There were quite a few avenues opened before Bill Nelson after BE-BOP DELUXE bowed out with "Drastic Plastic" back in 1978, and between joining some other ensemble, embarking on a new collective project and going solo, he chose the second option. Only RED NOISE proved to be short-lived, and 1981 the guitarist if no exactly pick up where his 1971 debut “Northern Dream” then embracing a similar mindset and delivering “Quit Dreaming And Get On the Beam” which would launch Nelson’s labyrinthine individual discography. And which will get a boxed set treatment on November 29th.
It was originally recorded two years earlier yet remained on the shelf for some time, and when the album did come out it shot to Top 10 in the UK, so listening to the platter’s classic stereo mix alongside new ones – stereo and surround – created by Stephen W Tayler, as well as all the available 1979 cuts, radio sessions from March 1981, preceding the platter’s May release, and rare single must be exciting. Factor in the rare promotional film for “Do You Dream in Colour?” on the Blu-ray that accompanies three CDs, a 68-page book, postcards and a poster, and the set feels even better. About time to reassess these pieces – especially given Bill’s unwillingness to pursue such a commercial direction and follow “The Beam” with "Das Kabinet" some months later.
Quit Dreaming And Get On the Beam
CD 1 – The Original Stereo Mix:
1. Banal
2. Living In My Limousine
3. Vertical Games
4. Disposable
5. False Alarms
6. Decline And Fall
7. White Sound
8. Life Runs Out Like Sand
9. A Kind Of Loving
10. Do You Dream In Colour
11. U.H.F.
12. Youth Of Nation On Fire
13. Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam
CD 2 – Singles & Radio Sessions 1980-1981:
1. Ideal Homes (original single mix)
2. Instantly Yours (original single mix)
3. Atom Man Loves Radium Girl
4. Dada Guitare
5. Banal (extended mix)
6. Turn To Fiction
7. Hers Is A Lush Situation
8. Mr. Magnetism Himself
9. Youth Of Nation On Fire (extended mix)
10. Be My Dynamo
11. Rooms With Brittle Views
12. All My Wives Were Iron
13. Living In My Limousine (remix)
14. Birds Of Tin
15. Love In The Abstract
Radio Sessions 1981:
16. Konny Buys A Kodak
17. After Life
18. Boom Year Ahead
19. Art Of Vision
20. Rooms With Brittle Views
21. Stay Young
22. Sleep Cycle
23. Jazz
CD 3 – New Stereo Mixes:
1-13 – as on CD 1
bonus tracks:
14. The World And His Wife
15. Dancing Music
Blu-ray – High Resolution 5.1 Surround Sound & New Stereo Mixes:
1-15 – as on CD 3
