# Nelsonica 06



## mad_librarian (Jan 30, 2005)

Just back from the Nelsonica 06 gig at the Hilton, York. Did any other RLT-ers go? Fab mix of live music from the ex-Be Bop Deluxe guitar hero and electrical bleep genius, video, interview and meet and greet. Bill Nelson has been a hero of mine since I heard "Maid in Heaven" in the mid 70's. The guy is THE unsung british guitar player/composer of the last 30 years.

There is a Be Bop Deluxe album, "Modern Music" (1976) on which album cover Bill ostentatiously sports a wristwatch/mini-tv...I asked Bill about this and he told me that it was purpose designed and crafted for the photo-shoot by the same guys who built the Daleks for the BBC! Non-functional and purely a prop. Nice though.

Bill was wearing a cool looking japanese digiwatch - couldn't quite make out what it was altho he did show me.


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

Never heard of Nelsonica.







Glad to hear he is still making money though. I don't have any Be-Bop stuff but I have got an '80s album of Bill's "Quit dreaming and get on the beam" which is excellent and the single from it "Living in my limousine" has the best picture sleeve ever.


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## raketakat (Sep 24, 2003)

Hey up. It's Bill from Wakey







.

I have most of his stuff up to the "Do you dream in colour?" single.

I think he started with the "Northern Dream" L.P. on Smile records







.

I saw Be Bop Deluxe a few times, Red Noise once, and the last time was in Huddersfield around 1980.

He, and his saxophonist brother, were playing music while Jean Paul Cocteau's surrealist films were projected on a screen.

I enjoyed the beer







.

A nice, stylish guitarist. He turned his back on his heavy rock fanbase and went "ambient".

Red Noise were his 'new wave' band and he played only chords. I remember him doing a tiny bit of single string playing at that concert.

The cheers nearly took roof oft City Hall







.

I suppose he was brave to say bollocks to the smelly, 'eavy metal fans and move on.

I've not any of his recent stuff. Is it any good Mad







?


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## mad_librarian (Jan 30, 2005)

Quit Dreaming...is a classic. Bill has a nostalgic bent and his album covers/songs post Be-Bop Deluxe are smattered with classic 50s iconography - rocket ships, impossible cars, cityscapes, dreamhomes, atom age stuff.

Bill's output since the 80s has largely been self-released material comprising both instrumental and vocal albums with varying degrees of accessibility. Safe to say though there is always something interesting to listen to with his trademark guitar "voice" to the fore. For Yorkshire folk I can recommend 2005's "The Alchemical Adventures of Sailor Bill" - a coastal song suite by Bill and his Lighthouse Signal Mechanism Orchestra. Truly epic, with great songs influenced by childhood holidays to the Yorkshire coast.

There is a pre-Christmas first time on CD release of the great "lost" album from the 80s - "Getting the Holy Ghost Across" - one of my all time fave albums and the last major deal release Bill had.

Very sadly, Ian Nelson, Bill's younger brother, saxophonist and mainstay of 80s band Fiat Lux, passed away earlier this year.

Red Noise - I wish I had seen them!!! Art/Empire/Industry - rocks!

You can check out Bill at his Dreamsville website.


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## raketakat (Sep 24, 2003)

mad_librarian said:


> Very sadly, Ian Nelson, Bill's younger brother, saxophonist and mainstay of 80s band Fiat Lux, passed away earlier this year.
> 
> Red Noise - I wish I had seen them!!! Art/Empire/Industry - rocks!


I didn't know Ian had died







.

Those brown uniforms with a red disc on the chest were silly







.

I didn't realize that Dave Mattocks was the Red Noise drummer







.

He must have played on thousands of sessions, and filled the chair at the back with quite a few groups, over the decades







.


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

Be-Bop Deluxe ... that's a name I haven't heard for a long time









I have the Sunburst Finish album on vinyl; probably with at my mothers with all my other gems from the 1970's!

Sounds like you had a god day


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## mad_librarian (Jan 30, 2005)

Yep, it was brill....sublime guitar playing/tune-smithing and getting to meet the guy and chat about watches....bonus.

There's a thread on the billnelson.com website about Bill's Watch to which he contributes. Apparently he's a watch collector too. He was sporting a nifty, inexpensive digiwatch from tokyoflash. Given his predilection for 50s americana I can imagine he has a few Venturas stashed away


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