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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZBLUE NILEScottish rock group formed '81 by Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and Paul Joseph Moore, who met at Glasgow U; laid-back from the beginning, none of them had 'set roles in the band'. Single 'I Love This Life' was released on their own Peppermint label '81 with no great aspirations; a studio engineer sent the tape to RSO and they chose the name Blue Nile, as Buchanan put it, because it was 'bigger and better than us, something beyond our personal experience'. The single appeared just as RSO went out of business, so they went back to Castlesound studio. Linn Products made upmarket turntables and were developing splicing machines; they were sent sample tapes with which to practise cutting techniques and promptly signed the group; Buchanan later waggishly commented, 'Linn weren't a record company and we weren't a band.' The first album was licensed to Virgin (but Linn subsequently became a substantial high- class label, the singer Carol Kidd among their artists). A Walk Across The Rooftops '84 caught attention for its articulate songs, singles 'Tinseltown In The Rain' and 'Stay' helping to sell 50,000 copies in Britain within five years. The next album, Hats '89, occupied them (with score for the BBC's Govan Ghost Story and theme music for Halfway To Paradise) for nearly two years. They worked with Rickie Lee Jones in concert and Robbie Robertson in the studio, contributed 'Regret' to anthology The Tree And The Bird And The Fish And The Bell '91 on Columbia, raising funds for the Oscar Marzaroli Trust to provide facilities for photographers in Glasgow. There was a positive media attitude to their refusal to play the corporate game of studio--release-- promotion; the first two albums were on A&M in USA, where Hats did not quite make the top 100 in Billboard; Peace At Last on Warners '96 saw the trio augmented by Nigel Thomas. All songs are written by Buchanan except 'God Bless You Kid', co-written with Bell. Blue Nile are of their time yet seem timeless; their fans don't care how long each album takes, regarding them as simply and utterly beautiful; Greg Kott in the Chicago Tribune wrote that 'Unlike most pop music, where a grabby melodic hook or ricocheting snare provide instant gratification, Blue Nile's songs sneak up on even the most attentive listener ... [Hats] sounds as if its creators haven't listened to a pop or rock radio station in 15 years.' |