BE-BOP DELUXE

Plastic Fantastic ESOTERIC

IT DEMONSTRATES JUST HOW FAR AHEAD OF THE

CURVE THEY WERE.

Superior collection of Be-Bop’s last word.

The sheer volume of material that Be-Bop Deluxe amassed in such a short space of time often seems difficult to assimilate. They were the ultimate square peg in the round hole of the 70s: too glam to be prog, too prog to be punk, they shapeshifted. They could have been Queen, they could have been Roxy Music; they could have been huge. For those who were there, leader Bill Nelson’s bony hand was on the tiller of futurism as much as Bowie’s.

Nelson, by now, was tiring of being a ‘guitar hero’ and wanted to disband Be-Bop Deluxe after 1976’s Modern Music,

feeling they had run their course. Thankfully, management persuaded him to make a further album. Drastic Plastic,

released in February 1978, was the result.

When one considers that the last note of the album proper was recorded the previous June, it demonstrates just how far ahead of the curve the group were. Drastic Plastic foresees power pop, post-punk and futurism. Recorded at Villa St Georges, Juan-les-Pins, it would be hard to find a less ‘south of France’ album if you tried. The sound that the group created here presaged co-producer John Leckie’s work with XTC and Simple Minds.

From the chopped and looped drumbeats of Electrical Language that open the album, to Love In Flames and Superenigmatix – a track that melds Roxy with the Who – the album points clearly to Nelson’s next venture, Red Noise. Visions Of Endless Hopes offers atmospheric classical – almost like a sop to those who preferred the group as they were. Of the bonuses, the Juan-les-Pins version of The Saxophonist

shows Nelson being Django Reinhardt – again, there are just so many ideas coursing through these recordings. The demos included sound exactly like Nelson’s early-80s work – one man and his machines.

The live disc, BBC Sight And Sound In Concert, is a joy. A becalmed, stunned crowd clearly expecting Ships In The Night, seem unable to handle this new material. When Blazing Apostles finally closes, the cheer of recognition is palpable. Nelson split the band soon after, and it’s impossible to listen to Drastic Plastic without a sense of sadness. Although the immediate aftermath found Nelson producing some of the greatest records he ever put his name to, the ‘what ifs’ course through every listen.

This expanded edition of Drastic Plastic has the Esoteric ring of confidence, you know that no stone has been left unturned, or if it has been left unturned, there’s a jolly good reason for it – the previously released material slotted into the unreleased helps unpack the story of this most curious of albums.