83: BE-BOP DELUXE
Maid In Heaven/ Sister Seagull
(Harvest, 1975)

WE ALL know the story. Rock music was a stagnant, self-indulgent, self-congratulatory mess by the mid-70s, and it took the advent of punk rock to blow away the cobwebs and consign the old guard to the nursing homes where they belonged.

Yet this is a reductive and over-facile view of events. The fact is that the mid-70s were actually a prime time for bands whose speciality was intelligent, concise, immaculately constructed pop music. ELO and 10CC have been rediscovered, dusted down and placed back upon the mantle by tastemakers in recent years, and the occasional shout even goes out from time to time in praise of the likes of Pilot and Sailor.

Be-Bop Deluxe, however, seem all but forgotten: a curious fate for a band who, briefly, were poised on the brink of a major breakthrough.

They had everything going for them at the time: a glammy retro-futurist image straight from the Biba catalogue, a set full of smart, snappy, larger-than-life compositions and a frontman who combined a well-read, poetic sensibility with outrageous old-school guitar playing chops.

Bill Nelson, for it was he, could sing about Jean Cocteau all he liked: the real point, as far as many of the band's fans were concerned, was that he could unleash kaleidoscopic flurries of notes at will, with a lovely, keening, Mick Ronsonesque tone, and all of this with a minimum of fanfare or foot-on-the-monitor grandstanding.

Maybe that was it: Nelson's refusal to pull the appropriate rock shapes may have alienated certain sectors of the music-loving fraternity - those who would prefer it if their guitar heroes didn't have short hair and favour smart suits. Then punk came along, of course, and the whole notion of instrumental ability was rendered anachronistic overnight, so Be-Bop Deluxe didn't stand a chance.

They left behind some beauties though, particularly Maid In Heaven - a neat, perfect and euphoric encapsulation of everything that was great about the band. Enigmatic lyrics, a mile-high hookline every few seconds, nonchalantly stunning performances from Nelson and drummer Simon Phillips... it's all here, ripe for reappraisal.

I've just listened to it again, and it really is up near the front of the queue as regards songs that should have been hits. The confidence and passion are just overwhelming.