Cocteau Records

Cocteau Records was an independent label started by Bill Nelson and his former manager Mark Rye in 1980. Named after Jean Cocteau, the famous French artist, philosopher, filmmaker, etc etc..., the label released numerous recordings during the 1980's, most of which were Bill Nelson solo releases. 

It was also the launching pad for A Flock of Seagulls, whose first single Bill produced and released on his label. The strength of that record led to their signing by Jive Records and video infamousy for their hit song I Ran (So Far Away), which was played to death on MTV in America. Other artists who recorded for Cocteau were Yukihiro Takahashi, Man Jumping, To Heaven A Jet, Last Man In Europe, Fiat Lux, and a number of Nelson vehicles such as Jobson/Nelson, Revox Cadets, Scala, and Bill Nelson's Orchestra Arcana. 

US indie label Enigma eventually picked up Cocteau for distribution in the United States in 1986. This deal lasted until around 1989-90 when Enigma went bankrupt thanks to the label's "bread and butter" act, Poison, disintegrating in a cloud of drugs, booze, and too much hair spray.

After Rye resigned as Bill's manager in late 1990 the releases stopped and Cocteau Records was eventually "struck from the register" in 1994. Bill will eventually be re-releasing most of the old Cocteau titles on his new label, Populuxe, starting in 1997. This discography is by no means complete, if you can fill in the holes, send an email to webmaster@billnelson.com


7" singles, 12" singles, picture discs, etc:
COQ 1
Bill Nelson
Do You Dream In Colour?/Ideal Homes/Instantly Yours/Atom Man Loves Radium Girl
7" single, 1980 

COQ 2
Last Man In Europe
A Certain Bridge/TV Addict/Complications
7" single 

COQ 3
A Flock of Seagulls
(It's Not Me) Talking (original mix)/Factory Music
7" single 

COQ T3
A Flock of Seagulls
(It's Not Me) Talking (remix)/Factory Music/(It's Not Me)Talking (instrumental)
12" single

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COQ 4

To Heaven A Jet - Airfields
Revox Cadets - Tony Goes to Tokyo (and Rides the Bullet Train)
Two bands on one single. Revox Cadets is Bill in disguise.
7" single 

COQ 5
Bill Nelson
Sleepcycle/Konny Buys A Kodak/When The Birds Return/The Beat That Can't Go Wrong Today
Acquitted by Mirrors subscriber-only 
7" EP, 1982 

COQ 6
Q
Playback/Music's Gone
7" single 

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COQ 7

Be Bop Deluxe
Panic In The World/Electrical Language/Maid In Heaven
7" single 

COQ T7
Be Bop Deluxe
Panic In The World/Electrical Language/Maid In Heaven/Jean Cocteau
12" single, 1983 

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COQ 8

Red Noise
Revolt Into Style/Out of Touch
7" single

COQ T8
Red Noise
Revolt Into Style/Stay Young (live)/Out of Touch (live)
12" single 

COQ 9
Fiat Lux
Feels like Winter Again/This Illness
7" single 

COQ 10
Bill Nelson
Touch and Glow/Dancing In The Wind/Love Without Fear
7" single 
Two sleeves:  first pressing, hard glossy sleeve; second pressing, thinner sleeve

COQ 11
Bill Nelson
King of the Cowboys/Shadowland/Carnival/Spring
Acquitted by Mirrors subscriber-only 
7" EP, 1982 

COQ 12
Bill Nelson
Dancing on a Knife's Edge/Indiscretion/Contemplation
Acquitted by Mirrors subscriber-only 
7" EP, 1983 

COQ 13
Bill Nelson
The World And His Wife/Dream Car Romantics (In Death's Garage Antics)/Dancing Music
Acquitted by Mirrors subscriber-only 
7" EP, 1983 

COQ 14
Bill Nelson
Hard Facts From the Fiction Department/Daily Bells/Rhythm Unit/Junc-Sculpture
Acquitted by Mirrors subscriber-only 
7" EP 

COQ 15
Bill Nelson
Acceleration/Hard Facts From The Fiction Department
7" single, 1983 

COQ T15
Bill Nelson
Hard Facts From The Fiction Department/Acceleration Dub/Acceleration Long Version
12" single, 1983 

COQ PT15
Bill Nelson
Hard Facts From The Fiction Department/Acceleration Dub/Acceleration Long Version
12" picture disc, 1983 

COQ T16
Man Jumping
Aerotropics (remix)/In the Jungle (remix)
12" single, 1984 

COQ TR16
Man Jumping
Aerotropics (re-remix)/In the Jungle (remix)
12" single, 1984 

COQ 17
Bill Nelson
The Strangest Things, The Strangest Times/Phantom Gardens/French Promenade/Golden Mile/West Deep/Threnolia
titled as Giants of the Perpetual Wurlitzer
Acquitted by Mirrors subscriber-only 
7" EP, 1984 

COQ T18
Yukihiro Takahashi
Stranger Things Have Happened/Bounds of Reason, Bonds of Love/Metaphysical Jerks
12" single, 1984 

COQ T19
Bill Nelson's Orchestra Arcana
Sex-Psyche-Etcetera/Several Famous Orchestras/Who He Is
12" single, 1986 

COQ 20
Bill Nelson
A Dream Fulfilled/Familiar Spirit/Palais Des Marine/Letter to Jacques Maritain/Villefranche Interior
The Cote D'Azur EP
Acquitted by Mirrors subscriber-only 
7" EP, 1986 

COQ 21
Scala
Secret Ceremony (Theme from "Brond")/Wiping a Tear From the All Seeing Eye
12" single, 1987 

COQ 22
Bill Nelson
Set Me As A Seal Upon Thine Heart/Mysterium/Katharos/Days of Eternity/Evening Adoration/Ecclesia Gnostica/Young Angels By An Ancient River/Finis Gloria Mundi
titled as Ecclesia Gnostica
A bonus 7" EP that came with vinyl editions of Chance Encounters In The Garden Of Lights
1987 

COQ T22
Bill Nelson
Life In Your Hands/Do You Dream In Colour?/Get Out Of That Hole/My Dream Demon
12" single, 1989 

COQ 22
Life In Your Hands/Do You Dream In Colour?
7" single in a green sleeve with the Cocteau drawing on the front. Possibly only issued as a promo copy .

JEAN 1
Bill Nelson
Permanent Flame
subtitled: A Beginner's Guide to Bill Nelson
7" single boxed set, includes blue pin, biography, & discography up until "Flaming Desire
all singles feature picture sleeves: 

COQ 1: Do You Dream In Colour?/Ideal Homes/Instantly Yours/Atom Man Loves Radium Girl
COQ 7: as Be Bop Deluxe: Panic in the World/Maid in Heaven/Electrical Language
COQ 8: as Red Noise: Revolt Into Style/Stay Young/Furniture Music
COQ 10: Touch and Glow/Dancing in the Wind/Love Withour Fear
Previously unreleased in UK: Rooms With Brittle Views/Dada Guitare


Full-length albums (vinyl, cassette, compact disc):
JC1
Richard Jobson
The Ballad of Etiquette

JC 2
Bill Nelson
Das Kabinet
The Asylum/Waltz/The Fairground/Doctor Caligari/Cesare The Somnambulist/Murder/The Funeral/The Somnambulist And The Children/Caligari Disciplines Cesare/Caligari Opens The Cabinet/Jane Discovers Cesare/The Attempted Murder Of Jane/The Dream Dance Of Jane And The Somnambulist/Escape Over The Rooftops/The Unmasking/The Shot/The Cabinet Closes

JEAN 2
Bill Nelson
Trial by Intimacy (The Book of Splendours)
Four album box set, limited edition of 3000, hand-signed and numbered, containing a book, poster insert, eight post cards, and: 

The Summer of God's Piano
Chamber of Dreams (Music from the Invisibility Exhibition)
Pavilions of the Heart and Soul
A Catalogue of Obsessions

JCM 3
Bill Nelson
Savage Gestures For Charm's Sake
The Man In The Rexine Suit/Watching My Dream Boat Go Down In Flames/The Meat Room/Narcosis/Another Happy Thought (Carved Forever In Your Cortex)/Portrait Of Jan With Moon And Stars

JCD 4
Bill Nelson
Das Kabinet & La Belle Et La Bete
Das Kabinet: The Asylum/Waltz/The Fairground/Doctor Caligari/Cesare The Somnambulist/Murder/The Funeral/The Somnambulist And The Children/Caligari Disciplines Cesare/Caligari Opens The Cabinet/Jane Discovers Cesare/The Attempted Murder Of Jane/The Dream Dance Of Jane And The Somnambulist/Escape Over The Rooftops/The Unmasking/The Shot/The Cabinet Closes
La Belle Et La Bete: Overture/The Family/Sisters and Sedan Chairs/In The Forest of Storms/The Castle/The Gates/The Corridor/The Great Hall/Dreams (The Merchant Sleeps)/Fear (The Merchant Wakes)/The Rose and the Beast/Magnificent (The White Horse)/Beauty Enters the Castle/The Door/The Mirror/Candelabra and Gargoyles/Beauty and the Beast/Transition No. 1/Transition No. 2/The Hunt/The Gift/The Garden/Transition No. 3/Transition No. 4/The Tragedy/Transition No. 5/The Enchanted Glove/Tears as Diamonds (The Gift Reverses)/The Beast in Solitude/The Return of the Magnificent/Transition No. 6 (The Journey)/The Pavilion of Diana/Transformation No. 1/Transformation No. 2/The Final Curtain

JC 5
Man Jumping
Jump Cut
In the Jungle, World Service, Aerotropics, Belle Dux on the Beach, Walk On, Bye; Squeezi, Down the Locale

JCD 6
Bill Nelson
The Summer of God's Piano
Antennae Two/Transmission (NBC 97293)/The Sleep Of Hollywood/The Celestial Bridegroom/Under The Red Arch/Orient Pearl/Sacrament/Falling Blossoms/The Difficulty Of Being/Zanoni/The Chinese Nightingale/Soon September (Another Enchantment)/Rural Shires/Perfidio Incanto/The Lost Years/The Charm Of Transmit/Night Thoughts (Twilight Radio)/Wysteria Swing/Snowfall/Real Of Dusk Over Ocean

JCD 7
Bill Nelson
Chamber of Dreams (Music from the Invisibility Exhibition)
The Blazing Memory Of Innuendo/Into The Luminous Future/A Dip In The Swimming Pool Reactor/Tomorrowland (The Threshold Of 1947)/Listening To Lizards/Endless Torsion/My Sublime Perversion/Eros In Autumn/Sleeplessness/The Latest Skyline/Train Of Thought/Parks And Fountains, Clouds And Trees/The Golden Bough/Forever Orpheus In Arcadia/Sentimental/Autumn Fires/Wild Blue Yonder

JCD 8
Bill Nelson
Pavilions of the Heart and Soul
Gift Of The August Tide/Loving Tongues/Blue Nude/In The Realm Of Bells/Your Nebulous Smile/The Glance Of A Glittering Stranger/Another Kiss For Your Slender Neck/The Warmth Of Women's Eyes/Seduction (Ritual With Roses)/Dreamed Embraces/Herself With Her Shadow/The Exquisite Corpse/Ardent Hands/Her Laughing Torso/Migrating Angels/Les Amoureux/Meshes Of The Afternoon/Mountains Of The Heart/Willow Silk/Tender Encounters (States Of Grace)/Melancholia/The Eternal Female

JCD 9
Bill Nelson
A Catalogue of Obsessions
Sex Party Six/Wider Windows For The Walls Of The World/Time In Tokyo/Happily Addicted To You/Snakes With Wings/The Boy Pilots Of Bangkok/Erotikon/Birds In Two Hemispheres/Windmills In A World Without Wind/Love's First Kiss/Initiation Of The Heart's Desire/Edge Of Tears/Test Of Affection/Words Across Tables/A Promise Of Perfume/This Dangerous Age/The Glass Breakfast/Talk Technique/The Last Summer For Dancing/View From A Balcony

JCD 10
Bill Nelson
The Two-Fold Aspect of Everything
Eaux D'Artifice: Flesh/Eros Arriving (single version)/The Passion/Ideal Homes/Instantly Yours/Atom Man Loves Radium Girl/Mr Magnetism Himself/The Burning Question/Haunting In My Head/He And Sleep Were Brothers
Confessions of a Four-Track Mind: Connie Buys A Kodak/Be My Dynamo/Touch And Glow/Love Without Fear/Dada Guitare/Turn To Fiction/Rooms With Brittle Views/Love In The Abstract/Hard Facts From The Fiction Department/Hers Is A Lush Situation/When The Birds Return/All My Wives Were Iron

JC 11
Yukihiro Takahashi
Wild and Moody
Wild and Moody, Stranger Things have Happened, Kill that Thermostat, Helpless, The Price to Pay, Bounds of Reason, Bonds of Love; Walking to the Beat

JCD 12
Bill Nelson
Sounding The Ritual Echo
Annunciation/The Ritual Echo/Sleep/Near East/Emak Bakia/My Intricate Image/Endless Orchids/The Heat In The Room/Another Willingly Opened Window/Vanishing Parades/Glass Fish (for The Final Aquarium)/Cubical Domes/Ashes Of Roses/The Shadow Garden/Opium

JCD 13
Various Artists
Cocteau Signature Tunes

Yukihiro Takahashi - Bounds of Reason, Bonds of Love
Man Jumping - Belle Dux On The Beach
Orchestra Arcana - Christ Via Wires
Jobson/Nelson - Ieyasu
Bill Nelson - Portrait of Jan With Moon And Stars
Fiat Lux - This Illness
Revox Cadets - Highway 2000
A Flock of Seagulls - Telecommunication
To Heaven A Jet - Airfields
Fiat Lux - Feels Like Winter Again
Last Man In Europe - A Certain Bridge
Bill Nelson - West Deep

JCD 14
Red Noise
Sound on Sound
Don't Touch Me (I'm Electric)/For Young Moderns/ - Stop/Go/Stop - /Furniture Music/Radar In My Heart/Stay Young/Out Of Touch/A Better Home In The Phantom Zone/Substitute Flesh/The Atom Age/ - Art/Empire/Industry - /Revolt Into Style/Stay Young (live)/Out Of Touch (live)

JCD 15
Bill Nelson
Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam
Banal/Living In My Limousine/Vertical Games/Disposable/False Alarms/Decline And Fall/White Sound/Life Runs Out Like Sand/Do You Dream In Colour/A Kind Of Loving/U.H.F./Youth Of Nation On FireQuit Dreaming And Get On The Beam

JCD 16
Bill Nelson
The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart)
Empire Of The Senses/Hope For The Heartbeat (Remix)/Waiting For Voices/A Private View/Eros Arriving/The Bride Of Christ In Autumn/Flesh/He And Sleep Were Brothers/When Your Dream Of Perfect Beauty Comes True/Flaming Desire/Portrait Of Jan With Flowers/The Crystal Escalator In The Palace Of God Department Store/Echo In Her EyesThe October Man

JCD 17
Bill Nelson
Chimera/Savage Gestures For Charm's Sake
The Real Adventure/Acceleration/Everyday Feels Like Another New Drug/Tender Is The Night/Glow World/Another Day, Another Ray Of Hope/ The Man In The Rexine Suit/Watching My Dream Boat Go Down In Flames/The Meat Room/Narcosis/Another Happy Thought (Carved Forever In Your Cortex)/Portrait Of Jan With Moon And Stars

JCD 18
Orchestra Arcana
Iconography
Christ Via Wires/Clock Conscious/I Wonder/Eastern Electric/Search And Listen/News From Nowhere/One Man's Fetish Is Another Man's Faith/Right, Then Left/Iconography/The Gods Speak/Life Class/Altar Native/Sex, Psyche, Etcetera

JCD 19
Bill Nelson
Map of Dreams (Music from the Soundtrack of the TV Series)
Legions Of The Endless Night/Spinning Creatures/At the Gates Of The Singing Garden/Heavenly Message Number One/Heavenly Message Number Two/Heavenly Message Number Three/Fellini's Picnic/Dark Angel/Infernal Regions/Dance Of The Fragnant Woman/The Alchemy Of Ecstasy/Aphrodite Adorned/The Wheel Of Fortune And The Hand Of Fate/Forked Tongues, Mixed Blessings/Another Tricky Mission ForThe Celestial Pilot/Water Of Life (Transfiguration)

CD JEAN 20
Bill Nelson
Chance Encounters in the Garden of Lights

Disc One: The Angel at the Western Window - West Deep/The Spirit Cannot Fail/Pilots Of Kite/Seventh Circle/Phantom Gardens/The Angel Of Hearth And Home/Villefranche Interior/Night Tides/First Memory/Azure Extension/Radiant Spires/The Evening Peal/Threnodia/A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain/Body Of Light/At The Centre/Self-Initiation/The Word That Became Flesh/The Hermetic Garden/Revolving Globes/The Four Square Citadel/Little Daughters Of Light/Orient Of Memphis/The Angel At The Western Window/The Piano Room/Rain Dance/Aching Heart/Arising/Welcome To Realm Seven/Without A Blue Horizon/Female Nebula/Demon Raising/Burning The Grove Of Satyrs/The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of/Realm Of Archons/The Rossetti Effect/Infinite Station/Piano Angelica

Disc Two: The Book of Inward Conversation - My Dark Daemon/The Dove Consumed (The Serpent Slumbers)/Calling Heaven, Calling Heaven, Over/Path Of Return/Theurgia/Staircase To No Place/Evocation Of A Radiant Childhood/The Kingdom Of Consequence/The Divine Raptures Of Sisterhood/Bright Star (Moonlight Over Ocean Blue)/A Bird Of The Air Shall Carry Thy Voice/Clothed In Light Amongst The Stars/Gnosis/Bringers Of Light To The Feast/Hastening The Chariot Of My Heart's Desire/Transcendant/Consolamentum/Set Me As A Seal Upon Thine Heart/Mysterium/Katharos/Day Of Eternity/Evening Adoration/Ecclesia Gnostica/Young Angels By An Ancient River/Finis Gloria Mundi

JCD 21
Bill Nelson's Orchestra Arcana
Optimism
Exactly The Way You Want It/Why Be Lonely/Everyday Is A Better Day/The Receiver And The Fountain Pen/Welcome Home, Mr Kane/This Is True/Greeting A New Day/The Breath In My Father's Saxophone/Our Lady Of Apparitions/The Whole City Between Us/Deva Dance/Always Looking Forward To Tomorrow/World Thru Fast Car Window/Profiles, Hearts, Stars/Daughter Of Dream Come True/Alchemia/Um, Ah Good Evening/Kut Up In Cartoonsville/Short Wave

JCD 22
Bill Nelson
Duplex (The Best of Bill Nelson)

Disc 1: Flaming Desire/Do You Dream In Colour/Acceleration (remix)/Living In My Limousine (remix)/Hope For The Heartbeat (remix)/October Man/Here And Now/Private View/Life In Your Hands/Contemplation/Glow World/Another Day, Another Ray Of Hope

Disc 2: The Blazing Memory Of Innuendo/Another Tricky Mission For The Celestial Pilot/The Angel At The Western Window/Portrait Of Jan With Flowers/The Man In The Rexine Suit/Wiping A Tear From The All Seeing Eye/Right, Then Left/Secret Ceremony (Theme from Brond)/Half Asleep In A Hall Of Mirrors (Theme from Dream Demon)/Broadcast News (Theme from Right To Reply)/Opening/Loosening Up With Lady Luck/Metaphysical Jerks/The Garden/Loving Tongues/Burning The Grove Of Satyrs/Radiant Spires/Set Me As A Seal Upon Thine Heart

JCD 23
Bill Nelson
Simplex
995 copies pressed for the Cocteau label in 1990, 299 of them distributed to Acquitted by Mirrors members in late 1990 to early 1991. The remaining CDs were sent to See For Miles Records LTD but never released. 
Awakening/Almost Unchanging/Bittersweet/Ringing True/Celestial East/Some Distant Time/The Profaned Sanctuary Of The Human Heart/Forms In Open Spaces/Raindrum/Female Form/Archetypes/Solid Spaces/Abstracted/Heptarchia/Climbing/Waiting For Rain/Aqua Magica/Summer Shower/Hammertheme/The Cloud Of Unknowing/Bending A Knee At The Altar Of Sacrifice/A Parting Of The Ways/Bronze/To Jan From The Shining Stars/Arrangement Of Roses/Likewise Is Said Elsewhere/Child Of The Dream/The Enclosed Garden/The Christmas Gift/Heroes De Lumiere/Your Morning Blessing

JEAN 89
Bill Nelson
Demonstrations of Affection
a four album box set, containing: Chimes and Rings, Nudity, Heartbreakland, and Details

JCD 24
Bill Nelson
Chimes and Rings
Lost To Me/Dangerous Lady/Working Man/Giving It All Away/Ice And Fire/Wonder Where We Go/Dreams Of Yesterday/Sell My Soul/Back To Dreams/I Wait For You/Walk Away From Paradise/Playing Jesus To Her Judas/Something's Going On/The Miracle Belongs To You

JCD 25
Bill Nelson
Nudity
Feels Like Up To Me/Prize Of Years/Still Waiting/Lover Boy At Heart/The Wonder Of It All/Devil In Me/A Little More Time/What's It All About?/Thunder On The Wing/Shake It Up/Love To Win/Running/If Love Were Gold/I Want You/Kiss It Off/Angel Like You/Crying All Night/Only Love Can Tell

JCD 26
Bill Nelson
Heartbreakland
You Know How To Hurt/Broken/You Make Me Cry/Mess Around/Why?/Insanity/Confused/Heartbreakland/Lucky Star/Heartbreak Thru The Telephone/One Day At A Time/Tip The Wink/Shadow Haunting Me/Raining/Love's Immortal Shining Angel

JCD 27
Bill Nelson
Details
Maybe It's The Future/Wandering/Wasted Lives/The Best Of You/Stay With Me/Love And A Bucket Full Of Holes/Prisoner Of Love/Don't Wait/Man On Fire/Visionary/The World To Me/Strong Enough/Everything Permitted/Aeroplane Wings/One For You/Let It All Pass You By

back to the main discography page

for corrections or updates, contact webmaster@billnelson.com