Month: June 2020

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Bill Nelson – ‘Chimera’ and ‘Savage Gestures for Charms Sake’

Two Bill Nelson releases hailing from 1983, both of the mini-album variety that was so very much in vogue at the time. The first of these, ‘Chimera’, capped off Bill’s short but highly productive two year stint with Mercury records, the second, ‘Savage Gestures for Charms Sake’, saw the return to Cocteau Records as a going commercial concern once more. Both very enjoyable in their own way, they were later brought together on a single Cocteau Records CD for re-issue before later being being split apart again with ‘Chimera’ upgraded to a single CD expanded edition in 2005, while ‘Savage Gestures for Charms Sake’, other than a long since deleted stand-alone re-issue on CD in 1989, currently languishes in the wastelands. First up…

‘Chimera’

Bill Nelson - 'Chimera' UK mini album front cover design
^ Bill Nelson – ‘Chimera’ UK mini album front cover design

It has an unusual back story, this album. Recorded late 1982 at The Garden and Riverside Studios, it apparently started life with the intention of being a bridging four track EP between 1982’s ‘The Love That Whirls’ album and the next intended full-length album, but ended up a six track mini-album released around the time the intended album should have been with the addition of two extra tracks. (Production work for amongst others Gary Numan and The Units got in the way…) Continue reading “Bill Nelson – ‘Chimera’ and ‘Savage Gestures for Charms Sake’”

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Human League – ‘Only After Dark’ West German 7″ (Virgin, 102 148-100, 1980)

‘Only After Dark’ should have been the second single released from the ‘Travelogue’ album in the UK – and indeed copies were pressed up, complete with a long version of ‘Toyota City’ on the B side, catalogue number VS351. But it appears that it was a record company choice and so much to the displeasure of the band that they objected to its release (as told in the wonderful Blind Youth website). Instead, Virgin went with the re-press and re-release of ‘Empire State Human’ instead (and also on 12″ too this time) with the same VS351 catalogue number as ‘Only After Dark’ and shrink-wrapped copies of that and ‘Only After Dark’ together as another value for money double-pack limited edition (15,000, apparently) like the ‘Holiday ’80’ EP before it. That’s the version I bought anyway and I must admit, I never realised that officially it was ‘Empire State Human’ as the lead single – I always assumed it was ‘Only After Dark’.

Human League - 'Only After Dark' West German 7" front cover design
^ Human League – ‘Only After Dark’ West German 7″ front cover design

Continue reading “Human League – ‘Only After Dark’ West German 7″ (Virgin, 102 148-100, 1980)”

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Kraftwerk – ‘Computer World’ (Pathe-Marconi EMI, 2C 070 64370, 1981)

The French edition of Kraftwerk’s wonderful ‘Computer World’ album of 1981 is unique for its inclusion of ‘Mini Calculateur’, the en française rendition of ‘Pocket Calculator’. This is one of the four language variants of the song officially released on vinyl, the others being German, English and Japanese. The band also recorded an Italian language version (‘Mini Calcolatore’) and performed it in 1981 on the RAI television show ‘Discoring‘, but this language mix was not released on record. A pity, as it sounds great. (There have been additional live performance variations too, but these were the recorded ones.)

Kraftwerk - 'Computer World' Pathe-Marconi EMI French vinyl LP, 1981 - front sleeve design.
^ Kraftwerk – ‘Computer World’ Pathe-Marconi EMI French vinyl LP, 1981 – front sleeve design.

Continue reading “Kraftwerk – ‘Computer World’ (Pathe-Marconi EMI, 2C 070 64370, 1981)”

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Gary Numan ’80/81′ Box Set – Discs 3, 4 and 5: ‘Living Ornaments 81’

In the first part of this look at the ’80/81′ box set, the focus was on discs one and two, which spread the ‘Telekon’ studio album across a couple of individually packaged LPs. The remainder of the box finds the 1981 Wembley ‘farewell concerts’ documented by way of the ‘Living Ornaments 81’ album – its only appearance on vinyl to date.

Those 1981 farewell shows are a well established part of the Numan folklore of course. I was still too young to have attended any concerts back in 1981. Instead, it was all lived vicariously through the pages of the music press and the likes of the Numan-sympathetic one-off SynRock fanzine, as well as the immediately preceding ‘Living Ornaments 79 and 80’ box set, which I lavished no small amount of several weeks pocket money on. A few months later came the airing on BBC1 TV (Sunday 6th September 1981) of some highlights from the video recording of the show. Despite being condensed down to only 40 minutes in length, this was A Very Big Deal Indeed for me, in an era of only three television channels airing in the UK. Having to compete with the rest of the family and their viewing pleasures – and with no video recorder yet – was no mean feat. The complete show would be released in full form in 1982 on the oddly named ‘Micromusic’ home video cassette and from which this live recording is derived.

Gary Numan '80/81' Box Set - Disc 3 - 'Living Ornaments 81' sleeve front cover
^ Gary Numan ’80/81′ Box Set – Disc 3 – ‘Living Ornaments 81’ sleeve front cover

Continue reading “Gary Numan ’80/81′ Box Set – Discs 3, 4 and 5: ‘Living Ornaments 81’”