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Futurama (1975, 35.35) ****½/TStage WhispersLove With the Madman Maid in Heaven Sister Seagull Sound Track Music in Dreamland Jean Cocteau Between the Worlds Swan Song |
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Sunburst Finish (1976, 39.53) ****½/T |
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| Fair Exchange Heavenly Homes Ships in the Night Crying to the Sky Sleep That Burns Beauty Secrets Life in the Air-Age Like an Old Blues |
Crystal Gazing Blazing Apostles |
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Radioland: BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert [a.k.a. Tremulous Antenna] (1994, recorded 1976/78, 77.26) ****/TT½ |
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| Life in the Air Age Sister Seagull Third Floor Heaven Blazing Apostles Maid in Heaven Kiss of Light Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape Fair Exchange Ships in the Night |
Modern Music/Dancing in the Moonlight/ Honeymoon on Mars/Lost in the Neon World/ Modern Music (Reprise) New Precision Superenigmatix Possession Dangerous Stranger Island of the Dead Panic in the World |
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At the BBC 1974-1978 [Disc 1] (2013, 51.25) ****/T½ |
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| Third Floor Heaven Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape Mill Street Junction 15th of July Maid in Heaven Stage Whispers Sister Seagull Lights |
Life in the Air Age Sister Seagull Ships in the Night Maid in Heaven Third Floor Heaven Blazing Apostles |
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Mellotrons used:
Be-Bop Deluxe were a rather excellent band who never did as well as they should've, falling through several gaps, although, of course, this can occasionally work in a band's favour. Be-Bop weren't really prog enough for the prog crowd, heavy enough for the rock fraternity or arty enough for the Roxy/Bowiephiles, although the last is where their allegiances probably really lay. Led by the charismatic Bill Nelson, Be-Bop had an almost complete lineup change between their first two albums, Axe Victim (***½) and Futurama.
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Futurama is a superb piece of work, pieced together lovingly by Nelson, who plays all guitars (and there are a LOT of guitars) and keys. There isn't a duff track to be heard, from the opening killer punch of Stage Whispers on, particular highlights including Between The Worlds and live faves Maid In Heaven and Sister Seagull. The care and attention taken over the recording brings contemporaneous Queen to mind, so it's no surprise that Roy Thomas Baker produces here, too, although I wouldn't want to get involved in an argument over whether Nelson or Brian May was the more innovative player. Closer Swan Song features what I at first took to be real voices, though I'm now fairly certain they're Mellotron, probably multi-overdubbed male voices, though it's hard to tell. While it's not exactly a central part of the album's sound, this is a 'must-own' record, if you have any interest in the era whatsoever.
It wasn't until Be-Bop's third album, Sunburst Finish, that their 'classic' lineup was complete, with the addition of keys man Andy Clark, who seems to have nothing to do with the identically-named keyboard player from Upp. It's a superb album which still holds up well today; it's dated surprisingly well, at least to my ears and provided the band with their only hit in Ships In The Night, along with other killer tracks like Fair Exchange, Life In The Air-Age and the determinedly rocking Blazing Apostles, a blinding put-down aimed at religious nutters. The only tracks that concern us here, though, are the emotive ballad Crying To The Sky, with some rather nice Mellotron choirs thrown in from Clark, with less of the same on Sleep That Burns. So, while I can't really recommend this on Mellotron grounds, it really is a great record, well worthy of your attention. After another studio album (Modern Music (****½)) and an excellent live effort, Live! In the Air Age (*****) Nelson radically changed the band's style, making them more contemporary, but, well, rather dull I'm afraid to say. He split Be-Bop soon after, forming one-off outfit Red Noise, subsequently shifting into a lengthy solo career, helping invent the concept of 'ambient'.
Various Be-Bop compilations including non-LP tracks appeared over the succeeding decade or so, but it wasn't until over fifteen years after their demise that any completely unheard material appeared. 1994's Radioland (later reissued on Hux as Tremulous Antenna, apparently with much-improved sound) is a compilation of various BBC radio appearances, with the usual problem that some performances get edited to squeeze everything onto a single disc. In this case it's principally the late-'76 show that gets sliced, which is a real shame, as the original broadcast featured most of their current album, the forward-looking Modern Music. The four songs from January of that year give us a tantalising glimpse of how a full set might have sounded had Andy Clark continued to use a Mellotron as, by the later set and their official Live! In the Air Age LP + EP, it was replaced with a Solina string synth. You can hear it on three tracks here (along with his horrifically out of tune MiniMoog), with rather muted strings on opener Life In The Air Age and Sister Seagull, plus choirs on Blazing Apostles, although it's not used that effectively, to be honest. In fact, at risk of being labelled a heretic, I actually think the Solina sounded better on these tracks. Sorry, but sometimes a Mellotron isn't what's actually called for. Not often, mind you... 2013 brought a full, three-disc BBC set, At the BBC 1974-1978, which quickly dropped out of print (why?), which tells us that the January '76 broadcast actually consisted of six tracks, although there's no more Mellotron on the two extras.
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Riviera Theatre, Chicago, 1st April 1976 (57.11) ***½/T½Fair ExchangeStage Whispers Life in the Air Age Sister Seagull Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape Maid in Heaven Ships in the Night Bill's Blues Blazing Apostles |
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Blazing Apostles in London: 6th July 1976 (29.14) ****/TTLife in the Air AgeSleep That Burns Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape Sister Seagull Blazing Apostles |
Mellotrons used:
Be-Bop Deluxe's Mellotron usage period seems to've lasted a year, tops, from maybe late '75 to the following summer. The official Radioland (a.k.a. Tremulous Antenna) gives us a handful of tracks recorded for the BBC in early '76, Mellotron present and correct, but clearly isn't the whole story, which is where the murky world of bootlegs comes in, guns blazing. A BBC recording from June '75 features brand new keys man Andy Clark on naught but a Wurlitzer piano; I'd imagine a decision was made later that year that he needed a larger rig to reproduce the band's studio sound onstage.
A Thin Lizzy support set from Chicago in April '76 gives us two tracks otherwise unavailable in live form, Stage Whispers and Bill's Blues (an unrecorded, rather dull blues jam), together with several tracks familiar to us from Radioland and Live! In the Air Age. While some of the arrangements are fully-formed, they clearly felt they had some work to do, as the beautiful Sister Seagull lacks the punch of the later official live version. Andy Clark's Mellotron work is fairly minimalistic; while a major string part opens Stage Whispers, we don't get to hear it again on the track. String chords drift in and out of Life In The Air Age and Sister Seagull, with choirs on closer Blazing Apostles, but little of it's at all upfront.
Another radio recording, a five-song excerpt from a London gig (venue unknown) in July, retrospectively entitled Blazing Apostles in London, gives us four familiar tracks plus the otherwise-unavailable-live Sleep That Burns, capturing the band on top form. Clark plays the expected Mellotron strings on Life In The Air Age and Sister Seagull and choirs on Blazing Apostles, making the set's one surprise (and the only reason this is here, of course) the choirs that open the excellent Sleep That Burns, reiterating throughout, with strings later on.
By their autumn '76 tour, Be-Bop had replaced their Mellotron with a Solina string synth, used with aplomb on Live! In the Air Age. As I've said above, the band are an unusual case (in my humble opinion, of course) of 'the string synth works better', or is that merely long familiarity with that recording? They used the Mellotron choirs well, but they're not especially missed on the official live release, while the string parts are generally better-suited to the Solina's infinite sustain and Clark's ability to zip up and down the keyboard at high speed. Saying that, these boots are well worth hearing. What I need now is a set from late '75, to determine when the band enlarged their keyboard rig...
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At the BBC 1974-1978 [Disc 4] (2013) ****/T[Old Grey Whistle Test (July 1975/January 1976) segments]Maid in Heaven Sister Seagull Ships in the Night Fair Exchange |
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Mellotron used:
The BBC set's DVD contains no fewer than three two-song Whistle Test clips recorded over an eighteen-month period, Andy Clark using a Mellotron on the first two. He only actually plays it on one track, Sister Seagull, from their July '75 appearance, with the same brief string parts as on the various live sets, above; you get to see him play it, if only briefly. Although it's in his rig for the January '76 clip, he doesn't actually play it, effectively turning it into an expensive, bulky, fragile amp stand. By their November '76 set, he was using the five-instrument setup we hear on Live! In the Air Age, the Mellotron replaced by a Solina.
