Be Bop Deluxe News
February 9, 2000:
Be Bop Deluxe's Tramcar To Tomorrow being released in the United States on March
21, 2000.
Pre-order
from Amazon.com by clicking here.
featuring the tracks:
Recorded May 9, 1974: Third Floor Heaven, Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape, Mill Street
Junction, 15th of July (Invisibles)
Recorded March 11, 1975: Maid In Heaven, Stage Whispers, Sister Seagull
Recorded February 10, 1976: Blazing Apostles, Crying To The Sky, Peace Of Mine
Recorded January 30, 1978: Panic In The World, Love In Flames
February 13, 1999:
Liz has started the first Be Bop Deluxe mailing list/discussion digest. To sign
up, go to the OneList site at
http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/BebopDeluxe
- After signing up with OneList you'll be presented with two options,
getting messages as they are sent by others or in a digest format. Congrats Liz!
January 4, 1999:
According to EMI UK:
"The Be Bop Deluxe re-issues (Drastic Plastic, Modern Music, and Futurama) were part of a very limited UK sales campaign by EMI Catalogue consisting of 100 titles and were manufactured to dealer order and were a "one go only" ordering arrangement! Dealers placed orders by mid-April 1997 and the exact number were pressed and delivered to the appropriate dealers mid-May 1997. No stocks were held at Leamington - exact numbers made to order. The campaign ran along the lines of "last time to get this century"....so the earliest possible re-re-issues in the UK would be from January 1, 2000."
August 31, 1998:
Tramcar To Tomorrow is now available, order it today online through businesses at the Bill Nelson Record Store
July 20, 1998:
Radioland - the BBC Radio One Concert by Be Bop Deluxe, originally released in 1994
on Windsong Intl (UK), and apparantly recently deleted, looks like it's going to be
rereleased in the US on Griffin Music. Available at the Bill Nelson Record Store.
June 18, 1998:
Hux Records in England is putting out previously unreleased BBC Radio One John Peel
sessions that Be Bop Deluxe recorded from 1974-1978. According to their web site, the liner notes and track selection will be
done by Bill Nelson. Tracks include:
Recorded May 9, 1974: Third Floor Heaven, Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape,
Mill Street Junction,15th of July (Invisibles)
Recorded March 11, 1975: Maid In Heaven, Stage Whispers, Sister Seagull
Recorded February 10, 1976: Blazing Apostles, Crying To The Sky, Peace Of Mine
Recorded January 30, 1978: Panic In The World, Love In Flames
UK fans can buy directly through Hux or their favorite retailer via Pinnacle distribution. US/worldwide fans will be able to buy as an import through Pinnacle.
April 2, 1998:
Thanks to John January for letting us know of a humorous Be Bop Deluxe story (I'd like to hear Bill's take on it) told by Robin Zander of Cheap Trick in an interview at Getsigned.com.
February 22, 1998:
Another Be Bop Deluxe greatest hits album? Collectables Records is putting out the Very Best Of Be Bop Deluxe in the United States on March 24, 1998. It's available through the Bill Nelson Record Store.
19 tracks:
July 17, 1997 - January 9, 1998
Bill had to bow out of the Mick Ronson Memorial II Concert due to health reasons.
The August 9th concert will continue with Joe Elliott, Steve Harley, Glen Matlock, Mick
Jones, The Spiders From Mars and Michael Chapman.
Bill performed at the original Memorial concert in 1994 and is on the double-CD release featuring both concerts. Click here for information on the album and which tracks Bill played on. Also available through the Bill Nelson Record Store.
June 19, 1997:
It's been a while, but they've finally been re-released. If you've been looking for the Be Bop Deluxe albums Futurama (EMI Harvest CDP 7920742), Modern Music (EMI Harvest CDP 7947312), or Drastic Plastic (EMI Harvest CDP 7497332), which had mysteriously gone out-of-print in the UK for several years (during which time Axe Victim and Sunburst Finish stayed in-print), they are now available. Available through the Bill Nelson Record Store
February 17, 1997:
Be Bop Deluxe - Air Age Anthology
Released February 17th on the EMI Catalog label CDEM 1602 (UK)
Two compact discs, 39 tracks, 12-page booklet. Liner notes by Kevin Cann.
Available through the Bill Nelson Record Store
Disc One - 73 mins 38 secs
Axe Victim/Love With The Madman/Sister Seagull/Heavenly Homes/Ships In The
Night/Twilight Capers (short studio out take as intro)/Kiss Of Light/Crying To The
Sky/Sleep That Burns/Life In The Air Age (live)/Electrical Language/Panic In The
World/Maid In Heaven/Between The Worlds/Blazing Apostles/Lovers Are Mortal/Down On
Terminal Street/Darkness (L'Immoraliste)
Disc Two - 69 mins 20 secs
Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape/Night Creatures/Music In Dreamland/Jean
Cocteau/Beauty Secrets (short studio intro)/Life In The Air Age/Speed Of The Wind/Modern
Music/Dancing In The Moonlight (All Alone)/Honeymoon On Mars/Lost In The Neon World/Dance
Of The Uncle Sam Humanoids/Modern Music (reprise)/Fair Exchange (live)/Autosexual/New
Mysteries/Surreal Estate/Islands Of The Dead/Visions Of Endless Hope/The Bird Charmers
Destiny/The Gold At The End Of My Rainbow
December 21, 1995:
Charlie Tumahai, the bassist and backup singer in Be Bop Deluxe in the mid to late 1970's collapsed and died suddendly in Auckland, New Zealand on December 21, 1995. He died at Auckland District Court where he was the member of a volunteer organization to help members of the Ngati Whatua tribe. He had also been lead singer and songwriter for popular local band, Herbs, since his move back to from England in 1985. His death from a heart attack came as a shock to family and friends because he had been in good health and practiced yoga. He is survived by his wife, Susan, and two children.
The web site learned of Charlie's death only two days later thanks to a fan in New Zealand who relayed the bad news.
In England, Bill heard a rumour that Charlie Tumahai had died in early December and mentions in the second issue of the Nelsonian Navigator that he hopes this isn't true. Strangely enough, the publication of the issue with Bill's comments on the rumours coincides with the web site's announcement of Charlie's actual death. Q Magazine, a UK publication, confirms Charlie's death in an issue a couple months later.
July-August, 1995:
Ian Parkin, the rhythm guitarist in the first lineup of Be Bop Deluxe, died in July, 1995 at the age of 45. He left a wife and two children. Bill wrote this in August 1995:
"It was with great sadness that I learnt of the death of Ian Parkin in July. Those of you who are familiar with the Be Bop Deluxe album Axe Victim will know that Ian was a rhythm guitarist in the original lineup of the band. Although I had not been in touch with Ian for close to twenty years, since the split of the first lineup, I was deeply shocked to hear of his death.
"He and I were good friends during the time at Ings Road secondary Modern School in Wakefield. We were both beginners in the realm of guitars and we used to spend our evenings together, either at my parents house or his, figuring out how to play tunes by The Shadows and the Ventures. We used to visit the Mecca Ballroom together to try and meet girls but usually ended up sat as close to the dance hall speakers, as close as possible, to groove along to the music.
"Both Ian and I made our first public appearance together as a guitar-duo at a school Christmas concert....we were both petrified!!! Eventually, we became The Cosmonauts (after bring briefly called The Strangers) and with the addition of a dummer, who was also a school friend, we played various youth clubs and occasionally at the A.B.C. Cinema, Wakefield, at the Saturday morning A.B.C. minor shows.
"Thinking back on this now brings great sadness to my heart. Ian was 45 years old, two years younger than myself, when he died. He was still involved with music and leaves a wife and two children. His companionship during my teenage years and early twenties will always be fondly remembered."
1994:
Be Bop Deluxe - Radioland BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert
Released on Windsong International in 1994
Tracks 1-4 recorded 1/15/76 at the Paris Theatre
Tracks 5-10 recorded 10/20/76 at the Hammersmith Odeon
Tracks 11-16 recorded 1/19/78 at Golders Green Hippodrome.
Available at the Bill Nelson Record Store
Life In The Air Age/Sister Seagull/Third Floor Heaven/Blazing Apostles/Maid In Heaven/Kiss Of Light/Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape/Fair Exchange/Ships In The Night/ - Modern Music/Dancing In The Moonlight/Honeymoon On Mars/Lost In The Neon World/Modern Music (reprise) - /New Precision/Superenigmatix/Possession/Dangerous Stranger/Island Of The Dead/Panic In The World
Sixteen years ago, I laid Be Bop Deluxe to rest beneath a wreath of rocketships and roses, after having made the decision to explore pastures new. Some thirty albums later I find myself writing these words about music that now seems to me to have been made by someone else.
The words 'innocent' and 'naive' spring to mind... did I *really* worship so feverishly at the altar of rock'n'roll? Are you sure that was me you saw under the blue spotlight, hot-wired to a big guitar and dreaming out loud? O.K., so I left my fingerprints all over the damn thing, so what? I was dazzled, dazed and amazed and that's the way it goes...big noise in Twangtown, a sign of the times.
And still the ghost of Be Bop Deluxe haunts me, despite the charms and crucifixes outside my imagination's door.
I had totally forgotten about these 'In Concert' recordings until now...snapshots of a band at it's most vulnerable, live and naked and unadorned by the glittering technology of today...a steam radio sound 'though dry as parchment, for all that. this is the noise boys make when they reach for tommorrow. Oh, how hard we tried.... Bill Nelson, July 1994
1991:
From the 1991 issue of Sound on Sound magazine:
Plans to reform, or "revitalise" as Bill prefers to say, Be Bop Deluxe, had to be shelved after initial rehearsals, not least because of the failure to secure an assured 150,000 Pound Sterling budget. However, some of the material written by Bill with that project in mind is now to surface as a new LP on the Imaginary Records label.
"The new LP is called Luminous. Many of the tracks are demos for the Be Bop Deluxe project I started on last year - some of the ideas were quite interesting and I thought it was a shame that they wouldn't be heard. For example the songs 'She's Got Me Floating', 'Burning Down' and 'Two Hearts Beating' were initially conceived for the Be Bop Deluxe project."
"One of the tasks I tried to set myself when I put together the demos for the Be Bop Deluxe band was not to have things too completed. I thought that I had better leave space for the individual members to interpret things. What happened was that I started off doing that, but began adding other parts and ended up with things tied down and all spelled out -with not much room for manoeuvring at all. But what was interesting was that because I had started with the intention to keep things simple, the songs have an entirely different feel from more elaborate pieces."