Non-LP tracks circa Red Noise > Chimera

My old cassette tape …’drop outs’, ‘wow and flutter’ and all….

Radio Session…March 1981

Bill and Ian in the studios of Piccadilly Radio (Manchester)

Host back then before his BBC move…. Fellow northerner…Mark Radcliffe….

Bill and Ian improv over Bill’s Revox B77 ….Energy-Bow &Sax respectively….

Hope it’s this session on the upcoming box set !

Stunning !

I've attempted a more objective/evidenced chronology...

Sorting Solo Bill Nelson 1979-1985

• This is an esoteric document, neither a sessionography nor a discography - but rather a mixture of the two.

• The goal is to establish a chronology for all the known songs of this period - which is impossible, because recording dates aren’t known for many of them, and release dates may or may not reflect the recentness of the compositions/recordings.

• So, I have logged songs by the earliest date that I can determine they existed - recording session dates, when that information is available, and initial release date, when that’s all we know for sure. (Kid Jensen sessions are ambiguous, since they used home recordings. If any of them were live sessions, I can’t find that information.)

• At the very least, this is an objective baseline for pondering further refinement of chronology, using our ears.

• Please alert me to errors and omissions.

1978 (and early 1979)

Final Red Noise recordings, plus earlier b-sides. Included here because two tracks first appeared on solo BN singles:

• Instantly Yours

• Wonder Toys that Last Forever

• Ideal Homes

• Acquitted by Mirrors

• (Disposable, included on Quit Dreaming)

1979 February-June 

Quit Dreaming recorded with John Leckie and the Mobile Unit. I suspect that February is covering Disposable, which was played by Red Noise, still active at that time.

• Album tracks

• White Sound

• Mr. Magnetism Himself

• Atom Man Loves Radium Girl

1980 November

From Brussels with Love compilation released:

• The Shadow Garden (would later appear on Ritual Echo)

1981 February 

Single released:

• Rooms with Brittle Views

• Dada Guitare

1981 February or March

John Peel broadcast (home recordings):

• Konnie Buys A Kodak

• The Art Of Vision

• Boom Year Ahead

• Afterlife

1981 March-August 

Home recordings used as b-sides on Quit Dreaming singles:

• Be My Dynamo

• All My Wives Were Iron

• Birds of Tin

• Love in the Abstract

• Turn to Fiction

• Hers is a Lush Situation

1981 May 

• Quit Dreaming released

• Sounding the Ritual Echo released

1981 May 

The Nottingham live tape includes Sleepcycle and several tracks with unknown titles.

1981 June

Kid Jensen broadcast:

• Rooms With Brittle Views

• Stay Young

• Sleep Cycle

• Jazz (Richard Jobson vocals)

1981 “between spring and winter”

The Love That Whirls Sessions:

• Album tracks

• Eros Arriving (single version)

• Haunting in My Head

• Flesh

• He and Sleep Were Brothers

• The Passion

• The Burning Question

• Five tracks that would eventually appear on “Savage Gestures for Charms Sake (released December 1983).

1981 November

• Tony Goes to Tokyo released

• Das Kabinett released (commissioned in early 1981)

1982 April

ABM 1 released: 

• Konny Buys a Kodak

• When the Birds Return

• The Beat that Can’t Go Wrong Today

1982 June

• The Love That Whirls released (see session, above, for related b-sides)

• La Belle et la Bete released (recorded in early 1982)

1982 July

Kid Jensen broadcast:

• A Dip In The Swimming Pool Reactor

• M1 (Still Under Construction)

• Zen

1982 Autumn

• Chimera recorded

1982 October 

ABM 2 released: 

• King of the Cowboys

• Shadowland

• Carnival

• Spring

1982 November 

Single release (previously unreleased home recordings included on the Permanent Flame 7-inch box, issued separately in 1983): 

• Touch & Glow

• Dancing in the Wind

• Love without Fear

1983 January 

Kid Jensen broadcast of four tracks, three of which would appear on ABM 3, released May 1983:

• Dancing on a Knife’s Edge

• Indiscretion

• Contemplation

• Time Tracking

1983 February-March

The Invisibility Exhibition live performances, featuring many tracks that would appear on Chamber of Dreams (released in early 1985), a few untitled numbers, and an instrumental version of Indiscretion.

1983 May

Chimera released

1983 November 

ABM 4 released:

• World and His Wife

• Dream Car Romantics

• Dancing Music

1983 December

Savage Gestures for Charm’s Sake released. Five songs taken from TLTW sessions, one from earlier.

1984 May 

ABM 5 released:

• Hard Facts from the Fiction Department

• Daily Bells

• Rhythm Unit

• Junc Sculpture

1984 December 

ABM 6 released (“Giants of the Perpetual Wurlitzer”). 

• The Strangest Things, The Strangest Times

• Phantom Gardens*

• French Promenade

• Golden Mile

• West Deep*

• Threnodia*

* Later re-released on Chance Encounters.

1985 January

Trial by Intimacy released

1985 February

Two-Fold Aspect of Everything Released

1985 June 

Sex, Psyche, Etc. 12-inch released (Orchestra Arcana)

All extremely fascinating, and one of my absolute favorite periods of Bill’s career. Full disclosure: the Kid and I go way back and have been Nelson blood brothers since the late 90s. And so I’ve been in this wormhole with him, via a lively email exchange. Today, while on a long train ride, I tracked the release dates of the various singles and “Acquitted by Mirrors” freebies via the Dreamsville discography and was surprised to see how late “The World and His Wife,” “Indiscretion” and “Dream Car Romantics” are in his discography: and yet Nelson himself apparently greenlit “The World and His Wife” and “Indiscreation” to replace the “Vistamix” tracks on “Quit Dreaming.” So I think TKK is right to think the recording dates aren’t as aligned with the release date as we might think.

Is there any glimmer of a hint that “Quit Dreaming” and “The Love That Whirls” are due for the Cherry Red box-set treatment? I don’t think my 58 year old heart could withstand the wonder of “The Love That Whirls” in 5.1 but I’m willing to risk it.

A Quit Dreaming box set should be able to sort all this out, here's hoping! ,🤞😀

Yes, this is great work, TKK. Thank you for it.

Agreeing with Ed's comment and expanding on it, to integrate all the various radio sessions into your list (see separate thread about the sessions) would be useful because the sessions all come with recording or broadcast dates and show what Bill's current ongoing work was at the time he paused to do a session for radio.

With the exception, I think, of Contemplation, Bill rarely returned to a song long after first recording it - he's always moving onwards! - so radio session dates are probably within days or weeks of any first home recording dates.

We're close to having a 1979-1984 (85?) timeline for known songs of that period. And what an exciting, experimental time that was! Dropping into that timeline such items as dates of UK and US tours would be a bonus as well.

Thanks again for getting this far.

A comprehensive breakdown. I’ve wondered and speculated about these. Perhaps you could create similar for Noise Candy.

Wow, that's quite a wormhole you've been down, but worth the effort. How long did this take?

Would it possibly be appropriate to bracket Indiscretion, Dancing on a Knife's Edge, Contemplation, and Time Tracking apart, because they were recorded at the same time for a Kid Jensen session on BBC Radio 1? I think they were post Love That Whirls and pre Chimera (and what a brilliant session that was - those recordings still sound as fresh as when they were first broadcast).

PS Great work TKK!