DELUXE EDITION

Enigmatic guitarist and Be Bop Deluxe founder Bill Nelson never does things by halves. He has two hefty box sets available and Tim Jones mulled over their contents with him

Bill Nelson was born in ration-era Yorkshire in 1948. His father, Walter, was a semi-pro saxophonist. By 1965, Bill, a fan of Duane Eddy and steeped in the poetry and film of Jean Cocteau, was playing rock’n’roll covers with The Cosmonauts, then The Teenagers. At Wakefield College Of Art, aged 18, Bill grooved to the psych of Moby Grape and Traffic, and organised multimedia happenings featuring balsa sculptures, foam parties and experimental music. The writing was (literally) on the wall, and when his own covers outfit, Purple Tangerine Snowflake, became infused with Christian and esoteric thought as Global Village, they cut an acetate at the local Record Bar emporium.

By 1970, he was recording at the nearby Holyground studio and joined The Messengers (later dubbed Gentle Revolution). After making a solo album in 1971, he formed Flagship, which became Be Bop Deluxe in 1972, melding glam, rock and prog for EMI’s Harvest imprint.

The band cut five studio sets by 1978, honing a “techno-rock” that would transmogrify under the influence of the new wave into Red Noise, in 1979. With EMI clearing out its roster that year, Nelson thereafter released music on his own Cocteau label (and others), and has not stopped, issuing scores of albums and numerous box sets, sometimes several a year, solo and under …

by Tim Jones
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