Chris Wright reflects on Drastic Plastic, Be Bop Deluxe’s final studio album and the fabulous 2021 six disc deluxe edition, offering a uniquely comprehensive insight into the fascinating latter days of one of the most important bands of the mid-to-late 70s.
As swan songs go, Be Bop Deluxe’s final studio album Drastic Plastic from 1978 achieved the rare distinction of being simultaneously brilliant and infuriating.
Bill Nelson’s mid 70’s band holds a very special place in my heart. The first I ever went to see live (Ipswich Gaumont, early 1977) and a group of musicians I’ve always held in the very highest esteem.
The problem was that Bill didn’t see it the way at all. An uber-creative musician with a Bowiesque passion for change, by the time it came to record this album on location in June 1977 at Chateau Saint Georges, Juan-les-Pins, in the south of France, Nelson was getting fed up with the guitar hero tag that was fast being attached to him and, by implication, his inspired brainchild of Be Bop.
Thus it came to pass that Drastic Plastic was the last Be Bop album, before he went off to form the even more short-lived Bill Nelson’s Red Noise, which, although excellent and utterly fascinating in its futuristic vision, demonstrated a far less varied musical palette than the incredible diversity on show in Drastic.
Whereas many will point to the previous two albums Sunburst Finish and Modern Music or even the concert LP Live in the Air Age as the zenith of Be Bop Deluxe, for me Drastic Plastic is the more varied, even more engaging outing. Incredibly well sequenced and extremely inventive in its approach, it doesn’t seem to have aged a day and has been a constant companion since the day of release.
Nelson’s musical vision in Be Bop mirrors the same kind of retro/futuristic territory later occupied by Thomas Dolby.
Drastic Plastic takes this reverse futurism a stage further with some incredibly creative moments. The album opener Electrical Language typifies the approach, with its early use of synth drums over a quite stunning song.
New Precision follows and is arguably even more intriguing. It all builds around Nelson’s trademark licks that have one foot in the blues and another firmly planted on a flying saucer. Unique!
Surreal Estate literally uses pots and pans as percussion. Kitchen utensils were never employed with such acoustic dexterity.
The sheer vision of this album is what has kept it so fresh for so long. Dangerous Stranger is, on one hand, a paean to 50’s rock and roll, yet has enough twists to make it emphatically Nelson, utterly Be Bop Deluxe.
The frantic vocal urgency of Superenigmatix previews Nelson’s later vision in Red Noise and his subsequent prolific solo career that continues to this day. It’s immediately followed by Visions of Endless Hopes, an acoustic item recorded in the open air at Chateau Saint Georges that sounds like nothing else before or since.
The album closer Islands of the Dead is a wonderful tribute to Bill’s late dad and rounds off eleven tracks that work so, so well together.
I guess Bill was never going to be a Gene Simmons/Paul Stanley kind of guy, i.e. stick to a formula and milk it. He’s still carving an ever-changing niche, but with a rather large number of people still asking: “Bill who?”
If only he had stuck with Be Bop Deluxe, he could have had fame and fortune as well as ever changing output. Cohorts Charlie Tumahai (bass/backing vocals), Simon Fox (drums) and Andrew Clarke (keyboards) were that good!
Instead, however, Drastic Plastic was the last chapter in an incredible journey that began with the stunning June 1974 debut album Axe Victim. Be Bop’s recording career spanned four years and yet the musical growth was absolutely astonishing for such a relatively brief period.
It’s therefore very true to say that Bill had never settled on a specific style with Be Bop. The band had constantly evolved and, even though many fans, myself included, were pretty devastated at its ending, the benefit of very long term hindsight shows that we might easily have predicted it.
Unquestionably, the new wave that was blasting through the music industry in ’77/’78 had a profound effect on Bill and it speaks volumes for the pioneering spirit he’s always demonstrated that he didn’t dig in and stick to any sort of formula, but very skillfully capitalised on the wind of change.
The brief tenure of Red Noise followed, with Bill remarking that elements of his next venture were encapsulated in Drastic Plastic. Ultimately it was a logical transition.
Released in 2021, Cherry Red/Esoteric’s 4CD/2DVD Drastic Plastic deluxe box set, offers devotees an unprecedented and never likely to be repeated opportunity to bask in the latter days of Be Bop Deluxe as never before.
Watch my video for the full unboxing experience of this wonderful set which features tracks remastered from the original tapes, 2020 and 5.1 mixes from Stephen W. Tayler and audio and video of the band’s memorable 1978 BBC Sight and Sound In Concert Performance, recorded at the BBC concert hall at London’s Golders Green Hippodrome.
Also included in this, the most extensive studio album package in the fabulous Be Bop Deluxe box set series, is a fascinating CD of Bill’s unreleased demos for Drastic Plastic, a BBC Radio 1 John Peel Show session from January 1978, a stunning 68-page book with many previously unseen photos and an engaging essay by Bill on the period, plus a lovely replica tour programme, poster and postcards featuring the four band members.
Fortunately the series of deluxe editions was extended in 2022 to include the Red Noise era with the six disc Art/Empire/Industry box and I’ll be taking a close look at that one very soon.
Chris Wright | Now Spinning Magazine
