Album Review: Be-Bop Deluxe – Drastic Plastic: The Esoteric Recording Edition (Cherry Red)

Spare now, a thought, for Be-Bop Deluxe, a hugely talented, widely forgotten band from the 1970s led by Bill Nelson, a man who, at the time, seemed strangely out of time.

This (mostly) British band made 5 studio albums between 1974 and 1978 along with a double live album (this, after all, was the mid-70s) and then disappeared into the mists of time.

With their previous albums already the subject of the remastered/expanded CD/DVD treatment, we come to Drastic Plastic, the band’s swan song.

This massive package comes with 4 CDs bulging with new stereo mixes, surround sound mixes, unreleased demo tapes plus the usual B sides, and rarities. Along with that we get 2 DVDs featuring the band performing for BBC’s Sight & Sound In Concert along with previously unseen super-8 footage Nelson shot while recording in the south of France.

So, is this a band worthy of all this time and attention?

Before listening to this, I may have been skeptical as I am old enough to remember them the first time around and like many music lovers was somewhat baffled by them.

Sure, I know their tune Fair Exchange and recognized their stunning album cover for Sunburst Finish and I know that Bill Nelson was/is a guitarist of some talent, but that’s about it.

Their sound was a unique mix of glam/prog/jazz/hard rock, though never fitting snugly into any genre.

And from watching the BBC footage included here it’s obvious that Bill Nelson was a musician who cared little for image, wearing a knitted pullover with filmmaker Jean Cocteu’s name emblazoned on it while coming across as a mix between Mr. Rogers and David Byrne.

Not exactly Rock God material.

But, in fact, after listening to Nelson with fresh ears, forty-some years later, it is clear that he could hold his own with any of the greats of the day…Page, Ronson, Beck…and contributed his own “esoteric” sound by adding large swatches of jazz and world music.

By the time the quartet decamped to the south of France to record with the Rolling Stones mobile unit, Nelson had decided this was to be band’s last record…and it was.

The remaining bandmembers were Simon Fox (drums), Andy Clark (keyboards) and Charlie Tumahai (bass and backing vocals). Kiwi fans will remember the much-admired bass player from his days with Herbs after Be-Bop split and who passed away in 1995.

Judging by the essay written by Bill Nelson for this package, the guitarist was never happy with the mainstream, where the previous album, Modern Music, threatened to land them.

“I’d started to feel disenchanted with the way that Be Bop Deluxe’s success appeared to have become more important than the music’s evolution”, he writes.

But instead of breaking up the band then and there, he was persuaded to give it one more go, and Drastic Plastic was the result.

Despite Nelson’s apparent bad attitude this is a surprisingly strong record. They, along with producer John Leckie (later to find fame working with XTC, The Stone Roses and Radiohead) seemed to have a jolly old time on the Cote D’Azur (Nelson’s super-8 footage attests to that) and hey, if you’re gonna break up a band, there are worse ways to go.

By then, Nelson was experimenting with various synths and keyboards and got his hands on a first production synth guitar called the Hagstrom Patch 2000. Fortunately the then-new technology doesn’t interfere with the quality of the final product. As we can tell by hearing his demos (included here) Nelson is a tasteful techo and its clear that he really didn’t need the band to flesh out his music (especially with Leckie on board as well).

So thrill to Bill Nelson’s guitar-slinging, never too flashy, but oh so tasty. His song writing is exceptional. Only his wariness of the star system seems to have kept Be-Bop Deluxe from reaching greater glory

Interestingly, 40+ years on, this is a band that still sounds ahead of its time.

Marty Duda