Photo by Sheila Rock
Musician and producer Bill Nelson has released over 100 solo albums and EPs while also working with numerous other artists including SKIDS, A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS, FIAT LUX and YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA.
Born in Wakefield and given his first guitar, a Gibson ES345 by his father who played sax led his own dance band, Bill Nelson released his debut album ‘Northern Dream’ in 1971 but first found fame as the leader of the acclaimed progressive rock band BE BOP DELUXE who released 5 albums between 1974 to 1978.
He was a leading exponent of the E-Bow, a handheld battery-powered device that created infinite sustain on a guitar by generating a magnetic field to vibrate a single string. Having been given an early model by its inventor Greg Heet while he was in BE BOP DELUXE, Nelson found he could create unique sounding textures that would often be mistaken for synthesizers. Other E-Bow users included Stuart Adamson, Rob Dean, Andy Taylor, The Edge and Pat Metheny.
This coincided with Nelson’s flaming desire to experiment more with electronics on the final BE BOP DELUXE album ‘Drastic Plastic’. Tiring of the limitation of guitar sounds and wanting to work without a band, he got into synths and drum machines. Like other guitarists of the new wave era, Nelson tried guitar synthesizers and in his case, it was the Hagstrom Patch 2000. One of the issues arising from guitar synths was that if a string was unintentionally hit, an unwanted note would be triggered. These quirks ultimately made the E-Bow more practical although it was still tricky to master.
Having been inspired by David Bowie’s Berlin era records ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’ to pursue a more electronic direction after dissolving BE BOP DELUXE, Nelson formed RED NOISE which featured his brother Ian on sax. But after their debut record, a Bowie-influenced new wave art rock album titled ‘Sound On Sound’, RED NOISE were dropped by Harvest Records despite signing them on the strength of Nelson’s involvement in BE BOP DELUXE.
Photo by Sheila Rock
Nelson reworked what would have been the second RED NOISE album and released as his first solo album ‘Quit Dreaming and Get On The Beam’ via Mercury Records who had signed him after he released a single ‘Do You Dream In Colour?’ on his newly set-up independent label Cocteau in 1980. Setting up a home studio, among the synths in Nelson’s arsenal were a Minimoog, Yamaha CS70M and ARP Omni.
As well as being an outlet for his more experimental work, Cocteau also showcased new artists to major labels with A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS and FIAT LUX signing to Jive and Polydor respectively after their debut singles were produced and released by Nelson. He would go on to produce other artists such as Nash The Slash and Gary Numan although he never saw it as a potential career in the way that Trevor Horn and Tony Mansfield did.
There came a fruitful relationship with Yukihiro Takahashi of YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA with tha pair playing on each other’s records and perfroming live together but after leaving Mercury, Nelson signed to the CBS imprint Portrait. But the relationship was tense and ended after just one album ‘Getting the Holy Ghost Across’ in 1986. During this time, he launched the more sample-based New Age side project ORCHESTRA ARCANA but by now Nelson had marriage, tax and management problems to deal with as well as the collapse of Enigma Records who he signed to in 1988. Nelson convalesced by producing ‘The Familiar’, a gentle meditative album by Roger Eno and Kate St John released in 1992 using primarily traditional instrumentation.
Since then, Bill Nelson has remained fiercely independent and outside of the mainstream music business, having built up a strong and loyal worldwide fan base who embrace his song-based work, ambient compositions and soundtracks for art installations, exhibitions and theatrical presentations.
“The ‘ambient’ things, the ‘rock’ things, the ‘pop’ things don’t exist as separate, discreet entities in my creative heart, they’re just facets of one, personal, unchanging musical expression” he said on his website, “I personally regard all these categorisations as outward manifestations of a single interior vision, rather than some kind of split-personality or any desire to appear ‘multi-talented’.”
Still very prolific, in 2023 alone, he released 5 albums via his own Sonoluxe label while Nelson issued his most recent long player ‘Studio Cadet’ in 2024. He has far too many works now to cover in one article so here acting as a Beginner’s Guide to Bill Nelson and his more electronic-based material is a summary of 20 tracks tracing his work up to the start of the millennium…
BE BOP DELUXE Electrical Language (1978)
Uncomfortable with the cult “guitar hero” status he had acquired, Nelson had become disillusioned and wanted to experiment with his Minimoog. The exotic ‘Electrical Language’ documented the moment when he went electro. Co-produced by John Leckie who would go on to work with MAGAZINE, SIMPLE MINDS and THE HUMAN LEAGUE, the track displayed an affinity with New Wave. Nelson unexpectedly split up the band whilst on the cusp of mainstream success.
Available on the BE-BOP DELUXE album ‘Drastic Plastic’ via Esoteric Recordings
https://www.facebook.com/BeBopDeluxe
BILL NELSON’S RED NOISE Furniture Music (1979)
Nelson formed a new band RED NOISE with a flexible line-up which included his brother Ian on sax which he regarded as an escape from BE-BOP DELUXE. With no need to compromise with band mates in his new fiery experimental vision, the first single ‘Furniture Music’ saw Nelson vocally adopt the staccato stylings of SPARKS while embodying a dystopian Orwellian atmosphere commensurate with the Cold War tensions of the times.
Available on the BILL NELSON’S RED NOISE album ‘Sound-on-Sound’ via Esoteric Recordings
https://www.innerviews.org/inner/bill-nelson
SKIDS Charade (1979)
After the unintelligible ‘Into The Valley’ and the Mick Glossop-helmed ‘Working For The Yankee Dollar’, when Bill Nelson produced the second SKIDS album ‘Days in Europa’, he brought in drum machines and keyboards. Utilising the CR78 Compurhythm later heard on OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’, ’Charade’ had a riffing mechanical energy offset by electronic pulses that set the Scottish punk band apart from the likes of STIFF LITTLE FINGERS and ANGELIC UPSTARTS.
Available on the SKIDS album ‘Days In Europa’ via Virgin Records
BILL NELSON Do You Dream In Colour? (1980)
Finally opting to go solo and independent with his own Cocteau label after being dropped by the EMI-affiliated EMI, the quirky ‘Do You Dream In Colour?’ had similar lyrical gists to THE NORMAL’s ‘TVOD’ but was misinterpreted as being about heroin addiction. Punctuated with bursts of sax from brother Ian, the single reached a respectable No52 on the UK singles chart and was the catalyst to a new deal with Mercury Records.
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘Quit Dreaming & Get On The Beam’ via Mercury Records
https://www.facebook.com/bill.nelson.54943600
LAST MAN IN EUROPE A Certain Bridge (1981)
The only release by LAST MAN IN EUROPE, the duo comprised Jeff Wilson and Trevor Abbott. The second single issued on Cocteau, ‘A Certain Bridge’ was a slice of doomy goth in the vein of JOY DIVISION and THE CURE produced by Nelson. With repetitious drum machine and freaky synth soloing at the end, vocally there was the tense post-punk snarl of the times to go alongside the jagged guitar figures.
Available on the compilation album ‘Cocteau Signature Tunes’ (V/A) via Cocteau
https://postpunkmonk.com/2019/06/17/record-review-last-man-in-europe-a-certain-bridge/
TO HEAVEN A JET Airfield (1981)
Featuring a nucleus of Steve Walker and Dave Purcell, their Cocteau single ‘Airfields’ was not only produced by Nelson but also featured him playing superb bass figures in a manner reminiscent of Barry Adamson from MAGAZINE. With sparks of icy string machine and death disco rhythms, this mysterious offering was like LAST MAN IN EUROPE, on the doomy side and came over like a dystopian DURAN DURAN.
Available on the compilation album ‘Cocteau Signature Tunes’ (V/A) via Cocteau
https://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2018/09/to-heaven-jet-revox-cadets-airfields.html
REVOX CADETS Tony Goes to Tokyo (1981)
Subtitled “And Rides The Bullet Train”, REVOX CADETS was Nelson pretending to be a band while also writing under the pseudonym of VU Disney in order to release material on Cocteau outside of his deal with Mercury Records. Falling under the spell of Japan and adopting appealing pentatonic synth tones over a treated drum machine backbone, the locomotive track was double A sided with TO HEAVEN A JET’s ‘Airfield’.
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘Transcorder (The Acquitted By Mirrors Recordings)’ via Sonoluxe
https://www.billnelson.com/tony-goes-to-tokyo
A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS Telecommunication (1981)
A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS had got their original break when Bill Nelson produced and released their debut single ‘(It’s Not Me) Talking’ for his Cocteau label in 1981, attracting the attention of the Arista-affiliated Jive Records. The short and punchy ‘Telecommunication’ was their major-label debut and also produced by Nelson. Percussive metallic synths and Sci-Fi lyrics combined with power chords to provide a hit on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart.
Available on the A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS album ‘A Flock Of Seagulls’ via Cherry Pop
https://www.aflockofseagulls.org/
YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI featuring ZAINE GRIFF & RONNY This Strange Obsession (1982)
With its various Far Eastern inflections, the ‘Quit Dreaming & Get On The Beam’ album had come to the attention of Yukihiro Takahashi and with it came the invitation to play on the YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA drummer’s next solo album ‘What, Me Worry?’. One track that Nelson contributed E-Bow to was ‘This Strange Obsession’, a frantic duet between Zaine Griff (who had also written the song) and chanteuse Ronny.
Available on the YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI album ‘What, Me Worry?’ via Yen Records / Great Tracks
BILL NELSON Flaming Desire (1982)
Curious about employing trance rhythm ideas, Nelson went to town on the electronics with a greater emphasis on synthesizers for his second solo album ‘The Love That Whirls’; with prominent machine rhythms, screaming synth-sounding E-bow guitar, as “Love turns to lust, ice into fire”, ‘Flaming Desire’ swirled with a mannered passion that provided an ecstatic sexual tension not heard before in Nelson’s previous work.
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘The Love That Whirls’ via Mercury Records
https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/bill-nelson/4416
MASAMI TSUCHIYA Rice Music (1982)
Best known as the leader of IPPU DO and being in the final live line-up of JAPAN, Masami Tsuchiya not only did Mick Karn and Steve Jansen feature on the title track of his debut solo record but also Bill Nelson with his “Flying E-Bow” guitar. Using koto and synths to provide the traditionally-flavoured backbone, Nelson’s E-Bow and Tsuchiya’s own six string combined for something sounding like a JAPAN instrumental.
Available on the MASAMI TSUCHIYA album ‘Rice Music’ via Epic Records
https://www.facebook.com/masami.nightwalker
FIAT LUX Feels Like Winter Again (1982)
Originally a duo comprising Steve Wright and David P Crickmore, the former joined the Yorkshire Actors theatre company where he met Nelson who produced their debut single ‘Feels Like Winter Again’. The cutting mix of synth and treated guitar over an electronic pulse and machine beats juxtaposed with bass guitar complimented Wright’s sombre tale of broken love affairs. Nelson’s brother Ian would later join FIAT LUX.
Available on the FIAT LUX album ‘Hired History Plus’ via Cherry Red Records
GARY NUMAN My Car Slides 1 (1983)
Gary Numan was making a full live comeback after retiring in 1981, but he was put under pressure from his label Beggars Banquet employ a producer for his next album. Bill Nelson took on the role but the two quickly fell out in the studio. One track that the pair completed was ‘My Car Slides 1’, a beautiful ballad featuring Nelson’s distinctive E-bowed guitar. Alas, it was not included in Numan’s revision of the eventual ‘Warriors’ album.
Available on the GARY NUMAN album ‘Warriors’ via Beggars Banquet
YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA Focus (1983)
Having played on Yukihiro Takahashi’s ‘What, Me Worry?’, Nelson was invited to join the sessions for the next YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA album ‘Naughty Boys’. The end result was a very sophisticated pop record with ‘Kimi Ni Mune Kyun’ becoming their biggest hit. Short on the trio’s usual quirkiness, Nelson himself felt they could have taken more risks in the final mix but the track ‘Focus’ had much more of a growl.
Available on the YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA album ‘Naughty Boys’ via Beggars Banquet
https://www.110107.com/s/oto/page/YMO40
BILL NELSON Acceleration (1984)
A development of the electronica structured tracks that came from ‘The Love That Whirls’, ‘Acceleration’ came after Nelson’s work with Yukihiro Takahashi who provided several drum tracks for him to compose around. Featuring live percussion and synced rhythmic devices, it was possibly the most overt pop song in the Bill Nelson catalogue, the single version got an extra American disco edge via a remix from producer John Luongo.
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘Chimera’ via Mercury Records
https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/bill-nelson/6121
YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI featuring BILL NELSON Bounds Of Reason, Bounds Of Love (1984)
As with his previous solo albums, Yukihiro Takahashi happy to let guest take a lead vocal and on his sixth album ‘Wild & Moody’, Bill Nelson played guitar, wrote lyrics and sang on one of its highlights ‘Bounds Of Reason, Bonds Of Love’. Co-produced by Iva Davies of ICEHOUSE with Ryuichi Sakamoto on Fairlight, this was a slab of electro-funk was authentically enhanced by the inappropriately named Rodney Drummer on bass guitar.
Available on the YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI album ‘Wild & Moody’ via Yen Records / Great Tracks
https://www.instagram.com/room66_yukihiro
BILL NELSON A Dream Fulfilled (1986)
‘Acquitted By Mirrors’ was the Bill Nelson Fan Club magazine published between 1982 to 1990; 12” EPs were given exclusively to members with alternating issues. The ‘Cote D’Azur’ EP was the seventh and came with Issue 13 and on it was a delightful YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA influenced instrumental called ‘A Dream Fulfilled’. Its drum track clearly had the hallmarks of Yukihiro Takahashi so was it a ‘Chimera’ outtake?
Available on the BILL NELSON album ‘Transcorder’ via Sonoluxe
https://billnelson.bandcamp.com/album/transcorder
DAVID SYLVIAN Silver Moon (1986)
For David Sylvian’s ambitious second double album, Bill Nelson collaborated with the former JAPAN front man on 6 tracks including 3 instrumentals. One of the songs was the countrified ‘Silver Moon’ which saw his distinctive E-Bow alongside the Frippertronics of Robert Fripp and pedal steel exponent BJ Cole. Usually upbeat, this was Sylvian at his most romantic since ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ despite the uncertainty expressed.
Available on the DAVID SYLVIAN album ‘Gone To Earth’ via Virgin Records
https://sylvianvista.com/2024/12/26/silver-moon-silver-moon-over-sleeping-steeples/
RAIN TREE CROW Blackwater (1991)
RAIN TREE CROW was the JAPAN reunion in all but name. Bill Nelson’s guest involvement in JAPAN had been mooted as far back as ‘Tin Drum’. He appeared the tribal instrumental ‘Big Wheels In Shanty Town’ and the wonderfully mellow single ‘Blackwater’ which was perhaps the only track from the sessions that bore any relation to JAPAN’s past The quartet of Sylvian, Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri would split again.
Available on the RAIN TREE CROW album ‘Rain Tree Crow’ via Virgin Records
https://sylvianvista.com/2025/08/29/blackwater/
BILL NELSON Blink Agog (1996)
An adventure in avant garde drum ‘n’ bass, sax and E-Bow and near spoken vocals, ‘Blink Agog’ came from ‘After the Satellite Sings’, a record that Nelson would later declare as one of his favourites where there were a number of musical departures. Written, performed, recorded and mixed in an intense 28 day session, according to guitarist Reeves Gabrels, it was said to have been an influence on David Bowie’s ‘Earthling’ album,
Available on the BILL NELSON album ’After The Satellite Sings’ via Cherry Red Records
https://www.soundonsound.com/people/bill-nelson
For more on the career of Bill Nelson, visit https://www.billnelson.com/
A variety of Bill Nelson music released since 2007 and a selection of his back catalogue is available digitally from https://billnelson.bandcamp.com/music
Text by Chi Ming Lai
29th December 2025
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