Great
news :
Paul
Buchanan will be released a solo album "Mid-air" in next
April or May 2012 !!!
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Four albums in 25 years? It must be the return
of The Blue Nile
By Anthony Barnes, Arts and Media Correspondent
27 June 2004 --- Thank to the
Independant.co.uk
They may be one of the world's most reclusive - and least
prolific - bands, but their influence has touched many of the biggest names in
music. Now The Blue Nile, whose songs have been recorded by everyone from Tom
Jones to Isaac Hayes and Rod Stewart to Annie Lennox, are to release their first
album for almost a decade.
The release of High will be one of the most eagerly
anticipated music events of the year. With just four albums in a quarter of a
century - each has been hugely acclaimed - The Blue Nile line up alongside the
ranks of The Stone Roses and John Lennon for tantalising their followers with
their colossal absences.
The Stone Roses took five years to follow up their self-titled
debut, which is widely considered one of the finest British albums ever released,
while Lennon took nearly six between Rock 'N' Roll and his final album Double
Fantasy.
Paul Buchanan, the singer and songwriter with the Glaswegian
trio The Blue Nile, said: "We're not in this for the money. We're in this
because the songs come when they come and we don't put anything out unless it
deserves to go out."
While many artists' extended quiet spells are due to splits,
the demands of solo careers, going off the rails or scaling down their
activities after a fertile early career, The Blue Nile have continued as a unit
throughout, and their lack of output is simply down to a painfully slow
work-rate.
The band emerged in 1984 with A Walk Across the Rooftops, an
accomplished album which was released through a small label and was given only
limited radio exposure. But word of mouth helped them to become one of the
hippest names to drop at the time. The follow-up, 1989's Hats, is widely viewed
as their masterpiece and led to recording sessions with Rickie Lee Jones and The
Band's Robbie Robertson.
They returned again in 1996 with Peace at Last, which led Q
magazine to ask: "What do The Blue Nile do all day? And what do we care as
long as roughly every two World Cups they bring us something this special?"
But aside from live dates, the band largely retreated between
each release, choosing instead to perfect their recordings and live their lives.
Bass player Robert Bell said: "We work and then we do
things that everyone does - walk up and down the street, meet friends, drink
beer and play Scrabble. We try to get it right and we don't issue it until we
are 1,000 per cent happy with it. About three years ago we had finished a whole
album but we scrapped it all apart from two songs. But it's best to be happy
with your work."
Buchanan said: "The thing is, I write a lot of bad songs,
hundreds of them, but because we have such a high quality control, they never
see the light of day."
BBC Radio 2 presenter Stuart Maconie, said: "I'm a huge
fan, but I do think there is something to be said for making more records. The
Beatles were in the studio all the time; that's why they progressed so quickly
between "She Loves You" and the White Album. The Blue Nile's records
seem to be about ordinary things and ordinary people - the pathos and beauty of
an ordinary life. They are enigmatic, sketchy invocations of city life. They
take ordinary situations and make them glorious."
The band, which formed in the late 1970s after the members
graduated from Glasgow University, have also been plagued by contractual
problems and record company difficulties as their labels were absorbed by other
firms. They have now signed with the giant Sanctuary group.
Bell said: "I think in terms of what we're trying to
achieve we've been very successful. I don't think we were ever trying to be huge.
When we started we would have been happy to sell 2,000 copies, so we've
obviously done better than that."
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BILLY
SLOAN :
BLUE
NILE ON HIGH WITH NEW ALBUM
It's taken longer to complete than
the new Scottish Parliament building and is the best-kept secret since Osama Bin
Laden's address.
I hope you're sitting down. You won't
believe it. The Blue Nile have finished recording their new album.
How can I be sure? I've heard it. I'm
the only rock writer in Scotland who's been given a preview.
It's taken the band eight years to
record the tracks longer than The Beatles were together.
But it's been worth the wait. The
album is called High and will be released on Sanctuary Records on August 30.
It's their first album since Peace At
Last in 1996 and only the fourth of their amazing 23-year career.
The trio singer Paul Buchanan,
bassist Robert Bell and piano player Paul Moore recorded High at Castlesound
Studios in Pentcaitland, near Edinburgh, with ace producer Callum Malcolm.
I can't stop playing it. One track,
Days Of Our Lives, has Buchanan's soulful vocals over a metronome-style piano
track.
The haunting lyrics remind me of a
modern-day Eleanor Rigby.
Cracking lines include 'Living in
every city/ In somebody else's clothes/ Christmas trees without angels/ Wiping
my bloody nose'.
Another stand-out track, Toledo, is
one US legends Bruce Springsteen or Tom Waits would be proud of.
And the years have not diminished
Buchanan's superb vocals. He's still one of the best Scots rock singers.
He said: 'I always try to make my
vocals sound like a person rather than a terribly accomplished singer delivering
a song. We like to let the vocals really go in tandem with the music.'
It's hoped The Blue Nile will launch
High with their first gigs on home soil in years. It boasts nine songs, a few
dating back a decade.
A Blue Nile insider told me: 'The
album is difficult to categorise. Some tracks are very upbeat while on others
they've gone back to a much simpler sound.'
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The Blue Nile in
2004 | 