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Non-Stop Mystery Action Bill Nelson album - 25 November 2009 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) This Is Like A Galaxy 02) Welcome To The Dream Transmission Pavilion 03) Yes And No 04) When The Invisible Circus Comes To Town 05) Materialisation Phenomena 06) The Departure Of The 20th Century In A Hail Of Memory ALBUM NOTES: Non-Stop Mystery Action is an instrumental album issued on the Sonoluxe label in a single print run of 1000 copies. The album is a collection of lengthy instrumental pieces, three of which are soundtracks to videograms that Nelson produced in 2008 and 2009. These are 'Welcome to the Dream Transmission Pavilion', 'Materialisation Phenomena' and 'The Departure of the 20th Century in a Hail of Memory', all of which were included on the Picture House DVD issued in 2010. Nelson's first announced the Non Stop Mystery Action album in his online diary, dated 21 July 2009, at which point the album had seven tracks, including three that failed to make the final cut: "Like a Woman Levitating", "Machines of Loving Grace" and "Stranger Flowers Now Than Ever". These were replaced with "Materialisation Phenomena" and "When the Invisible Circus Comes to Town". The final track listing was confirmed on 1 November 2009, with all artwork and mastering commitments completed ready for its pre-Christmas release. Non-Stop Mystery Action sold out in December 2020. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "I'm currently working on the assembly of what will be my next CD album release, the NON-STOP MYSTERY ACTION album. It looks like the album will only contain six tracks...but they are all 'long-form' pieces...some of them very long. It is also shaping up to be one of the strangest albums I've ever released. Nearly all the tracks have voice samples and one features my own spoken voice-over. "This is not an album for casual listening, playing in the car, (too many quiet and subtle details will be lost), or for tapping toes to. But it IS an album for those of you who appreciate being taken on strange and somewhat dark journeys. No orthodox arrangements here, just a magnetic, hypnotic continuum of sound and atmosphere, a stream-of-consciousness flow on which to sail your paper boats of dreams. "I'm trying not to underestimate my audience's capacity for enjoying a little weirdness with this one. I've deliberately kept it quite single-minded and 'pure' in that sense. There are no sops to orthodox tastes. In fact, there's little to hang on to if you're not used to being cast adrift in strange oceans without a life-belt. But, I'm going to take the gamble that some of you will be equal to the challenge. Are you up to it?" _____ "The album's style ranges from dark, industrial improvised blues loops to extended, long-form compositions incorporating found-sounds, digital noise, treated voice samples, neo-classical orchestrations, spoken word narratives, sliced n' diced samples of once popular songs, jazzy guitars, towers full of bells, bad-acid psychedelia, autobiographical commentary, subtle irony and melancholic, time-travelling whimsy." _____ "Non-Stop Mystery Action functions as a kind of 'sonic cinema'. Extended pieces that project flickering, dream-like images on the screen of the listener's imagination. In fact, three of the pieces on the album, (tracks 2, 5 and 6), were created as soundtracks to video artworks that I screened at the 2008 and 2009 annual Nelsonica conventions. These three 'long-form' pieces provided me with the starting point and concept for the album. The other three tracks were created to contrast and compliment them. So, dim the lights, sit back and let the dreams unreel..." _____ "Materialisation Phenomena": "Oh, I forgot to mention: the album also has a track that features ten minutes of digitally-delayed acoustic 'thumb-piano' improvisation. "A 'thumb piano', for those of you scratching your heads, is a small gourd with seven rusty bits of metal attached to it. These are 'sort of' tuned to a series of notes. (The 'sort of' indicates that they're not actually in-tune at all, at least in the normal sense). The notes are sounded by flicking the metal bars with one's thumbs. It sounds like a music box from hell (at least it does after ten minutes of the damned thing!) Still, in the mix, I occasionally fade it out to be replaced with a swathe of tinkling wind chimes. And a LOT of sampled windy weather and rustling leaves. "Those of you already complaining about my musical perversity and single-mindedness will be pleased to know that, at the end of the ten minute improvisation, my thumbs were actually cut and bleeding and took a few days to heal, although copious amounts of antiseptic cream were applied to counteract the toxic effects of the rusty metal. Then again, YOU, dear listeners, may require more than antiseptic cream to counteract the deliriously toxic effects of the track itself. One must suffer for one's art, don't cha know!" FAN THOUGHTS: John Spence: "Dark, scary, intense, moody, joyful, uplifting and humorous, but above all beautifully sequenced and laid out. Not an album to "dip in to" I suspect, more a listening experience from start to finish. After we'd finished mastering and Bill had gone I sat and listened to the production master all the way through again. 'Nuff said...enjoy (and I'm not on commission !)" jetboy: "I'm not very good at reviews as such, especially music reviews, but here goes...Listen to this album in one sitting, decent volume and a 'do not disturb' sign on the door, then be carried away, totally immersed in sound...imagine yourself in a dream and are walking across a landing, at the end of the landing lies a door, phosphorescent light seeping out of the keyhole and from under the door...open the door and see a figure from the back, hunched over a worktop or bench surrounded by vials, bell-jars glass tubes, brass machinery, dials, clocks, amp-meters dusty valve radio sets, all kinds of electrical paraphernalia ...there's random voices, radio broadcasts just picked up from some alternative yesterday (was it 1932 or is it tomorrow? It could be one and the same)...flashes of light, crystal guitars, shimmering keyboards touches of infra-bass...welcome to the Sound Laboratory of Professor Nelson...! Buy it and be spellbound." Martin Bostock: "You'll certainly be having some very strange, dark & wonderful dreams after listening to this! Especially with the beautifully dark "This is Like A Galaxy" and "Materialisation Phenomena"...superb stuff!!" G. Vazquez: "I must say this CD is one of the most fantastic musical trips I have ever had. It's overload with emotional power. It seems to me that every note carries a profound significance. Yes there's static, wind chimes, wind, etc. but when out of the blue comes a note, it hits like a lighting strike. Who am I to say this, but I believe those songs came from a very deep, personal chamber from Bill Nelson's heart..." Holer: " Non-Stop has been playing, well - non-stop, and it's still thrilling, chilling and fulfilling me, particularly the main piece, which has that magical ability to sound different almost every time I hear it. It is an absolute feast for the deep listener in all of us. I recently came across a copy of John Cage's book, Silence, a truly great book of essays, and in it, he talks about how, when confronted with new and different types of music, it is the listeners DUTY to strip away any pre-conceptions and experience it without our judgmental little mind chattering away in the background. Beginners Ears, I guess you could call it. I think that's exactly the kind of attention Non-Stop deserves..." "Materialisation Phenomena": "is really one of the most evocative and interesting tracks Bill has ever done - I don't think it has any precedent in his canon - I can't say - oh it reminds me of this or it sounds like an extension of that - it's just a completely different direction for Bill and one I find damned exciting. The whole album is a stunner, but that particular track has a real vapor lock on me right now - chimes, thumb piano and all." "Bill's always been able to move in multiple directions at once - I just hope that this is one direction he continues to explore. I truly think this is one of the most significant albums of his long, lustrous career." noggin: "I find myself enjoying NSMA immensely, and find the music thoroughly engrossing. I also generally prefer the more accessible (if that's the right description) music that Bill creates, but this album has got me well and truly hooked. It's also totally unique." stpetelou: "I LOVE it! It's obvious how much work and care went into "The Departure of the 20th Century in a Hail of Memory", not to mention the other tracks. I listened to the entire album early this morning while still lying in bed, and though I was wide awake, I felt as if I was floating through a dreamscape. A stunningly beautiful album." Peter: "This one is something different and genuinely special. Bill likes to paint with guitars...this one conjures a whole different mood and atmosphere. I really like it." Alan: "When I first heard about this album, it sounded like something that would interest me, but it's much more than I expected. Once again, Bill has taken us to another corner of the musical world, and has done it with style." A Kinder Light: "I'm really enjoying Non-Stop Mystery Action . It's difficult to add anything else other than to say that it's an expansive piece of work that ranks amongst the best of the Sonoluxe catalogue. And I'm not saying that just the for the sake of mentioning it. Wait 'til you all have a chance to get lost in this thing! Truly amazing, Bill...truly amazing. BenTucker: "It's an extraordinary-sounding album. Not to separate elements of it, but the guitar in "Yes and No" has to be heard to be believed (or perhaps you still won't believe it even after you've heard it), and the opening to "The Departure of the 20th Century"...is (to understate things) haunting. You'd have to be insane not to order a copy of this immediately." Albums Menu Future Past

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

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

Tramcar to Tomorrow retrospective collection - 31 August 1998 Be Bop Deluxe Collections Menu Future Past TRACKS: 01) Third Floor Heaven 02) Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape 03) Mill Street Junction 04) 15th Of July (Invisibles) 05) Maid In Heaven 06) Stage Whispers 07) Sister Seagull 08) Blazing Apostles 09) Crying To The Sky 10) Peace Of Mind 11) Panic In The World 12) Love In Flames NOTES: Tramcar to Tomorrow was a natural follow up to Radioland issued four years previously, in that gave the first official release to a selection of Be Bop Deluxe BBC studio session recordings made for The John Peel Show . It wasn't a definitive collection by any means, but it was a start for those fans who had spent part of their youth recording this material onto cassettes either from the original Peel programmes or from various re-broadcasts on the Alan Freeman show or the Friday Rock Show presented by Tommy Vance. Sourced from 4 different sessions and giving the first release to the lost song "15th of July" (recorded for a 1974 Peel session), Tramcar to Tomorrow provided a decent overview of the band's BBC recordings made to promote the albums Axe Victim , Futurama , Sunburst Finish , and Drastic Plastic . The omission of the three tracks from a 1973 Peel session ("Axe Victim", "Bluesy Ruby" and "Tomorrow The World"), plus one track from the 1975 session ("Lights") and two tracks from the 1978 session ("Superenigmatix" and "Love in Flames") was disappointing to those looking at least for complete sessions, if not a complete anthology of such recordings. The subsequent release of At the BBC 1974-1978 (2013), with the inclusion of the previously omitted tracks from the 1975 and 1978 sessions, was a huge step in the right direction, but frustratingly three tracks found on Tramcar were omitted from the 2013 box set release. The Peel session from November 1973 wouldn't see an official release until the Cherry Red/Esoteric Recordings reissue of Axe Victim in 2020. PAST RELEASES: None of this material was previously available on official releases. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: This compilation is now out of print. Collections Menu Future Past

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

Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam Bill Nelson album - 8 May 1981 Albums Menu Future Past Pre-order 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 28th February 2025, following a couple of 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 pre-order in 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

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

Panic in the World Be Bop Deluxe single - 9 January 1978 Singles Menu Future Past TRACKS: A) Panic In The World B) Blue As A Jewel ORIGINALLY: A) Edited version of the Drastic Plastic album cut. B) Non-album cut stemming from the Drastic Plastic sessions. NOTES: Panic in the World was the ninth Be Bop Deluxe single issued during the band's existence. The single came in a generic record company sleeve. UK Promo copies exist with the words Demo Record Not For Sale and a large 'A' printed on the label. In North America Mono/Stereo promo copies were pressed (separately in US and Canada) to encourage airplay on both AM and FM radio. PAST RELEASES: Both tracks would be included on the Singles As and Bs compilation (1981), and "Panic in the World" 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". "Blue as A Jewel" would first re-appear on the Best of and the Rest of Be Bop Deluxe double album issued later in 1978, before being added as a bonus track to the Modern Music album when it was issued on CD in 1991. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The single is long deleted, but both tracks can be found on the Cherry Red/Esoteric Recordings reissue of Drastic Plastic (2021) - both in physical form and as a digital download. Singles Menu Future Past

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

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

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

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

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

Friday 8th April 2005 -- 1:40 pm Finally, 'Rosewood' is complete. Last night, I put the finishing touches to the final track of Volume Two, a newly recorded piece to nicely round off the album and bring the listener back to the starting position of Volume One . It's hard to say which of these two albums I like most. Perhaps Volume One at this point in time but this could easily change according to my mood. They belong together, basically. One compliments the other. I made an unmastered copy of Volume One for my friend Paul Gilby who, after listening to it said:- "beautiful, emotional and mature... a masterpiece!" Well, there's one good review! Jon Wallinger, upcoming Mayor Of Dreamsville has a CDR copy of it at the moment also and has promised to write a review of Rosewood Volume One to upload to my new official website, once it goes public. More tweaks being done at the moment to compensate for varying screen resolutions amongst the computer-using public. A bit of a design compromise but nothing too drastic. A new discussion board has been arranged in the form of 'The Dreamsville Inn' so that visitors to the site can communicate with each other and discuss whatever. 'The Dreamsville Inn' will go live when Dreamsville itself officially launches. Not too long now, I think. Dave Graham has completed the layout work on the packaging for Rosewood Volume Two now and, once again, it's hard to choose a favourite between them. Each follows the same visual concept/layout/plan but has different colours and uses different photographs from Volume One. But, as on Volume One , these are photograps that I took of my old Hoyer acoustic guitar in various locations around Yorkshire. Together, the two albums will look quite stunning. The track listing/running order for Rosewood Volume Two will be as follows: Tinderbox Aliumesque Little Cantina Rolling Home (Yorkshire Raga No.1) Sunbeam Bramble William Is Wearing The Cardigan Of Light The Autumn Tram (Yorkshire Raga No.2) Hi Lo La Rising Sap Blue Cloud See-Through-Nightie Ordinairy Storm Waiting For Rain The Light Is Kinder In This Corner Of Corona Your Whole Life Dreaming It has been an exhausting project, this one. I can't recall any of my previous albums having quite this intensity of effort, other than perhaps the gargantuan Noise Candy project. (Which reminds me, it's time to remind Lenin Imports about accounting again, I think.) I feel quite drained by the 'Rosewood' process but, of course it doesn't end here. The next step is to book myself into Fairview Studios to master both albums, all thirty tracks of them. Then it's time to get them physically manufactured. I'll release Volume One as soon as it's ready and hold Volume Two back a while, perhaps until the Autumn. Autumn looks like it will be an interesting time, for various reasons that I'll keep under my hat for now, but I do have a lot of work to prepare for that part of the year. A slightly new venture which I'm looking forward to. Once my Dreamsville site is on-line, subscribers to the town's newspaper, 'The Dreamsville Rocket' , will be able to keep up with the latest developments as they happen. I've also spent a lot of time and energy this last couple of weeks on the 'Museum Of Memory' section of the Dreamsville site. I've been piecing together a visual history of my early life, including my great grandparents and my parents. I've found and scanned well over fifty photographs so far and I'm writing text explanations for all of them. It amounts to a sort of 'potted autobiography', not as detailed and complete as my 'proper' one, 'Painted From Memory', but reasonably interesting, nevertheless. The text accompanying each photograph tells the story behind them and puts things into a chronological context. 'The Museum Of Memory, of course, is just one area of the Dreamsville site and there are many other areas to develop. All the foundations are laid but, as I keep stressing, it will be an ongoing task to build the entire town, a task which will occupy me for a long time. Bearing in mind that my priority is music making, a little patience will be required from Dreamsville's visitors. They can rest assured though that quality is of the utmost importance and nothing will be done just for the sake of it or simply to cobble something together. In time, this will build into a fantastic resource for fans of my work and become an extension of that work for myself. Harold's concert getting nearer... more emails from him this week. The tension mounts and all that. It will be upon us before we know it. Top of page Thursday 21st April 2005 -- 1:00 pm Today is our wedding anniversary. Emiko and I have now been married ten years. Hard to believe as it genuinely feels like yesterday that we tied the proverbial knot. We had planned a small and quiet affair but were pleasantly surprised when a number of good friends, many from 'down south', (and one from even further 'up north'), travelled to Yorkshire for the occasion: Richard Chadwick, Roger Eno and Family, Kate St. John, Emi's friend Kyoko, my eldest daughter Julia and several others, plus local friends such as John Spence and my brother Ian. It was a lovely sunny day and we all got fruits of the vine happy after the ceremony at the Gateforth Hall Hotel, just behind the tiny apartment Emi and I were renting at that time. Besides being the culmination of a lengthy, (and beautifully on-going), love-affair, it was a treasured day spent amongst our best pals. Anyway... ten years ago today! That old time warp thing, yet again. Emi's anniversary present to me this morning was a little tin steam train containing chocolate hearts, (tin is the symbol of ten years of marriage), and a marvellous bottle of Pecksniff's 'Oriental Wood' Cologne. This company is the last traditional, English-originated and owned perfumiers in the country. They create some wonderful perfumes and colognes. Fragrances are one of my many passions and I'm a sucker for trying out different ones in shops whilst on my travels. I often emerge from Harvey Nichols' store in Leeds smelling like a million dollars without spending a single penny. (They have a great selection of testers.) I usually try out the 'Creed' range and a few other specialist perfumier's products, mainly the one's that cost the earth and smell like paradise. I stay well clear of those obvious famous footballer colognes, the Versaces, Hugo Bosses, etc, in favour of more unusual and exotic scents. I prefer such things as Czech and Speake's No 88, I and E Atkinson's 'I Coloniali' range, a couple of Penhaligon's classics and the eternally elegant and clean 'Acqua Di Parma'. I'm more of a sensual aesthete than a macho athlete anyway, a bit of a waxed mustache twiddler, had I got the moustache to twiddle. Maybe I could adopt a decadent lothario persona, perhaps a cross between Leslie Phillips and Charles Rennie Mackintosh? Or Aubrey Beardsley and Harrison Marks? Hmm... maybe not... But given the opportunity of a foppish ribbon bow tie, a crushed velvet suit and a boudoir filled with gilded mirrors and brocade, I'd be handing out those Phillipsian oily "hellos" to every pretty dolly within earshot. And me married for ten years too. Mucky bugger, says Emi, ('though she says it in Japanese, which makes it sound like an exotic attribute, rather than a summing up of my senile lusts). For a wedding anniversary gift, I bought Emi a tin clockwork rabbit that plays a pair of little drums when wound up, and a beautiful antique,1920's, costume jewellery necklace. She is going to wear it tonight when we go out for a celebratory dinner at a rather up-market and old-fashioned restaurant sited in a beautiful nearby manor house. We haven't been before but, as this is a special day, we decided to push the boat out and indulge ourselves, just the two of us and to hell with the expense. I must try not to get a hangover though, as I'm booked into Fairview studios tomorrow morning to begin the work of mastering the two volumes of Rosewood with my engineer pal John Spence. Then the albums go off to the manufacturers and finally to the Dreamsville Department store where the music can at last be accessed by its audience. Well worth the wait, I think. It's a complex and richly detailed work. I'm unusually proud of it. All being well, this particular diary entry will be the first to appear on the new Dreamsville website. We're really close to launching it as I write... hopefully, it should be live and on-line sometime early next week. It's only at the first stage of its existence but I'm soon to lay plans to launch stage two. As soon as possible really. Obviously, there are financial costs involved in all of this but by taking things a step at a time, I hope to be able to afford the site's development. As much as cash, time is at a premium too. My year is already planned out ahead of me and I have a full schedule of projects to work on. Adrian at the office emailed me a year planner with the next seven months or so mapped out on it. I was impressed. Will I really achieve all that? Fingers crossed. It seems as if the website will need to fit around the more pressing tasks on the cards. We'll get there in the end, fear not. No holiday again this year, though, that's for sure. I grumble to myself but it's all pretend. I love what I do. A solo tour is planned for the autumn and I intend to pursue a new direction with this. Although I've toured as a soloist in the past, it has always been based around my instrumental performances. This time, I hope to include some vocal items too. I've made a tentative start towards writing some brand new songs that I might be able to sing without the aid of a band. These would use 'foundation tracks' in a similar fashion to my instrumental performances but would be tailored to support my vocals as well as my guitar playing. At this point in time, it's difficult to say exactly what the ultimate concept or mood of these songs will be, but current working titles for the project are 'The Lovely And Mysterious Tour' or 'The Dreamy And Mysterious Tour'. At least, that's the mood I'm aiming for... a few dream-like, beautiful songs, melodic and swoony but with strong, lyrical guitar playing. I'll also include some new and some old instrumentals in the concerts. I need to create fresh video backdrops too although this will be dependent upon how much time I can spare to work on these. The videos take an eternity to make. There will certainly be some new visual material though. The plan, at the moment, is to attempt 15 to 20 concerts around the U.K. Also to travel further South than last year's tour. Now that Dreamsville and The Dreamsville Rocket Newspaper are in place, I'll be able to keep fans informed as this project progresses. It will be good to have The Dreamsville Inn in place for fans to communicate too. I have to admit to missing their input. Looking forward to a bit of good natured banter. Next year, (2006), I'll be looking at the possibility of putting a new band together for another tour and creating some new songs for that project. Unfortunately, a band-based tour, as I was reminded last autumn, takes much more time and money to mount than a solo tour, even with the extremely generous sponsorship that Sound-On-Sound magazine contributed last year. Without their help, that event would simply not have been possible. Because of this year's workload, (the unforeseen need to design and build a new website, plus the intensely involved two-volume Rosewood project and various other 'in-the-pipeline' issues), a band project, with all it's complexities and costs, is impractical. I need to be able to set everything else to one side to give such a venture my full attention. So... next year will be the best time to assemble a band, particularly if all goes well on this years forthcoming Autumn solo tour. I'd like to approach the band thing from a different angle anyway, sharpen up the act as it were. It's important to me to keep pushing the envelope. In fact, this Autumn's outing is intended to break new ground for me, both in terms of music and territory. It will offer an opportunity to explore a different approach to songs in a live presentation. I'm very excited about it, although It will be quite nerve-wracking, (singing alone on a stage, I mean), but it's a tremendous challenge that I'm looking forward to meeting. I intend to release an album of these new songs to coincide with the tour... plus some surprises that I'll keep under my hat for now. Talking of nervousness... Harold Budd's tribute concert is looming ever larger. We have yet to settle on a little duet piece... I've posted a couple of suggestions to Harold, just to see if there's something there that we could pursue together. Harold is also working on a piece for us at his end. I recently posted him a copy of my published 'Diary Of A Hyperdreamer' book. He wrote generously about it last night, said he was very impressed by it. For me, praise from Harold is praise indeed. I'm extremely grateful and flattered. I'm also extremely nervous about the Brighton show. General election stuff pouring through my letterbox daily. The Tory party promotional bumph seems to be never ending. 'Are You Thinking What We're Thinking?' is their chosen slogan this time. Well the answer is, "NO, I'm not, so please bugger off and take your slimy nationalistic fear-mongering with you... " Michael Howard and his cronies give me the heebie-jeebies. What an arrogant, manipulative, condescending bunch of hypocrites they are. Mind you... politicians, eh? Fertile soil for the seeds of corruption, the lot of 'em. Steer well clear and don't let them kiss your kids. I'm tempted to go back to the kind of creative anarchism I advocated during my art-school years. But we were just kids... what did we know? Actually, come to think of it... what do I know now? Only how to make music and not much else. Ambivalent and proud of it. A bad boy. Talking of elections... seems the Catholics have got themselves a new boss. Tougher than the old boss. What's his name, Pope Rottweiller or something? Apparently he was a member of the Hitler Youth Movement as a kid. Seriously. Well... He seems to have the old hard-line attitude to contraception and homosexuality. Religion: always happy to do the devil's work. Oh, dear. Still haven't got around to listening to the new Vic Chestnutt album that I bought the other week. Bill Frisell's on it. So I bought it. I'm still a big Bill Frisell fan. Somehow though, I've been far too caught up in my own music to have much of an ear left for anyone else's. Despite this, I have heard Emi constantly playing Rufus Wainright's latest two albums downstairs. I bought both of them after hearing the first one last year on a visit to Opium's offices in London. Richard and Adrian turned me on to him. Now, Emiko and I have actually got tickets to see him live next month. He's bound to make me insanely jealous as he's nauseatingly gifted. I enjoy Rufus Wainright's baroque pop songs very much although they can sometimes veer from the stunningly gorgeous to the oppressively over-sauced. Sometimes, I wish a little more restraint had been applied, but he's young and I guess you could level the same criticism at my work too, (and I'm not young). Nevertheless, I've always liked to gild the dear old lily, so what can I say? It's back to that perfume thing again, that extravagant, lush, fertile fecundity. Music as cornucopia, fountain of plenty, sheer ecstatic sensuality. Sound you can swoon in and swim in. Naked if possible. Better change the subject... getting a bit sticky. From the sublime to the ridiculous: Found a DVD of 'Torchy The Battery Boy' the other day. A charming puppet TV series from the early 1960's, one of Gerry Anderson's first productions. Torchy has a big magic lightbulb in his hat that can find things that have been lost, (my long lost youth perhaps?) He also has a spiffing rocketship that I wish they'd manufacture as a commercially available model. But I'm probably the only saddo who'd buy it. All together now: "Torchy, Torchy, the battery boy... He's a walkie-talkie toy... " Yup, those were the days. Reading several books at bedtime, as usual. At my bedside at the moment are:- 'Peter Blake' by Natalie Rudd; 'The Rise Of The Sixties' by Thomas Crow; 'Audio Culture' edited by Cristoph Cox and Daniel Warner; ' 'The Making Of Modern Britain' by Jeremy Black; ' Jazz Modernism' by Alfred Apel Junior; 'Satori In Paris' by Jack Kerouac; and 'The Lion Annual, 1957'. At least a dozen more books sit in a pile on top of some bedroom shelves, awaiting their turn at my bedside. Hope they're patient... Wish we could move to a bigger house where I might have one room set aside as a dedicated library to house my treasured tomes. I used to have a library when I lived at Haddlesey House in the late '70's and through the '80's. It was oak panelled, had a stone 'Minster' fireplace that crackled with logs in the winter, a huge desk with a captain's chair and my Hornby train set spread out on the deep green carpet. I used to love going up there and closing myself off from the outside world. Between that and my Echo Observatory studio, I had all the cultural, creative isolation I needed. Now I'm crammed into a small box room surrounded by junk and broken keyboards. And lots of lovely guitars. Shouldn't grumble. Top of page Thursday 28th April 2005 -- 12.14 pm Floating in my warm and comforting bath this morning, watching rain clouds gather in the grey air above the bathroom skylight, I heard, for a few magic seconds, the first cuckoo of spring. Its call echoed on the wind from the nearby fields, summoning archytypal English Albion country images, Powell and Pressburger 'Cantebury Tale' landscapes, the music of Elgar, ('though Delius immortalised the bird), Post Office film unit documentaries from the 'thirties and 'forties, children's stories from post-war annuals and a host of other sweet n' sentimental nostalgias. A pity that the glorious sunshine and clear blue skies of the last few days were nowhere to be seen. Not that I've been able to enjoy the outdoor life of late. I have been and still am, feeling 'proper poorly', to use an Albert Fitzwilliam Digby style phrase. (I wonder what American readers of my diary make of such hermetically sealed 'British' terms and references?) It all started last Saturday, whilst visiting my Mother in Wakefield. I suddenly felt that inner chill that warns of an impeding cold. Within an hour I was feeling dizzy and sick and had to return home where I took straight to my bed, shivering and feeling absolutely bloody awful. My temperature shot up, my stomach sick and uncomfortable, I didn't want to move. During the night, I was throwing up acidic bile. By Sunday my temperature had dropped but I felt like a man trapped between two worlds, neither of them desirable holiday locations. I've remained in this aching, fuzzy limbo ever since, only yesterday applying a razor to my face and shaving off the four day growth I'd accumulated. It's some years since I've sported a beard and I was horrified to see that, these days, it's predominantly grey, despite the fact that the hair on my head, though thinning dramatically, has hardly any grey in it at all. I also, yesterday, took the chance that some fresh air might revive me and ventured out of the house to accompany Emi on her trip to Leeds. This was a mistake. After 20 minutes of shopping I felt terrible, wobbly, weak and dizzy. We quickly returned home where, after a rest, I began to feel a little better. Today, there's no great improvement, although I'm certainly better than I was at the weekend. Friends inform me that there is a particularly nasty virus doing the rounds, laying people low for a couple of weeks. Well... surprise, surprise, it appears I've caught it. Emiko has been suffering ill health too. She's managed to hold off from catching my virus so far, but has been complaining of a pain under her armpit. On Tuesday evening, she suddenly announced a disturbing tightness across her chest and back. Both of us immediately thought of heart problems. The tightness got worse and Julia, a good friend and neighbour, generously offered to drive Emi to the 24 hour walk in clinic in town. I was too ill to take her myself. Three hours later, (three hours that saw me pacing the floor, worrying myself silly), Emi returned looking much relieved. The doctor had said that her heart was fine and that the problem was most likely caused by a trapped nerve. In fact, she'd lifted a heavy pot of plants at the flower shop some days earlier and this may have lead to the trapped nerve. The three hour wait at the walk in clinic was simply because of the number of patients queing to be seen by a doctor. These sort of incidents really make you think. I don't know how I'd cope if anything should ever happen to Emiko, (God forbid) She's the rock that I cling to in my troubled sea... The prediction I made in my previous diary entry, (21st April), that my Dreamsville site would be up and operating by then, turned out to be overly optimistic... at this precise point in time, the lauch date is still somewhere in the future. The delay has been caused by the complication of transferring the .com address over from Permanent Flame's server to the new U.K. Dreamsville one. It's taking longer than anticipated. I also suspect that Chuck, (Bird), is away on one of his regular business trips and hasn't been available to deal with things at the U.S. end. We're now hoping to have it all sorted out in time to launch the site next week. This could, of course, end up not being the case. However, if you are reading these words, then Dreamsville will have finally opened its gates as this diary entry and the previous one have been posted exclusively on the Dreamsville site, and not on Permanent Flame. Permanent Flame, as I may have mentioned before, has now been enshrined as an exhibit in 'The Permanent Flame Museum' within the 'Pleasure Park' area of Dreamsville . This means that the ten year old website has been preserved, frozen in time, for future reference and as a tribute to Mark Rushton and Chuck Bird who began and ran the first ever Bill Nelson website, long before I even had a computer to look at it. Last Friday, I travelled over to Fairview studios to transfer the Rosewood recordings and master them with John Spence. John cheered me by saying that he thought they sounded fabulous and needed hardly any equalisation changes The masters, and the packaging artwork, have now gone off to the manufacturers and finished copies of Volume One will be available soon. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished result, the first release on Sonoluxe. I had to borrow Emi's car to get over to Fairview as my vehicle has a rapidly deteriorating exhaust problem. In fact, the car needs a lot of work on it at the moment, particularly body work. There are some increasingly alarming areas of rust that need treatment. As the house is also in need of several structural repairs, both internal and external, it's a matter of deciding on priorities and letting the rest rot. Truth is, the economics of the situation make it difficult to keep up with it all. In some ways, I wish we could afford to move house, find somewhere a little bigger and more private. I really need a dedicated, roomier space for my recording and musical equipment. Considering the fact that recording work is right at the centre of my creativity and career, finding myself and my gear crammed into such a small box room is both ironic and uncomfortable. Meanwhile, developers in and around the city continue to exploit every bit of land they can get their hands on. We've recently been trying to stop attempts to turn the fields next to us into an industial storage unit. Boundary queries have temporarily slowed down their plans but you can bet that it hasn't halted them. It's all going to the dogs. (In fact, a dog track was one developer's proposal for the same field!) The area that Emi and I chose to live in eight years or so ago has changed quite a lot since we came here, particularly in terms of our own privacy and outlook. Had we known how much our immediate environment would suffer, we probably would have looked elsewhere to make our home. We're saddled with it now, of course. Things could always be worse, but still... Sometimes, I long for the seclusion of a home bounded by its own space, immune from the claws of development. Haddlesey House, where I was fortunate enough to live in the 'eighties, was such a place. I really cherished that old house and it's surrounding, protective walls. Plenty of room to set up a drum kit, marimbas, amplifiers and no need to worry about noise. AND a river bank at the bottom of the garden where I could sit at twilight, listening to ripples and blackbirds whilst waiting for lyrics to materialise like ghosts. Even that lovely old place, as regular readers of this diary know, was eventually raped and pillaged by the amoral greed of property developers. It's like a cheesy, up-market housing estate for accountants and insurance salesmen now. What I really need is to land a lucrative Hollywood film score commission. Then again, could I put up with all that bullshit just to earn enough money to build myself a proper studio space? Probably not... but I could try. The truth is, my nature doesn't really lend itself to such careerist manipulations. You really need to hang out, network, put yourself about, etc, etc. Oh, I've got ambitions enough but they're not of much practical use. It's all dreams and dreaming, techniques designed to encourage the flow of, (gulp), beauty and magic through my life, not to hold onto the bland material signifiers that seem to become the alpha and omega of contemporary achievers. Still... I'm no purist. I'd happily drive an Aston Martin or a Bristol or some equally beautiful, exclusive and snotty assembly of steel and leather, should I ever be able to afford such a luxury. As the old Buddhist saying has it:- 'it's fine to drive an expensive car, as long as the expensive car isn't driving you'. It all comes back to the notion of attachment/non-attachment. More than ever these days, people find it hard to let go. Watched a lovely documentary film on DVD last night. It's called 'Dharma River, Journey Of A Thousand Buddhas' and was made by John Bush. It is a filmic record of river journeys through Laos, Burma and Thailand, visiting ancient Buddhist temples and communities along the way. It's visually stunning and brings home the tremendous beauty of Buddhist art and architecture. Some of the larger temples, over two-thousand years old, are breathtaking. I commented to Emi that, of all the religious options available to us, Buddhism, for me, remains the sanest, the clearest, the gentlest, most rational, simple, direct, humane and downright beautiful. The word 'religion' however, at least in my opinion, is a limitation and an encuberance. Buddhism's direct pointing at reality goes way beyond such limitations, right to the heart of things. But what do I know? I'm not a very good Buddhist, (as I've said before in these pages). In fact, by some people's definition of the term, I'm not really a Buddhist at all. My 'organised spiritual group' days are behind me. I prefer to walk my own path at my own pace, nor am I in search of a guru or an avatar. Perhaps I'm just trying to enjoy each moment without hurting anyone, and offering my art as thanks for that. Insight and inspiration are all around us, always. This too , is Buddha nature. There's a key here that, once grasped and turned, opens a door onto infinite possibilities. It's so impossibly direct and simple that it is usually overlooked, misunderstood or considered invisible. That it can't be communicated by words does not neccesarily make it an impenetrable secret. Letting go, is part of the process of discovering this marvellous and subtle thing. It's a jewel beyond price. And now I'm tired again and my shoulders ache from sitting in front of my Mac. My computer screen's background image, for those who may be interested, is a lovely, vibrantly coloured painting of the Tibetan White Tara Buddha. Sometimes, I exchange her for an image of a vintage green and cream Blackpool tram. The two things, ultimately, are the same. Theories as to why this should be are welcome down at 'The Dreamsville Arms' which can be found in 'The Pleasure Park.' More communications from Harold. Good words from him about Rosewood. He says:- 'That's the album you've always wanted to make...' He also has two titles/pieces settled for us to work on for his concert at Brighton next month. Nearer and nearer now. As soon as my health returns, I need to prepare a couple of guitars or more in readiness. Some set-up work needed with intonation and action. I'm planning to take several variations of equipment so as to be prepared for whatever the music demands. I have no idea, at this stage, how it will turn out, or what the music will be. I'm sure it will be fine in the end, despite my trepidation. All for today... I need to take a break. Top of page William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) April 2005 Feb Dec Mar May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013

Getting The Holy Ghost Across album - 25 April 1986 Bill Nelson Albums Menu Future Past Currently unavailable 2013 DISC 1: 01) Suvasini 02) Contemplation 03) Theology 04) Wildest Dreams 05) Lost In Your Mystery 06) Rise Like A Fountain 07) Age Of Reason 08) The Hidden Flame 09) Because Of You 10) Pansophia 2013 DISC 2: 01) Wildest Dreams (Wild Mix) from the Wildest Dreams 12" single 02) Heart And Soul 03) Living For The Spangled Moment 04) Feast Of Lanterns 05) Illusions Of You 06) Word For Word 07) Finks And Stooges Of The Spirit 08) Nightbirds from the Living for the Spangled Moment EP 09) Self Impersonisation (7" and 12" b-side) 10) Wildest Dreams (7" a-side) 11) The Yo-Yo Dyne (12" b-side) from the Wildest Dreams singles ALBUM NOTES: Getting the Holy Ghost Across is a vocal album issued by Portrait Records, a CBS subsidiary. It would turn out to be Nelson's final album for a major label for over 6 years. In the UK the album was issued on LP and cassette, with the latter containing five extra tracks and an exclusive extended version of "Because of You". These five bonus tracks would form the bulk of the Living For the Spangled Moment mini-album issued later that year (see separate entry). Allegedly the album was due to be issued on CD, but CBS cancelled the release before copies hit the shops, and it would take 20 years before it officially appeared in that format. Getting the Holy Ghost Across was the subject of some controversy in the US, mainly due to Nelson's use of The Annunciation with St. Emidius (1486, by Carlo Crivelli) alongside occult script and symbolism on the album artwork. Therefore, for the North American release it was released with an alternative title (On a Blue Wing ) in re-designed artwork. If that wasn't confusing enough, the US album featured an alternative track listing, losing songs A3 and B2, but gaining 2 of the bonus tracks added to the UK tape ("Heart and Soul" and "Living for the Spangled Moment"). PAST RELEASES: Such was the interest in a reissue of Getting the Holy Ghost Across that Nelson licensed the master tapes from Sony (who bought CBS in the 1990s) for a limited edition release on his own Sonoluxe imprint (2006). For this release Nelson added all seven tracks from the Living for the Spangled Moment mini-album, and "Yo-Yo Dyne" from the Wildest Dreams 12" single. Although not part of the 22 album reissue programme licensed to Cherry Red in 2011, it was a pleasant surprise when Cherry Red announced the release of a 2CD edition of Getting the Holy Ghost Across in 2013. The remastered set improved on the Sonoluxe edition by restoring the original UK artwork, and included all 11 tracks issued across the Wildest Dreams 12" single and the Living for the Spangled Moment mini-album. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: This CD is currently unavailable with no know plans for a re-release. BILL'S THOUGHTS: The album's title Getting The Holy Ghost Across and its occult/esoteric symbolism caused a problem with regard to getting the album stocked by a certain chain of record stores across the States. This chain was owned by a fundamentalist Christian family whose beliefs forbade them from stocking any album that might promote occult or esoteric philosophies. The usual, ill-informed paranoia of the born-agains, I suppose. Anyway, because this particular chain of record stores represented an important source of sales it was decided to change the album title to On A Blue Wing and to redesign the cover art, removing any trace of magical, alchemical or occult symbolism. This was just for the American market of course, in the UK the album retained its original title and packaging." _____ "I haven't actually played the album for ages...but I do recall that much of the album was about my first falling in love with Emiko whilst I was still married to someone else." _____ From Acquitted by Mirrors 13: "The script on the right is called Malachim. It is a coded alphabet that was used in Grimoires and it goes back to the Middle Ages. On the left is Enochian, also a magical language. This one was developed by a Dr John Dee who was the Court Astrologer to Queen Elizabeth the First. He was one of the most learned men in Europe at that time and had his own huge private library down in Mortlake out to the west side of London. The house is sadly long since knocked down but the site is still there. Dee worked with a man called Edward Kelly who was a kind of medium; it is said the two of them were given this alphabet through the means of a crystal ball. It is an entire language - very complex - in fact it has been checked out by modern-day language experts and it has all the attributes, it has grammar, syntax and so on. It is used again in a kind of angelic magic; but on the sleeve what they both say is 'Getting The Holy Ghost Across'. "The script on the back is Hebrew and that of course says the same thing. The reason I used these is because they are all part of the things I have been studying. The Enochian system is used by a magical order that in fact still exists today under the surface. It is called 'The Order of the Golden Dawn' to which the infamous Aleister Crowley once belonged. Well a big chunk of their teachings are hinged around the Enochian Theory, so it is obviously something I am quite aware of." ALBUM REVIEWS: Review on Goldmine Magazine FAN THOUGHTS: Jon Wallinger: "Getting the Holy Ghost Across is probably the album that means the most to me in terms of my Bill Nelson "timeline". I had always been aware of Bill Nelson/Be Bop Deluxe from being a wee nipper and watching the rehearsals in the local village hall, but I never got into the music until the mid 80's and this album was the first that I had to wait for the release, I'd read some tantalising snippets of lyrics and info from the fan club magazines, the buzz of anticipation was unforgettable, bought the LP and Cassette version upon release and have loved it ever since." Parsongs: "Getting the Holy Ghost Across is one of my favorites from Bill Nelson. An album that can be spiritual or iconoclastic depending on the perspective of the listener. "To me it is a collection of songs about a man questioning everything: his world, his religion, his relationships. It has a certain intensity to it (in words & music) that I just love." james warner: "The themes of spirituality and religion dominate, however, it is not a sermon, but a celebration. An uplifting experience even for non-believers such as myself. This being an 80s release, there is a strong keyboard content in the music, but the guitar has all the more impact when it is used, particularly in 'The Hidden Flame' and 'Because of You'." Phil: "Contemplation": "is probably my all time favourite Bill Nelson track, and that includes all the BBD stuff. I just love the prelude that "Suvasini" provides for the track and adore all the swirling eastern influences that pervade the song. Couple these with the funky, bass driven emphasis (not unusual in the mid 80's) and the legacy of lyricism and tuneship that we had from the BBD and QD days, then you have the perfect track." Mr. Mercury: "The GTHGA version [of "Contemplation"] remains one of the most gorgeous songs written in the latter part of the 20th Century, and my favourite version..." Peter: "The album came out during a particularly rough romantic period in my life, and a couple of the songs really spoke to me. When I heard 'Because of You', for example, for the first time, I teared up...it just reached in and found an emotional chord in me and strummed it! The guitar in that song has such feeling..." aquiresville: "Absolutely played the Heck out of this vinyl, when it was originally released (along with the Living For The Spangled Moment EP). 'Wildest Dreams' was an incredible slice of heaven." MondoJohnny: "Some half mad whino shoved a copy of Getting the Holy Ghost Across into my hands and told me my life would never be the same. He was right! "I've never heard anything like it before or since. "One of my favorite albums of all time I think." alec: "I remember my parents assuming that Getting the Holy Ghost Across was a Classical LP. "Regarding the Hebrew: In the late '80s, a girl I used to know who is from Israel I remember kept looking at that record cover and so I finally handed it to her. She explained to me that the Hebrew on the cover is actually "Getting The Holy Ghost Across" in English, written phonetically (in Hebrew characters). She spoke it as she read it and I remember her giggling as she read the word "across" as something like "eh-kro-ez," or similar. "That's very clever!" she laughed." BlissIsFree: "It's the 2013 edition of Getting the Holy Ghost Across I just got my hands on. I must say, I have waited decades for this! Listening to it, especially the remastering is like reacquainting with a dear old friend. Not only is this one of my favourite albums of Bill's but favourite period. "I want to thank Bill for seeing fit to have this version released, because of the track programming, liner notes, and Bill's notes and reflections on this album. I am so grateful to have this. Definitely an aural treat." MG: "In the context of back in the day I always liked the material. With the expanded release and liner notes I would recommend this to anyone wanting to take a step back in time with regard to BN's body of work. Call me nostalgic...the liner notes alone are worth the price of admission." Quinault: "Best album of the era. Hands down! Even more tracks than Bill's Sonoluxe release. Buy it now." Albums Menu Future Past

Bill Nelson - photography and diary archive. The Dreamsville Archive Diary Of A Hyperdreamer Dreamsville Rocket Magazines & Interviews Radio Interviews Museum Of Memory Live Show Archive Album Listening Notes Guitar TAB

Northern Dream Bill Nelson album - 1971 Albums Menu Future Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Photograph (A Beginning) 02) Everyone's Hero 03) House Of Sand 04) End Of The Seasons 05) Rejoice 06) Love's A Way 07) Northern Dreamer (1957) 08) Bloo Blooz 09) Sad Feelings 10) See It Through 11) Smiles 12) Chymepeace (An Ending) ALBUM NOTES: Northern Dream is the debut album from Bill Nelson, recorded at Holyground Studios in Wakefield, and released independently on Smile Records. Holyground was an independent studio run by local music enthusiast Mike Levon. Nelson had a two year association with Holyground by the time he came to make Northern Dream in 1970, having made his recording debut on two Holyground releases, A to Austr (1969) and Astral Navigations (1970). The Northern Dream album was financed by a couple of Nelson's friends (Ken and Betty Bromby), who owned and ran a small record shop, The Record Bar, in Wakefield. The intention was to press just 250 copies. The initial run was individually numbered, and came with a set of typed lyrics and a booklet. Its release date appears never to have been documented with any accuracy, and with it being an independent release, music papers and record company archives are of no help. The search for clues goes on. PAST RELEASES: Over the course of Nelson's career the album would be reissued several times on vinyl and ultimately CD, with perhaps the authoritative version being the 2011 reissue by Cherry Red/Esoteric on the newly created Cocteau Discs imprint. The 2011 reissue was also issued on vinyl in a limited run of just 250 copies. The earliest reissue of Northern Dream is believed to have appeared in 1977 (unnumbered and minus the booklet/lyrics), but without the consent or knowledge of Levon and Nelson. A more visible reissue appeared in 1980 on Butt Records (in a sleeve featuring a reduced version of the original album cover on front and back), but didn't include the album's final track, "Chyme Peace". In the mid-80s, a fourth distinct pressing appeared (also on Butt Records) that curiously carries a production date of 1979 on the label. This issue has the picture of the bearded singer on the rear of the sleeve that had originally appeared on the inside of the original 1971 (& 1977) release. "Chyme Peace" is listed, but presumably isn't included (as per the third edition). The album first appeared on CD in 1996 while Nelson was contractually being handled by Voiceprint. The record label created for this release was Smiled, which was not a typo, but a deliberate act as a nodding glance towards the original release and it also marked the start of Nelson actually receiving royalties for the album. The digital transfer was created using Nelson's personal copy of the original vinyl edition. Esoteric/Cocteau Discs released this album in 2011 as part of their re-issue program. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "The album cost very little to record and manufacture. There were initially only 250 copies made. Its costs, including printing, (the printing was done by the local Wakefield Express newspaper), were around £300. The money to manufacture it came from a local record shop that I used to be a regular customer of. I'd talked about wanting to record my songs and they offered to put up the money to do so. "The cover drawing was created in the sitting room of 27, Anderson St, Westgate End, Wakefield...my home at that time. I can remember kneeling on the floor, drawing it on a piece of white card or cartridge paper. Seems like only yesterday. The drawing was meant to be an almost Disneyesque or '50's style children's illustration of my boyhood bedroom. The view outside the window is supposed to be Wakefield itself. If you look closely, the books on the shelf reveal some of my interests as the 1960's rolled over into the 1970's. "The photo's were taken in Clarence Park in Wakefield, which had been one of my favourite places since infancy. The rear cover shot is of me sitting on the park's 'Arena' steps. They are on the edge of an open grassy space that once was used by my school for sports events. It had also, during my early boyhood, been the site of an annual fair and model aircraft displays, both of which I'd attended with my mum and dad. "I also organised Wakefield's first ever free open-air 'hippy' concert in that same park, on the old bandstand. It was quite an unusual thing for Wakefield at that time and made the local papers. I organised it from my desk at the West Riding County Supplies Department where I worked before becoming a professional musician. "Northern Dream also made the Wakefield Express's columns. There was a feature in the paper about it, with a photo of me under the headline: "Local Government Officer Makes L.P.". Of course, John Peel eventually played the album on his radio show and raved about it. The first time he played it, he played every track in sequence, with just a break to turn the disc over. It was an amazing thing for me...I'd listened to John's programmes for a long time and loved the sort of things he played. To have my entire first, 'home made' album played from start to finish by him was a tremendously exciting honour." _____ "I owe my career, such as it is, to John Peel. He was so important in bringing Northern Dream to a radio audience and ultimately the attention of EMI Records who, after some deliberation, agreed to sign my band Be Bop Deluxe to the Harvest Label, (though they were initially only wanting to sign myself as a solo artist)." _____ 'Smile Records' was simply a name I dreamed up. I drew the record label design myself. There was no 'Smile Records' company as such. That was just an illusion. It was a completely independent release." ALBUM REVIEWS: Review on It's Psychedelic Baby FAN THOUGHTS: Shirley Levon: "I am the widow of Mike Levon of Holyground Records and it is good to see the recognition of Holyground for Northern Dream and Electrotype , thank you. With regard to Northern Dream , Bill was a good friend, and Mike always recognised his genius, for that reason there was no charge for Mike recording Bill, only the £15 which was the cost of the actual tape. Mike never had a copy of the original recording which went to Bill's friends at the Record Bar, who would not allow Mike to make a copy for himself." Albums Menu Future

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) July 2009 Jan Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Tuesday 21st July 2009 -- 8:20 pm Just checked my website to remind myself when my last diary entry was posted. Could it really be so long ago? As long ago as January? Apparently that's exactly when it was. Somehow I'd imagined that there had been at least one further entry since then, but evidently not. Perhaps I was merely thinking about it. A conceptual diary, words written in smoke on thin air, ghosts of good intentions. So why the biggest gap yet in this ongoing literary ramble? Well, it's the result of one damned thing after another and very little of it worthy of mention here beyond what readers of this diary may have already surmised. My main (and daily), concern has been for my mother and the unfortunate circumstances she found herself in after the death of her husband, (to whom she had served as a dutiful wife for 28 years). The last 14 months or more have been an unwelcome ordeal for her, not just because of the bereavement she has suffered, but also as a direct result of the litigation she was forced to undertake and the emotional toll it subsequently imposed. Her legal struggle has only recently come to some sort of modest resolve but, although two months have already passed since she accepted the offer which was finally made to her, she has yet to see the practical results. Now, it seems, there are further legal fine-tunings to be dealt with before she can, hopefully, put this regretful and miserable business behind her and get on with her life. Naturally, it has been an extremely stressful and unpleasant time for her and a worry for friends, neighbours and family who have expressed their concern about her situation and well-being...and, although I'm trying not to make too much of it, it's proved a depressing and demanding experience for me too. Sadly, as is so often the case with inheritance disputes, much grief and a great deal of expense could have been avoided had some sort of fairness prevailed at the start. But, human nature being what it is, especially where money is concerned, fairness was always going to be too much to hope for. Damning as that conclusion is, it's hardly more than what was expected. If nothing else, the experience has been revealing. However, the subject is unworthy of further attention so I'll not offer any further comment but simply move on and away from it. Despite the many months of dealing with the above situation, I've continued to work extremely hard to maintain some sort of creative flow. It's been far from easy under the circumstances but, by putting in even longer hours than usual, I now have FIVE new albums awaiting release and a SIXTH album almost complete. (Plus, I should add, a seventh album, which is a collaborative project, finally coming to fruition.) Could it be that I've sought some sort of internal release from various external problems and pressures by allowing myself to become lost in music? Well, if so, it certainly wouldn't be for the first time. In any case, I've become a little bored with the notion than albums should always be 'major statements,' torn from the very core of one's being, precious highly polished jewels to be dispensed to the masses as if they were pearls beyond price. Or, as Todd Rundgren once expressed it, products of 'The ever popular tortured artist effect.' My own albums are like personal letters, monthly magazines, glimpses into private sketchbooks, whispers in a lover's ear, keys to secret wardrobes filled with fetish clothing that only priveleged and trusted friends are allowed to see. (Strange how often eroticism creeps into these metaphors!) But, even so, the music still emerges, unavoidably, unbidden, from somewhere deep inside, the complex result of endless little struggles with myself. It's just that I try not to make too much of a fuss about it. (So many artists' declarations of creative 'angst' ultimately turn out to be little more than romantic self-promotion, or cunningly contrived marketing ploys.) So, here's a summary of work accomplished in my home studio this year: ALBUM 1: A vocal based album titled 'FANCY PLANETS.' This is something of a departure from the work of recent years in that it attempts to reconcile my '70's era style with my more contemporary output. The balance seems to be tipped slightly in favour of the past though...which for me, as someone whose natural inclination is to never return to fields long ago harvested and left barren, amounts to a kind of heresy. Maybe there's an element of nostalgia involved too, albeit tinted with post-modernist irony. I suppose I'm not entirely convinced that this is a credible or dignified album for a sixty year old man to have recorded, though I'm probably far too close to it to tell. However, I do expect that it will be warmly embraced by a certain percentage of my audience, despite any apparent trepidation or nervousness on my part. There are, of course, a few stray tracks that reach beyond the album's central concept, (or maybe they're just attempting to escape it). Perhaps it is these tracks that will provide me with the most creative satisfaction. But, who knows? I have no clear idea what people want from my music any more. Maybe that's always been the case. The truth is, I make music simply because I derive great pleasure and a certain degree of personal insight from doing so. For all my clouds of unknowing, this album could be as bright as a full moon sky filled with shining stars. Anyway, the track list for 'FANCY PLANETS' runs as follows:- 1: 'Fancy Planets.' 2: 'The Golden Days Of Radio.' Compact mix. 3: 'Kiss Me Goodnight, Captain Marvel.' 4: 'The Land Of Dreams Is Closed.' 5: 'This Leads To That Leads To This.' 6: 'Where Are We Now.' 7: 'Twice In A Blue Moon.' 8: 'Everyday Now Is Forever Again.' 9: 'She Dreams Of Fires.' 10: 'I Hear Electricity.' 11: 'Mysterious Object Overhead.' 12: 'Dream Cities Of The Heart.' 13: 'Mystery Engine.' 14: 'The Golden Days Of Radio.' Hypermix. ALBUM 2: A guitar-based instrumental album titled 'HERE COMES MR MERCURY.' This is an album of, (mainly), bluesy-jazzy tinted improvisations and tunes. All electric guitar and some groovy beats mixed with a touch of electronica and occassional weirdness. The track list is as follows:- 1: 'Never A Dull Day.' (For Les Paul.) 2: 'Coop's Place.' 3: 'Six String Skyway.' 4: 'The Standard Fireworks Stomp.' 5: 'Teatime In The Republic Of Dreams.' 6: 'Soda Fountain Swing.' 7: 'Attempt To Re-assemble My Fragmented Self.' 8: 'Autumn Noodle No1.' 9: 'A Dream For Ian.' 10: 'Mars Welcomes Careful Drivers.' 11: 'Here Comes Mr Mercury.' 12: 'Dance Of The Pagan Energy Ghosts.' 13: 'Tomorrow Today.' 14: 'Red Planet Blues. (The Ritual Transfiguration Of Spaceman Albert Fitzwilliam Digby.)' ALBUM 3: A keyboard-based instrumental album titled 'THEATRE OF FALLING LEAVES.' This album has subtle hints of guitar on two or three tracks but is predominantly a keyboard-oriented project. There are deliberate, somewhat ironic '80's touches where mono-synth sounds are merged with more contemporary tones. The album is a surreal mixture of melancholy and mirth. My personal favourite track is 'SuperSerene,' an 'outsider' track in that it bears little resemblance to any of the other pieces on the album. This particluar track is another component in an ongoing series of orchestral compositions and, if I may presume to plead, achingly beautiful. The full track list is as follows:- 1: 'Thoughts Travel. (For Miles.)' 2: 'You Here Now In William's World.' 3: 'The Darcey Bussell Rubberwear Fantasia.' 4: 'Tiny Mice Are Dancing In The Cottage Of Her Dreams.' 5: 'Planet Of Sleeping Buddhas.' 6: 'Pagoda Dreamhouse.' 7: 'Tumbletown.' 8: 'Dance, Mighty Robot, Dance!' 9: 'SuperSerene.' 10: 'Theatre Of Falling Leaves.' 11: 'Sparkle And Spin.' 12: 'Space Ace Gets His Girl.' 13: 'Django Dreams Of Twinkleland.' 14: 'From Here To Far Orion.' ALBUM 4: This year's 'Nelsonica' fan convention album titled 'THE DREAM TRANSMISSION PAVILION.' This, as is usual with the Nelsonica convention albums, contains an eclectic mix of music featuring both vocal and instrumental tracks, ('though mainly vocal). I often think of the Nelsonica albums as being made up of 'left-overs' or 'B-list' material but this year's album could quite easily qualify as a full-blown 'A-list' release. It has some very interesting material on it. The track listing is as follows:- 1: 'Billy And The High Blue Horizon.' 2: 'Beauty Lifts Her Skirts.' 3: 'The Sound From This Recording Travels To The Stars.' 4: 'Once More Around The Moon.' 5: 'Prarie Hula.' 6: 'Kiss You Slow.' 7: 'The Boy Who Knew The Names Of Trains.' 8: 'Picture In A Frame.' 9: 'Sway And Swoon.' 10: 'A Thought For You.' 11:'Where Does It Come From, Where Does It Go?' 12: 'Trancendental Radios.' 13: 'The Walls Of Which Are Made Of Clouds.' 14: 'I Am The Captain.' 15: 'Here I Am For You.' 16: 'Once More Around The Moon.' (Monitor Mix.) ALBUM 5: An instrumental album titled 'PICTURE POST.' This album contains music I created for the American television documentary film, 'American Stamps.' It's an eclectic collection of styles but hangs together very well and manages to work interestingly outside of the film's immediate visual content. I have given the pieces titles, although they don't neccesarily connect directly with their usage in the film. (The tracks originally had no titles, only cue numbers.) The 'Picture Post' album has yet to be mastered at Fairview studios but the track list will be as follows:- 1: 'Sunny Day For A Happy Postman.' 2: 'Postcard To A Penfriend.' 3: 'Music Spins My Globe.' 4: 'I Send My Dreams To You.' 5: 'A Christmas Cowboy Outfit.' 6: 'Skimming Stones.' 7: 'In Anticipation.' 8: 'Shibuya Screen.' 9: 'September Promenade.' 10: 'Airmail Guitar.' 11: 'A Day At West Acre.' 12: 'Greetings From Surf Guitar Island.' 13: 'Beach Hut Beauties.' 14: 'Dream Of An American Streetcar.' 15: 'Mobile Homes On The Range.' 16: 'Surf King Sails In.' 17: 'Big Ship.' 18: 'Filigree Balcony.' 19: 'Clouds Drift North.' 20: 'The Toy Trumpet.' 21: 'Pagent.' 22: 'Emphatically Yours.' ALBUM 6: An instrumental/spoken word album titled 'NON-STOP MYSTERY ACTION!' This album contains 'long-form' instrumental pieces that feature voice samples/cut-ups and, on one piece, my own spoken prose-poetry. The concept is built around two 15 minute-plus pieces created as soundtracks for last year's and this year's Nelsonica convention opening videos. I'm in the process of recording more tracks to complete this album but it's almost there. No final running order decided as yet but the album will probably include the following titles:- 1: 'The Departure Of The 20th Century In A Hail Of Memory.' 2: 'Yes And No.' 4: 'Like A Woman Levitating.' 5: 'Machines Of Loving Grace.' 6: 'This Is Like A Galaxy.' 7: 'Welcome To The Dream Transmision Pavilion.' 8: 'Stranger Flowers Now Than Ever.' There will also be a 7th album. This will be the long anticipated collaboration between myself and renowned American comic book artist Matt Howarth. It's a kind of graphic art 'space opera' with music. Titled 'THE LAST OF THE NEON CYNICS,' this album will carry a pdf file of Matt's comic book illustration of the story, along with the special music I created as its soundtrack. The album will contain 9 lengthy compositions, all of which relate to episodes and characters within the story. (More about the track list in a future diary entry.) It's the tale of a space cowboy who travels through galactic worm-holes in a 'intergalactic-tram,' accompanied by his guitar. (A guitar that can actually talk and features as one of the central characters in the story.) A whimsical and wonderfully surreal slice of sci-fi. Matt and I began working on this collaboration some years ago, (maybe 2003?) but, due to my busy work-load and several distracting issues outside of my creative life, it has taken me far longer to deliver the finished music than would normally be the case. Even now though, with several other albums finished and already lined up for release, it will have to await its turn at the end of this year, before it can be manufactured and made available. But it is something extra, (and rather unusual), for fans to look forward to. One relatively new aspect of my home studio involves Django, (the cat), who seems to have developed the habit of curling up next to me on one of my studio chairs (the one with the kitsch 'Elvis in the army' cushion), whenever I'm recording. In fact, he's close here beside me now, as I type these words, black, sleek and handsome. He's an intelligent and affectionate creature and we've become great pals. The volume of the studio monitors doesn't seem to bother him at all and he will happily spend a fair proportion of his day dreaming along to the music whilst sleeping on Elvis's face. It is this pleasant development that gave me the title 'Django Dreams Of Twinkleland' for the 'Theatre Of Falling Leaves' album. A thought: Maybe I should compose another piece with the title ' The King And The Cat.' Well, yes...I think I will. A major pre-occupation for me at the moment is to make sure that everything is ready for this year's Nelsonica fan convention. Lots to do, as always. It seems to have come around even quicker this year, but maybe that's because we had a late start to the planning process and have an earlier convention date than usual. (Last year's Nelsonica was held in November but this years will be on the 19th of September.) Consequently, I'm under some pressure to keep everything on schedule. This year, Nelsonica will be held at a new venue, the rather elegant 'Crown Hotel' in Harrogate, once the haunt of Sir Edward Elgar. We've secured a very nice room, complete with a modest built-in stage, which should suit the style of Nelsonica 09's live performances perfectly. The loyal Nelsonica team are adding their special talents to the mix too, (as always), and it promises to be a unique and memorable day for fans who are able to attend. I've just completed this year's opening video for the event, after one month's constant work on it. It lasts over 15 minutes and is titled ' Welcome To The Dream Transmission Pavilion.' It functions as a companion piece to last year's epic ' The Departure Of The 20th Century In A Hail Of Memory ' video. Whilst that piece dealt with the passing of time and the nature of memory, this year's video is loosely themed around the way that memories and dreams sometimes become entagled as the mind gives way to the gentle erosion of the passing years. I think it's about how the real becomes unreal and vice-versa. Or something like that. These things are often arrived at by intuition. It can be somewhat like dowsing or like feeling one's way through a 1950's British fog. There's a vague sensation of where I'm going but it is often only afterwards that I fully grasp where I've been and what it means. Guided by invisible forces, unconscious impulses, strange currents, dim lamps. Beautiful, and all the more so for the uncertainty. Sections of the video are a 're-mix' of familiar themes from some of my previous visual work but there are several sections that use previously unseen footage from old home 8-mm cine film. Amongst this archive material are glimpses of Be Bop Deluxe in America, not on stage but in casual, 'off-duty' situations at gas stations, in a dressing room, or outside a rehearsal studio in Los Angeles. These are fleeting, tantalising glimpses, filmed by myself in casual moments, but made even more poignant by their brevity. No digital camcorders back then so it was shot on short reels of super-8 film, film that only ran for three minutes before a new reel had to be fitted.This involved finding a room or cupboard where all light could be exluded from the camera so that the film would not be exposed whilst changing reels. Because of this restriction, I tended to take very quick shots, lasting only a few seconds, so as to make as much use of a single reel of film as possible before having the hassle of loading up another reel. Now, of course, the digital camcorder offers much longer shooting times. Even so, with hindsight, I wish I'd have captured much more of the band and far less of American barns and trucks rolling past car windows. What little footage there is of Charlie, Simon and Andy is precious, so I've trimmed away all the above mentioned passing landscape and tried to focus on the band members. I only seem to feature as a camera-toting reflection in dressing room mirrors, and even then for only fractions of seconds. I'm always there but virtually invisible, a facilitator. the means by which others are seen. There's something appropriately Cocteau-esque about that! One of the people glimpsed in the footage is Jeremy Fabini who acted as our projectionist on the later Be Bop Deluxe tours. Jeremy carried his own home-cine camera and filmed lots of the band's adventures on the road...also at our Juan-Les-Pins recording session in the South Of France. Jeremy used to live, (I think), in Italy, maybe Milan. I wonder where he is now and if he still has the extensive film footage he shot? There would be lots of it and I would probably feature quite a bit in it too, (in contrast to my own cine footage where I'm behind the camera). I'd love to get it all digitised and transferred to my computer so that I could combine it with my own shots and make some sort of personal documentary about those long-lost times. Other archive 8-mm cine footage I've incorporated into 'WELCOME TO THE DREAM TRANSMISSION PAVILION' video shows the exterior and gardens of my old home, 'Haddlesey House.' It also gives a glimpse of the Rolls Royce and Panther Lima cars I drove at that time. Looking at this footage now feels very strange. It's as if I'm observing someone else's life, as though in a dream, and yet, at the same time, it's extremely familiar, as if it happened only yesterday. But, of course, it was more than thirty years ago... The music soundtrack I've created for the video is slightly unusual in that it features a spoken prose-poem, (with myself as narrator), recorded specifically for the piece. This voice-over runs through much of the video. Hopefully, it will set the scene for the convention attendees in an interesting and curious fashion. As usual, I'll be performing live as part of the day's programming. The plan is for a solo set of instrumentals AND a separate trio set with my occasional 'Orchestra Futura' project which features my wonderfully talented friends Dave Sturt and Theo Travis. I'm hoping that we'll have six pieces of music to offer our audience. These pieces will be spontaneously improvised around loops and pre-recorded tracks and atmospheres. I'm also hoping to perform a separate improv piece as a duo with Steve Cook on keyboards. We're thinking of naming ourselves 'Bleep n' Booster' for this one! (An arch reference to a vintage British television children's cartoon series.) I'm currently working on several new pieces for my own SOLO performance at the convention and have already completed two or three of these but will decide which ones to incorporate in my set, (if any), a little nearer the time. Actually, I need to give some further thought to the set's running order and decide upon it's contents before mastering the backing track cds at Fairview. All being well, John Spence will be mixing the live performances at the convention. I also have to prepare my guitars and various other items of equipment in advance of Nelsonica. Because I give concerts so rarely these days, my somewhat complex stage rig doesn't get used very often. My studio guitar set-up is comparitively basic, due to the extremely small space I'm forced to work in here at home more than anything else. Consequently, it's essential that I re-aquaint myself with the comprehensive live effects rack and its numerous pedal boards each time Nelsonica rolls around. To this end, a day in a rehearsal studio has been booked, near the convention date, so that my full set of equipment can be properly set up and tested. Hopefully, this will allow me to familiarise myself with the technical demands of the live set, which pedals connect to which sounds and compositions, etc, etc. I find live performance more nerve-frazzling each year, not just because I'm unused to playing live, but because my creative standards and targets have evolved, often beyond the limits of my basic technical abilities. Sometimes I leave the stage feeling down and frustrated by it all. It can be demoralising and depressing for me, though not, I hope, for my audience who generally seem to enjoy themselves, regardless of my self-critical nature. But that's how it goes...the old cliche of, 'the more you know, the less you know.' The hardest thing is to trust one's instincts and intuition and just PLAY. What's the point of a daffodill agonising about whether it's yellow enough or not? But here at home, there are other, more important concerns. The most recent regarding Emi's mother, who has just been admitted to hospital in Tokyo. The intestinal cancer, for which she underwent surgery last year, has returned and also now spread to her liver. She is too frail to survive further surgery and it seems that there is little that the doctors can do for her. It is difficult to say exactly how long it will take for things to progress towards their ultimate conclusion but maybe six months at best, according to the doctor's current estimate. Of course, Emi is extremely distressed about the situation and has now made plans to fly to Japan to spend some time with her mum. I would prefer to go with her to lend whatever support I can but Nelsonica responsibilities won't allow that, The fact is, there's far too much still to prepare and if I went to Japan, it would almost certainly mean that the convention would have to be cancelled, (and tickets have already been sold, venue booked, etc, etc.) So I must stay here in Yorkshire and do my best to stay focussed on what must be done. Nevertheless, it's a very difficult and worrying time. When Emi went to visit her mother in hospital in Japan last year, readers of this diary will probably recall how much we missed each other and how pathetically useless I was at dealing with everyday domestic issues. And this time, there will be my convention preparations to deal with too. But I have no right to feel sorry for myself. Emi's situation will be far more difficult and stressful than mine...in comparison, my selfish concerns amount to nothing. And, in any case, she is hoping to return in time for Nelsonica. It's been a difficult year for Emi in so many ways. After being made redundant from the flower shop where she'd worked for for eight years, she then suffered further redundancy at her next job when the company that employed her went under due to the current economic climate. Subsequent attempts at finding employment have been fruitless. it's proving difficult for many people to find work at the moment, but Emi, being both sixty years old and Japanese has found it particularly hard, (especially when prejudice and ignorance have come into the equation). But being the sweet-natured lady she is, she doesn't see these things quite as cynically as I do. Still, there have been some encouraging developments. Emi's talents as a floral artist have brought some freelance commissions to her during the last few months. Without any proper advertising or self-promotion, she's picked up several orders for floral arrangements, mostly for personal gifts, mother's day bouquets, birthdays and funerals, but also for some weddings. Last week she was busy creating beautiful flower arrangements for the third wedding in two months and has a fourth wedding booked for mid August. In fact, it is the wedding work that has prohibited her from travelling to Japan earlier. (Her flight to Tokyo is booked for just after her next wedding commision.) Emi has also been giving private flower arranging lessons to several ladies, some English, some Japanese. These have become pleasant social occassions for her as well as floral art classes and she has been able to convey something of the refinement and beauty of Japanese culture to her students, sometimes preparing traditional Japanese food as part of the lessons. That this attention has come her way purely by recommendation is heartening. People seem to appreciate her talents and the personal, one-to-one service she provides.They've spread the word amongst their friends and families without any immediate need for advertising. That said, I'm planning a glossy printed brochure for her and hope to complete the design of it, (with the essential and valuable help of my good friend David Graham), once my Nelsonica duities are fulfilled. Whilst ALL business are struggling to one degree or another at the moment, I'm trusting that there is still a market for something a little more special than the standard florist approach. It seems to me, as (I admit), an outsider, that commercial floristry is as depressingly predictable and uniform as the popular music scene. But hopefully, there are people who will appreciate something more sophisticated, something with a touch more depth, just as there will always be music consumers who require something other than the manipulative fluff they're sold by the mainstream music industry. In any sort of creative work, music or otherwise, I hold on to the (perhaps naive), belief that it's important to provide people with unique alternatives...alternatives that aren't neccesarily defined by commercial taste...Timeless, thoughtful alternatives too. But then, who knows? Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned idealist. (And some other old-fashioned idealists might say that the meek have no chance of inheriting the earth because the mediocre but bold already own the lease.) ;-) Well, sod that for a proverbial game of tennis. Back to my own work: One of the consequences of spending so much time in my studio is the negative effect it has on my health, mentally and physically. I have to admit I haven't felt great of late and the studio lifestyle definitely does nothing for my middle-aged waistline. Which brings a thought: Am I still allowed, at SIXTY, for Christ's sake, to refer to myself as middle-aged? Wouldn't it be far more appropriate to refer to myself as 'old' or maybe as a senior citizen' instead?' Whichever way I look at it, I can't quite grasp the concept of actually BEING sixty, other than via the daily physical aches and pains, creaks, groans and depressions that have become impossible to ignore. And the infamous, capitulating, milestone, millstone, Bus Pass, (which I've steadfastly refused to claim). But as far as creating music goes, I feel just as motivated as before. And I suppose, for what it's worth, seven albums lined up for release in one year is something of an achievement ...for anyone, let alone a depressed sixty year old. It gets a little scary at times though...I mean, why do I feel such a compulsion to make music...and where are all these different ideas coming from? Each of the seven albums listed above has its own identity, its own tale to tell whilst still, I imagine, sounding exactly like me. But, every album I make, in some strange way, feels like it's my first, even though I've filled a small universe with albums over the years. I've contemplated these things before...they're part of an ongoing mystery that I'm reluctant to delve too deeply into for fear of short-circuiting whatever magic might be at work. Maybe if I drew back the curtain, instead of a wizard, all I'd see is an obsessive, driven, fearful, socially-inept personality suffering from low self-esteem, (hiding a desparate need to feel loved and approved). Hmmm...better not go there. I once vowed that I wouldn't allow myself to fall into these self-analytical musings in my diary entries any more but the temptation, it seems, still remains. And what was it I was saying earlier about artists flagging up their angst like a banner advertising a supermarket sale? I'll move on. My reading, over these last few busy months, has been confined to bedtime, as per usual. Books read (or still being read), are:- 'LAFF' by John Boyle. 'WHY MRS BLAKE CRIED: (William Blake and the Sexual Basis of Spiritual Vision.)' by Marsha Keith Schuchard. 'THE PALACE OF STRANGE GIRLS.' by Sallie Day. 'THE BOYS BOOK OF AIRFIX.' by Arthur Ward. 'CARTOONS AND CORONETS. (The Genius Of Osbert Lancaster.') by James Knox. 'PHILOSOPHY. The great thinkers.' by Philip Stokes. 'IN THE COUNTRY OF COUNTRY.' by Nicholas Dawidoff. 'THE ILLUSTRATORS. The Art Of British Illustration 1800-2007.' 'THE MAKING OF WAKEFIELD. 1801-1900.' by Kate Taylor. 'THE GOLDEN BUILDERS.' by Tobias Churton. 'THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.' by Peter Marshall. As far as listening to music goes, (as opposed to making it), my pleasure tends to be restricted to the car, whilst driving. Albums recently played are: 'TOGETHER THROUGH LIFE.' by Bob Dylan. 'LAST NIGHT THE MOON CAME DROPPING ITS CLOTHES IN THE STREET.' by Jon Hassell. 'HALLMARKS.' by Jim Hall. ''I, FLATHEAD.' by Ry Cooder. 'HISTORY, MYSTERY' and also 'FOLKSONGS.' by Bill Frisell. ' WRITTEN IN CHALK.' by Buddy and Julie Miller. 'FINGERPICKING GUITAR DELIGHTS.' by various artists. 'HANK WILLIAMS-The Absolutely Essential Collection.' by Hank Williams. 'SO MUCH GUITAR!' by Wes Montgomery. 'GREEN STREET.' by Grant Green. 'ELLA FITZGERALD SINGS COLE PORTER.' by Ella Fitzgerald. 'EAST!' by Pat Martino. 'GIL EVANS.' by Gil Evans. 'SWING IS THE THING.' by The Mills Brothers. 'THE BEST OF GEORGE FORMBY.' by George Formby. 'PORGY AND BESS.' by Miles Davis. There are various other happenings, doings, commentaries, observations, trials and tribulations that I might have added to this diary entry, if only I'd found more spare time to bring the reader completely up to date...but I've already spent far too much time typing when I really should be working on Nelsonica preparations and projects. Already, despite several omissions, this long overdue entry has taken a couple of days to assemble. So, I'll close here. Hopefully, another entry before too long...or at least a little sooner than it took for THIS one to appear. I'll attempt to include a few more of the events of the last six months in it. For now though, it's back to the mixing desk and the drawing board. But back with you soon, given a little luck and a following wind. ***** Attached images are:- 1: Django in my studio. 2: Some of the guitars I use for jazz tones. 3: A self-made 'Fancy Planets' advert. 4: Another variation of same. 5: Just one of several recent wedding floral arrangements by Emiko. 6: Nelsonica 09 T-shirt design. Top of page

Believe in the Promise of Tomorrow ep - 2000 Honeytone Cody Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Producer Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

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

Gagalactyca collection - 1990 Lightyears Away/Thundermother Production/Contribution Menu Future Past BILL: Guitar on the tracks listed under "Chris Coombs & Lightyears Away" (side A). Production/Contribution Menu Future Past

Golden Melodies Of Tomorrow Bill Nelson album - 1 November 2008 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Welcome To Electric City 02) Once I Had A Time Machine 03) Summer Hums In The Bee-Loud Glade 04) Frosty Lawns (Snowballs And Oranges) 05) God Glows Green In Small Town Park 06) My Empty Bowl Is Full Of Sky 07) When Aeroplanes Were Dragonflys 08) Night Is The Engine Of My Imagination 09) The Old Nebulosity Waltz 10) Help Us Magic Robot 11) Time's Quick-Spun Globe 12) Fountains Are Singing In Cities Of Light 13) The Emperor Of The Evening 14) I Saw Galaxies 15) Until All Our Lights Combine 16) Heaven Is A Haunted Realm 17) Golden Melodies Of Tomorrow 18) Golden Coda (Farewell To Electric City) ALBUM NOTES: Golden Melodies of Tomorrow is a vocal album issued on the Sonoluxe label in a single print run of 1000 copies. Work on the album coincided with writing material for that year's Nelsonica release, Clocks and Dials , with Nelson completing 64 tracks by July 2008, at which point he began the task of selecting track listings for each album. Golden Melodies of Tomorrow was issued at Nelsonica '08 , with remaining stock then sold through SOS. The album sold out on 7 March 2018. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY: The Alchemical Adventures of Sailor Bill , Fantasmatron , Clocks & Dials , Dreamshire Chronicles , Fables and Dreamsongs , Songs of The Blossom Tree Optimists , New Northern Dream BILL'S THOUGHTS: " Golden Melodies of Tomorrow is, I think, destined to become one of my own personal favourite albums. One that defines me, here and now, in a very direct and special way. "It's an album that ignores whatever the current mainstream is pursuing. It approaches the listener from a very different musical universe. I was aiming for beauty and transcendence and quiet power too, something futuristic but also ancient, ultra-modern but timeless. "In keeping with recent themes, I think of the album as a sort of clock mechanism, a hand-made, bejeweled movement that, (hopefully), once set in motion, fascinates and intrigues the listener with its interlocking parts and shining, myriad cogs and wheels. A golden, whirring, dream factory of song." _____ "As you may know, for me, Golden Melodie s is a special moment in my ongoing musical journey. And yes, there's a weird nostalgia and a kind of melancholy sweetness in there but it's deliberately intended...It's meant to be surreal, arch, kitsch, ironic, knowing. "It IS a fantasy album, it is escapism, it does refute the realm of aggressive truck drivers, it DOES try to steer away from the 'real' world. It does avoid rock and all its macho struttings, it is paradoxical and deceptive. Evasive even. "Golden Melodies is about an interior world, it's about the psyche and the desires and imagination of a man of my own age, sensibilities and background. It could also be said to be psychedelic, in the classical sense. "Its momentum is achieved by playing off my innocent inner nature against my cynical outer nature. I'm asking questions of myself about certain romantic, poetic impulses that motivate me. I'm also indulging those impulses, giving them full rein, seeing where they lead. I'm trying to be brave, to address the things that many men suppress for fear of feminising themselves. It's a sensual album, it's as much about sex as it is about spirituality. It's deliberately 'away with the fairies' with their transparent skirts, shapely legs and come-hither smiles. As my pal Hal once put it: "Butterflies with Tits". "Think Richard Gadd dining with Gilbert and Sullivan whilst Edward Elgar tries to get to grips with a Yamaha Motif keyboard in a Busby Berkley film set in tea-room off the coast of dreams. Somewhere in there sits Johnny Smith with a big Gibson archtop, filling the air with liquid silver improvisations guided by the ghost of Charlie Christian. "I'm trying to pile image on image, beauty on beauty, relentlessly, orgasmically, to the point of overload. It's a haunting, a view of somewhere beyond this world, yet sprung from it... "Aspects of the album are pure nostalgia, turned up to number 11, pushed and pushed until it becomes something else, something almost supernatural, maybe alien. "Like Sailor Bill, it is an alchemic act of composition. "Working on the album has transformed me in ways that are invisible to the outer world." _____ "The whole album runs like an epic movie from start to finish. Widescreen, Vista-vision, etc...I think this is a special one, a high point. "If you're not staggered and amazed by this when you finally get to hear it, then there's no hope. If Sailor Bill was my 'Smile', then this is my 'Smile' plus 'Sgt. Pepper', wrapped up in one...but entirely different to either. It's post-post-modern, more fractured than a broken mirror, more delicate than a butterfly's wing, tougher and rougher than Richard Harris in 'This Sporting Life', more romantic and sexy than a kiss under a gas-lamp in a cobbled street in a rainstorm...More 'me' than ever before. An entire pocket universe of sound and lyrics...you're going to LOVE it!" _____ "Sometimes, I approached the writing and recording of the album as if it were a sharp, clearly defined painting but then took a large, soft brush and blurred the edges, placing the music in a slightly foggy, twilight world, a world formed by the flickering amber glow of gas-lamps and mysterious shadows. "Other times, (such as "Summer Hums", and "When Aeroplanes Were Dragonflys"), I threw the doors and windows wide open and let the Sun and birdsong stream in." _____ "The songs are constructed from the ground up...not just with surprise codas, but with contrasting and contradictory 'movements' that occur throughout the entire song. "I've often made the analogy of my music being like a kind of Frankenstein monster...lots of unrelated bits of lost or dead music stitched together, then thousands of crackling volts of electricity applied to them until they come to life, get up off the studio table and walk out the door to haunt the neighbours. "Maybe Golden Melodies is more of a 'Bride of Frankenstein', weirdly beautiful, shockingly sexy, a composite angel, part butterfly, part dark moth." _____ "The image of the lady on the front cover of Golden Melodies of Tomorrow is taken from the catalogue of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The designer of the dress forecast near nudity in the future and made this creation from cellophane and a synthetic opaque fabric called 'Teca'. The model's shoes are made from Dupont Lucite. The designer thought that, in the future, we'd all have better bodies and that there would be scientifically maintained temperatures, therefore clothes would be reduced to the minimum." FAN THOUGHTS: jetboy: "The first thing that strikes me with this album is that it's so 'cinematic' in approach...filled to the brim with achingly beautiful melodies that disappear as quickly as they appeared. "Imagine taking your seat in a cinema, low lit and ready for dreamland, the curtain rises, the journey begins. The music acts as a roving eye would be, swooping and flying down from the hills into "Welcome to Electric City"...angelic keys, backwards loops, fanfares, chimes and Bill Nelson's spectral orchestra works its magic... "This album is stunning. My favourite Bill Nelson vocal album to date. Give yourself some quality listening time, relax (try candlelight) and let the music work its magic. The final track, "Golden Coda (Farewell to Electric City)" is a fanfare of symphony, drum and piano rolls, guitars and trumpets, the credits are now rolling and it's back to now. Which isn't so bad, just press the play button again... "This album is...Lamplit seduction, moonlight kisses, fluted alabaster, soaring wurlitzers, bubbling static, English meadows and the girl or boy of your dreams." BobK: "At the risk of sounding a bit over the top, this is possibly the best 'vocal' album BN has made in 25 years. Not simply because the vocals are wonderful, (and a lot of care has obviously gone into them), but it is chock full of simply GORGEOUS melodies. The word that keeps coming into my head is 'beautiful'. Check out the melody that kicks in at 1.28 on "My Empty Bowl is Full of Sky". Now THAT'S a gorgeous melody, and simply one of many... "The style, for want of a better word, is a curious mixture of past albums, such as Whimsy , Sailor Bill , Jazz of Lights , but is something very different and certainly, to my ears, more immediate and less 'thematic' than those. The structure of the tracks are often strange and unpredictable and have unexpected changes in melody and unexpected instrumental sections. "Finally, there are loads of new sounds and bleeps and whirls and it 'sounds' stunning, ie. very well produced and engineered. This is a veritable corker. BUY! BUY!! BUY!!!" "Golden Melodies is possibly my fave BN album ever. Certainly in my top 3 or so. Absolutely brilliant from beginning to end." tommaso: "Well, right when I heard the opening chords of "Welcome to Electric City" I felt convinced that I was in for something very special and extraordinary, and I was right. Golden Melodies just doesn't compare to anything else in Bill's oeuvre, not even Sailor Bill . Each and every track has a complexity that I can't remember to have found in any other album by Bill (let alone other 'pop' artists). This is much more akin to classical composition than to 'pop' music, BUT it doesn't ever appear to be forced or 'experimental' for experimentalism's sake. There are indeed a lot of golden melodies here, and they are not hidden, but right on the surface to behold in all their glory. But they are graced with extremely well worked-out arrangements, and an ever-changing bustle of sound underneath, and the result is nothing short of magical. "I'm surprised how 'visual' this album is, how much it conjures up images of early Hollywood musicals - Bill himself mentioned Busby Berkeley - or fashion shows of the era (at least for me). Of course these images are triggered by the cover designs, but they can be found in the music alone I believe; those swooping string cascades in many songs, for instance. It is all about elegance and a world past, but it's not nostalgia, but definitely a sort of futuristic recreation of that world. This could very well be the soundtrack to Fred and Ginger doing The Continental in the year 2050. "There's something exceedingly warm and pleasing about this music, something very emotionally satisfying. And it is so well constructed down in its tiniest details: no 'noodling', every sound is necessary and in its proper place. Great singing and production, too. Oh, and I liked the idea of a sort of 'double coda' that is formed by the last two tracks. An extended farewell to a world that I hope Bill will very soon re-visit." Wasp In Aspic: "I must add my voice to those who feel that Golden Melodies is quite possibly Bill's best album for 25 years. This is a magical work of art which makes everything else around seem inadequate. Even the timing of the release is great, sounding as it does like the ultimate dream of a favourite Christmas time musical from the past's future. Bill - it just does not compute that someone in their sixtieth year has produced such a landmark in their career." Mozo: "Quite honestly must confess...I am simply mesmerized! Golden Melodies of Tomorrow is essentially the perfect title for this gem. The scope and majesty of this offering is simply beyond words. A masterpiece of musical landscape laid out right before your ears and mind, courtesy of the maestro of musical luster, Mr. Bill Nelson. My thanks to you are forever for this journey Bill and I just can't help but ask the million dollar question...Just how do you keep doing it??? I was wondering when you were going to top Sailor Bill . In my mind, we didn't have to wait too long!" Man in the rexine pyjamas: "Must just say that the tracks are epic. Not similar in style to Sailor Bill , but the same wide, sonic horizons. How the man has completed that many work-intense pieces is amazing." Swan: "It's lovely...it's now...it's a record of a musician at the very height of his powers...I love it." "Once I Had a Time Machine" - "How the hell was that recorded in a spare bedroom???? I'm boggled!" Nigel Wade: "Beautiful, uplifting, complex, heartfelt music. There's a yearning right there in the vocals that really cuts through to my bones." BenTucker: "I think the whole of Golden Melodies is a sort of poetic tonic, which never fails to raise my spirits. It should probably be available on the NHS." "It makes pretty much everything else out there seem inadequate by comparison. Truly a magical, moving experience submerging yourself in this music. I think I've already exhausted the superlatives a few albums back, so I'll cut my "review" short (leaves more time for listening to the music)." steve lyles: "Some of the best music Bill has ever made...the musicianship...songwriting composition and emotional brilliance of these pieces transcend time and space for me...there are not enough superlatives to describe how wonderfully grateful I am to be plugged in to Bill Nelson's musical Jukebox galaxy...Bill Nelson may you live forever. Cheers from Sycophantic Steve." Pathdude: "It is without a doubt that this is some of the best Bill Nelson music I've ever heard. I'm completely delighted with the concept of Golden Melodies . These are some of the most potent melodies, sound effects, and arrangements to be delivered to my ears." prodgers: "Just when you think BN would some day run out of Inspirational Ideas like so many other greats have, he puts out Golden Melodies of Tomorrow . All I can say is WOW! a Big WOW!! This should be called Bill's White album, as it has all the ingredients that make it his Most complete music to date." wadcorp: "I find that Bill's output of the last few years is amazing stuff. Dense & textured in ways no other artist is even attempting. And he's pulled elements from a huge array of sources, usually in small touches. One cannot absorb all of it in one go. It takes multiple listenings. You need to let it wash over you." blackdograilroad: "A Great Big Onion!...by which I mean every time I listen I hear yet another layer to it, a new melody, a new texture, a new tone. If this was a film it would be a sleeper. Not as instantly catchy as others, I needed quite a few listens to start 'getting' it but repeated spins are wonderfully rewarding, sort of a different taste with every bite...really a remarkable work. Thanks, Bill." felixt1: "Golden Melodies of Tomorrow will blow you away." "This is an absolute classic and really should be owned by everyone." "I was once again struck by the sheer quality of the songwriting and performance of these songs, which are already so familiar to me - and how well they connect with me. So thanks again, Bill, for creating such beautiful music which at times touches us so deeply." stpetelou: "Last night I put on Golden Melodies of Tomorrow and was once again reminded of what a wonderfully special one it is to me! Anyone who doesn't own it, should grab it IMMEDIATELY! "Help Us Magic Robot", "I Saw Galaxies", so many fantastic compositions and enchanting lyrics. Not to mention, the CD artwork is a thing of beauty also!" Albums Menu Future Past

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 William's Study (Diary Of A Hyperdreamer) September 2010 Jan May Jun Nov Dec Monday 20th September 2010 -- 2:00 pm Where to start? These long gaps in my online diary make catching up a laborious task. I really ought to write regular (and shorter) entries but, as usual, I'm constantly distracted by endless 'other things.' Sooner or later, the urge to communicate catches up, but then I sit in front of a blank screen dreading the task and resenting the way that it drags me away from music-making. And since my last diary entry I seem to have been making more music than ever. There are now four new albums completed, a fifth album two-thirds completed, and a sixth album half-finished. Their titles are: 'Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms;' 'Fables And Dreamsongs;' 'Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus;' 'The Last Of The Neon Cynics;' 'Model Village' and 'Lampdownlowland.' All with their own identity and all beyond logic or reason. Of course, inspiration knows no reason, nor is it a polite guest. It suddenly appears at the door, forces entry and eats everything in the house, including precious hours ticking desperately away on the dial of the clock, along with anything that might remotely resemble a normal life. Normal life? An interesting concept. I wonder what a normal life consists of...No such thing exists, I suspect. 'Normal'= a Chimera, an illusion, a wishful thought unfulfilled, a lifestyle product sold to us by our corporate masters, a concept forced upon us by our society's containment officers. In other words, another sly trick of Church, State and Industry. Best keep our wits about us and a sense of humour to hand. So, ok...here's an attempt at a brief summary of my day to day existence since last writing: Have been discussing a licensing deal with Cherry Red Records' 'Esoteric' label with regard to re-issuing more than a few of my out-of-print back catalogue albums. The plan is to first of all put together a six cd compilation set that will feature various tracks from right across my almost 40 year recording career. Then there will be a systematic re-issue programme of individual albums over a fixed period of time. Amongst these re-issues will be the 'Noise Candy' box set. The company that originally released it for me, (Lenin Imports), have never properly accounted to me for sales and copies apparently now sell on e-bay for hundreds of pounds. With that in mind, it will be good to have Noise Candy available via a proper label at a sensible price, and, hopefully, to see a little benefit for myself after all this time, especially considering the tremendous effort I put into creating the music and the packaging in the first place. Ongoing work with EMI's Be Bop Deluxe re-issue compilation too, 'though it seems that the idea of an actual 'box' is no longer in the frame. Abandoned along with my suggestion to have the individual albums packaged in card replicas of the original album's sleeves. Too expensive apparently. It now looks as if it will end up being packaged as a three or four multi-CD jewel case. I'm still hoping that the company will agree to have an extra cd dedicated to compiling rare or unreleased tracks as a bonus. I actually mixed some unreleased live tracks at Fairview studio for the project a few years back, (when Mark Powell was at the helm), but I've recently been told that EMI can't locate these mixes. I've made enquiries of John Spence and, luckily, he thinks that they're still on file in Fairview Studio's mix-computer, so I'll arrange for new masters to be created and sent to EMI, hopefully to be included as part of the set. But we'll see...space may be at a premium. Glanced back at my previous diary entry. It reads like a breathless, flushed schoolboy after attending his first rock concert. But this is how meeting Duane Eddy affected me, sent me reeling back through the years, spinning dizzy on the dial, all the way back to an eleven year old 'eureka' moment. I've since slowly returned to earth and to the present. It all felt rather unreal. If it wasn't for the photographs, I would swear I'd dreamt every moment of it. However, dreaming or not, it seems that I've been invited to attend Duane's Royal Festival Hall concert next month. I'll probably become inarticulate and schoolboy-like yet again. (And Duane is going to be playing here in York too...) I received an email from Reeves Gabrels a couple of days ago. Haven't heard from him in ages though I've often thought about him. We once discussed recording together but our individual schedules got in the way. Well, Reeves enquired if I'd still fancy it and, of course, I'd fancy it very much. In my opinion, he's one of the most inventive and intelligent rock guitarists on the planet. But what he will make of my uneducated smoke and mirrors leaps in the dark I have no idea...I just hope he's possessed of a forgiving nature. (And lots of patience.) We're thinking about getting to grips sometime in 2011. Nelsonica is rushing up at light speed and it feels as if I've been in a state of panic for months now. Not that I've got any of it under control. Still so much to prepare, particularly if I'm to have the three live performances ready in time. Have yet to decide on my choices of material, then write out lyrics and arrangements, learn the songs in basic form at home before rehearsing them with the full equipment during the week before the event. Lots of guitars to prepare too, some adjustments needed and general setups. This is very time consuming. I've decided to move my solo set to the second day of the event. It was originally supposed to be part of the first day, but three completely different sets in one evening, all of which require me to be highly active was, I think, asking rather a lot of myself, especially as I'm the sort of chap who has more or less given up on live performances altogether. Anyway, much more sensible to shunt one of the sets to day 2...and so that is what we've decided will happen. Day one will feature the Orchestra Futura trio and the 7-piece 'Gentleman Rocketeers' set. Day 2 will feature my solo set along with various other regular Nelsonica presentations. Speaking of which... Today, I completed the decoration of two Eastwood 'Breadwinner' guitars. It's taken me a while to do this but they are now finally finished. One of these guitars will go up for auction at Nelsonica. The other is for Mike Robinson, commander in chief at Eastwood Guitars. Mike has very generously donated the auction guitar to the event. He actually sent me these two 'Breadwinner' guitars a while back and asked if I'd decorate one of them for himself. Well, yes, of course! I'm going to let Mike choose which one he'd like to keep for his private collection and the other one will go into the Nelsonica auction. Having said that, Mike's choice won't be an easy one...I've decorated each guitar with the same care but themed them differently. One is titled 'The Alchemical Guitar Of Sailor Bill' and I've given it a nautical/seashore style with real seashells glued to it and a drawing of a steamship and a lighthouse. (And other details). The other guitar is titled 'Twanglomino Mysterioso-An Illuminati Guitar.' This one features an esoteric 'eye-in-a-triangle' design and Dr. John Dee's mysterious 'Monad' symbol. (He was court astrologer to Elizabeth the first and a ceremonial magical practioner.) Both guitars have artificial jewels and rhinestones glued onto them and will look rather nice hung on someone's wall. (See photographs attached to this diary entry.) Both are fragile though so will need careful handling. Still to create for Nelsonica: artwork to auction, the hand made DVDr for every attendee, the guitar exhibition and some onstage special presentations. I have managed to record a 22 minute long instrumental titled 'Past And Present And The Space Between' which will be premiered at Nelsonica as an opening piece on one of the days. No time to create a video for this, unfortunately. There's a possibility that I might not hold a Nelsonica Convention next year. I need to free up some time for future projects...the event does occupy an extraordinary amount of my attention throughout the year and tends to limit other activities. (I've even considered making number 10 the last one completely.) But, we'll see... A surprising email from 'Classic Rock' magazine asking if I'd like to review two re-issued King Crimson albums for the magazine. These albums are part of a 40th anniversary King Crimson re-release project. I accepted and have written a review of 'In The Wake Of Poseidon' and 'Islands,' albums which, despite buying 'In The Court Of The Crimson King' back in 1969, I'd not heard until now. It proved an interesting and informative experience. I've always had the utmost respect for Robert Fripp's considerable talents and, as you dear reader may already know, this very Hyperdreamer's diary owes its existence to him. (It was Robert who first suggested to me that I should write an online diary, a good few years ago now.) Reviewing those early King Crimson albums for 'Classic Rock' magazine was somewhat daunting. A lot of music to listen to, plenty to take in, and of course, a professional deadline to get my copy in to the magazine. I was asked to write approx 370 words but the finished review ended up being over 1,000, even though I did attempt to cut it down from a much higher word count. (Well, there was rather a lot to write about.) Thankfully, the magazine were very kind and didn't insist that I cut it down even more, so the full piece will appear in a future issue of the magazine. My friend Clive English surprised me a couple of weeks ago when I met him at Steve Cook's hair salon near Halifax. I was there to have Steve search my head for anything that might be worthy of submitting to his talented scissors when Clive walked through the door. Clive plays guitar and, at odd times in the past has done a bit of guitar tech work for me. He travelled with me in that capacity to Mexico City when Harold Budd and I were engaged to give a concert there, quite a few years ago now. Unfortunately, the concert was pulled due to promoter problems so we just ended up drifting around Mexico City for a week, taking in several art galleries and an occasional cantina or two. Or three. Anyway, back to Steve's salon: Clive and I got talking about guitars, as guitarists predictably do, and it turned out that Clive had bought a rather expensive digital guitar processor that had been intriguing me for some time. It's called a 'Fractal Axe-Fx.' I felt rather jealous as the device was somewhat out of my own reach, (budget-wise), but Clive very kindly offered to let me borrow it to see what I thought. At first, I wasn't entirely convinced that it was a 'must-have' item but must now admit to not really wanting to give it back to him. It's a very clever and complex device but one which, given time, I feel I could explore and use to my musical advantage. Having said that, there are several pressing problems regarding the maintainance and upkeep of our home, problems that require the application of a serious amount of money if they are not to drift beyond the point of no repair. The sensible thing would be to deal with these problems before the entire place crumbles from lack of care, rather than buy new musical equipment for my studio. (Although I suppose I could always just sit amongst the ruins of the house and play my guitar through an Axe-Fx.) Volume One of my autobiography, (titled 'Painted From Memory-Recollections Of A Radiant Childhood'), is almost ready for the printers. Cover art completed, photographs chosen, all carefully captioned and sequenced. (Over 80 of them.) A proof copy to be ordered first, then, if all's well, a proper print run will go ahead. It's taken ages to get it to this stage, mainly because I haven't found time to keep hammering away at the writing of it. Started the book several years ago, then didn't touch it for ages. When I did eventually return to it, I revised long sections of it as I'd uncovered further bits of information regarding my childhood. Volume One runs from the 1940s to the early 1960s. Volume Two, (if I ever get time to write it), will continue from there to the end of the 1970s, or maybe a little further depending upon how much I can recall...the '70s are something of a blur, I'm afraid. (Or am I just blanking them out?) A rather melancholy but meaningful special event next month. For some time now, my mother and I have wanted to commision a public bench dedicated to the memory of my brother Ian who sadly passed away four years ago in 2006. Mum and I have often discussed where such a bench might be located. One possibility was Wakefield Park, a place that holds memories for the Nelson family, memories that go way back. (I have photographs of my mother and father that were taken there before I was born.) Another possible location for the bench was the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where Ian worked for several years. He was first employed in the on-site shop but eventually found himself working in the main office and involved in the complex day-to-day affairs of the park. He became a valued member of staff and very much enjoyed his time there. I used to drive over to Wakefield and meet him for lunch. We'd often go to a nearby pub called 'The Station' and enjoy a sandwich and a pint whilst feeding the jukebox with coins. I recall him selecting 'Kid Creole' by Elvis Presley which was, I thought, an unusual choice for a younger brother as I'd presumed that the rock 'n' roll era would be more meaningful to my generation than Ian's. These lunch meetings were always warm, funny and enjoyable. We shared a brotherly camaraderie, a rapport we'd found in childhood, even though, like all brothers, we had our occasional moments of sibling rivalry. When Emi first came to England to share my life with me, I took her to meet Ian at the sculpture park. I was very proud of her and also of Ian so introducing them at the sculture park was a special moment for me. (I have a photograph somewhere of that first meeting.) Occasionally, celebrity guests or artists would visit the sculpture park. I was there with Ian when Toyah and her husband Robert Fripp visited. I also remember Ian telling me about George Melly's visit. Apparently, Ian was delegated to collect George from Wakefield railway station and drive him to the sculpture park. George Melly was, Ian told me, an extremely amusing chap. So, Mum and I decided that the sculpture park might be the best location for a bench dedicated to Ian's memory. Mum made preliminary enquiries with Ian's sister-in-law Angie who is now a curator at the sculpture park and Peter Murray, the park's director and founder, (who was also my fine art painting tutor at Wakefield Art School during the mid-'sixties), suggested that the Yorkshire Sculpture Park itself might like to collaborate with the Nelson Family to provide a memorial bench for Ian. So, that is what will happen. It will be a private, invitation only dedication for family, close friends and colleagues, but once the bench is in place, anyone visiting YSP will be able to find it. I will post details of its location after the bench has been officially dedicated so that fans who wish to will be able to sit there and perhaps spare a moment or two to remember Ian. I think this is a generous gesture from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and my mother and myself are extremely grateful to Peter and Angie for their kindness. Emiko and I attended another memorial event last week. This was in honour of the late husband of a good friend of ours. That friend is Kyoko Wainai, someone I've known since Emiko and I have been together. Kyoko is an old friend of Emi's and was married to Japanese actor Eiji Kusuhara who had appeared in films by Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Mike Leigh, amongst others. Sadly, Eiji passed away in the spring of this year after a long battle with cancer. He spent the last months of his life in Japan where he had been receiving treatment for his illness, although he and Kyoko have lived in London for many years. Kyoko spent a few days staying with us after she returned from Japan where Eiji's funeral was held. It's always painful to see friends suffer a bereavement and Kyoko was hit hard by the loss of her husband. Emiko and I did what we could to help, but, obviously, it's never enough in these sort of circumstances. Last weekend's tribute to Eiji was held at a Japanese restaurant in the Grays Inn Road in London and Emi and I travelled down by train to attend. Lots of film people there and other creative folks, both English and Japanese. Nice to meet up with fashion designer Michiko Koshino again who we hadn't seen for some years. She too is a good friend of Emiko and Kyoko. I recall a very funny and somewhat inebriated evening spent with Emiko, Michiko and Mika, (one time vocalist of 'The Sadistic Mika Band'), in a restaurant in Tokyo, when I lived in Japan briefly during the early 1990's. (Imagine one English guy speaking very little Japanese sitting around a low table with three increasingly tipsy Japanese women, all of whom were in 'good time' mode. Very enjoyable!) Eiji's tribute included a film compilation of his work, including tv, commercials, voice overs and theatre stuff. I had no idea he'd been so versatile. It was a nice afternoon with moving speeches from several people. Very emotional for everyone there. I've been in the wars a little of late. Just over a week ago, I started with what felt like the first cold of the season. Woke up with a sore throat and that shivery, burning wind-pipe sensation that often signals a virus in one's system. This developed into some sort of chest infection which lasted only three or four days but left me feeling weak and tired. Now Emiko seems to have caught it but is much worse than I was. She has developed a very nasty cough and spent all of yesterday in bed. If she hasn't improved by tomorrow, I'm taking her to the doctor. Whilst suffering with my own cold, I added to my discomfort by accidentally hitting my head on the sharp edge of a shelf in the hall. I'd bent down to unplug something from an electrical socket and when I stood up the sharp corner of the shelf cut into my scalp with a fair amount of force. There's not a lot of hair on top these days and the skin of one's scalp is quite thin.The resulting gash was rather nasty and extremely painful. I seem more prone to accidents of this type than ever. I'm convinced it's down to the onset of some sort of age-related debility. Or maybe just sheer, stupid clumsiness. But our cat Django hasn't been well either. Had him to the vet's last week. He's not been eating, seemed slow, tired and lethargic and slept most of the time. The vet gave him an anti-biotic and an anti-inflammatory injection as his throat seemed a little inflamed. He perked up a little not long after but has not maintained the improvement as much as we'd hoped. Still doesn't seem quite his usual self. I may have to take him back to the vet's if things don't improve. As always, there's lots more to tell than I have time or energy to spare to tell it, so this modest entry will have to suffice. Reading-wise, it's been the Ken Russell biography and Nat Hentoff's wonderful, 'At The Jazz Band Ball.' The latter was sent to me by a very kind fan in America called Robert. He was the person who showed Les Paul the signature Nelsonic Transitone guitar and who sent me the autograph and message from Les, not long before Les passed away. He's recently sent me a signed message from legendary jazz guitarist Jim Hall and a personally signed album and note from Laurie Anderson too. Not much time available for relaxing but watched Terence Davies' 'Of Time And The City' on DVD again the other night. Still wonderful! I love his work. Also managed to watch the film adaptation of 'The Time Traveller's Wife.' I adored the book and expected the film to be something of a compromise, which, to some degree it was, but I enjoyed it and thought it attempted to respect the book and didn't destroy the intimacy of its main characters. Nicely photographed and acted too. As always, calling my mother twice a day and making regular visits to her in Wakefield. We're still dealing with the final details of the two and a half year long struggle to protect her from the problems left by her late husband's will but it is finally coming to its conclusion now. Just a few things to sign off and formalise. Music-wise, I haven't had time to listen to much other than my own works in progress...and only then because I'm physically engaged in giving them birth. What little music I have heard has been ancient or vintage...and none of it rock. A little Elgar and Vaughan Williams and Faure. Easy listening stuff, I suppose. Also some 1940's and '50s swing and jazz. My usual refuge in times of stress. Nothing too demanding, just warm, uplifting and heartfelt. I'm waiting for contemporary music to get over its fixation with either 'experimentation' (more like regurgitation), or pop-rock predictability. I may be waiting for some time. Both sides of the coin devalued beyond my need to purchase. But then I'm a jaded old so and so. Not quite beyond redemption yet though. As always, back to work... ***** Images accompanying this diary entry are as follows:- 1: An ad for 'Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms.' 2: Front cover image for 'Model Village.' 3: The two Eastwood Breadwinner guitars decorated by Bill. 4: The 'Sailor Bill' guitar decorated by Bill. 5: The 'Twanglomino Mysterioso' guitar decorated by Bill. 6: Django the cat, photographed by Bill 20-Sept-2010 Top of page

Loom - Astroloops Volume Two Bill Nelson album - 7 December 2015 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Ladies Removing Lingerie 02) Smoke And Wires 03) The Happy Clock 04) Flights Of Fancy 05) Billy's Holiday 06) The Clockwork Rocket 07) Tick-Tock-Tick 08) Spooks In The Shed 09) Reversing Through Willows 10) The Echo, The Shadow, The Empty Shell 11) Puckish 12) C-Shell 13) A Lovely Dazzle 14) Corrosive 15) The Light We Cannot See 16) Your Taxi To The Stars 17) The Lonely Spaceman 18) Loom ALBUM NOTES: Loom is an instrumental album issued in a one-off print run of 500 copies on the Astrotone label. The album was a follow up to the extremely limited CDR Astroloops (issued to purchasers of the Eastwood Astroluxe Custom Ltd. guitar). Nelson announced on the Dreamsville forum that he had commenced work on this album in September 2014 around the time that the Astroloops album had effectively been snapped up by pre-orders for the Astroluxe guitar. At this stage the album had a working title of Lustre and Illusion , although Crystal Springs was another possible title under consideration. The recordings were completed in October 2014, and with the addition of the final and eighteenth track, "Loom", Nelson decided to make Loom the title of the album. Ironically though, when the album was at the mastering stage, there was a misunderstanding in selecting the tracks from Nelson's DAT masters, and the title track "Loom" was mistakenly replaced by a track from Quiet Bells called "Chiming Shires". In a rare lapse of quality control, Nelson had not played the reference disc in full before authorising the album's release, and the mistake wasn't picked up until after the album went on sale. As a result of this error, Nelson arranged for a free download of the missing track to be made available on Bandcamp. Loom (the album) went on sale on 7 December 2015, and after 7 days was taken off sale with the 10 remaining copies sold through email enquiries. "Loom" (the track) was issued as a free download on 23 December 2015. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . IF YOU LIKED THIS ALBUM, YOU'LL PROBABLY ENJOY: Gleaming Without Lights , Signals From Realms of Light , Six String Super Apparatus , Fables & Dreamsongs , Astroloops , Stereo Star Maps , Dreamland to Starboard , Rosewood 1 , Rosewood 2 , Awakening of Dr Dream BILL'S THOUGHTS: "This will be a follow up to the extremely limited edition Astroloops album which was given exclusively to only those 24 people who bought the equally limited edition Eastwood 'Astroluxe' signature guitar of a while back. Loom is an instrumental album using looped guitar parts as a basis for improvisational overdubs. It follows on from, and develops ideas first voiced on the 24 copies limited edition Astroloops album. In some ways it's closer to things like Quiet Bells but is somewhat less quiet!" _____ "Actually, I meant to explain the meaning of the album title: Loom refers to a textile Loom, which in turn references the way that the looped guitar riffs of the album weave in and out with various improvised overdubs, creating a rich and colourful tapestry of sound. Threads of ideas stitched together to form an overall sonic picture. Also, the title refers to 'looming', ie: something which hovers over a situation, foreshadowing an event, a coming situation, partly with trepidation, or maybe anticipation. And last of all, 'loom' echoes with the word 'loop', the last letter being the only change." FAN THOUGHTS: Palladium: "Taken an instant - and extreme - liking to this album. Very much my kind of thing. Very direct, accessible - but also somewhat avant/experimental/oblique - fleeting, lovely, luscious guitar-poems. There's no way I could class this as "ambient", and the modest prior descriptions from Bill (as with Quiet Bells ) didn't really prepare me for the sheer magnificent class of it. One I'm going to enjoy very much over Christmas and beyond. Thank you, Mr N." "It's the album I'm listening to most at the moment. Each track is a thing of beauty. I put it in the slightly mysterious 'category' along with Quiet Bells and Dreamland to Starboard - albums which I can never decide whether they are accessible or 'avant' (probably both), and I can never stop listening to them. My type of music - sort of enigmatic and certainly remaining out of reach of my feeble attempts to review/describe them. Certainly they are more than just "guitar instrumentals". The map is not the territory!" felixt1: "Genius, Mr. Nelson, genius. Where do these melodies come from? Is there some ultra secret, high end, super-store where you can go to buy these beautiful ideas......?" meederr: "Just received my copy yesterday. Guitar fondue for the ears and in between. Love it. Congrats Bill, and happy holidays!" james warner: "There is a chime-like quality to the guitar sound on this album of instrumentals. If you like a hint of reverb on your guitar, you'll love this." Andre: "Instrumental track of the day: "SPOOKS IN THE SHED". Beautiful strange and mysterious. Sounds like a damp dark street with dark shadows turning the corner." BobK: "Probably my fave BN release of 2015, (Electric Atlas running it very close). I absolutely love this album from beginning to end. Beautiful melodies with wonderfully varied guitar tones." John Fisher: "Although long time fans are used to the many surprises Bill throws our way, I somehow wasn't prepared for this one. When Bill described the album as "using looped guitar parts as a basis for improvisational overdubs", I never expected the songs to have such a captivating immediacy. Because the backing loops are minimal, and in many songs more quiet, the guitar sings out over the top throughout the album. My favourites are "The Clockwork Rocket", "The Lonely Spaceman" and "The Echo, The Shadow, The Empty Shell", in which Bill literally serenades us with his guitar. Since we're so used to fully fleshed-out songs from Bill, this is a great opportunity to hear him improvise at length on a studio album, as he explores the exquisite tonality of his new Eastwood 'Astroluxe' signature guitar. A unique album for Bill, and an approach which I hope he will revisit one day in the future." December Man: Loom "Review" "Weaving in and out of traffic on the 101. Basket made of writhing serpents. Trellis of love. He wears a finely tailored Italian suit. The Huichol Shaman's dream resurrected in multi-colored yarn. Braided beauty in a pale blue dream. Swaying in the forested kingdom of kelp. Last night I saw the stars dancing." alec: "Ladies Removing Lingerie": "This really haunts, pleasantly. A repetitive, delicate, trip-out wonderment." TheMikeN: "There are ideas to explore and new paths to discover. Here's Bill finding out what happens when a simple rule is set – start with a loop, or more than one, then work out how to decorate it. I expected to hear the melodic results of an experiment with technology; what I found was beauty, depth and the joy of exploring. Put simply, Bill knows what he has to be better than (to keep himself happy with the results) and he knows that depth and complexity are not reached by adding extra layers of twiddly guitar grappling. Somehow this is an emotional experience – without movie soundtrack swooping themes and without love and loss lyrics. Rosewood does the same trick with acoustic guitars as the chosen territory, Pedalscope does it with bicycle imagery, and Last of the Neon Cynics does it with a cowboy comic strip. Give the man a new avenue and he'll explore it without words until it feels like home." Peter: "OK, let's face it...any album that begins with a song called "Ladies Removing Lingerie (To Celebrate the Blooms of May)" is, A) sure to be from Bill Nelson, and B) going to get my attention. And it deserves it! Without a drum machine in sight, Bill shows us what it means to be a master of the guitar, with songs that are stunning in their technique and quality. You might not be tapping your foot a lot, or singing along (no vocals here), but put on the headphones, close your eyes, and let a guy who really, really knows how to paint with guitars show you how it is done. Dazzling once again, Mr. N." Albums 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

Albums Discography Menu Clicking on a cover below will take you to a full page devoted to that album. Studio Cadet 2024 album Powertron 2024 album Starlight Stories 2023 album All The Fun Of The Fair 2023 album Stupid/Serious 2023 album Marvellous Realms 2023 album Electra (In Search Of The Golden Sound) 2022 album My Private Cosmos 2021 6-CD box set album Mixed Up Kid 2021 album Dazzlebox 2021 double album New Vibrato Wonderland 2020 album The Jewel 2020 album Old Haunts 2019 album The Last Lamplighter 2019 album Stand By: Light Coming... 2019 album Auditoria 2018 3-CD album Dynamos And Tremolos 2018 album Drive This Comet Across The Sky 2018 album The Unrealist 2018 album That Old Mysterioso 2018 album Songs For Ghosts 2017 double album Tripping The Light Fantastic 2017 live album Luxury Wonder Moments 2017 album Kid Flip And The Golden Spacemen 2017 album The Awakening Of Dr Dream 2017 album Six String Super Apparatus Painting With Guitars Volume Three 2016 album New Northern Dream 2016 album All That I Remember 2016 album Special Metal 2016 album Perfect Monsters 2016 album Loom 2015 album Electric Atlas 2015 album Plectrajet Painting With Guitars Volume Two 2015 album The Years 2015 album Swoons And Levitations 2015 album Quiet Bells 2015 album Astroloops 2015 album Shining Reflector 2014 album Stereo Star Maps 2014 album Fantastic Guitars 2014 album Pedalscope 2014 album The Sparkle Machine Several Sustained Moments 2013 album Albion Dream Vortex 2013 album The Tremulous Doo-Wah Diddy - Blip! 2 2013 album Blip! 2013 album The Dreamshire Chronicles 2012 double album The Palace Of Strange Voltages 2012 album Return To Tomorrow These Tapes Rewind: Volume One 2012 album Joy Through Amplification The Ultra-Fuzzy World Of Priapus Stratocaster 2012 album Recorded Live At Metropolis Studios 2012 album The Last Of The Neon Cynics 2012 album Songs Of The Blossom Tree Optimists 2012 album Model Village 2011 album Signals From Realms Of Light 2011 album Hip Pocket Jukebox 2011 mini-album Fantasmatron 2011 album Fables And Dreamsongs A Golden Book Of Experimental Ballads 2010 album Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus 2010 album Modern Moods For Mighty Atoms 2010 album Picture Post 2010 album Non-Stop Mystery Action 2009 album Theatre Of Falling Leaves 2009 album Dream Transmission Pavilion 2009 album Fancy Planets 2009 album Here Comes Mr Mercury 2009 album Golden Melodies Of Tomorrow 2008 album Clocks And Dials 2008 double album Mazda Kaleidoscope 2008 album Illuminated At Dusk 2008 album Silvertone Fountains 2008 album And We Fell Into A Dream 2007 album Secret Club For Members Only 2007 album Gleaming Without Lights 2007 album Arcadian Salon 2006 album Return To Jazz Of Lights 2006 album Neptune's Galaxy 2006 album The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill 2005 album Orpheus In Ultraland 2005 album Rosewood - Volume 2 2005 album Rosewood - Volume 1 2005 album Wah-Wah Galaxy 2004 album Dreamland To Starboard 2004 album Satellite Songs 2004 album Custom Deluxe 2004 album Plaything 2004 album The Romance Of Sustain Painting With Guitars Volume One 2003 album Luxury Lodge 2003 album Whimsy 2003 double album Astral Motel 2002 album Noise Candy 2002 6-CD box set album Caliban And The Chrome Harmonium 2001 album Whistling While The World Turns 2000 album Atom Shop 1998 album Confessions Of A Hyperdreamer 1997 album Excellent Spirits 1996 album After The Satellite Sings 1996 album My Secret Studio Music From The Great Magnetic Back Of Beyond 1995 album Practically Wired 1995 album Crimsworth 1995 album Automatic 1994 album Blue Moons And Laughing Guitars 1992 album Luminous 1991 album Simplex 1990 album Altar Pieces 1990 album Demonstrations Of Affection 1989 4CD box set album Optimism 1988 album Chance Encounters In The Garden Of Lights 1987 double album Map Of Dreams 1987 album Iconography 1986 album Chameleon 1986 album Living For The Spangled Moment 1986 mini-album Getting The Holy Ghost Across 1986 album Trial By Intimacy The Book Of Splendours 1985 album box set Savage Gestures For Charms Sake 1983 mini- album Chimera 1983 mini- album The Love That Whirls Diary Of A Thinking Heart 1982 album La Belle Et La Bête 1982 album Das Kabinett 1981 album Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam 1981 album Sounding The Ritual Echo 1981 album Sound On Sound 1979 album Drastic Plastic 1978 album Live! In The Air Age 1977 album Modern Music 1976 album Sunburst Finish 1976 album Futurama 1975 album Axe Victim 1974 album Northern Dream 1971 album Discography Menu

Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus Bill Nelson album - 26 November 2010 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus (Plastic Mix) 02) Sex And Drums And Saxophones 03) Blue Sky Seeks Red Guitar 04) Howlin' Wolf In Me 05) Dance Of The Mullard Valvemen 06) The Aerostatic Balloonist 07) The Indelicate Levitation Of Katie's Skirts 08) Full Colour Fontana 09) The Man Who Was Tomorrow 10) Sun Kings Suffer (As Time Goes By) 11) The Mount Fuji Ice-Cream Factory 12) Illuminated Sky With Pale Blue Lightning 13) Neil Young 14) Like A Woman Levitating 15) Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus (Crystal Mix) ALBUM NOTES: Captain Future's Psychotronic Circus is an album comprising a mixture of vocal and instrumental pieces recorded especially for Nelsonica '10 on the Discs of Ancient Odeon label. As with the 2 previous Nelsonica releases, a print run of 1000 was employed, ensuring non-attendees could get hold of it without panicking or resorting to eBay. Remaining copies of the album went on sale through SOS on 2 December 2010. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: Available for purchase as a digital download here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: Psychotronic: "an amalgam of the words 'Psychedelic', 'Psychologic' and 'Electronic'." _____ "This one was created specifically for Nelsonica , rather than just being a collection of 'leftovers'. It's loosely themed around the Psychotronic Circus mood, but not in its entirety. Nevertheless, the tracks were chosen for the way they worked together, as a whole, so perhaps there is a kind of completeness to the album." _____ "A Psychotronic Circus could be, (and only could be, mind), a multi-coloured tent in which Alfred Hitchcock, dressed as a ringmaster, cracks his whip at a bunch of clowns stylishly cloned to look like actor Anthony Perkins in the role of a hallucinogenic lotus eater, who has given up his job as a motel owner to instead become a tv-repairman. A tv-repairman who, for some obscure reason, likes to visit the houses of peroxide blondes to re-wire their consoles whilst their husbands are away on business trips. This scenario, of course, is entirely fictional and in no way related to an incident where I just may have happened to re-align a certain lady's antennae after she waved at me from her bedroom window. In a sheer, powder blue Parisian negligee. With a bottle of champagne in one hand. And two glasses in the other. But, as you all know...I'm not that sort of person...I'm a serious, high-minded guitar player. Sometimes..." _____ "I'm a long-time fan of Neil [Young] and the song ["Neil Young"] came about while I was playing my Gretsch White Falcon in my studio and messing around with sounds on my Line 6 Pod processor. The guitar sound I arrived at reminded me very much of Neil Young and I recorded the basic backing track using that sound before writing any lyrics. The phrase 'everything sounds like Neil Young' popped into my head and kick-started the lyric writing process...the words are meant to imply some sort of linear meaning but in actual fact are just disconnected phrases that suggest a surreal scenario where 'even my car sounds like Neil Young'. The whole song is simply a kind of enigmatic tribute to him." FAN THOUGHTS: Tourist in Wonderland: "Every year to coincide with Nelsonica , Bill records and releases a 'special' studio album, that is presented to all the convention attendees, as part of the overall package. This has kind of become a tradition, if you like. By its very nature, it becomes a commemorative album of that particular Nelsonica and these albums are, as you would imagine, highly thought of and sought after, in their own right. Another (generous) part of the fantastic experience that is Nelsonica . These albums can be, as Bill mentions, a collection of 'leftover' tracks, that didn't make the final cut for the various studio albums recorded throughout the year, a kind of compilation album, representative of that years work, or, as in this year's case, an album specifically composed and recorded especially for Nelsonica ...and a fine album it is too!" "You are hooked from the very first track and pulled along the 'journey' at a fair old rattle, with subtle 'breath catches' at the perfect moments. It's an exhilarating, but very smooth, first class ride. Absolutely fantastic. And for fans of Bill's guitar wizardry, there's plenty of fine playing to sink your teeth into and keep you coming back time and again... Thanks Bill, you are a true star." Merikan1: "You want to get this one! It rocks, it twangs, it has some truly nightmarish bits. It has blues and harmonica. It is a truly surprising direction." felixt1: "It's an incredibly funky, sexy album - full of great rock and pop music. Definitely one for the rock fans, but with much more going on." swampboy: "I love Captain Future . My absolute favorite song is "Blue Sky Seeks Red Guitar". The whole album is amazing, with Bill squeezing new sounds out of his guitar. It's a keeper." donger: "Mr. Nelson takes us in several directions all at once. Delightful! My favorites are the most whimsical ones: "Dance of the Mullard Valvemen", "Sun Kings Suffer (As Time Goes By)" and "The Mount Fuji Ice-Cream Factory"." Andre: "I didn't expect to like it too much (I don't like clowns), but was surprised on first hearing. This is a classic!...What great sounds!!" old_goat: "I have been listening to the Psychotronic Circus a lot recently, and as I am want to do, looking at the art work, and it struck me suddenly that the clown on the cover looks startling (to myself at least) like Bill. I've looked at all the artwork I could from the concept; the stuff posted for the Nelsonica , posted here, etc. and there is not a single clown that comes close to looking anything in similarity than the one on the cover of the CD. I'm probably waaaay off base, but I think it's friggin' cool!" jetboy: "The images were sourced from various advertisements from the 1890's up to around the 1930's, from Barnum and Bailey ads, a New York lemonade manufacturer from the 1900's, an old East German Sci-fi magazine cover, a Parisian dance troupe from 1910 etc." emotional hooligan: "It's a cracking CD! If anyone still hasn't got round to ordering it...get it now...!" Albums Menu Future Past

Original Album Series box set - 2 June 2014 Be-Bop Deluxe Collections Menu Future Past NOTES: A 5CD box set issued at a budget price that comprises all 5 studio albums issued by Be Bop Deluxe in its lifetime. Each album is presented in a mini version of the original vinyl sleeves but with no lyric sheets or booklet to inform the uninitiated. Compared to Futurist Manifesto (which offers all five albums plus bonus tracks and previously unreleased material), this release is clearly the less desirable to most fans. However for anyone discovering the band at this late stage who wants to delve a little deeper than the few tracks they might hear on radio these days, but doesn't want all the bells and whistles, it's a decent enough place to start. PAST RELEASES: All the material presented in this box set can be found in the Futurist Manifesto box set, and each of the five albums was previously available on CD separately in jewel cases with lyric books and sleeve notes (initially issued in 1990). Prior to their appearance on CD each album appeared on vinyl and cassette between 1974 and 1978. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: The box set is now out of print. Collections Menu Future Past

Electra (In Search Of The Golden Sound) Bill Nelson album - 1 July 2022 Albums Menu Future Past Purchase this CD Purchase this download TRACKS: 01) A Bell Awakened 02) A Memory Lost 03) The Dust That Falls From Dreams 04) Autumn Vapours 05) The Ache At The Heart Of The World 06) Found In Foreverland 07) Darkness Sparkles 08) Endless Summer Ahead 09) No Thoughts, I Think 10) The Elegant Outsider 11) In Search Of The Golden Sound 12) This River Runs Deep ALBUM NOTES: Electra (In Search of the Golden Sound) is an album of instrumentals pieces issued on the Sonoluxe label as a limited edition. The album was first mentioned by Nelson as "progressing extremely well" in a Dreamsville forum post dated 26 April 2016 and was evidently completed by the time that Nelson revealed the final running order on 8 May 2016. This brought the tally of unreleased albums to twelve at that point. Electra would sit patiently for six years, awaiting its turn to be heard, until in February 2022 it was chosen from the collection of unreleased material. The album was mastered at Fairview Studios by John Spence with artwork compiled by Martin Bostock using images selected by Nelson as the album approached release. Burning Shed started taking pre-orders for Electra on 14th April 2022 with the album initially being due for release in May. However, due to delays with the mastering process, the release date was pushed back to 1st July 2022. CURRENT AVAILABILITY: This CD is available to purchase here in the Dreamsville Store . BILL'S THOUGHTS: "Electra is an album of guitar soundscapes, ambient improvisations and the occasional jazzy excursion. It continues and develops the style of albums such as Quiet Bells and Silvertone Fountains but has its own distinct character." _____ "Electra (In Search Of The Golden Sound) is one of several albums recorded between 2015 and 2019 that have languished unreleased in my archives for several years. I am slowly getting around to releasing them and they will all eventually see the light of day." Albums Menu Future Past