Body of a boy, mind of a monster
A thing of beauty is a joy forever…forever…

Bill Nelson – Flesh, ‘The Love That Whirls (Diary Of A Thinking Heart)’ LP (1982)

“Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.” – Emil Cioran

Bill Nelson has been making music since the early 1970s, with his creative output continuing until recently, when a sudden hearing loss in one ear brought it to a stop. I’m approaching his story by focusing on the period when he published the fanzine Acquitted by Mirrors, each issue accompanied by a 7-inch single. It was an intensely productive phase in his career, and one that offers a revealing fragment of his creative world.”

“A biography, in the strict sense, is never only the life of someone; it is also the fragment of a life.” Jacques Derrida

 

____
A Preamble

“Something glittered in the dusk behind me. I turned to see a brilliant chimera, a man with incandescent arms and chest, race past among the trees, a cascade of particles diffusing in the air behind him. I flinched back behind the cross, but he vanished as suddenly as he had appeared, whirling himself away among the crystal vaults. As his luminous wake faded I heard his voice echoing across the frosted air, the plaintive words jewelled and ornamented like everything else in that transmogrified world.” , The Illuminated Man, J. G. Ballard, 1964

Zinoviy came up to me in the bar and pulled me to a table. He gestured a lot, like his body had to attack the air to make meaning. “Do you know who is this Bill Nelson, why he so important?” he asks me, like he’s pushing the question into my guts. His accent is thick, but sharp. “He is… how you say… opposite of stupid rock man. Not beer-drinking idiot, not guitar-smash crazy boy, not always smoking pot and talking only about sex-sex-sex.” He leans closer, eyes too bright, he’s selling me black market truth. “Bill Nelson show rock & roll can be art, real art. Not only drugs and dirty stories. More big, more deep… like book, sculpture, classical music.” He nods hard, as if his head might break off. “He is… how you say… proof rock can grow up.”

He waits, breathing too fast, waiting for me to understand or agree or surrender.

Zinoviy continued to bend my ear, his voice sliding in and out of sense.

“He is man who never stay still. Always shifting skin like snake. Come from Yorkshire grey skies… hatched 1948… pick up guitar like some kids pick up cigarette. Glitter Bowie days there is Be Bop Deluxe, all chrome dreams and future shock melodies. One moment they fly high, big stages, bright lights. Next moment – poof – he suicide the whole thing. He need new form, new escape route. Then come ‘79… Red Noise, sharp angles, nervous machines clicking behind him like haptic robot. He push rock until it snap and fall apart in his hands. After, he dive solo, electronics, strange atmospheres, soundtracks for cities that don’t exist. Every album like small experiment performed in deserted hospital corridor. A Proto-vapor legend. He release so much music you think maybe he is running from something – or running toward something, but he never tell what. People try to follow him, but they get lost. Too many turns. Too many versions of the man. ”

 

____
Collaborations

The Associates – ‘Take Me To The Girl’ 7’’ (1985)

My courage in a glass
‘Ich liebe’, was ist das?
Are you my only friend?
Temptation drives me round the bend

Bill had a sad postscript to add to the story: “Later, in the ’90s, and not long before Billy sadly committed suicide, he called me up wanting to collaborate with me on songwriting and playing. He had no studio budget but, at that time, I had no proper home studio set-up either, (living in a rented apartment after my divorce,) so had to explain that it was extremely difficult for me to provide him with the right recording facilities. We left it at that, but not so long after, he was gone. A great talent who should have been served, and advised, better.” Billy Mackenzie died on January 22nd, 1997. – Bill Nelson | Dreamsville

 

Masami Tsuchiya – ‘Rice Music’ LP (1982)

It seems to me that before the photograph can exist as art it must, by its very nature choose whether it is to be a record or a testimony. – Yukio Mishima, from the introduction to Eikoh Hosoe’s ‘Ordeal by Roses’ (1971)

The guest list here was beyond impeccable with Bill Nelson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Percy Jones, and Mick Karn and Steve Jansen of Japan, along for the adventure. The attention to Art Rock detail was such that Bowie’s lensman Masayoshi Sukita shot the cover photos. The title track featured Japanese instrumentation like koto and traditional percussion with modern accoutrements woven into the mix like Nelson’s eBow and Tsuchiya’s guitar duetting along with Karn’s fretless bass. The resulting track was like a more cheerful late period JAPAN instrumental. Much more angular was the frantic “Se! Se! Se!” with Percy Jones laying down languid clouds of fretless bass over the hyperkinetic music bed that saw Tsuchiya puncturing the New Wave vibe with roaring, metallic solos. – postpunkmonk

Masami Tsuchiya – ‘Rice Music’, ST LP (1982)

 

Yukihiro Takahashi (Yellow Magic Orchestra)

I am familiar with CSNY’s “Helpless” from “Déjà Vu”… but I could not have been prepared for the stunning cinematic makeover that the tune received at the hand of Takahashi and Bill Nelson, who duetted on the vocals here … Nelson played guitar and eBow here and right from the start it will rip your heart out. The hissing, industrial percussion suggested steam engines and anvils. Yukihiro took the first verse and Bill Nelson took the lead from there. This was genuinely spine tingling and more than a bit redolent of where Nelson’s head was at in much the same time period. The character of the song changed to leaner, synth and drum aggression at the midpoint and the multi tracked vocals simply soared. The song was transported from Laurel Canyon to Silicon Valley and I simply cannot get it out of my head. I am also asking myself if this is the first time I’ve ever heard Bill Nelson perform a cover and I think the answer was “yes!” – postpunkmonk


Yukihiro Takahashi – ‘Helpless’, Wild & Moody +1 LP (1984)


Yukihiro Takahashi – ‘My Bright Tomorrow’ live 1983. Bill Nelson on guitar.

 

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Here is a quote from host Don Cornelius while interviewing Yellow Magic Orchestra during their Soul Train performance: ‘In case you folks out there in television land are wondering what’s going on… I haven’t the slightest idea. – sabukaru


YMO – ‘Focus’, Naughty Boys LP (1983). Bill Nelson on guitar.

 

Monsoon – Tomorrow Never Knows 7’’ (1982)

Bill Nelson on Guitar / E-bow.

“There was a very fine line to draw between how loud the vocals should be, so that people who weren’t tuned into harmonics could actually hear the subtle things going on, and how far we were drowning out natural harmonics that occurred. And the other kind of balance to be reached was that when I hear a drone as it’s played, unmagnified, untreated, and I hear all these harmonic dances in it and then play it five minutes later, I’ll hear a different dance. I’ll hear South Indian carnatic violins, I’ll even hear rhythm. This performance is going on, and I’ll hear it clear as a bell, very quietly, and it’s in this drone. So, to freeze what I was hearing magnified was also a dilemma, because I didn’t want to make it a static, dead experience. So what we’ve done is layer so many things that you’ll only hear some on different systems and some at different volumes or in different acoustic spaces. There are some things you’ll only hear on the twelfth listen. And it’s like a living experience then.” – Sheila Chandra (Monsoon), interview in The Wire


Monsoon – Tomorrow Never Knows (1982)

 

Cabaret Voltaire – ‘Code’ LP (1987)

Richard H Kirk cites LL Cool J: “That guy is selling millions of records in America, but if you look at the album it’s far more avant-garde than a lot of so-called experimental things round at the moment. Yet people seem to have opened up to it, I suppose because the dance base is so strong.” – Music Technology interview with Cabaret Voltaire

Bill Nelson – Guitar on five songs: ‘Don’t Argue’, ‘Here To Go’, ‘Trouble (Won’t Stop)’, ‘White Car’ and ‘No One Here’.


Cabaret Voltaire – Don’t Argue (LP Version), CODE LP (1987)

 

Gary Numan – Warriors LP (1983)

Nick Smith (Engineer album): “It was a difficult time both in and out of the studio. The biggest change was that Gary had agreed to get in a co-producer – Bill Nelson, ex-Be Bop Deluxe.”Gary Numan: “I thought Bill Nelson was the right man for the album. I’d gone to see Be Bop Deluxe years before, without knowing a single song and had enjoyed every second.”

Bill Nelson, 1983: “Gary and I have a very different way of working. I like to build songs out of different melody parts, all working off each other and going in opposite directions. Gary prefers to layer his songs in one direction, so that he creates the kind of power he likes. I think the tension created by our two approaches produced some really interesting results. We felt that we were really getting somewhere and producing something that was different for both of us.”

Gary Numan: “Bill Nelson told me that all creative people pick up beams of inspiration from across the cosmos and we channel it into creative art and we do what we do for the people. I said, ‘That’s complete bollocks’, and it all went downhill from then on really.”

Nick Smith (Engineer on the album): “Bill took Gary in a direction that Gary did not want to go in. It was more poppy, up-beat, not so dark or hardcore. I have to tell you something, I thought that album was fantastic and that Bill did a brilliant job on it. Gary will totally contradict me on this because he hated it.” – Alien Gary Numan Magazine


Gary Numan – Warriors (1983)

 

Scala Featuring Bill Nelson & Daryl Runswick – Secret Ceremony (Theme From Brond) 12’’ (1987)

Bill Nelson and Daryl Runswick? Never heard of either. Scala? Brond? No idea. And yet due to the technological marvel known as Internet, I can quickly glean not only abundant information about all of these things, but even experience them in real time! Nelson and Runswick appear to be fascinating figures in English music spanning over the past half-century or soIn 1987 they collaborated to write the theme to a Channel Four three-part series called Brond (based on a book I’d never heard of by Frederic Lindsay, a writer I’d never heard of). In case you’d like to hear the theme, you could do so right here . . . or right here, in context, as you watch the actual dang show. (And holy crap, just try to watch the first four minutes and not get sucked into this madness.)

“Cue past the big click on side B then fade up. The music sounds like the picture looks.”

“This is beautiful. Oh, excuse me . . . heavenly.”

“This is lush!”

“Lovely!”

“Sublime. (I learned that word in art history.)”

“LAH! LAH!! LAH!!!”

“Cheese. Golly. Shucks.”

“If a picture is worth a thousand words is it worth a thousand notes, too? Let’s count ’em.” – Review Revue


Brond Episode 1 Part 1, Channel 4, 1987

 

David Sylvian (Japan)

Eight Days a Week was an arts review programme broadcast on BBC2. The show had a relatively short run in 1983 and 1984, but that timing allowed for the release of David Sylvian’s debut solo LP, Brilliant Trees, to be a subject of discussion. Among the guests that evening was former Be-Bop Deluxe front-man and guitarist, Bill Nelson.

A little provocatively, Denslow proposed to Nelson that Sylvian was ‘trying to be taken very very seriously after being a pop singer with Japan?’ ‘I think perhaps David’s always wanted to be taken very seriously,’ Nelson responded. ‘There is evidence on the Tin Drum album particularly the direction this album would go.

Sylvian would pinpoint the BBC programme as a catalyst leading towards his invitation to Bill Nelson to participate in the recordings for ‘Gone to Earth’ (Sylvian’s second solo album, released 1986).


David Sylvian – ‘Before The Bullfight’, Gone To Earth 2xLP (1986)


David Sylvian – ‘Silver Moon, Gone To Earth 2xLP (1986)

Among Sylvian and Nelson’s shared interests was a common fascination for the work of Jean Cocteau. Bill had named his own music label after Cocteau and the imprint’s aesthetic was heavily influenced by the Frenchman’s work. It was an interest ‘that started way back in the late ‘60s,’ Nelson explained on a 2019 podcast. ‘I was at art college when I was a teenager and I came across a book of his screenplays in the art college library. And the images that were reproduced in this, I immediately took a shine to. And I then started investigating further and found out that he was an artist in terms of painting and drawing, he was a filmmaker, he was a poet and a writer, he collaborated with musicians, a set-designer. And I just got really fascinated with the kind of thing he did, so he was an inspiration… Some of his films are quite amazing… One of his first ones is called Blood of a Poet, it’s very surreal, very strange. I mean it’s the kind of thing that you would imagine David Lynch would do today. He was doing this back in the ‘30s. Incredible.’ – thevistablogger

 

A Flock of Seagulls – Telecommunication 7’’ (1982)

“Telecommunication” was also released prior to their self-titled album proper, and was also produced by Bill Nelson. While structurally similar to “Modern Love Is Automatic,” with an oft-repeated title, brief verses, and a generally repetitive musical structure full of meandering guitar, its text quite plainly discusses the titular field of technology, in a seemingly non-judgmental fashion–though it could be argued that the fairly upbeat music suggests a positive outlook on things like radio and TV. The one hitch in all of it is the very end of the last verse, which sets the song in the “nuclear age”–a nod, perhaps, to the darker applications of 20th Century technology. “Telecommunication” is perhaps indebted less to figures like Moroder, and moreso to Kraftwerk, who first solidified the rich tradition of stoic synth thumpers about everyday machines like cars, trains, and, of course, nuclear energy. I’m also tempted to compare it to an earlier work of Bill Nelson’s group Be-Bop Deluxe, “Electrical Language,” another bubbly number that playfully bats this concept back and forth. – r/LetsTalkMusic


A Flock of Seagulls – ‘Telecommunication’ (Single)

 

____
Major Label Last Gasps

Bill Nelson – The Love That Whirls (Diary Of A Thinking Heart) LP (1982)

“Let me explain the title. It’s actually based on a fact, rather than a poetic fantasy. It has two direct connections…the first is to the ‘whirling dervishes.’ These are Sufi dancers who use the whirling dance as a form of prayer and worship. They are taught to love everything and their whirling dance is an expression of that love and a means of attaining divine ecstasy. Hence ‘The Love That Whirls.’

“The other connection is to avant-garde film maker and occultist Kenneth Anger who, in 1949, made a film titled ‘The Love That Whirls.’ The film was destroyed by the film processing laboratory who took it upon themselves to judge the film ‘obscene.’ – Bill Nelson | Dreamsville


Bill Nelson – ‘Flaming Desire’ (from the album), self produced music video + interview, 1982

 

Bill Nelson – Chimera LP (1983)

She laughs as the pains begin
I swoon in the grip of sin
Alone with her burning skin
For a moment, this room is aglow…

If you aren’t familiar with Bill Nelson, I, and many other enthusiasts of his work, would be quick to recommend Chimera as an ideal introduction. Its brevity and tight aesthetic focus certainly make it an accessible listen, for one thing. And for another, Chimera captured Nelson at the arguable peak of his career, while he enjoyed the unfettered creative freedom that came with releasing music on his own private record label, Cocteau Records. Nelson’s early 80s releases were all over the map: he experimented with ambient electronic music, scores for stage and screen, and the continuation of his previous work in the 70s: New Wave art rock with a substantial synthesiser component. “Glow World,” the second track on side two, features the bass guitar work of Mick Karn, formerly of Japan. I like to think “Glow World” approaches the same sort of misty, beguiling exoticism that Japan had been aiming for on their final LP, 1981’s Tin Drum. – r/LetsTalkMusic


Bill Nelson – ‘Glow World’, Chimera LP, 1982

 

____
Cocteau Records

Bill Nelson – ‘Trial By Intimacy (The Book Splendours)’ 4xLP (1985)

“The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one’s preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them” – Jean Cocteau

‘Trial By Intimacy’ was initially issued as a 4 LP boxed set, limited to 5000 copies, containing four previously unreleased instrumental albums, a set of 8 postcards, and a book of Nelson’s photography entitled, ‘The Arcane Eye’.

“I have often found a painter’s sketchbook and his finished work to be of equal interest. Despite their apparent lack of sophistication, sketches invariably posses a simplicity and freshness encapsulating all the essential qualities of an idea. It is with this promise in mind that I release ‘Trial By Intimacy’, a musical sketchbook of instrumental moods captured during many private moments over the last few years.

“Although recorded on ‘low-tech’ domestic equipment, these eighty-three pieces of music are not to be confused with ‘demo-tapes’ but as a continuation of the process begun in 1979-1980 with my “Sounding The Ritual Echo” album. The set is presented unpolished and complete with all its technical deformities for which I offer no apology. Despite or perhaps because of this, these previously unreleased pieces have become very dear to my heart.

“Intuition, spontaneity and the high disregard for error correction were the only rules adhered to during the recording process (Laziness sometimes possessing its own virtue). Each piece of music was dealt with as an infant deals with building-blocks and instinct was always given precedence over reason.

“A great deal of time has been spent editing the material into the four albums contained here although there are as yet another forty or so pieces not represented. I acknowledge the difficulties presented to the listener by such a large volume of music and can only suggest that listening should not be rushed in any way. Time and patience will, I hope unveil the innocent charm of what for me has been both a labour of love and a personal exorcism.” – Bill Nelson | Dreamsville

“It was an interesting period of my life and I devoted a lot of time to collecting and reading books on occult philosophy, magical practices, mystical secret societies, Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Martinism, Gnosticism, The Golden Dawn and obscure branches of esoteric Freemasonry. I have retained most of these books, some of them quite rare.

“I also became involved in a Rosicrucian Chapter in Leeds in which I eventually served for one year as Master of the Chapter. I was initiated into a French Freemasonic Lodge in London and into a French Martinist Order, (which also had a UK branch in London). I brought almost as much energy and passion to these pursuits as I did to my music and the ‘journey’ I undertook helped shape some of the music I made at that time…particularly Sounding the Ritual Echo, Trial by Intimacy and Chance Encounters in the Garden of Lights.

“I was involved with such things in a practical sense throughout the 1980’s although I’d begun researching these subjects back in the early 70’s.” -Bill Nelson | Dreamsville


Bill Nelson – Chamber of Dreams (1984) (Trial By Intimacy The Book of Splendours 2/4)


Bill Nelson – Pavilions of the Heart and Soul (1984) (Trial By Intimacy The Book of Splendours 3/4)

 

Bill Nelson – ‘Chance Encounters In The Garden Of Lights’ LP (1986)

“The one law of Art is its own spontaneity, its pleasure and freedom. How mystic, pure and simple is its wish; it has no idea of potential divinity! Decoration is its creed and vital allegory is its belief. Being the ‘Free Morality,’ it has no sin – then most assuredly Art is all we dare express without excuse.” – Austin Osman Spare, Book of Pleasure in Plain English

“The music presented on these 2 albums marks the consolidation of several years of musical & philosophical practice. Almost every piece was conceived during moments of intense stillness or ‘magical vacuity’.

For this I acknowledge the influence of the late Austin Osman Spare, whose technique for creating ‘automatic drawing’ has found a sympathetic resonance in my own work.

Of all the music I have made, this is, perhaps, the most personal & yet the least demonstrative. Attempting nothing & existing purely for itself, it is, nevertheless, a practical music, ideally suited to the occultist in search of ritual atmosphere or serene meditation. With such a purpose in mind I offer this work to my fellow initiates as a testament to the Gnosis & a confirmation of The World Within.” Bill Nelson, 1987.


Bill Nelson – Demon Raising

 

____
Acquitted by Mirrors

So where then are these murdered angels
Where are their white, exquisite corpses
Show me the instruments of torture
That I am said to hold

Acquitted By Mirrors, Bill Nelson’s Red Noise – Sound On Sound LP (1979)

Acquitted By Mirrors’ was a Bill Nelson Fan Club magazine published between 1982 and 1990. By its 13th issue in 1986, seven EPs – all of which were recorded on either 4-track or 8-track analogue recording equipment at The Echo Observatory (Bill’s home studio) – were issued exclusively to fan club members in conjunction with alternating issues of the magazine.

All images in this section from editions 1-14 (1982-1987) – Bill Nelson | Dreamsville

 

____
Acquitted by Mirrors – 7’’s selected tracks


Bill Nelson – Sleepcycle (1982) from 7’’ that accompanied ‘Acquitted by Mirrors’ Issue 2


Bill Nelson – The beat that can´t go wrong today (1982) from 7’’ that accompanied ‘Acquitted by Mirrors’ Issue 2


Bill Nelson – King of the cowboys (1982) from 7’’ that accompanied ‘Acquitted by Mirrors’ Issue 3


Bill Nelson – The world and his wife (1983) from 7’’ that accompanied ‘Acquitted by Mirrors’ Issue 7

 

____
Speaking


Interview on “Riverside” October 10th 1983


Interview Tyne Tees TX45, 1985


Interview – From the channel 4 series ‘Knocking on the door, 1986

 

____
Further

Bill Nelson @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nelson_(musician)

Bill Nelson @ Bandcamp
https://billnelson.bandcamp.com/

Bill Nelson @ Discogs
https://www.discogs.com/artist/22882-Bill-Nelson

Acquitted By Mirrors archive
https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/bill-nelson/6121

Article from Electronics & Music Maker, August 1983
https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/bill-nelson/6121

 

 

*

P.s. Hey. Today the honorable Kosten Koper has put together a survey and possible introduction to the composer/musician/producer/etc. Bill Nelson, another key figure in recent music whose adventurousness and restlessness has left him far less acknowledged than his work deserves. It’s an excellent overview, and please use it to find everything you can want about him. Thank you, and major thanks to Kosten. As for me, what I had hoped was an irksome head cold exploded yesterday into a bad flu, and I am sick as a dog, as they say. So I’m not going to be able to do much more than say hi to you today, and I apologize for that. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have risen above. ** _Black_Acrylic, Yes, indeed. Great film. My favorite Herzog, I think. ** Laura, Hi. I am virtually nothing but haze. Lovely thoughts and writing that I will have to return to when I can actually absorb them. Thank you. ** Wulf Solence, Hi, Wulf Solence. Wecome, and thank you. That does sound very ‘me’, and I’ll read it carefully as soon my brain is working again. Really, thanks. All the best. How’s the holidays hanging? ** Dev, Hi, Dev. My email is denniscooper72@outlook.com. Thanks so much! I’m going try to re-see Bruno Ganz in that light, wow. ** Carsten, Hi. I think I strongly disagree with you about Herzog, but I lack the mind and energy to try to make a point, so maybe next time he’s referenced. I think probably a doctor would be required to isolate an illness as bronchitis? Thanks a lot for the missing Connors. Everyone, Carsten has found ways for you to see three Bruce Connor films that weren’t available in the recent post about him. Here’s ‘Breakaway’. Here’s ‘Take the 5:10 to Dreamland’. And here’s ‘Report’. ** Nicholas., Hey, man. I so envy your brightness today. I’m a slug. Everyone, Here, courtesy of Nicholas, and apropos of Herzog, is a no doubt cool trailer for the game ‘Warframe’. Cold, ideally snowy Xmas absolutely for sure is my pick. I remember being pretty psyched as a kid getting a go-kart as a Xmas gift, but then I accidentally crashed and destroyed it within an hour. Thanks for perking me up. ** Hugo, I’m sorry about the dumps and relationship end. Hugs. Enjoy Gluck. Let’s both upswing, what do you say? ** HaRpEr //, Let me know if ‘Wicked’ is good. I can’t seem to build any enthusiasm to see it. I think we’ve talked about our mutual ‘Oz’ love. ** Uday, Hi. Uh, you would just have to say you’d like to organise a screening and let me know what your idea/plan is. We love showing the film. Hi to your friends. The Coltranes: John and Alice, you mean? I like them, of course. There was a very interesting exhibition in LA about Alice last year. Surprisingly good. ** Okay, sincerest apologies for that p.s. Let’s see if I can pull through a bit more tomorrow. Enjoy Kosten’s paean to Bill Nelson to your fullest. See you tomorrow.