A Walk Across The Rooftops

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Harrison, Ian (January 2013). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops / Hats". Q. No.318. p.117. Wallace, Wyndham (December 2019). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops / Hats / Peace at Last". Classic Pop. No.59. p.87. What The Blue Nile did not attain in popular standing it did accomplish in generating admiration from sophisticated musicphiles of that time and since. One of the main keys to The Blue Nile’s allure was their use of minimalism. They excelled in the art of using silence as much as the musical notes in their compositions to convey feeling. The beauty of their entire discography is the unassuming and uncontrived intelligence of their work. It is complex technology moored to palpable emotional content. Like an Edward Hopper painting but in musical form, where isolation, dreams and sadness are a universal language. The band captured those truths and conveyed them in their music with sonics and imagery that harkened to wet streets, forlorn parades, disappointed lovers and rooftop musings. The 1975's Matty Healy Dissects Every Song on A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships". Pitchfork. 27 November 2018 . Retrieved 1 January 2022. Having put out their debut single "I Love This Life" in 1981, the Blue Nile spent the next couple of years playing gigs in their native Glasgow: with little money and due to singer Paul Buchanan's limited ability on the guitar, by necessity their songs were stripped-down cover versions of old songs, and as Buchanan later said, "I suppose to some extent that started to bleed into our own songs – there was more and more space in what we were doing". Buchanan and Robert Bell's songs would start out written on an acoustic guitar or a piano, and then together with third member Paul Joseph "PJ" Moore and engineer Calum Malcolm the songs would be rearranged in the studio. [5]

Early experiments with a drum machine, its restrictive Latin American rhythms doing them no more favours than its human predecessors, were unsuccessful. Nonetheless, their limited means forced them to explore a more minimalist style, and they found common ground in a search for something which transcended mere entertainment. Roberts, David, ed. (2006). Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London, England: Guinness World Records Ltd. p.66. ISBN 978-1-904994-10-7. a b c d e f g Peschek, David (19 July 2012). "Some Sort Of Surrender: An Interview With Paul Buchanan Of The Blue Nile". The Quietus . Retrieved 13 March 2013. Rudden, Bernard (director) (1991). Flags and Fences (television documentary). Virgin Records Media Ltd./ BBC Scotland. 15:38 minutes in. No one was more surprised than the band. “I’m just astounded that it’s taken off,” Buchanan told Melody Maker.Brown, Allan (2011). Nileism: The Strange Course of the Blue Nile. Polygon Books. ISBN 978-1-84697-185-3. Still a landmark, still high, still somehow intangible: The Blue Nile didn’t sound or function like any normal band. They only made four albums in 20 years, so The Blue Nile’s every record is precious. but the Scottish trio’s debut, A Walk Across The Rooftops, offered an as yet unsurpassed strain of sober but stirring synth-pop…

Although there has never been an official statement to clarify whether or not the Blue Nile still exists, the indications are that the band has split up. There appears to be disagreement among the band members themselves as to whether they will ever make another record together. Moore is emphatic that he will never rejoin the band, saying in communications sent in 2010 to the band's biographer that he was "finding it healthier to put all that behind me", [27] and in a 2013 interview his terse reply to the question of a reunion was, "I think stuff happened that was simply beyond the pale. It's a shame, but if the feeling for sitting down together really isn't there, then continuing to do so even because you want to is pointless." [19] On the other hand, Buchanan has not given up hope that the three members of the Blue Nile may make more music together in the future, [16] saying, "I don't know where things stand with the other two guys... In a way, I think it would be the right and proper thing to do but I'll just need to wait and see. If the others say let's do this... Certainly, if I bump into them on a corner my hope would be that we could say: so what are you doing tomorrow?" [14] He also lamented the estrangement with Moore, saying, "We're inhibited by the Scottish male thing where you have to give the other guy space, but I love PJ and there isn't a month goes by where I don't think about phoning him". [19] Paul Buchanan once told Graeme Thomson of Scotland’s The Herald, basking in the glow of his first Top 10 hit, albeit scored as guest vocalist on Texas’ Sleep two years after his own band had released what appears to have been their swansong, 2004’s High.The band has influenced future musicians such as Duncan Sheik, who covered the song "Stay", as well as Wild Beasts. [32] [33] The 1975 lead singer Matt Healy labeled The Blue Nile his "favorite band of all time" and declared Hats to be his "favorite record of the ‘80s." [34] Healy would describe The 1975's 2018 song " Love It If We Made It" as the "Blue Nile on steroids", while critics drew comparisons between the song's construction and that of " The Downtown Lights". [35] Discography [ edit ] Albums [ edit ] Year It was Kid Jensen that was playing it,” Buchanan told Johnnie Walker, “and for some reason somebody said to us, ‘It’s No.126 in the charts’. I remember thinking, ‘That’s fantastic!’ And that was a Friday, I think. Anyway, on the Monday the company was bankrupt. It wasn’t the best start.” Nonetheless, Bell told Melody Maker, “That was the turning point. After that we decided to think about writing music in the long term.” BLUE NILE | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com . Retrieved 1 January 2022. It’s like a miracle that we don’t really ever discuss. Why in the name of God can it reduce you to tears when one note goes ‘Ah’ and another note goes ‘Oh’ at the same time? Listening to melodies and going on these mini-journeys is so crucial, and it saddens me sometimes that music has just turned into a loss-leader in a supermarket.

a b Sodomsky, Sam (17 January 2018). "The Blue Nile - Hats". Pitchfork . Retrieved 7 February 2023. a b Edwards, D. M. (1 February 2013). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops / Hats". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013 . Retrieved 9 March 2013.

In November 2012, Virgin Records released two-CD "Collector's Edition" versions of the band's first two albums, A Walk Across the Rooftops and Hats. Each version had the original album remastered by engineer Calum Malcolm, along with a bonus disc of rare and previously unreleased material selected by Buchanan and Bell. A similar reissue of the third album, Peace at Last, was released on 3 March 2014. In 1981, the band recorded their debut single, the cheerful but still restrained I Love This Life. It was soon passed on to RSO Records, home to the Bee Gees, by Calum Malcolm, a young engineer. By 1990, however, Irish broadcaster Dave Fanning was suggesting on air that 80,000 copies had been shifted. “It’s sold a lot more than that, actually,” Buchanan modestly corrected him. “I think we just don’t want to attract attention to any thoughts about ourselves.” Harris, Bob (presenter) (20 May 2012). Paul Buchanan interview with Bob Harris (radio broadcast). London, England: BBC Radio 2.

On its release, A Walk Across the Rooftops gained widespread acclaim from music critics for its mixture of sparse, detailed electronic sounds and Buchanan's soulful vocals, later described as a "fusion of chilly technology and a pitch of confessional, romantic soul". [20] In 1984, the band gained greater exposure in Europe, with the videos for their two singles, "Stay" and "Tinseltown in the Rain", often shown on the video channel Music Box. The band's profile began to grow, although its existence remained precarious. Buchanan commented, "I've always found it strange that people missed the 'punk' aspect of A Walk Across the Rooftops. We were living in a flat in Glasgow with no hot water. We barely knew what we were doing and that was very liberating." [17] Hats (1985–1990) [ edit ] Everyone knew instinctively what the shape and atmosphere of the album should be, but without really knowing how to do it. So we worked hard at that, what colour sounds should be, and we knew when it was right. I don’t think they were slow at all; plenty of artists take far longer to make records.”A Walk Across the Rooftops’ first single, and one of Buchanan’s more enigmatic lyrics, Stay is filled with inscrutable images from its opening line, “I’m taking off this party hat”, onwards: “Red guitar is broken,” “Candy girls want candy boxes,” “Summer girls in disarray/ Can be so free and easy now.” “ Stay, I think, is a more straightforwardly romantic song,” Buchanan informed Johnnie Walker. “I think maybe at the same point the protagonist is reflecting on something simple that he’s lost within himself, and that’s the grounds for his appeal.” This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Dominated by the melodies, mini-journeys, miracles and silence Buchanan would later identify as the very source of music’s alchemy, it’s more than just A Walk Across The Rooftops. It is, in fact, as Buchanan himself suggested it should be, “like being able to walk on air…” Read more: Deacon Blue interview Read more: Making Talk Talk’s The Colour Of Spring The Blue Nile: A Walk Across The Rooftops – The Songs Dolan, Karen J. (October 1985). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops". Spin. Vol.1, no.6. p.31 . Retrieved 7 January 2022. In September 2010, a biography of the Blue Nile by the Scottish journalist Allan Brown, titled Nileism: The Strange Course of the Blue Nile, was published. Although Brown was a long-time acquaintance of Buchanan, he found Buchanan reluctant to participate, and both Bell and Moore refused Brown's invitations for interviews or any co-operation with the book's writing. [28]