The Blue Nile
| The Blue Nile | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Sophisti-Pop, album-oriented rock , new wave |
| founding | 1981 |
| Website | thebluenile.org |
| Current occupation | |
| Paul Buchanan | |
| Robert Bell | |
| former members | |
| Paul Joseph Moore | |
The Blue Nile is a British pop band.
history
The band was founded in 1981 in Glasgow by three school friends Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and Paul Joseph Moore. This core also includes the drummer Nigel Thomas and the sound mixer Calum Malcolm.
In the more than 30 years since its founding, The Blue Nile have only released four albums (which is why David Jeffries called them “elegant transbags”).
At first the band only played cover versions of old pieces. In 1981 the first own single I Love This Life was published, which, however, received little attention. That changed with the release of the second single Stay and the debut album A Walk Across the Rooftops in 1984 . The record was only made available by the British hi-fi company Linn , which was looking for reference recordings for its high-end systems and eventually founded its own record company to be able to release A Walk Across the Rooftops . The record was showered with praise by the critics, which led to the band almost completely disappearing from the scene. It reached number 80 in the British LP charts .
The band has always been known for their slow release policy, with the band's four albums each being released at least five years apart. Paul Buchanan said in Rolling Stone:
“I had to learn to be calm. We didn't want everything in our band to take so long. But things got difficult after the first album. It didn't take that much time to record albums - it took so much time not to record them. We were brave enough to only publish music we could stand behind. "
The second LP was not released until 1989 , again with Linn. This time the taste of an even broader class was hit: Hats reached number 12 on the UK charts. In the following year there was a now legendary tour with over 30 appearances in the USA , Ireland and Great Britain . In New York they played with Rickie Lee Jones .
This was followed by guest appearances with Robbie Robertson and Annie Lennox , before it became very quiet again for the group. That changed again in 1996 when the third album Peace at Last was released, this time on the major label Warner Brothers . This disc was considered a “truly magical masterpiece” by the trade magazine AUDIO . In the English charts it rose to number 13. But this time too, they were denied greater success.
After it was announced over the years, then was released in September 2004 with High the fourth album of the Scots, which is two weeks in the UK album charts held (10th place).
In the meantime, Paul Buchanan sang both on the Peter Gabriel CD Ovo (among others together with Elizabeth Fraser from the Cocteau Twins ) and on the CD Red Book from Texas (2005), from which the joint song Sleep was released as a single.
In addition, Paul Buchanan was successful as a songwriter and wrote titles a. a. for Tom Jones , Isaac Hayes , Mel C , Julian Lennon and Joe Cocker .
In 2005 Paul Joseph Moore left the band. Buchanan commented on this in Rolling Stone :
“I remember bringing him home after a concert - we unpacked the guitar cases and he said that was it then and I said, yeah, that was it. Then he was gone, and after a few years we thought, hmm, he really won't come back. "
The band continues to exist without Moore, and Buchanan does not rule out another studio album. In 2012 Paul Buchanan released his first solo album, Mid Air . The album received positive reviews and was named one of the best albums of the year by several critics. Mid Air contains melancholy songs carried by piano and vocals that were heavily influenced by the death of a friend of Buchanan's. In the same year, the band's first two studio albums were reissued. The third studio album Peace at Last will be released in a remastered version in March 2014.
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
 UK
|
|||
| 1984 | A Walk Across the Rooftops |
UK80 (2 weeks) UK |
Label: Linn
|
| 1989 | Hats |
UK12 (4 weeks) UK |
Label: Linn
|
| 1996 | Peace at Last |
UK13 (5 weeks) UK |
Label: Warner
|
| 2004 | High |
UK10 (4 weeks) UK |
Label: Sanctuary
re-release 2020 by Confetti (re-entry number 74) |
Singles
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
|
UK
|
|||
| 1984 | Tinseltown in the Rain |
UK87 (4 weeks) UK |
|
| 1984 | Stay |
UK97 (1 week) UK |
|
| 1989 | The Downtown Lights |
UK67 (3 weeks) UK |
|
| 1990 | Headlights on the parade |
UK72 (4 weeks) UK |
|
| 1991 | Saturday night |
UK50 (3 weeks) UK |
|
| 1996 | Happiness |
UK82 (2 weeks) UK |
|
| 2004 | I would never |
UK52 (2 weeks) UK |
Another single
- I Love This Life (1981)
Paul Buchanan solo
- Mid Air (2012, Newsroom)
Web links
- Paul Buchanan
- The Blue Nile at Allmusic
- Anthony Morrissey: Criticism Too High
- Interview with Paul Buchanan in Rolling Stone
References
- ↑ David Jeffries: The Blue Nile on Allmusic (English) - in the original "elegant sad sacks"
- ↑ linnrecords.com
- ↑ paulbuchanan.com ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Stewart Mason: The Blue Nile on Allmusic (English)
- ↑ chartarchive.org
- ↑ chartarchive.org
- ↑ chartarchive.org
- ↑ a b The Blue Nile in the UK charts
