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BLUE AEROPLANES
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For full track listings of the albums and the complete catalogue available, you can check our SEARCH ENGINE in the Mail Order link at the top of the page. You can search by Artist, Track title or Format.
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| LIFE MODEL
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"total poetic guitar-bejewelled rock'n'roll folk art let's dance godstar unalloyed alcoholic genius" -- Select
The Blue Aeroplanes burst out of Bristol in 1984, a pyrotechnic blur of dulcimers, bagpipes, turntables, dancing and lots of guitars, all bound together in tendrils of freeform poetry. Many came and were bewildered, but for a select few they were a revelation, and the debut LP Bop Art was a source of comfort in trying musical times. Bop Art - "angry, sad, beautiful, rewarding, and bursting with very real emotion" NME It soon became apparent that The Blue Aeroplanes were not going to take much notice of the rule-book. The line-up was - and remains - in a constant state of flux, coalescing and dissolving around the core of Vocalist / Poet-In-Residence Gerard Langley and Dancer Wojtek Dmochowski. Various instruments and sound-textures have appeared and disappeared - hurdy-gurdy, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, French horn, and espinette de vosges all made fleeting contributions to The Blue Aeroplanes' sonic vortex before being swept away in the endless onrush of personnel and ideas. At the last count, twenty-nine people have passed through the ranks of the band. Remaining with Fire for most of the eighties, The Blue Aeroplanes gradually expanded their audience with a string of acclaimed records and a cast-iron reputation for awesome live work. The critics were relentlessly won over. Tolerance - "This album is the hardest, the most musical of victories" Melody Maker Spitting Out Miracles - "This could be the best left-field British pop album of the year" The Independent The Blue Aeroplanes demonstrated their casual brilliance and embarrassment of riches on Friendloverplane, a collection of lost and obscure tracks which was as well received as their albums proper. Friendloverplane - "a trove of guitar bliss, a double album compendium of transports" Melody Maker In 1989, the band signed a new deal with Ensign, and gained a new audience by touring the UK with long-time admirers REM. Those who witnessed the fourteen-guitar finale at the Hammersmith Odeon - where Stipe, Buck, Berry, Mills, half the road crew, and an assortment of music journalists joined the band on-stage for Breaking In My Heart - still speak in hushed tones. Fresh from this live triumph, The band headed for the studio, and began work on the superlative Swagger LP. Swagger - "the most exhilarating live band in the country have at last completed a long-playing record of incomparable genius" Melody Maker Swagger became the band's biggest critical and commercial success to date, and indicated that, by steering clear of fashions and styles to develop an idiosyncratic and distinctive body of work, the band had achieved far more than contemporaries with less integrity. Bolstered by their new-found success and recognition, the band headed for LA to record the follow up to Swagger, entitled Beatsongs. Beatsongs - "the best album to bear a UK postmark in a long, long time" Select Things had clearly been proceeding too smoothly, though. Ensign records were swamped by Chrysalis, and it took two years of protracted negotiations for the band to extricate themselves from what now seemed like an unsympathetic contract. Life Model, the LP recorded during that period, finally found an appreciative home at Beggars Banquet, and made its delayed appearance early in 1994. In the meantime, Ensign had put together a compilation - Friendloverplane 2 (Up In A Down World) which gathered together another assortment of hidden gems. Friendloverplane 2 - "a bona fide treat ... a vital collection" Select Life Model - "at least their third consecutive stone cool classic album" NME And suddenly, The Blue Aeroplanes had been defying logic for ten years. To celebrate - another album, natch. Plus some chaotic and memorable live shows where the 1994 line-up were joined by the 1984 line-up to wreak havoc on London's Mean Fiddler. Rough Music - "that most rare of things: a casually challenging, genuinely rewarding and hugely enjoyable album." Time Out "The Blue Aeroplanes will be our most fascinating band in the next decade" Sounds 1990 So, Gerard's quixotic poetic stream continues to flow unabated, Wojtek remains an on-stage blur of grace and frenzy, and the three guitar line-up still conjure a multi-timbral blast of sound like no other band. As the 1995 European Tour blends into the festival season, the Blue Aeroplanes are : Gerard Langley - Words / Vocals John Wygens - Guitar Max Noble - Guitar Rodney Allen - Guitar Jake Kyle - Bass Graham Russell - Drums Wojtek Dmochowski - Dancing |
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| ROUGH MUSIC
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