Following last year's 'Six Strings For Sara', Bill Nelson has written and produced another new song to aid a children's Cancer charity.
The suitably tuneful 'A Million Whistling Milkmen' is available now and can be downloaded in FLAC or mp3 formats. All proceeds from the song's sale will go to the Sara's Hope Foundation. 
Back from my hols, with a new job and my PC muthafuddaboard temporarily coming back to life - I guess I've got no excuse not to continue on with this blog... So much rubbish to write, so little time and so few readers... Hell, here's a 15 second run through to bring things up to date since my last post:
Start new job. Take a well earned holiday! Jump on a plane - > Austin - "Don't Mess With Texas"/ Millions of bats/ Fantastic Fest: The Tingler!/ Estomago/ The Good The Bad And The Weird/ Austin City Limits: David Byrne/ Bobby Bare Jr (twice!)/ John Fogerty/ CSS/ Gnarls Barclay/ Beck and The Foo Fighters -> Dallas: 'JFK blown away'/ Longhorns -> NYC - Happily drunk in a Brooklyn bar watching Biden vs Palin/ Up close in Jesse Malin's intimate new Bowery club whilst his 'spoken word' + songs concert goes on and on and on for the cameras.../ -> Back to Blighty. Back to work :-(
Sigh, the clocks go back soon. Darkness and the recession are coming. Nothing much to look forward to now except Christmas... Hold on a minute, there's Nelsonica 2008 in York on November 1st - better than Christmas for Bill Nelson fans! Yay!
'Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images'
- Jean Cocteau
It's a quote that I often say to myself after waking up in the morning and taking a look in the bathroom mirror. Uggh, not a pretty sight. I can't help the fact that, as a child, I fell out of the ugly tree and hit several branches on the way down. Beauty is supposedly perceived in the eye of the beholder - when I look in the mirror all I can see is someone who looks like Rondo Hatton.
Perhaps though I can be helped? Trinny and Susannah could give me a style makeover, and Gok Wan could make me look good naked! I could get my eyelids lifted or have a botox injection. A little touch up and a little paint and I could be a thing of beauty, a joy forever. Albeit a fake one.
Ladies and Gentlemen, set the dials on your time machine for November 1st 2008 - Nelsonica 08.
Before then, out now - two new instrumental albums have just materialised; Silvertone Fountains and Illuminated At Dusk are available at Bill Nelson's Online store
www.billnelson.com
Time for some very obscure Bill Nelson... From 1996, here's the video he made for a spooky song called Tender Vampire by Russian band Nautilus Pompilius.
Bill acted as producer and played most of the instruments on the album from which Tender Vampire came. As far as I know it was never released outside of Russia, so hearing this song now is a nice treat for a Nelson completist/anorak like myself.
www.billnelson.com
I don't know what's worse, sitting here all bunged up, suffering from 'Man Flu' or the thought of Bruce Springsteen playing at the Emirates Stadium next May (tickets already on pre-sale to Arse*@| members!)? Sigh. I will of course end up going, despite the venue being the home of the Gooners. Seeing Bruce and the E Street Band so close to home, on what may be their last tour together, is something I can't miss.
Still, here's something to make me feel better, a shot in the arm courtesy of Bill Nelson over in sunny Dreamsville...
You can now download two new tracks for FREE - the first is Contemplation (2007), a great re-recording of a classic Nelson song that originally appeared as a lo-fi demo/session track on the BBC Radio 1 'Kid Jenson' show in the early eighties. The song was subsequently re-worked and became a 10 minute epic that was released on the Getting The Holy Ghost Across album in 1986. The new 2007 incarnation of Contemplation was designed initially as a backing track guide for the song's performance at Nelsonica 07 last month, however Bill has now made it available as a full studio version with added guitars and vocal. For free! And as if that wasn't cool enough, there's also...
The Dreamsville Poetry Experiment - An interesting experiment involving an artist and his fans! Bill has set to music a 69 line 'found' poem, with each random, unconnected, line contributed by a different Dreamsville forum member*. When I first heard about this a few months ago I thought that it would end up being a load of incoherent pretentious claptrap, with fans providing awful lines of poetry that would make a spotty 14 year old blush. Well I've got to say that the end result of the experiment is actually pretty neat, thanks to Bill sprinkling his magic music dust over the often bizarre collection of words and phrases. Bill recites the 'poem' over an amazingly atmospheric musical piece, it's like a transmission across space and time. The Dreamsville Poetry Experiment has spawned a strange and dissonant baby. * (Personally, I like line 38 the best ;-))
As mentioned above, both tracks are FREE! Download page
From the Bill Nelson forum:
"A new charity called 'The Sara's Hope Foundation' has been set up by Ged Hoburn and his family. It was set up in the memory of their daughter, Sara, who tragically lost her battle with colon cancer in 2001 at the age of 16. Inspired by Sara's strength, warmth and positivity, her family and close friends are raising funds to build and run a holiday retreat in the sun for children facing similar battles and emotions.
From November 26th, an exclusive instrumental track written and recorded by Bill Nelson entitled 'Six Strings For Sara' will be available for download."
Update 2nd Jan 2008: You can buy the track NOW from musiczeit. The cost of the download is just £4.99 for mp3 format or £5.99 for flac format. ALL the proceeds go to the Sara's Hope Foundation.
Tomorrow I'll be in York for the 7th annual official Bill Nelson fan convention - the appropriately named Nelsonica 07 ('Secret Club For Members Only').
I first got into Bill's music when I bought Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam in 1981. It turned out that I was a late starter, he had already released seven studio albums by then - five of which were with his band Be Bop Deluxe. I had a lot to catch up on.
Here's a rare video clip from 1978 - a live performance of a track from Drastic Plastic, the last (and my favourite) Be Bop Deluxe album. At this point Bill had moved away from his earlier glam and prog rock leanings. He was now driving his retro Sci-Fi tram into angular 'New Wave' territory. Bill was challenging his longtime fan base for whom he'd been a 'guitar-hero'. The fabulous noodley guitar solos had gone! Well almost, here he sneaks a nice one in at the end...
Bill Nelson's first CD release of 2007 is a new instrumental album called Gleaming Without Lights. From Bill's online diary:
This album is centred around the almost 40 minute long soundtrack that I created for the 'Memory Codex' autobiographical video which was screened at last year's Nelsonica. The title of the piece is 'Dreamland Illuminated.' To make up the rest of the album I've recorded some new instrumentals that compliment the soundtrack.
I've also decided the album's running order, which is as follows:
1: 'Gleaming Without Lights.'
2: 'North-East.'
3: 'Rialto.'
4: 'Billy Builds The World Of Tomorrow.'
5: 'Glittering Rails.'
6: 'Dreamland Illuminated.'
7. 'Pilgrim (Fantasia On A Distantly Remembered Hymn.)'
--------------------------------------------------------------
The entire album is instrumental and electric guitar oriented, falling somewhere between the 'Dreamland To Starboard' and 'Neptune's Galaxy' album stylings. I've also added extra textural details to the 'Dreamland Illuminated' piece that were originally absent from the Memory Codex soundtrack recording.
This isn't a 'major statement' album but an interesting side-project, a pleasant diversion which will only be manufactured in limited quantities.
Gleaming Without Lights is available via the Dreamsville website (Note: the first sample doesn't appear properly using IE7 but it does using Firefox (see sidebar)).
I've just played the album through a couple of times and very nice it is too. Given the length of 'Dreamland Illuminated' you really have to be able to take some uninterrupted time out to appreciate it. It's not something you can listen to on a commute to work or with the kids running about. Slow down, fill a glass of wine, put your headphones on and press play...
Christmas has come early for Bill Nelson fans. Bill's 1986 album Getting The Holy Ghost Across has just been freed from the Sony vaults and released for the first time ever on CD. It's been worth the wait.
For the uninitiated, GTHGA originally appeared in several guises; Firstly there was the 10 track UK vinyl release and a cassette version that had an additional 7 tracks. These extra tracks were then issued on vinyl as the Living For The Spangled Moment EP. However, for censorship reasons the U.S. vinyl version was renamed On A Blue Wing and given different artwork - apparently some Christian fundamentalist groups objected to the album's title and the esoteric symbolism and occult, masonic scripts on the cover. To confuse the issue further the U.S. album also had a slightly different set of tracks to the UK version!
Now, 20 years later, everything has been put right at last. The new fabulously sounding remastered CD is called Getting The Holy Ghost Across (On A Blue Wing). It has a newly designed cover that is in the spirit of the original and most importantly it contains the full set of 17 tracks + an additional b side track for good measure.
Track List
1. Suvasini, 2. Contemplation, 3. Theology, 4. Wildest Dreams, 5. Lost In Your Mystery, 6. Rise Like A Fountain, 7. Age Of Reason, 8. The Hidden Flame, 9. Because Of You, 10. Pansophia. Bonus Tracks: 11. Heart And Soul, 12. Living For The Spangled Moment, 13. Feast Of Lanterns, 14. Illusions Of You, 15. Word For Word, 16. Finks And Stooges Of The Spirit, 17. Nightbirds, 18. The Yo-Yo Dyne.
Get the Holy Ghost now from www.billnelson.com (samples) and all good online retailers.
Going now like hot cakes on the Bill Nelson website are his two new CDs:
Arcadian Salon (samples) and
Return to jazz of lights (samples)
On Saturday I took the train up to York for this year's Bill Nelson fan convention, Nelsonica 2006, held at the Hilton hotel.
I met up with, er.. let's just call him The Miltman (aka SM23) and lager's in hand we headed straight for the merchandise stall to pick up Bill's latest CD Return to jazz of lights (The Miltman also wanted to buy a T-Shirt but apparently size L wasn't big enough for him).
All prepared and a few quid lighter, we squeezed into the packed main function room and tried to get a view of the stage. 
The timetabled events kicked off with Bill being interviewed about his songwriting methods by Simon Warner of Leeds University. Bill then gave an interesting presentation about his guitar playing technique and some of the guitarists who have influenced him; take a bow Chet Atkins and jazzy Joe Pass!
After a tribute to Bill's late brother Ian it was time for the main event...
A good 90+ minutes solo instrumental guitar performance set, with lots of new material. Bill's complicated jazzy sci-fi noodlings were staggering to watch close up. Theo Travis (flute, sax), Dave Sturt (bass) and Steve Cook (keyboards) joined in towards the end with some 'challenging' off-beat improvisation.
The evening drew to a close with an entertaining auction of paintings and guitars - and the prize draw - from which I won the last, minor prize: a signed original poster from the film Dream Demon (the film may have sucked but Bill's soundtrack was good). It's nice to win something at last but I'm not sure where I'm going to stick the bloomin' thing (suggestions welcome).
This was the best Nelsonica event yet. Roll on next year... and perhaps Nelsonica USA?
'Are all my brain and body need'.
Well Mr Dury I'm about to get the Rock 'n' Roll portion at least.
I'm still feeling a bit nonplussed about Ryan Adams' performance on Sunday but it's now time for me to get ready for the following upcoming musical delights:
I was thinking of learning to play the guitar but after seeing this I don't think I'll bother. It's best to leave it to the experts. Stunning.
One of the unexpected side effects of no longer working is that I've been hit by what feels like a form of jet lag. It's almost as if my body and mind have now decided to run on reduced power. For the last 6 years or so I've always complained of being permanently tired; Something that even a good night's sleep never seemed to resolve. Perhaps now that I've stopped commuting, writing pointless emails and worrying about work to be done, my brain has dropped me into power save mode. I'm hoping that this will be a short period of repair from which I shall emerge fully refreshed, no longer feeling like one of the undead.
I'm not sleeping any more than I was before but I am sleeping deeper. Quality sleep. I used to wake up in the morning and feel like I hadn't even been to bed. Now I'm struggling to escape from the land of nod and when I do it's nice to know that I can stay snuggled under the duvet for a while, not having to rush for the train. Another good thing is that I'm dreaming now, vividly. I've never been someone who can remember their dreams (apart from a previously recurring one with an Uncle Sam dwarf under my bed), now though I can recall flashes; People and places I know and don't know, mixed together and strangely sexual. DYDIC? Don't ask, it's all fragmented subconscious and hard to nail down. You would have thought, in this day and age of technological wonders, that you should be able to download your dreams onto a memory card and play them back on a HD TV. Wouldn't that be something? TV of the future; No scripts or actors required, no adverts, nothing fake anymore. Real, pure, dangerous thought, widescreen 3D, 24x7.
Had any good dreams lately?
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her
Behind the wall of sleep
(The Smithereens)
There's no doubt that CDs and now downloaded music files are great but... remember vinyl LPs? Sure they became warped and got scratched but they often had cool artwork and packaging. Coloured vinyl, lyric sheets, Gatefold sleeves, all made LPs worth collecting and gave you something to enjoy without even having to play them. You don't get the same feeling with CDs. I least I don't.
Back in the mid-80s a magazine called Video World often ran adverts in the back for 'naughty' videos, all of which were of course subject to the strict British Censorship (I mean certification) of the time. One of the ad's ran this picture of 'Margaret'. Personally it wasn't the thought of tacky Brit VHS erotica that interested me about the picture, it was the LP cover on the settee!
All of these years I've believed it to be a rear view of the obscure The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything by Bill Nelson. This double LP collection of b sides and 4 track demo tapes is not the sort of thing I'd strip my clothes off to - even if I was being videoed. I guess I'll never know whether it is that LP or not. This will remain one of life's little mysteries. Perhaps, even now, over 20 years later, 'Margaret' is playing it on her music centre turntable. Just a little fantasy of mine.
Sad to hear news this week of the passing of Ian Nelson.
Way back in 1975, a young Ian played saxophone on Be Bop Deluxe's Ships In The Night. He then went on to play many times on his brother Bill Nelson's work, most notably on the Red Noise Sound on Sound album and on Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam. His catchy sax solo on Do You Dream In Colour? helped QDAGOTB reach no. 7 in the UK album chart. In the early 80's Ian became one 3rd of Fiat Lux, a band I was lucky enough to see play at my University.
Ian continued to collaborate with Bill and perform with him over the years. I particularly remember their magical performance at the Notre Dame De France church in London and Ian's contribution to the recent Be Bop Deluxe and Beyond Tour in 2004. It's hard to believe he won't be heard playing any more new music.
Spinning in my CD Player last night...
In 2003, hot on the heals of Bill Nelson's vast 6 CD Noise Candy release, came Whimsy. This album from the ever-prolific Mr Nelson is a magical set of songs.
Recorded in Bill's digitally upgraded home studio it is a bright and breezy 2CD collection of 40 tracks. There's so much going on in each of them that, at first, it's a little hard to take it all in. Multiple Keyboards and Guitars fly around Bill's vocals and samples and initially it can make your head spin. On subsequent listens however it all sinks in.
From the beauty of songs like 'Slumberlite' and 'Here We Go', through the fun of 'Magnetism Made Me Do It' and 'The Fundamental Blues', all the way to the epic 'Over the Moon' and final cool instrumental 'Close Your Eyes'. This is a great collection of whimsical summery sounds. Nothing too serious and that's fine by me.
As December draws to a snowy close, TV and Newspapers reflect back on the highlights and lowlights of the last 12 months. I'm just sticking to my personal highlights and peccadilloes. Lowlights? There are too many to rant about. Ranting is for other bloggers.
As I'm writing this I'm finding that my choices may be skewed towards the latter months of this year due to an aging brain. Well, memory permitting, here are my some of my favourite things that helped recharge my batteries in 2005...
Music
Albums
Cold Roses - Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
My #1 pick of the year. This double CD was the first of three new albums that Ryan released in 2005. I prefer it to Jacksonville City Nights and 29. His standard of songwriting and performance on Cold Roses is above anything I've heard for a long time.
and in no particular order...
Demon Days - Gorillaz
Damon Albarn's cartoon pals smart indie/trip-hop/dance fusion.
If You'd Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry - Marah
Yet another strong album from the best band nobody knows.
As Is Now - Paul Weller
Nice to see the Modfather wake up and produce something with a bit of life.
EP - The Fiery Furnaces
Art pop at it's best.
Born To Run 30th Anniversary Edition - Bruce Springsteen
A great re-issue of possibly the best album of all time.
From Croydon To Cuba - Kirsty MacColl
A great 3CD anthology/monument to Kirsty's songwriting and beautiful voice.
Songs
I Predict A Riot - The Kaiser Chiefs
The most infectious, makes you want to leap about, song of the year.
Reno - Bruce Springsteen
The song 'banned' by Starbucks. A moving, graphic tale of a man's visit to a prostitute whilst he thinks about his lost love. Stunning.
Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) - Eels
One of those songs you can't get out of your head. From E's good but sprawling Blinking Lights and Other Revelations album.
Tin Sings Bones - Bill Nelson
A great catchy pop tune with super noodly guitar work. From the limited edition (sold out) album Orpheus In Ultraland.
Gigs
Bruce Springsteen @ Philadelphia and Atlantic City
I was lucky enough to see Bruce play 7 times on this solo tour. Were these best of those shows? Maybe not, but to hear extreme rarities Used Cars, Drive All Night, Santa Ana and Thundercrack played was, for me at any rate, a thrilling experience.
Wilco @ Hammersmith Apollo
Jeff Tweedy and the troops proved to me that their last two albums are better than I thought they were.
The Saw Doctors @ Shepherds Bush Empire
Joyus, life-affirming entertainment.
Chas and Dave @ The 100 Club
As good as I hoped they would be. It's great they are now getting the recognition they deserve.
The Wedding Present @ The Forum
I really enjoyed this, probably more than old Weddoes fans who wanted to hear more of their older material.
Marah @ The Barfly
An 'acoustic' show with just Dave, Serge and Kirk. Whilst still a loud and rocking performance, not having drums and an extra guitarist in the mix highlighted the musical and lyrical subtleties of their songs.
The Breeders @ Blackheath Halls
Reformed to celebrate an anniversary of 4AD records, they really seemed to enjoy themselves. A great focused show and much better than the last time I saw them when it seemed like they were on another planet.
Sport
England Cricket Team - Ashes Cricket victory over Australia
A titanic battle. We finally beat the Aussies! Nuff said.
Wigan Athletic - English Football Premiership
Newly promoted this year, their attitude and performance has been a breath of fresh air to a Chelski dominated league.
Tottenham Hostpur - English Football Premiership
Amazingly Spurs are still 4th as I type, despite playing worse than last year! IF they can get Ledley King fit again soon then they have got a good chance of qualifying for Europe.
