Listen to Stewart Gray's interview and presentation to Bill Nelson in Real Audio.

OUR NORTHERN STAR by Stewart Gray

The day had finally arrived …….

On the 4 hour train journey to York it gave me another chance to listen through the 2 CDs it was then that the enormity of what I was about to do hit me.  The previous days of communication with Bird and Mark had been busy.  The CDs only arrived to me with 48 hrs to go.  However I knew that Bill would be surprised at the dedication and passion with which the artists had recorded their songs and to the organization that had gone into this whole venture.

I arrived at York Station at 12.25 and there he was.  Dressed in immaculate long light grey raincoat, checked scarf, new black rimmed glasses and bag on shoulder.  Looking fit and well we walked from the station to the Assembly Rooms for lunch.  He told me he was amazed that anyone should take the trouble to record and produce this for him he was truly overwhelmed.

We sat down and there followed a 2 hour conversation over lunch -we covered so many topics -I keep remembering snippets of what was said.  It's hard to take it all in and suddenly I would lose the conversation and think - 'God am I really doing this? - am I really here?'

He talked of new ideas in fact he was virtually bursting with ideas.  This part I recorded so you can hear the interview on the Web site soon.

Multiplex Presentation

During lunch I explained about the CD how it had all come together and how it had been coordinated by the Bird.  I also told him of Mark and Richard Blake-Reed's contribution.  I gave him my opinion of the high quality of the CD and we ran through the titles.  I had already read through the file that Bird had prepared so I was able to give him some background and flavour to it all and of some of the artists.  At the end of the interview you will hear me formally present it on behalf of everybody………

Here are some snippets of our discussion and if anyone wants anymore expansion on a particular point I would be pleased to do this.  In no particular order we discussed:

Drifting Festival London
Bill said he thought the 2nd night was better - he was very nervous the first night. I told him I thought it was the opposite.  I thought the first night was more interesting because there were more vocal cuts and he moved around between marimbas piano and 2 (or was it 3?) guitars whereas the second night there was predominantly E bow and more ambient.  He said I was the second person to say that!  The organizer of the festival said to him after the first night in the dressing room that it was much more 'musical' than expected and that the last time he heard Bills stuff it was very ambient and somewhat industrial (Trial by Intimacy I assumed) Bill said to him yes but that was 10 years ago- things move on!

Early days
Some trivia emerged when I told Bill I lived in Hove as he told me he had a girlfriend in Hove once called  Lisa Rosenburg.  The song Love is Swift Arrows was written about her.  The first letters of the title spell Lisa and if you take the first letter of each of the lines in the song it spells her surname!  Mark Rushton said he'd heard that before but it was new to me.  After Axe Victim was released Bill was asked to do a photo shoot where all of the radio 1 DJ's had chosen their 'tip for the top' in the following year.  John Peel had chosen Bill and Bill thought that it was Alan Freeman who had chosen Sparks.  After the shoot Ron & Russell Mael and Bill started chatting and Ron & Russell said they loved Bills album.  They then asked him to join their Band.  Bill said that he was not only a guitarist  but also wrote all the songs and they said that was ok they would all write the songs together!

Bill also spoke of the recording of Gary Numan's album Warriors and of his production and work with the Skids and various other stories.

Bill's daily routine
I asked Bill do you ever go into your studio and dry up?  No he said -never!!  He has some days when he's down where he cant be bothered to make a start but when he does he always ends up with a finished article.  He then catalogues and masters all of them.  He has now a substantial record of his past work. I asked does he work every day?  He said yes most days.  His daily routine is to go up to his studio around 10.30 in the morning and work straight through to around 4 or 5 ish when he drives into York city centre to pick up Emiko from work. He then goes back up to his studio while Emi prepares Dinner. After Dinner he then goes back up for another hour or so before watching TV from 9ish onwards! (an understanding wife!)

Atom Shop & Recording Techniques
It is a well known fact that Bills home studio is not state of the art - (something which he hopes to do this year is to upgrade his studio to a
digital one) and he has told me before how he records.  But I wanted to know that if he doesn't have the ability to cut and paste drum parts does that mean that he is really writing the song to the drum track! Yes was his reply - he lays down a basic drum track and overdubs manually with extra drum and percussion. For those non musicians reading this I should explain that this procedure is indeed difficult to say the least but its true to Bills desire to record things quickly and capture the moment. Basically during the writing and recording process he cant suddenly think 'I know I'll make this one a double chorus or change the arrangement because its already cast in stone (tape I mean) With digital recording however you can move bits of the song wherever and whenever you want to!

Bill told me that in fact for the Atom Shop album he produced well over 100 songs (!!) and chose only 15.  On reflection he was not entirely happy with his choice.

We talked about the recent reviews and Bill said that there had not been very many in this country but in Japan there had been loads. He said there had been a recent review/article with pics of his studio and artwork in a publication called Illustration so if anybody can get hold of that please copy it to Mark for publication on the web site.

Nelsonian Navigator
Although Bill had given Richard Cahill some work for the Navigator it is now very unlikely that another edition will appear as Bill has not heard from Richard. In any event it had been decided that the next one would be the last as Bill wanted to move on.  Bill has been in discussion with Paul Page of Lenin Imports to discuss things and the taped interview that you will hear shortly tells of a very ambitious initial product which will be released on a pre-order basis only - but you'll have to let Bill explain that one on the tape! Bill said his plans with Lenin were about 95% fixed.

Fans Burning Questions
I didn't get to ask Bill many of the questions that were submitted - his answers were so involved!  I asked him about new stuff, recording, videos, indian voices- amongst other things - however I plan to forward all the unanswered questions to him and hope that they may be answered shortly for posting on the web site,

Finally………………………………………..
I am sure other things will come to me, after all we spoke for 3 hours.  After our lunch Bill took me on a short walking tour of York which is a very old city where a lot of the 14th-15th century buildings remain or have been restored. Bill took me into York Minster a very famous landmark Cathedral where a service was in progress. Bill said he often came in to wander around the vast building while listening to the harmonic services.

I took a couple of pictures of Bill which will be on the web site soon. We walked back to the station and I left him and thanked him for his company and said that this really meant a lot. He was genuinely overwhelmed by the obvious effort and appreciation.  I had bought him a Christmas Present (a Jean Cocteau book recently published which he said he would keep wrapped and open on Christmas Day, so I'll be thinking of him then.)

I will most certainly remember this day forever and am so pleased I could present it on everybody's behalf to my Personal Buddha that I have intently followed and loved for over 20 years.

Stewart Gray