click here for the most Frequently Asked Questions (as of January 2, 2000)

Bill Nelson is both an enigma and a highly public person whose motivations sometimes seem shrouded in complex mysteries, yet whose sometimes prodigious output amounts to public development of song ideas and musical experiments. He has been both a guitar hero and the background figure in any number of art installations, exhibitions and theatrical presentations. While difficult for record company executives to grasp and often obscure to the general public, Nelson has nonetheless built up a strong and loyal fan base around the world.

Nelson was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the semi-industrial town of Wakefield, showing a talent for art and design and a passion for science fiction. His father, saxophonist Walter Nelson, was the leader of a dance band, and his mother, Jean, had once performed as part of a dance troupe, so music permeated the household -- Nelson's brother, Ian, is also a saxophonist, while several close relatives were expert musicians. Even so, Nelson never learned to read music, and was relatively late coming to guitar -- he was well into his teens before his father bought him the Gibson ES345 that eventually became his trademark. His early influences included Duane Eddy, as well as the icon of every budding English guitarist of the early 1960s, Hank B. Marvin of the Shadows ("The Passion," included on The Two-Fold Aspect of Everything, is a veritable chronicle of Marvin's influence). Later influences included Jimi Hendrix, for whom Nelson wrote "Crying to the Sky," a Be Bop Deluxe song.

He went through a relatively normal process of education at Wakefield schools, eventually attending the Wakefield College of Art, where he was able to pursue his painting and graphics interests, as well as his fascination with Jean Cocteau. On the musical side of his life, he was involved with several unrecorded bands. The first known Nelson recordings are of a three-piece band called Global Village, who cut three covers for an EP and dissolved in 1968. Nelson also played on sessions at the Holyground recording studio, various of which have surfaced again in recent years, though Nelson is dismissive of his participation. Around this time he married for the first time, becoming a Pentecostal Christian and joining a church group called the Messengers, who later changed their name to Gentle Revolution. The marriage resulted in the 1970 birth of Julia Nelson.

Nelson's career began in earnest with the recording and release of a solo album, Northern Dream, which was financed by the owner of the Record Bar, a local Wakefield record store. The initial pressing was limited to 250 copies (it has since been reissued several times, much to Nelson's frustration; he has never received royalties from the record), one of which found its way to BBC disc jockey John Peel, whose late-night Radio One shows were a constant influence on British rock music. Peel took an immediate liking to the record, playing cuts from it on a regular basis, with the result that executives from EMI's Harvest label contacted Nelson with the intention of having him record for the label, possibly with a remake of Northern Dream.

Nelson had different ideas by this point, however, and had assembled the first version of Be Bop Deluxe, featuring fellow Gentle Revolution member Richard Brown (keyboards), Ian Parkin (guitar), Rob Bryan (bass) and Nicholas Chatterton-Dew (drums). Brown left before the band went into the studio. A single, "Teenage Archangel"/"Jets at Dawn," was recorded and sold at concerts just before the EMI deal was finalized. Nelson broke the band up after the recording of 1974's Axe Victim, after EMI expressed dissatisfaction with the abilities of the other members. Nelson briefly worked with Paul Jeffreys and Milton Reame-James, formerly of Cockney Rebel, and bringing drummer Simon Fox into the band. Bassist Charles Tumahai was the next addition, with the trio going on to record Futurama. Keyboardist Andy Clark was the final addition to the band, which remained together until the recording of Drastic Plastic in 1978, by which time the mantle of guitar hero was beginning to weight heavy on Nelson, who was intent on expanding his horizons. The band had quickly developed a reputation for quirky songs and musical pyrotechnics, facets demonstrated both in the studio and in a live context -- Live! In the Air Age remains a brilliant document of a great live band. During this period Nelson divorced his first wife, Shirley, and married his second, Jan, for whom he wrote a great deal of music; he also used her as a model for much of his art.

Red Noise was the next phase of Nelson's plan for life, originally intended to begin with Drastic Plastic -- never the same thing twice, in either musicians or styles. Sound on Sound was a fluid, expert document that demonstrated Nelson's ability to experiment, though at the cost of jarring both the audience and the record company -- EMI, looking for moneymakers and easy understanding, dropped Nelson. A second Red Noise album had been finished, but was never released in its original form.

Abandoning the Red Noise experiment, Nelson reworked the album and released Quit Dreaming and Get On the Beam via Mercury Records. In its original format, the album came with a bonus disc -- a full-length album of ambient sketches recorded in his home studio, released as Sounding the Ritual Echo (the album has subsequently been issued by itself). Quit Dreaming and Get On the Beam went into the Top Ten in the U.K. This was repeated with The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart), which also included a bonus album (this time La Belle Et La Bete, a theatre soundtrack recording) and the single "Flaming Desire." This period proved to be the commercial peak of Nelson's career, unfortunately -- Chimera, an EP, failed to generate much interest (it was released with additional cuts in the U.S., under the title of Vistamix) and a subsequent deal with CBS/Epic led only to strained relations and a confused release; the U.K. Getting the Holy Ghost Across was altered, resequenced and released in the U.S. as On a Blue Wing. For Nelson, the main advantage of the deal was that he was able to completely rebuild his home studio, providing him with the facility to experiment more and more, resulting in the release of the first Orchestra Arcana album, which combined synthesized soundscapes with sound bites and tape loops. The name originated as a result of a clause in Nelson's CBS contract that forbade him to release his experimental material under his own name.

Nelson started Cocteau Records in 1981, partnering with his then-manager, Mark Rye. The original intention, soon lost, had been for the label to release Nelson's instrumental and experimental work, as well as a variety of interesting artists. Of the people Nelson worked with, only A Flock of Seagulls amounted to much more than a footnote. In the end, the focus remained squarely on the release of Nelson's material across the board -- a sometimes bewildering array of titles, including the four-LP box set Trial By Intimacy (The Book of Splendours). Nelson also worked with many others, including Gary Numan, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Harold Budd.

Following the expiration of the CBS deal, Nelson signed to Enigma Records in the U.S., resulting in the American release of just about everything in his catalog bar Northern Dream and the CBS titles, with new titles including the two-LP plus one 7" EP set Chance Encounters in the Garden of Lights, and a highly entertaining outing under the Orchestra Arcana name, Optimism. Enigma, however, was in the process of sinking from sight, with the result that most of the titles received poor distribution and one, Simplex, never received an official release (at one point, Nelson's ex-manager was selling copies by mail order). Between 1988 and 1991, Nelson's life fell apart spectacularly -- he was hit with tax bills, a separation and, eventually, a divorce, the collapse of Enigma, and a protracted battle with his ex-manager over the rights to his back catalog.

While the various wrangles somewhat derailed Nelson personally, nothing seemed to slow him down when it came to productivity; in fact, it appears that stress improves his output. The separation from his second wife resulted in the four-disc Demonstrations of Affection, as well as a backlog of recorded material that is still being released piecemeal on such sets as My Secret Studio and Confessions of a Hyperdreamer. Nelson had continued refining his writing and recording process, coming to the point that entire songs could be composed and recorded in a two-hour session, a speed of production that rivals that of Steve Allen. In the course of wooing of his third wife, Emiko, Nelson wrote and produced between 100 and 150 new songs in the space of a year, sending them to her on cassette.

Working as hard as ever into the 1990s, Nelson continued to produce and collaborate with other artists, facilitated by new management. His solo output became somewhat sporadic, with Luminous appearing in 1991 and several other albums, each on different labels, appearing in the years afterwards, though he has recently returned to normal with the limited-edition releases of My Secret Studio and Confessions of a Hyperdreamer, totaling six full CDs of songs, instrumentals and sonic experiments. Practically Wired...Or How I Became Guitarboy is a first guitar instrumental album, while After the Satellite Sings both experiments with the new territory of drum 'n bass while reflecting the kind of styles Nelson had eschewed as being too evocative of Be Bop Deluxe and his guitar-hero days.

He has worked on film, television and video scores, directed a variety of videos, toured as part of Heroes De Lumiere with his brother Ian, worked with Roger Eno, Laraaji and Kate St. John under the Channel Light Vessel name, formed a new Be Bop Deluxe (only to dissolve again when financial backing went away), performed as part of the Japanese group Culturemix, married for the third time, to Emiko Takahashi, become a big name in Japan, and recovered the majority of his work from former manager Mark Rye.

Nelson has created a new label, Populuxe, which has set up distribution arrangements with Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile (DGM) operation. A planned reissue program should see the majority of Nelson's solo material available worldwide in revised editions, with new material interspersed with the reissues. Phenomenally busy, driven by his muse and an active magician, Nelson continues to delight and confound. -- Steven E. McDonald

Q: When are the re-releases of Bill's back catalog going to take place?
A: It's been a long time coming.  In 1995 Bill regained the master tapes to his Cocteau Records releases from his former manager on the eve of a battle in court over various issues.  The Cocteau-era recordings were to be re-released via the Populuxe vanity label Bill was setting up through Voiceprint UK, however Bill left the label for Robert Fripp's DGM label at the end of 1997.  DGM was thought to be interested in re-releasing Bill's Cocteau-era catalog, but the only thing that happened was What Now, What Next? a double CD retrospective of some Cocteau-era tracks in remastered form plus some unreleased tracks.  Simplex, the rare Acquitted By Mirrors fanclub-only CD, which came out in 1990, is due to be re-released on Bill's Toneswoon label through Lenin Imports in early 2001.  Other notable re-releases have been Northern Dream on CD in 1995 and Red Noise's Sound On Sound in 1999.  Look for them via the Bill Nelson Record Store.

Q:  What are these CDs "Atom Shop + Extra Tracks" and "What Now, What Next? + 6" that I see at online record shops?  Do these contain extra tracks?
A:  No, these do not contain extra tracks.  Do not buy these releases thinking you're getting extra tracks, you're just getting ripped off.  I don't know how it got started but apparently somebody with access to those databases assumed that the Japanese release of these albums would contain extra tracks.  It's not true and it has been confirmed twice with Bill's manager.  What Now, What Next? contains six brand-new songs on it, but that's whether you're in Japan, the US, or UK.  No difference, except the price.  In the US those Japanese imports can cost $35-50.  You can buy Atom Shop and What Now, What Next? and get the same tracks at a much more reasonable price in the US or UK.

Q:  I want to send a letter/email/package/demo tape/flowers/pictures/you name it/ to Bill, do you have his address?
A:  Feel free to contact his management, Opium (Arts) Ltd, 49 Portland Rd, London W11 4LJ, U.K.  It will be sent to him.

Q:  What's Bill's personal info/wife/kids?
A:  Born William Nelson, December 18, 1948, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England.  He attended local schools in the Wakefield area. Later, he went to theWakefield College of Art in the 1960's.  Bill's late father, Walter, was an alto-saxophone player who led his own dance band. His mother, Jean, was a member of a dance troupe when younger. Ian Nelson, who appears on several of Bill's albums and was a member of Red Noise, is his younger brother.  Bill has three children, Julia (b 1970), Elle (b 1978), and Elliot (b 1981).  Julia was born with Bill's first wife, Shirley, and is an artist living in London.  Julia had her first child, a boy named Luke William, in 2000, so Bill is now a grandfather.  Elle and Elliot were born with Bill's second wife, Jan.  Elle is a singer and Elliot a guitarist for a band called HoneyTone Cody.  Bill married Emiko some time around April 1995.  Emi was previously married to YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi.

Q:  What's Bill's management situation these days?
A:  Bill is represented worldwide by Opium (Arts) Ltd, 49 Portland Rd, London W11 4LJ, U.K. Opium Arts also manages Robert Fripp, David Sylvian, Michael Brook, John Paul Jones, and others.

Q:  Are there any fan clubs or magazines?
A:  There is the Electrical Language, a free emailzine sent out every two weeks or so.  It was started March 9, 1998 by web site author Mark Rushton to keep fans informed of updates to the web site and to quickly announce any new releases, re-releases, live dates, and other special announcements.  There are currently over 1700 subscribers (as of January, 2001) and growing steadily each day.  For more information on other discussion boards and mailing lists, click here.

Q:  What record label is Bill on these days?
A:  Bill is currently releasing recordings through Lenin Imports in the UK, which receives distribution via Caroline2.  Bill is also still affiliated with Robert Fripp's label, Discipline Global Mobile and plans to release some video work through them in the future.

Q:  When did Bill first start playing guitar?  What kind of guitar does Bill play?  Who are his early influences as a guitarist?
A:  He was 13 or 14 years old, borrowing a toy guitar given to his younger brother, Ian. His father eventually bought him a proper guitar, a Gibson semi-acoustic ES 345 stereo. Bill still has this guitar, although it was damaged in the late 1970's. Oddly enough, Bill has never learned to "read" music, as he learned to play by ear.  Bill played a Yamaha SC2000 from the late 70's until around 1992.  More recently he uses a custom-built Patrick Eggle Berlin. On Bill's 1998 release, Atom Shop, he uses a 1956 Supro Belmont, a 1960 Wandre Plastic Body, a Continental Tricone Resonator, and a Danelectro Guitarlin repro by Hondo of Japan. He's also a longtime user of the E-bow.  Influences are Duane Eddy, Hank Marvin.....later on Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck.

Q:  What did Bill do before Northern Dream was released in 1971?
A:  Bill was involved in a number of local outfits during high school and college, including "The Teenagers". None of them recorded. The first recording featuring Bill was around 1968, three acetates were pressed of an EP for a three-piece blues/psychedelic band called Global Village.  Bill sang and played guitar on covers of Fleetwood Mac's "Long Grey Mare", John Mayall's "You Don't Love Me Baby", and Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy" on this EP.  Global Village's big fame came and went when they once opened for Geno Washington.  During the late 1960's he was also involved with a loose group of musicians from the Wakefield area who recorded at a studio called Holyground. Bill only occasionally played guitar on these recordings.  After Bill married his first wife Shirley, a Pentecostal Christian, Bill converted for a couple of years and joined a church group called The Messengers - later changing their name to Gentle Revolution, before he eventually recording his first solo album, Northern Dream, in 1971.

Q:  What were the different lineups of Be Bop Deluxe?
A:  Bill originally formed Be Bop in 1972 with Richard Brown on keyboards, Ian Parkin on rhythm guitar, Rob Bryan on bass guitar, and Nicholas Chatterton-Dew on drums. Brown, originally in Gentle Revolution, left the band after fourteen concerts at the request of his wife before any recordings were made.  Originally the band was called Flagship, which was changed to Be Bop Deluxe after a few initial concerts. After the first album, 1974's "Axe Victim", Bill split the band up at the request of the record company, EMI.  Paul Jeffreys (bass) and Milton Reame-James (keyboards) from Steve Harley's band Cockney Rebel joined up briefly for some live dates. Milton brought drummer Simon Fox (previously in the band Hackensack) to Bill's attention, who joined the band. Bill thought the addition of Jeffreys and Reame-James wasn't working out and asked them to leave the band.  Jeffreys later died in December 1988 in the Lockerbie, Scotland terrorist air disaster. Bill and Simon auditioned new bass players, deciding on former Mississippi bassist Charlie Tumahai, a Maori from New Zealand. The lineup of Bill, Simon, and Charlie recorded "Futurama" then brought aboard Andy Clark on keyboards. This lineup stayed intact through 1976's hits "Sunburst Finish", "Modern Music", and 1977's top 10 "Live In The Air Age" until the dissolution of the band after 1978's "Drastic Plastic". Numerous interviews over the years point out that Bill was exhausted from the tour/album/tour schedule imposed by EMI. He was also interested in changing the musical direction of the band - from a guitar-hero 1970's rock band to something more loose and flexible.  The band Be Bop Deluxe was going to be brought back with Bill Nelson, Ian Nelson, Iain Denby, and others in 1990, but plans had to be shelved after initial rehearsals, mostly because of the failure to secure an assured £150,000 budget.

Q:  Whatever happened to Red Noise?
A:  Bill's post-BBD band, labeled by the record company as Bill Nelson's Red Noise, put out one album, 1979's Sound On Sound.  This album reached #33 on the British charts.  Two singles were released, Furniture Music, which only made it to #59; and Revolt Into Style, which peaked at #69.  The record company was annoyed that Bill refused to play any Be Bop Deluxe songs on tour.  Old fans were alienated due to the lack of lengthy guitar solos and new wave attitude.  EMI was then taken over by conglomerate Thorn and Red Noise was shown the exit door. Another album was ready, but sat on the shelf for nearly three years. Eventually released as a Bill Nelson solo album in 1981, "Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam" hit the top ten in England soon after release.

Q:  How did Bill's solo years start?  How did Cocteau Records start?  What happened in the 1980's to Bill Nelson?
A:  Bill sat around his house after having Red Noise dropped by EMI, making instrumental recordings on his four-track machine. He also released a solo single on the Belgium label Les Disques du Crepuscule ("Rooms With Brittle Views") in 1980. With the release of Quit Dreaming he included as a bonus album, "Sounding the Ritual Echo", the first of many home-made instrumental recordings during the 1980's. He started Cocteau Records with then-manager Mark Rye to release his instrumental work and music by other artists - most notably early singles by A Flock of Seagulls and Fiat Lux, which were produced by Bill. The solo hits continued with 1982's "The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart)" and the single "Flaming Desire." After that, things turned sour, commercially. An impressive EP, 1983's "Chimera", featuring such musicians as Japan bassist Mick Karn and Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi, was not released in the US until 1984, then titled as the compilation "Vistamix." Bill continued with Cocteau Records in England, releasing theatre and television soundtracks and a four-album boxed set, "Trial by Intimacy." CBS picked Bill up for one album, 1986's "Getting the Holy Ghost Across" (titled in the US as "On a Blue Wing" with different cover art and track listing) but the relationship became strained. Label and artist soon parted company. While Bill was signed to CBS, his contract would not allow him to release alternative and instrumental recordings under his own name - something he didn't like. Thus, Orchestra Arcana was created as a "thin disguise" in order to release records. Two albums were released under this moniker:, 1986's "Iconography" and 1988's "Optimism".

Q:  Was Getting The Holy Ghost Across (UK) or On A Blue Wing (US) ever released on compact disc?
A:  Acquitted by Mirrors Issue 14 explains:

"What ever became of the agreed Compact Disc release we have no idea.  They agreed the release, we have never seen it in the shops or received any copies, they must have changed their minds yet again"

This appears to be a question Bill gets from time to time. He stated in Nelsonian Navigator, Issue 2 (December, 1995) that CBS owns the album and it's up to them to put it out on CD. I've received many emails from people who have written CBS (now owned by Sony) about this and received no reply. I guess we'll just have to wait. I've heard reports of fans creating their own CD copies of albums or cassettes via computers and CD-R technology available today, but these home-made discs contain all the skips of vinyl or hiss of tape.  The December 1997 issue of Record Collector (UK) indicates that a CD was released by CBS, but this is incorrect.

Q:  What is this Chameleon album from the mid-1980's and where can I buy a copy?
A:  Again, Acquitted by Mirrors Issue 14 explains:

EMI's library music division released an album of Bill's music entitled "Chameleon" (TIM 1050). The sleeve features the drawing by Bill that was the centre spread in ABM 13, but reproduced in full colour. Library Music is a complicated thing to explain, as it is a quirk of the British broadcasting rules.  Library music operations supply albums or CDs to the Film, TV, Radio Stations and Advertising Companies for them to use, at a cost, as the background music when 'the sun sinks below the horizon' or 'the horse rides through the lush green valley'.  It is the often unnoticed background music, or sometimes it is a two minute piece of slow motion action. The producers can either use the music they want from a commercially released record and try and get clearance from both the music publisher and the record company, or they can use these special library music recordings and just pay for every 30 seconds they use.  It is a sort of off the peg way for them to buy just exactly what they need for their programmes and films. "Chameleon" however, this is not available in your shops.  All the titles were changed for the release from their original state.  I guess the company thought they were too hard for the poor harassed producer to understand.  On some of the pieces Bill was also asked to put a final chord rather than a fade-out.  These people have their own way they like things to be done.  The music however remains very Bill.  To irritate some of you even more I am bound to say Bill will be doing some more of these albums soon and they will still not be in the shops - sorry."

I highly doubt that Bill ever did another album of "library music" as I'm sure it would have surfaced by now.  Chameleon, however, is very rare - I've only known of one person ever having a copy.  Not many were pressed, so clearly anything in good condition is worth a lot of money.  I'm not aware if these tracks were already-released pieces of music with different titles and a "final chord" ending - or if they're totally original compositions.  For those of you interested, Andy Clarke, the keyboardist with Be Bop Deluxe and Red Noise, also did a similar thing.

Q:  What is this Simplex album from 1989, 1990, 1991, and where can I buy a copy?
A:  Simplex was music done as a "first draft" for a British TV film on sculptor Henry Moore. It was planned on being released but didn't make it as Cocteau Records was falling apart and Enigma had gone bust in the US. The documentary for which Bill Nelson composed the music subsequently released as 'Simplex' is called 'Henry Moore and Landscape', and it is available in the UK from Concorde Video and Film Co. Ltd (tel. +44 1473 726012) in PAL format at a price of £50. If you can find this video in NTSC format, please let us know at info@billnelson.com.  It was originally intended for release on Cocteau JC23 (UK) and Enigma/Cocteau (US). According to Court records during Bill's lawsuit against Mark Rye, 995 copies were pressed for the Cocteau label in 1990, 299 of them distributed to Acquitted by Mirrors members in late 1990 to early 1991.  (Originally ABM club members were asked whether they wanted a cassette or compact disc, but according to court records the cassette idea was a "typo" and none were ever pressed.)  The remaining CDs were allegedly sent to the label See For Miles Records LTD. Whatever actually happened to the remaining CDs is speculation at this point.  People have found copies for sale all over the world. Bill says he considers all copies of this album to be bootlegs and he has yet to receive any royalties from its sale. He discourages any fan from buying it. This album will eventually be properly released in early 2001 via Lenin Imports.

Q:  Didn't Bill release a bunch of instrumental recordings in the US in the late 1980's?
A:  Yes, and some vocal albums as well.  From 1986-1989 Enigma issued some of Bill's recordings in the United States on the Enigma/Cocteau label. Previously, most of these records had only been available via import. They were also re-released on compact disc. Enigma went bust around 1990 after the label's most successful band, Poison, collapsed in a series of drug problems and defections. The rest of the Enigma/Cocteau catalog were sold in the United States as cheap cutouts in 1992.  Some copies of Red Noise's "Sound On Sound" CD were pressed incorrectly, with a band from Enigma's Metal Blade subsidiary label playing obnoxious heavy metal instead. These are also quite rare.

Q:  What's the story about Bill's ex-manager?
From a UK law review web site and distilled from a very lengthy and legalese review by Laddie J in the All England Law Reports from 1996 (look in any law school library and you'll find a copy):

"The plaintiff, William Nelson, a musician, retained the defendant, Mr Rye, as his manager pursuant to an oral agreement. From August 1980 Mr Rye ran the plaintiff's business affairs. The relationship between them deteriorated. On 2 October 1990 Mr Rye wrote to Mr Nelson terminating the relationship. In December 1991 Mr Nelson sued the defendant claiming inter alia an account. Prior to the trial Master Dyson ordered an account in respect of all moneys received by the defendant on behalf of Mr Nelson. Mr Nelson complained that the account was deficient, but on the figures disclosed Mr Rye owed Mr Nelson £280,000. The defendant claimed that Mr Nelson owed him £64,000. At the trial of the outstanding claims, the defendant raised two defences in respect of the duty to account in respect of the period prior to December 1985: that (i) the claim was outside the statutory limitation period for contractual causes of action; and (ii) the plaintiff was prevented from bringing a cause of action owing to the equitable doctrine of laches and acquiescence. The plaintiff responded by asserting that his cause of action was not contractual but based on breach of a fiduciary duty or, alternatively, a claim arising in trust and accordingly, no limitation period applies.

"Held(1) The defendant was under a duty to account to the plaintiff and failed to do so. While not every fiduciary relationship gave rise to a constructive trust, the facts in the present case created such a trust. The defendant received the plaintiff's income which became trust property. After proper deductions by the defendant, the balance remaining was also trust property. The plaintiff's action was in respect of the recovery of such property.  (2) The defences of laches and acquiescence were made out in respect of the plaintiff's claim for an account in respect of the period prior to December 1985.

"Comment:  The defendant relied on s 23 of the Limitation Act 1980 which enacts that 'an action for an account shall not be brought after the expiration of any time limit which is applicable to the claim which is the basis of the duty to account'. The defendant's case was that the substantive claim of the plaintiff lay in contract. The duty to account was accordingly restricted by the limitation period governing the substantive claim. The plaintiff argued that his claim was in respect of an action for breach of a fiduciary obligation which was outside the Limitation Act. Alternatively, s 21(1)(b) of the 1980 Act provided that no limitation period shall apply in respect of a claim to recover trust property or its proceeds from a trustee.  Laddie J decided in favour of the plaintiff on the ground that an agent who receives property from a third party, intended for his principal, has an obligation to transfer it to his principal. Accordingly, the agent is treated as trustee for his principal. Thus, Mr Rye was required to account to Mr Nelson and, since he failed to do so, he was liable in much the same way as a trustee is accountable to his beneficiary."

While Bill won the case, he was not awarded any money.  He did, however, win the Rights back to the master tapes that Rye had kept.  These were returned to Nelson by Rye just a few days before the trial started.

In Bill's own words:  "My ex-manager Mark Rye returned the tapes four days before the trial began, ending almost five years of legal action to try to recover them. He had been asked for years to return the tapes but kept insisting that they were his property. Then, right before the trial he returned them! That left very little to argue about, in fact all it left were things the lawyers had decided to address. All I initially wanted was the return of my tapes. Had he returned those tapes to me, there would have been no need to bring lawyers in. However, with lawyers being involved they found many other  issues that are still to be resolved. It was a very traumatic case. We went for two weeks solid in the high court and in the end many of the minor things the lawyers had discovered he actually got away with, there wasn't enough supporting evidence. It was all a bit wicked of him."

Q:  What's Channel Light Vessel?  How did it come about?  And where does the name come from?
A:  Channel Light Vessel is a band put together by All Saints Records. It originally started when Bill was asked to produce an album Roger Eno was doing with Kate St. John in 1992 called The Familiar. Touring in Japan to promote the album, they added zither player Laraaji and cellist Mayumi Tachibana. The group hit it off and All Saints decided that the "band" should have a name and release an album. Bill, Roger, and Kate were back in England in a pub trying to think of a name for themselves. They realized that they all enjoyed Radio 4, in particular the late night shipping forecast. Someone then suggested that one of the program's odd-sounding technical terms, Channel Light Vessel Automatic - actually an unmanned ship used by the Met Office to monitor weather conditions - would make a great name. The final word was eventually dropped as too unwieldy and used for the title of their first album instead. Channel Light Vessel released two albums, 1994's highly acclaimed "Automatic", and the equally brilliant "Excellent Spirits" from 1996.  Although a third album isn't planned yet, Bill has said in previous interviews that given the right circumstances, label-wise, there may be future recordings under the Channel Light Vessel name.  (Oddly enough in 1998 there is a band in Brighton, England who call themselves Channel Light Vessel Automatic, but alas this is not the Bill/Kate/Roger/Laraaji/Mayumi band ).

Q:  What is this Be Bop Deluxe tribute band called Sunburst Deluxe?
A:  Sunburst Deluxe is a cover band in Bill's area that performs Be Bop Deluxe songs in a manner similar with their early multimedia shows. Bill says he's never seen them, but has heard they are quite good.  Use the link above to go to Malc's web site for info on the band and future shows.

Q:  Where did the name of Bill's record company, Populuxe, come from?
A:  Populuxe is the name of a book by Thomas Hine published in 1986. The term seems to represent the type of imagery that Bill has been using in his more recent releases - kitsch 1950's and 1960's pop culture images. The book appears to be out-of-print but can be found in larger library collections.  Now with Bill's move to Discipline (DGM) it looks like the Populuxe label name has gone by the wayside.

Q:  Your Record Store does not list all the places where you can buy Bill Nelson recordings, why is that?  Aren't you just using the web site's Record Store to make money?
A:  As you can imagine, it's not cheap running a web site as big as this.  I pay for everything out of my own pocket.  Just having the website on the net every year costs several hundred dollars, and there are numerous additional costs that come up every now and then.  I don't mind, but there has to be a way to recoup my costs.  One thing I will not do is solicit donations from visitors or make people pay subscriptions for content.  The great thing about the web is that there are many companies looking for business that offer a small percentage of the business your web site refers to them.  A list of current website sponsors are listed here.  I try to choose partners carefully.  All online retailers must have secure (SSL encrypted) websites if they accept credit card orders and have decent customer service.  So if you want to support the website then feel free to do your shopping via the web through the sponsors/links/partners.  If you prefer to shop at a local music store, then that's OK as well, just as long as you're buying Bill's music.  That's the entire purpose anyway, isn't it?  A couple people have been concerned that I'm "making money off of Bill's name" - which is absurd.  The revenue generated from these partners comes out of the profit of the business supplying the service, not from Bill's royalty.  Online businesses want customers to increase market-share, go public, and have a high stock price.  Besides, if I wanted to "make money" off of an artist I would be doing something else other than hosting and maintaining a gigantic web site for a musician who sells a fraction of the CDs that the Spice Girls Backstreet Boys sell every year.  Anyway, to the question at hand.  The reason I don't list every place Bill's records are for sale is because I cannot reasonably maintain it.  I decided in early 1997 just to list partners, and if the partners didn't list the albums Bill was on then I'd indicate where they could be bought.

Any questions you'd like answered? Contact questions@billnelson.com

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