Be-Bop Deluxe

Biography

Be-Bop Deluxe were an English rock band who achieved critical acclaim and moderate commercial success during the mid to late 1970s.

Be-Bop Deluxe

Be-Bop Deluxe were founded in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, by singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Bill Nelson in 1972. The founding line-up consisted of Nelson, guitarist Ian Parkin, bassist and vocalist Robert Bryan, drummer Nicholas Chatterton-Dew, and keyboardist Richard Brown (who left in December of that year). They started off playing the West Yorkshire pub scene, with one regular venue being the Staging Post in Whinmoor, Leeds. They never played bebop music, but instead came out of the blues-based British rock scene of the late 1960s. At first they were compared to the more successful David Bowie, but Nelson never tried to copy Bowie, and appears to have disliked comparisons or being pigeon-holed.
After signing to EMI's Harvest Records subsidiary, the initial line-up of the band only lasted for one album, 1974's Axe Victim×Axe Victim21 June 1974 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracksA1Axe Victim5:15A2Love Is Swift Arrows4:12A3Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus4:11A4Third Floor Heaven2:28A5Night Creatures3:35B1Rocket Cathedrals3:01B2Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape3:23B3Jets at Dawn7:20B4No Trains to Heaven6:39B5Darkness (L’Immoraliste)3:22, and a short tour. It seems that the band were badly managed and were given little time for rehearsal by a cash-strapped manager, desperate to make money, with the inevitable result that, shortly after this, Nelson dissolved the band and reformed with a new line-up with bassist Paul Jeffreys, keyboardist Milton Reame-James (both formerly of Cockney Rebel), and drummer Simon Fox, the latter introduced by Reame-James to Nelson. Jeffreys and Reame-James soon departed the band, and New Zealand-born bassist-vocalist Charlie Tumahai (formerly of Australian bands Mississippi and Healing Force) joined in late 1974. This line-up recorded 1975's Futurama album (produced by Roy Thomas Baker, the then-producer for Queen) and was then supplemented by keyboardist Andrew Clark for the subsequent tour, after which Clark joined the band. This final line-up remained constant until the band's dissolution in 1978. Jeffreys died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
Stylistically, the songs took elements from progressive rock, glam rock (the band had flirted with make-up in the early days), and hard guitar rock. "Ships in the Night×Ships in the Night9 January 1976 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAShips in the Night3:36BCrying to the Sky3:55", taken from the band's third album Sunburst Finish×Sunburst FinishFebruary 1976 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracksA1Fair Exchange4:49A2Heavenly Homes3:36A3Ships in the Night4:03A4Crying to the Sky3:57A5Sleep That Burns5:17B1Beauty Secrets2:48B2Life in the Air Age4:00B3Like an Old Blues3:27B4Crystal Gazing3:24B5Blazing Apostles4:29, was their most successful single in both the UK and the US. The single features an alto saxophone solo by Ian Nelson.
The album was notably the first to be produced by EMI employee John Leckie, who had hitherto worked for the company as a recording engineer, in which capacity he had served on Axe Victim, which he also in effect produced. Leckie would go on to produce all the subsequent Be-Bop Deluxe and Bill Nelson's Red Noise albums for Harvest, including the proposed Red Noise album Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam that Harvest refused to release. Nelson shared producing credits with Leckie from Drastic Plastic onward.
The first three Be-Bop Deluxe albums are all, in one way or another, named after guitars. "Axe" is slang for a guitar, "Futurama×FuturamaMay 1975 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Stage Whispers3:05A2Love With the Madman3:12A3Maid in Heaven2:26A4Sister Seagull3:36A5Sound Track6:15B1Music in Dreamland4:45B2Jean Cocteau2:53B3Between the Worlds3:18B4Swan Song6:04" is a particular make of guitar, while "Sunburst Finish" refers to a style of finishing for the instrument.
The title track of the fourth album, Modern Music×Modern MusicSeptember 1976 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 15 tracksA1Orphans of Babylon3:11A2Twilight Capers4:26A3Kiss of Light3:20A4The Bird Charmer’s Destiny1:35A5The Gold at the End of My Rainbow3:50A6Bring Back the Spark3:37B1Modern Music3:40B2Dancing in the Moonlight (All Alone)2:10B3Honeymoon on Mars1:17B4Lost in the Neon World0:50B5Dance of the Uncle Sam Humanoids2:03B6Modern Music (reprise)1:50B7Forbidden Lovers5:00B8Down on Terminal Street3:57B9Make the Music Magic1:50, was a ten-minute suite of songs inspired by the experience of the band's touring the US. This was followed by the 1977 live album, Live! in the Air Age×Live! In the Air AgeJuly 1977 · Album · LiveSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks · 2 discsDisc 1A1Life in the Air Age4:21A2Ships in the Night3:38A3Piece of Mine5:05A4Fair Exchange5:05D1Mill Street Junction4:45D2Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape6:00D3Blazing Apostles6:33Disc 2B1Shine9:18C1Sister Seagull3:30C2Maid in Heaven2:25, recorded on the subsequent UK tour promoting Modern Music although no songs from that studio album appeared on the live one, apart from a tantalizing snippet of the audience singing along to "Down on Terminal Street". That recording – now featuring the song in its entirety – and a number of other live Modern Music tracks finally surfaced on 2011's five-CD set Futurist Manifesto.
1978's Drastic Plastic, recorded at Juan-Les-Pins in the South of France with influences of punk, new wave, and David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, was a substantial stylistic change from the progressive/guitar rock of the early Be-Bop Deluxe. Eager to embrace the changing musical landscape, Nelson dissolved Be-Bop Deluxe.
The band appeared three times on the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, performing a total of six songs, and once on Top of the Pops, with their 1976 single, "Ships in the Night". For the band's Sight & Sound concert in 1978, the setlist was made up entirely of tracks from the Drastic Plastic album.

After Be-Bop Deluxe

Immediately thereafter, Nelson formed a new band, Bill Nelson's Red Noise, retaining Andy Clark on keyboards, and adding his brother Ian on saxophone, in which capacity the latter had previously contributed to "Ships in the Night×Ships in the Night9 January 1976 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAShips in the Night3:36BCrying to the Sky3:55". An album followed. Nelson has subsequently released numerous albums and singles under his own name, frequently playing all instruments himself.
Nelson planned a four-guitarist, two-drummer band in the 1990s with his brother, but it never materialised; in 1992, Nelson released his own demos for this band as Blue Moons & Laughing Guitars on Virgin. In 1995, former Be-Bop Deluxe members Ian Parkin and Charlie Tumahai both died. In February, 2003, Bill was asked to open the new East Coast Music Academy in Grimsby, where he met Nick Dew. This led to an invitation for Nick to play drums in 'The Lost Satellites' at the October 2003 'Nelsonica' Fan Convention held at the Duke of Cumberland pub in North Ferriby. In 2004, Sound on Sound magazine, whose website hosts Nelson's online shop and is named after Red Noise's Sound-on-Sound album, put up the money for Nelson to take his seven-piece band Bill Nelson and the Lost Satellites, originally formed to play the 2002 Nelsonica convention, on tour around the UK as The Be Bop Deluxe and Beyond Tour. The drummer for the tour was Nick Dew who, under the name Nicholas Chatterton-Dew, had played with Be-Bop Deluxe in the early days. The sax player was Ian Nelson, who died two years later in 2006.
Nelson subsequently put together the seven-piece Bill Nelson and the Gentlemen Rocketeers, which included Dave Sturt (bass) and Theo Travis (assorted woodwind, brass), and, once again, Nick Dew on drums, to play songs with vocals from the extensive Be-Bop Deluxe/Bill Nelson back catalogue at his annual Nelsonica event in Yorkshire. In March 2011, the band played live to cameras at Metropolis Studios, London. Initially released on DVD, the resultant video and audio recording has subsequently been reissued on other formats including CD and LP. However, having signed away his rights to these recordings, Nelson has made no money on any of the Metropolis Studios releases.
In 2011, EMI upgraded the Be-Bop Deluxe catalogue with remasters by Peter Mew. EMI and Bill Nelson chose to include all of the band's albums, single edits, and B-sides as part of this release with the exception of the pre-Axe Victim, independently released Smile single "Teenage Archangel×Teenage Archangel1973 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksATeenage Archangel3:30BJets at Dawn6:50" / "Jets At Dawn". Although Nelson did not supervise the release, he gave final approval on the remasters and agreed to provide a disc of rarities to help sell the set, if EMI paid him royalties on the release. The two Smile tracks can be found on the compilation Postcards from the Future... Introducing Be-Bop Deluxe (2004) and Nelson's 40-year career retrospective, eight CD set, The Practice of Everyday Life (2011).
Despite Be-Bop Deluxe's commercial success, Bill Nelson stated that he had never received royalties for the earlier CD release of his back catalog on EMI until the 2011 CD reissue/remaster of his back catalogue.
Between 2018 and 2022, Cherry Red Records' subsidiary Esoteric Recordings, who had been rolling out re-releases of Nelson's back catalogue for many of his releases between 1981 and 2002 with the 8-CD compilation The Practice of Everyday Life which covered 40 years of recordings, including the Be-Bop Deluxe period, released expanded, multiple CD versions of the Be-Bop Deluxe albums and the Bill Nelson's Red Noise album, having acquired the rights from EMI.
In the fall of 2024, it was reported in forums on drumforum.com and billnelson.com that Simon Fox had died in mid-September of that year at the age of 75.

Musical style

Be-Bop Deluxe were initially a glam rock band that incorporated elements of progressive rock, blues, and folk rock into their musical style. After the band received unfavourable comparisons to the music of David Bowie, leader Bill Nelson initiated a shift in the band's style to emphasise a more experimental sound. This new sound has been classified as art rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, pop rock, and progressive pop. With their final album, Drastic Plastic×Drastic PlasticFebruary 1978 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Electrical Language4:47A2New Precision4:39A3New Mysteries4:44A4Surreal Estate4:59A5Love in Flames4:08B1Panic in the World5:02B2Dangerous Stranger3:04B3Superenigmatix2:10B4Visions of Endless Hopes2:22B5Japan2:38B6Possession2:35B7Islands of the Dead3:43, Be-Bop Deluxe again expanded their style to include influences of new wave music. Science fiction imagery was common in the lyrics, along with the more traditional themes of love and the human condition.

Members

Bill Nelson – lead guitar, lead vocals, keyboards (1972–1978)
Robert Bryan – bass, backing and lead vocals (1972–1974)
Nicholas Chatterton-Dew – drums, backing vocals, percussion (1972–1974)
Ian Parkin – rhythm and acoustic guitars, organ (1972–1974; died 1995)
Richard Brown – keyboards (1972)
Simon Fox – drums, percussion (1974–1978; died 2024)
Paul Jeffreys – bass (1974; died 1988)
Milton Reame-James – keyboards (1974)
Charlie Tumahai – bass, backing vocals (1974–1978; died 1995)
Andrew Clark – keyboards (1975–1978)

DVDs

Picture House (2010) [Bill Nelson] Nelsonica convention DVD includes Be-Bop Deluxe in the South of France, Nelson's video diary shot during the Drastic Plastic sessions Visuluxe
Be-Bop Deluxe at the BBC 1974–78 (2013) 3-CD + DVD box set of previously unreleased material + material from Tramcar to Tomorrow (most tracks) and Tremulous Antenna (all tracks) + televised performances EMI
Classic Rock Magazine Legends Bill Nelson and the Gentlemen Rocketeers filmed live at Metropolis Studios (2011) [Bill Nelson and the Gentlemen Rocketeers] performance of songs from Be-Bop Deluxe/Bill Nelson's back catalogue ITV Studios Home Entertainment