Bubble No 3 A Thought For You A Thought In Passing Thoughts Travel (For Miles) Thoughts Without Friction The Thought That Counts Thousand Fountain Island A Thousand, Thousand Ghosts Threnodia Through Drifting Clouds Through My Window Thunder Blooms In The Heat Bruised Sky Thundercloudy Thunder Heralds The Fairylight Parade Thunder On The Wing Thunderous Accordions Thunder, Perfect Mind The Ticking Of Time Tick-Tock-Tick Tick Tock Ticking Time In Tokyo Time Is A Mechanism Time Is A Thief Time Is Running Away (The Blue Nowhere) Times Of Our Lives Time's Quick-Spun Globe Time's Tide (The Dreams That Escape Me) Time Stops Here Time Stops Right Here Time Today Time Tracking Time Travel For Beginners Tin Sings Bones Tinderbox Tingalary Man And The Scarlet Fever Kid Tiny Aeroplanes Tiny Little Thing Tiny Mice Are Dancing In The Cottage Of Her Dreams Tip The Wink Tired Eyes To A Child To Disappear To Imagine Is Hard To Jan From The Shining Stars Tomorrowland (The Threshold Of 1947) Tomorrow's World Tomorrow The World (BBC Studio Session) Tomorrow Today Tomorrow Will Not Be Too Late Tongues Of Fire (Resist) Tonight Picasso Dreams Tony Goes To Tokyo (And Rides The Bullet Train) To The Sea In Ships Touch And Glow A Touch Of Body And Soul Tower Of Jewels To What Strange Place Will This Transport You? A Town Called Blue Tomorrow The Toy Trumpet The Trace We Left When All Was Gone The Tragedy Train Of Thought Train Travelling North Train With Fins Transcendant Transcendental Radios Transcendental Tittycups Transformation No. 1 Transformation No. 2 Transition No. 1 Transition No. 2 Transition No. 3 Transition No. 4 Transition No. 5 Transition No. 6 (The Journey) Transmission (N.B.C. 97293) Transoceanic Transparent Towers At Dusk Travelling In Mind Travels In The Spirit World The Trees Are Full Of Whistling Birds The Tree That Dreamed Of Violas A Trembling In The Air Trembling Rainbows Tremola The Trip Trip Thang Tropicus True North Try Tumbletown Turn Me Over Turn To Fiction Tuxedo Moon The TV's On The Blink Twang Rings True Tweetime The Twentieth Century The 21st Century 23,000 Feet In The Air Twice In A Blue Moon Twilight And The River Twilight Capers Twilight Crescent Twilight Planetarium Two Brothers Test The Kite Flying Winds Two Hearts Beating 2000 Miles To Midnight (My Ghost Burns Fire) U U U.H.F. Um, Ah Good Evening Under Fading Stars Under The Red Arch Unearthlings Unforgetting The Universe Is Fast Asleep A Universe To Give You The Unmasking Unsaid (Starry Lamps And Blazing Comets) Until All Our Lights Combine Until The Blue Whenever Until Tomorrow Uphill Up In The Attic, Down In The Lab (Hubble Bubble And Starshine) Up On A Star V V The Vanilla Summer Of Mr. Whippy Vanishing Parades Vapour Grey Variation On The Theme Of A White Christmas Velo-Sola Velocity Dansette Velorama Pastoral The Venetian Conjurer Venetian Submarines Ventura Venus Over Vegas Vertical Games V-Ghost (For Harold And Ellen) View From A Balcony The View From Lantern Hill The View From Mount Palomar The Village Dreams Beneath The Stars Villefranche Interior The Violins Of Autumn Visionary Visions Of Endless Hopes Visions Of Endless Hopes (Demo) Vista-Dome-Railcar Viva Le Voom-Voom A Voice Without A Face The Void Beyond The Line Vortexion Dream Vulcan Street W W Wah-Wah Galaxy No.1 Wait For Tomorrow Waiting For Rain Waiting For The Midnight Flyer Waiting For The Night (Demo) Waiting For Voices Walking Away From Paradise Walking On Thin Air The Walls Of Which Are Made Of Clouds Waltz The Waltz At The End Of The World Wanderings Warm And Wonderful The Warmth Of Women's Eyes Wasted Lives Watching My Dream Boat Go Down In Flames Watchword (A Return) Water Of Life (Transfiguration) Waves The Way Way Back When The Way My World Works The Way Of The World Weather Blows Wild Inside My Head Weatherproof The Weather Song Weatherwood We Hail The Wind Down Long Arcades We Here Who Were There Weird Critters Welcome Home, Mr. Kane Welcome To Dreamshire Welcome To Electric City Welcome To Realm Seven Welcome To The Dream Transmission Pavilion Welcome To Wonderland Well, Well, Well (Rock N' Roll It) We Run Before The Wind West Deep We Two In Love Forever Dreaming We Vanish At Shadowfall We Were Young We Who Are Awake Will Not Be Asleep We Will Rise What Furnace Is The Brain? What Have We Got To Show For This? What's A Boy Supposed To Do? What's It All About? What Station Is This? What Time Is This Space? What To Wear Now, What To Wear Next What We Wish For Whatever I Do The Wheel Of Fortune And The Hand Of Fate When Accident Became My Bride When Aeroplanes Were Dragonflys When Art Schools Shaped Tomorrow When Beauty Came To Call When Boys Dream Of Guitars When Boys Were Lost For Words When Day Is Done When God Was A Rabbit And Buddha Was A Mouse (Over The Moon Two) When I Don't Feel Blue When Midnight Falls When The Birds Return When The Invisible Circus Comes To Town When The Wind Blows All Away When The World Was Beautiful When We Were Beautiful When We Were Young When Your Dream Of Perfect Beauty Comes True Where Are The Stars That Fall From Heaven Where Are We Now Where Do We Go Where Does It Come From, Where Does It Go? Where's The Wonder? Where You Is, Is Where You Are Whimsy Whirlaway The Whirlpool Into Which Everything Must Whirl Whirlpool Meditation Whirlwind Winters Wind The Clocks Of Spring Whistleworld Whistling While The World Turns White Falcon One White Falcon Two White Sound Who He Is The Whole City Between Us Whoop-Be-Doopy-Doopy! Whoops! I'm Going Back In Time Who's That Floating Above The Trees? Why? Why Be Lonely Why Does It Do That? Wide Awake/Half Asleep Wide Awake In The Heart Of You A Wide Open Window (With A View Of The Stars) Wider Windows For The Walls Of The World Wild And Dizzy Wild And Serene Wild Blue Sky Cycle Wild Blue Yonder Wild Lilac Wildest Dreams Will William Is Wearing The Cardigan Of Light Willow Silk The Wind Blows Silver And The Bees Hum Gold Wind Chimes Of Memory The Wind In The Wood Windmill Interlude Windmills In A World Without Wind A Window Open Onto Eden Windsong Of The Flying Boy Windswept Wing And A Prayer Wings And Everything Wing Thing Winterchyme The Winter Mermaid Wiping A Tear From The All Seeing Eye Wireless World Wishes With All The Will In The World Without A Blue Horizon The Woman Of Tomorrow Wonder And Excitement Wonderful Weather In Woodgates Lane The Wonderful Wurlitzer Of Blackpool Tower Wondering Wondering Why? Wonder Kid Wondermonster The Wonder Of It All Wonder Of The Age Wonder Of The Moment Wonders Never Cease Wonder Story Wonder Street Wondertown Wonder Toys That Last Forever Wonder Where We Go Wonky Loop Word For Word Words Across Tables The Word That Became Flesh Workcycles Working Man The World And His Wife The World Is Lost To Us All In The End World Of Dreams The World Sleeps Late On New Year's Day World Still Turns World Thru' Fast Car Window The World To Me The World Wakes Up Wow! It's Scootercar Sexkitten! Wysteria XYZ XYZ Year 44 (The Birthday Song) The Years Years From Now Yes And Always And Forever Yes And No Yesterday Yonder Gleams Your Star You Do Like Music? (Blip No 1) You Don't Love Me You Freak Me Out You Here Now In William's World You Know How To Hurt You Make Me Cry Young Angels By An Ancient River Young Dreams, Whirled Away Young Eyes Young Marvelman Your Hand Today Holds The Future Of Tomorrow Your Imagination Your Magic Man In The Sky Your Morning Blessing Your Name Completes This Frequency Your Nebulous Smile Your Secret Sign Your Sexy Thunder Your Taxi To The Stars Your Whole Life Dreaming Youth Of Nation On Fire The Yo-Yo Dyne Zanoni Zip, Boom, Bang Zodiac Zoom Sequence

Viva Lava Liva 1980 - 1983 album - 1984 Sandii & the Sunsetz Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Nelson is credited with writing the lyrics for one song, "Walk Away". Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

La Rocca! album - 1981 Snips Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Keyboards BILL'S THOUGHTS: "I was asked to play on the album by Snips himself, (real name Steve Parsons) who was originally, I think, a musician from Hull who had a background with various Hull bands, including 'Throbbing Gristle' in their earliest days, (though he wasn't really involved with that music, but just a friend of Cosey Fanni Tutti's). The album was produced by guitarist Chris Spedding, a great player who had been a session musician on many pop singles, (including 'The Wombles' novelty hit), but who also had a respectable jazz background. Chris played on Jack Bruce's wonderful, 'Songs For A Tailor' album as well as on several other respected recordings. Chris later went on to be a member of 'Sharks', a band which also featured Snips as vocalist and who, I recall, supported Roxy Music back in the day. I bought the Sharks album when it first came out and loved it, particularly the track 'Snakes And Swallowtails'. That album was played in the van in the earliest days of Be Bop Deluxe when we'd be driving from Wakefield to Leeds for a gig at 'The Staging Post' pub or wherever. Sharks also had the late Andy Fraser (from 'Free') on bass too. (I'd once been asked to join a 'supergroup' that Island Records were attempting to put together with Andy Fraser on bass and ex-Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell on drums). Anyway, jumping forward in time, Snips asked me to play keyboards on the album 'La Rocca'. I was surprised by this as I'd always considered my keyboard playing to be secondary to my guitar playing but, because I'd been such a fan of Sharks' music, I agreed to do it. I was incredibly nervous during the session, especially as Chris Spending was the producer and guitarist. I struggled through as best I could on an instrument I'd never had to deliver on in that kind of situation. I recall inordinate amounts of booze being consumed by both Chris and Snips during the session but I was too nervous to partake myself and desperately tried to stay focused and professional. It was one of those, dive in, sink or swim moments. Having said that, I think I acquitted myself reasonably well, without my guitar in hand. Played mostly Mini-Moog as far as I recall. A long time ago now. I still love what Snips and Chris do." Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Giants of the Perpetual Wurlitzer Bill Nelson ep - 29 December 1984 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A1) The Strangest Things, The Strangest Times A2) Phantom Gardens A3) French Promenade B1) Golden Mile B2) West-Deep B3) Threnodia ORIGINALLY: All six songs were initially non-album tracks, two of which were exclusive to the 7" EP. NOTES: Giants of the Perpetual Wurlitzer is a 6 track EP of instrumentals issued on Cocteau Records. This was the sixth in the series of Cocteau Club EPs issued to fan club members, and the only one to appear in a picture sleeve. The EP was included in Issue #11 of the club magazine, Acquitted By Mirrors . Note that "Threnodia" is misspelt as "Threnolia" on the sleeve. PAST RELEASES: A1 was released on the Enigma compilation of the same name in 1989. A2, B2, B3 were all later included on Chance Encounters in the Garden of Lights album (Cocteau, 1987). CURRENT AVAILABILITY: All tracks are available on the retrospective compilation album Transcorder (The Acquitted By Mirrors Recordings) . Singles Menu Future Past

Life in Your Hands Bill Nelson single - 10 July 1989 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: 12" Single: A1) Life In Your Hands A2) Do You Dream In Colour? B1) Get Out Of That Hole B2) My Dream Demon 7" Promotional Single: A) Do You Dream In Colour? B) Life In Your Hands ORIGINALLY: Life in Your Hands was a non-album single, which would be included on the Duplex compilation set a few months after its release. "Do You Dream in Colour?" was the recording from the original single in 1980. B1 & B2 were non-album tracks. NOTES: This would turn out to be the final official Nelson single issued on vinyl, and Nelson's last single for Cocteau Records before the label was dissolved in 1990. The single exists in two formats, 7" and 12", with the former being believed to be a promo. The 7" pressing in a die cut Cocteau sleeve features 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: "Life in Your Hands" was included on the now out of print albums Duplex and The Strangest Things compilations. Up until 2020, B1 & B2 had not been released elsewhere, but are available now on Transcorder. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: B1 & B2 are available as bonus tracks on the retrospective compilation album Transcorder (The Acquitted By Mirrors Recordings) . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "If I remember correctly, the sax on "Life in Your Hands" is myself, playing a sax sound from an Emax emulator keyboard." Singles Menu Future Past

Three White Roses & A Budd ep - 2002 Harold Budd, Bill Nelson & Fila Brazillia Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Guitar and Co-Writer on all tracks. NOTES: The brief liner notes say that it was recorded at "Stunk Dusty" (duo Fila Brazillia's studio?) in 2000, although not released until 2002. Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Acceleration Bill Nelson single - 13 August 1984 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: 7" Singles: A) Acceleration (7" Remix) B) Hard Facts From The Fiction Department 12" Singles: A1) Hard Facts From The Fiction Department A2) Acceleration (Dub) B1) Acceleration (Long Version) B2) Acceleration (Short Version) ORIGINALLY: The various mixes of "Acceleration" (a song originally from the Chimera mini-album) were initially exclusive to these singles. "Hard Facts from the Fiction Department" was the lead track from the fifth ABM club ep (May 1984). NOTES: Acceleration is a single issued in three formats (7", 12", and 12" picture disc) on the Cocteau Records label. The 7" single was available in two different picture sleeves (as illustrated above). The picture disc would be the first and last Bill Nelson picture disc, and resembles the illustration that would be used on the cover of the Trial By Intimacy box set. PAST RELEASES: The "Acceleration" 7" remix was included on the original 2LP version of The Two Fold Aspect of Everything (1985) and the Duplex compilation set (1989). All tracks except the 7" remix were added to the remastered 2005 CD of Chimera . B2) was included in the The Practice of Everyday Life box set (2011). Both of the above releases are out of print in physical form. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The 2005 reissue of Chimera is available via digital download through major online retailers. BILL'S THOUGHTS: "At that point in time, I had been making a fair bit of music along the lines of "Acceleration". I'd used some drum tracks sent to me from Japan by Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra and had written various musics to go with them. Also the album The Love That Whirls featured electronica based tracks which provided the basis for things like "Acceleration". It wasn't really new to me, but maybe sounded new to others." Singles Menu Future Past

The Dreamer's Companion Volume One retrospective collection - 13 January 2014 Bill Nelson Collections Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Golden Balloon (Luxury Lodge) 02) Take It Off And Thrill Me (Rock Option) (Arcadian Salon) 03) Ghost Show (Secret Club For Members Only) 04) Real Men With Ray Guns (The Romance Of Sustain) 05) Escondido Oleander (Rosewood Volume One) 06) Sailor Blue (The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill) 07) The Golden Days Of Radio (Compact Mix) (Fancy Planets) 08) For You And I (Return To Jazz Of Lights) 09) Once I Had A Time Machine (Golden Melodies Of Tomorrow) 10) Boyhood Shadows (Secret Club For Members Only) 11) Moments Catch Fire On The Crests Of Waves (Alternative Mix) (Orpheus In Ultraland) 12) Silent Glides My Armstrong Siddeley (Blossom Tree Optimists) 13) Creamy Clouds (Dreamland To Starboard) 14) Hey, Bill Diddley! (Secret Club For Members Only) ALBUM NOTES: The Dreamer's Companion is a three volume series of compilation albums designed to introduce both new and lapsed fans to Nelson's recordings from the 21st Century. These are significant in that they represent the point where Nelson embraced the notion of downloading as a way of generating additional interest in his music. Prior to their announcement in August 2013, there had been frequent mention by fans of the advantages that Nelson would see from going down the download route, but the artist consistently resisted doing so on the basis that he remained unconvinced that it would yield much in the way of sales. What seemed to change his opinion, or at least convince him to give it a go, was a Be Bop Deluxe Facebook page which clearly indicated that there are a significant number of fans who knew little of Nelson's work over the previous 30 years. Nelson therefore set about compiling three volumes in The Dreamer's Companion series that provided a detailed overview of his output since 2003. Even for fans who had rediscovered Nelson's music at some point in the period from 2003 to 2013, these offer some out of print material. And for the lapsed fans that knew nothing at all from this period, they offer them a chance to find out precisely what they have been missing. For those who aren't willing or able to spend £30 on a full set, each volume of The Dreamer's Companion is available at £10 each. The 42 tracks featured are taken from a total of 28 different albums, and provide a healthy mixture of vocal and instrumental pieces covering a range of styles and moods. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "There's nothing difficult or tricky about any of my music, it's all very easy to listen to. I certainly don't aim at purely esoteric targets, I just make pop music with a twist. But, if you're feeling a bit nervous about buying some albums, it doesn't get less esoteric than Fancy Planets , Joy Through Amplification , and Songs of the Blossom Tree Optimists . Easy listening all! Or, to get a great overview of my 21st Century recordings, try downloading the digital three volume compilation set, The Dreamers Companion from Bandcamp. It acts as a really nice taster or 'grazing' menu. A bit of everything on there." Collections Menu Future Past

Think And You'll Miss It/Beat Street Free download single Click image for cover Artwork A free Christmas single for you to download and enjoy - Released Dec 2012. A-Side: THINK AND YOU'LL MISS IT B-Side: BEAT STREET Both tracks are exclusive and currently unavailable on any album. Written, performed, recorded and produced by Bill Nelson. All rights Bill Nelson 2012.

The Sparkle Machine Bill Nelson album - 11 December 2013 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) The Awakening 02) Full Of Desire 03) Blaze Ye Now The Golden Trail 04) The Boy Who Lived In The Future 05) Eros Ghost Trails Gleaming Echoes 06) Colossal Figures Shrouded In Clouds 07) The Martian Boulevardier 08) Jimi Sifts The Sands Of Time 09) Whirlpool Meditation 10) Saturnalia 11) Hermetica Automatica 12) Velo-Sola 13) Jupiter Commander 14) The Sparkle Machine (Phenomena 77) ALBUM NOTES: The Sparkle Machine (Several Sustained Moments) is an instrumental album issued in a single print run of 500 copies on the Sonoluxe label. The material for The Sparkle Machine was largely created alongside that for Albion Dream Vortex , with material assigned to either album as Nelson saw fit. The first mention of the album was in late October 2013, at which point the track listing had been decided on, and given a rush release on 11 December 2013. Demand to acquire the album was sufficient to force SOS to take it off sale 8 days later, as they needed to catch up with orders received, and to ensure that existing orders could be fulfilled. After the Christmas holidays were over the album was put back on sale, and eventually sold out on 7 January 2014. It was reissued as a digital download on Bandcamp on 2 May 2015. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: " The Sparkle Machine is an instrumental album with a heavy emphasis on the electric guitar and features some densely packed, exploratory improvisation. It could also been regarded as a psychedelic space rock album though it spreads its wings wider than that definition might suggest. I think it's fair to say that it also acts as a 'virtual' stepping stone between Albion Dream Vortex and next year's release of my recent collaboration with jet-ace guitarist Reeves Gabrels." _____ "When I say 'space rock' I don't mean of the Hawkwind variety...(though no slight meant to them...they're absolutely splendid space captains!). My version is rather more loose, slips through a number of wormholes and emerges somewhere in a universe where the barriers between rock, improvisation, electronica, classical and jazz have never existed. It's just expansive music with the electric guitar pushing hard at the edges. But don't worry, if you've ever liked electric guitar trips, you'll love this one!" _____ "Actually, I never think in terms of a 'best' guitar. I have a very eclectic collection of guitars and they each have their own character and qualities. I'll sometimes choose to use one simply because of how it looks and the 'mind set' it puts me in on any particular day. It's rather like deciding what shirt or jacket to wear depending on my mood and the weather. Obviously, a guitar's sound plays a part too, the warmth and jazziness of my Guild X500, Peerless Monarch or D'Angelico will generally inspire and suit a jazz tinted solo. My Gretsches, my Stratocaster and Hallmark Stradette will bring out the twang, country and '60s instro side of my playing. My Les Paul, Campbell Nelsonics and some of my Eastwood, Airline guitars will encourage a more rock, blues or vintage rock n' roll approach, and so on. To a certain extent, it's horses for courses but also not as strictly regimented as that might seem. Sometimes it's interesting to play something opposite to what a certain guitar might dictate. To mix things up a bit. In fact, I tend to use more than one guitar on any given track. Sometimes there will be three or four different guitars on a tune. I'm a bit like a guy with a private harem...I love all my guitars and try to get around to each one on a fairly regular basis!" _____ "It's a musical equivalent of a big old oak table laden with a huge variety of delicious food and autumn fruits and shining golden goblets of rich, warm wine. Beautiful maidens breathing in your ear and a log fireplace ablaze with sensual love energy. Hey...when you've got that, who needs listening notes?" FAN THOUGHTS: TimeSlip: "Truly enjoying The Sparkle Machine Bill. I have to say it contains some of your "wildest" riffs. I noticed that your liner notes list the guitar brands you play on this album. You could probably make a stick with string tied on it sound good..." major snagg: "Oh deep joy, this is a magnificent album, which goes beautifully with your last two awesome albums, The Dreamshire Chronicles and Albion Dream Vortex . Wow...Guitar Heaven..." alec: "Full of Desire": "The guitar seems to catch flame in places in that one. A flaming desire so to speak." CoachMatt: "Has anyone ever get fixed on one of Bill's tunes ? I do a lot, and now, I am fixed on "The Martian Boulevardier" !! I can just listen to it over and over again!! Just flows so nicely. I enjoy the beats and rhythms of that tune. I can just picture this high end, OO7 acting Martian, just strolling around and acting cool !!" felixt1: "I think this is possibly a perfect re-introduction for the old Be Bop Deluxe fans, certainly as far as guitar instrumental albums by Bill, go." swampboy: "Any newcomers to his music could use these as a starting point and go on from there." AJ: "I didn't think for a moment that anything could beat Albion Dream Vortex this year. The Sparkle Machine has done it for me. How he does it so well and in such volume is beyond my comprehension. 2013 has to be the best BN year ever. Utterly stunning." BenTucker: "Loving every moment of this dazzling, dramatic, life-affirming album." "If this doesn't represent a high point in guitar music for the decade, then I don't know what does! Just breathtaking, spectacular, beautiful..." Albums Menu Future Past

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

Radioland retrospective collection - 5 October 1994 Be Box Deluxe Collections Menu Future Past TRACKS: 01) Life In The Air Age 02) Sister Seagull 03) Third Floor Heaven 04) Blazing Apostles 05) Maid In Heaven 06) Kiss Of Light 07) Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape 08) Fair Exchange 09) Ships In The Night 10) Modern Music/Dancing In The Moonlight/Honeymoon On Mars/Lost In The Neon World/Modern Music (Reprise) 11) New Precision 12) Superenigmatix 13) Possession 14) Dangerous Stranger 15) Islands Of The Dead 16) Panic In The World NOTES: Radioland is a compilation of the band's BBC recordings for 'In Concert', made in 1976 and 1978. Sourced from 3 different shows, each recording was edited when compared to the original broadcast material. The same compilation in remastered form and in new artwork was reissued as Tremulous Antenna in 2002. The subsequent release of At the BBC 1974-1978 (2013), with the inclusion of the previously omitted tracks, makes this CD redundant. Tracks 1-4: Recorded for BBC's 'Radio 1 In Concert' at the Paris Theatre 15.01.76. Producer Jeff Griffin. Tracks 5-10: Recorded for BBC's 'Radio 1 In Concert' at the Hammersmith Odeon 20.10.76. Producer Pete Dauncey. Tracks 11-16: Recorded for BBC's 'Radio 1 In Concert' at Golders Green Hippodrome 19.01.78. Producer Jeff Griffin. PAST RELEASES: At the time of its release, none of the material on Radioland had officially been issued. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The physical CD is out of print, but the album is available as a download on internet download stores. Collections Menu Future Past

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

Wah-Wah Galaxy Bill Nelson album - 6 November 2004 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Wah-Wah Galaxy No.1 02) Bridge Across The Void 03) After Midnite (Twang, Echo, And Hoedown) 04) The Six Coiled Serpent 05) Confessions Of A Psychedelic Dandy 06) Skylark's Rise 07) Blue Sparks Flying 08) Nothing Is The New Something 09) Old Weirdola 10) The Orson Welles Memorial Sleighride 11) My Sputnik Sweetheart 12) Rattlin' Trams 13) Trip Thang 14) Pure Joy 15) Duane's Dream 16) De Soto ALBUM NOTES: Wah-Wah Galaxy is an album of guitar instrumentals issued exclusively for Nelsonica '04 . It was pressed in a limited run of 500 copies on the Almost Opaque label, the final release to appear on this label. Nelsonica '04 attendees could purchase a second copy and forward to fans unable to attend the event in person. Copies that remained after Nelsonica were sold through SOS, and were sold out by the time Nelson launched his new website Dreamsville in April 2005. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Bridge Across the Void": "three minute twenty six second sound collage that painstakingly evokes the piece's title. A soundtrack for an imaginary film sequence as might be co-directed by David Lynch and Walt Disney after experiencing a neo-religious, mystical epiphany." _____ "De Soto": "Those of you into American car culture will know that a 'De Soto' is an early 1960's, big finned, chromium plated, gas-guzzling monster of an automobile. The kind of car I once dreamed of driving in my early teens. My track is inspired by that particular go-go-machine. It's an atomic guitar instrumental that sounds as if it is being played by a punk cowpoke as he zooms down an electric highway at hyper speed. Neon cacti flash past as our hero puts the pedal to the metal and vamooses into a vast desert sunset, cackling and crackling like a demented country geetar wrangler. Hi-ho silver strings awaaayyyy!!!" _____ "The album cover is pure 'computer painting', an abstract art piece I created from scratch on my Mac for both the album and the Nelsonica poster that matches it." FAN THOUGHTS: BobK: "One of my all time favourite BN albums. I think it is the sheer scope and variety. Rock, pop, ambient, weird, funny. You name it, it is there. In fact it is 'Pure Joy'." Peter: "This album opens with a kick-ass rocker of a title song...Bill showing his absolute mastery of the wah-wah pedal. A blistering, rollicking rocker. The rest of the album features a diverse collection of songs...loud ones, smoothly melodic ones, quirky ones...a microcosm of Bill's work in one album (except for the long-form instrumental). "Skylark's Rise" has that singing e-bow, "Blue Sparks Flying" has Bill letting loose and getting a bit nasty (with a great bass line), "Nothing is the New Something" is a simply mind-blowing thing, and on and on right through to the closing track, "De Soto" which put a BIG smile on my face -- just a fun one, believe me! Another Bill Nelson treasure." Parsongs: "Confessions of a Psychedelic Dandy": "wow, this one really hit home...with one of Bill's trademark extended endings! "The final trio of songs, "Pure Joy", "Duane's Dream", and "De Soto" are all awesome, and could have been bonus tracks on any of the CDs from this set, which includes Dreamland to Starboard and The Romance of Sustain ." KEVWILKINS: "Wah Wah opening track is just theeee most uplifting, pulse-quickening groove-tastic track for me. If I'm needing a boost, it's either that or "Take It Off and Thrill Me (rock version)". Life changing stuff." Holer: "Nice companion to Custom Deluxe actually. Has the same sense of adventure and anything-goes variety. Great headphone ear candy too. Bill does so much crazy stuff that gets buried in the mix. "Nothing is the New Something" is a personal favorite, as is "Confessions of a Psychedelic Dandy"." "Another indispensable guitar album. If you like Custom Deluxe or Plaything , this is right in line with those albums." Albums Menu Future Past

Bill Nelson Live! Unfortunately, Bill has no live shows planned at the moment and due to health issues it is unlikely that he will perform live in the future... Make sure you have subscribed to this website's mailing list for news and updates. Bill's Live Show Archive

Electrical Language Be Bop Deluxe single - 5 May 1978 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A) Electrical Language B) Surreal Estate ORIGINALLY: A) Edited version of the Drastic Plastic album cut. B) Lifted unchanged from the same album. NOTES: Electrical Language was the final Be Bop Deluxe single issued during the band's existence. The single was issued in a picture sleeve with Nelson sporting his Cocteau 'signature' sweater. Promo copies exist with the words "Demo Record, Not For Sale", and a large 'A' printed on the label. PAST RELEASES: Both tracks would be included on the Singles As and Bs compilation (1981) and "Electrical Language" would find its way onto the Bill Nelson's Be Bop Deluxe 7" EP included in the Permanent Flame box set (1982), and on the re-promoted stand-alone 12" EP on Cocteau in September 1983, with an extra track, "Jean Cocteau". CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The single is long deleted, but both tracks can be found on the Cherry Red/Esoteric Recordings reissue of Dr astic Plastic (2021 ) - both in physical form and as a digital download. Singles Menu Future Past