English Garden | |
---|---|
Studio album by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club | |
Released | November 1979 [1] |
Recorded | Eden Studios, London [2] |
Genre | |
Length | 39:15 57:04 (reissue) |
Label | Epic Columbia |
Producer | Mike Hurst, Bruce Woolley, Thomas Dolby |
Alternate covers | |
Singles from English Garden | |
|
English Garden,released in North America as Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club,is a studio album by Bruce Woolley and his new wave band the Camera Club. The band consisted of Woolley on vocals,Matthew Seligman on bass,Rod Johnson on drums,Dave Birch on guitar,and Thomas Dolby on keyboards. Before forming the group,Woolley was creating pop songs intended for publishing companies,but he was not happy with what the artists were doing with his songs and decided to write material for himself.
Recorded at Eden Studios in London,English Garden was released in most territories by Epic Records,while in North America the album was distributed by CBS Records. Singles from English Garden included the title track,"Video Killed the Radio Star","Clean,Clean" and "Dancing with the Sporting Boys". Most reviews of English Garden were very positive,one reviewer even calling it ahead of other releases in its genre.
Bruce Woolley started writing and recording pop songs at home with Revox equipment during his school years:"I was playing guitar but floundering about without direction." [6] This made him start making songs specifically for music publishing companies,and he was eventually hired by someone to do so. He had spent eighteen months writing compositions for other artists,but did not appreciate what they were doing with his songs. [6] He decided to quit this position and write songs for himself,meeting producer Mike Hurst and his manager Chris Bough,who was also well known for being manager for singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. [6] Thus,Woolley financed to form his band which he called the Camera Club, [6] which,in addition to him being the vocalist,had Matthew Seligman on bass,Rod Johnson on drums,Dave Birch on guitar,and Thomas Dolby on keyboards. [2] Recorded in Eden Studios in London,English Garden was engineered by Richard Goldblatt with assistance from Nick T. Froom. [2]
Meanwhile,Woolley had also formed a group with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes called the Buggles in 1977,recording demos of tracks such as "Clean,Clean" and "Video Killed the Radio Star". Woolley had left the group to form the Camera Club by the time the Buggles were signed to Island Records in 1979,and the band recorded both songs for English Garden. [7] Many writers called Woolley's recording of "Video" much better than the Buggles' version. [8] [9] This included one critic who called both acts overall as of being very high quality,but felt that Woolley's version was more faithful to the source material than that of the Buggles,noting the filtered vocals and cute,female vocals of the latter rendition as giving it a novelty feel. [10] However,he also wrote of liking both versions of "Clean,Clean" on the same level.
While also categorized by one writer to be a light power pop record in the vein of acts like the Move, [11] as well as a pop rock release by another, [6] English Garden is a new wave record taking influence of works from David Bowie and Brian Eno,like the majority of artists in the style that existed around the release of the album. [8] However,unlike other new wave releases that only increased their hopelessness of Bowie's and Eno's songs,English Garden's honest,humorous lyrics,which deal with a male remembering about his currently failing marriage thanks to "automation and his modern surroundings" as one journalist analyzed,show that the narrator is struggling,but is optimistic that his relationship will improve. [8]
English Garden garnered mostly rave reviews upon its release. The Age 's John Teerds spotlighted the album's "inventive" songwriting,strong vocal performance,and "appealing" melodies,but also noted that it may take two or three hearings of the record for the listener to enjoy it. [12] Ted Burley of Montreal Gazette honored the quality of the release as above other new wave acts at the time and wrote that it should've set the decade's norm for the genre. [8] He wrote that Woolley was "attacking the eighties rather than surrendering to them",being able to make the production fresh and the vocals futuristic while making it sound human and non-robotic. [8] Among the "lush" harmonies and "tasteful" arrangements,the unique,non-permissive lyrical content was also a significant highlight in his review,praising its "slice-of-life realism and scope." [8] A more mixed review called the album "one of those weird pop albums that England seems to spew out yearly" and "sort of 10cc for nostalgists". [9]
In North America,the group was signed by Columbia Records after just five weeks of rehearsal, [6] and the [self-titled] album was released in the continent with cover art designed by Janet Perr. [2] Bruce Woolley &the Camera Club was promoted in the United States with a tour just before its release in the country,and songs from the album also garnered radio play in the States. [6] The album peaked at number 184 on the Billboard 200 chart. [13] There were also several performances in Woolley's home country promoting English Garden. [6] However,despite this and the record's critical acclaim,the release quickly faded into obscurity;a writer for Trouser Press analyzed that this was to be expected given that the LP only presented Woolley's devotion to music from the 1960s,but also said that the group might've been famous in some sort of way thanks to Dolby's involvement in the band. [11]
All songs written and composed by Bruce Woolley and produced by Mike Hurst. Additional writing credits are noted. [14] [15]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "English Garden" | 3:00 |
2. | "Video Killed the Radio Star (with The Buggles)" (Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes) | 2:49 |
3. | "Dancing with the Sporting Boys" | 3:32 |
4. | "Johnny" (Horn) | 3:03 |
5. | "No Surrender" | 2:50 |
6. | "Flying Man" | 2:50 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
7. | "You Got Class" (Stuart Gent) | 2:10 |
8. | "W. W. 9. Instrumental" (Thomas Dolby) | 0:49 |
9. | "Clean, Clean (with The Buggles)" (Horn, Downes) | 5:23 |
10. | "Get Away William" (Dave Birch) | 3:19 |
11. | "Goodbye to Yesterday" | 3:33 |
12. | "Goodbye to Yesterday (reprise)" (Birch, Dolby, Matthew Seligman, Rod Johnson) | 2:22 |
13. | "You're the Circus (I'm the Clown)" (Graham Adcock) | 3:35 |
Total length: | 39:15 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
14. | "Bobby Bad" | 2:38 |
15. | "Blue Blue (Victoria)" | 3:41 |
16. | "1000 Mph" (Guy Woolley) | 3:35 |
17. | "Ghost Train" (Thomas Dolby) | 3:51 |
18. | "House of Wax" | 4:04 |
Total length: | 57:04 |
Song | Region | Date(s) | Format | Label |
---|---|---|---|---|
"English Garden" / "Video Killed the Radio Star" [16] | North America | 1979 | 7" | Columbia Records |
"Video Killed the Radio Star" / "Get Away William" [17] | Europe | Epic Records | ||
"Clean, Clean" / "Flying Man" [18] | ||||
"Clean Clean" / "Video Killed the Radio Star" [19] | Japan | |||
"Dancing with the Sporting Boys" / "Flying Man" [20] | United Kingdom | 14 September 1979 |
The Buggles are an English new wave band formed in London in 1977 by singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes. They are best known for their 1979 debut single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which topped the UK Singles Chart and reached number one in 15 other countries and was chosen as the song to launch MTV in 1981.
The Age of Plastic is the debut album by the English new wave duo the Buggles, first released on 28th November 1979 on Island Records. It is a concept album about the possible repercussions of modern technology. The title was conceived from the group's intention of being a "plastic group" and the album was produced in the wake of the success of their debut record, "Video Killed the Radio Star" (1979), which topped the UK Singles Chart. Most of the album's other tracks were written during promotion of the single.
Thomas Morgan Robertson, known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher.
Trevor Charles Horn is an English record producer and musician. His influence on pop and electronic music in the 1980s was such that he has been called "the man who invented the eighties".
"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1979. It was recorded concurrently by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club for their album English Garden and by British new wave/synth-pop group the Buggles, which consisted of Horn and Downes.
Adventures in Modern Recording is the second studio album by English new wave group the Buggles, released in November 1981 by Carrere Records. Although the Buggles began as a duo of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, the album ended up as mostly Horn's solo effort, as Downes left to join the English rock band Asia on the day recording was originally scheduled to begin. It contains nine tracks, including a version of a track from the Yes album Drama (1980), recorded during Horn and Downes' short initial tenure with the band. Originally named "Into the Lens", the Buggles rendition is titled "I Am a Camera". A stylistically and sonically varied progressive electronic album, Adventures in Modern Recording depicts Horn perfecting his skill as producer and was described by journalists as a document for how he would produce his later works. It was one of the earliest albums to use the Fairlight CMI, one of the first digital sampling synthesizers.
Drama is the tenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes, released on 22 August 1980 by Atlantic Records. It was their only album to feature Trevor Horn on lead vocals and the first with Geoff Downes on keyboards. This followed the departures of Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman after attempts to record a new album in Paris and London had failed. Drama was recorded hurriedly with Horn and Downes, as a tour had already been booked before the change in personnel. The album marked a development in Yes' musical direction, combining the band's progressive signature with Horn and Downes' new wave sensibilities.
The Golden Age of Wireless is the debut album by English musician Thomas Dolby. Originally released in May 1982, the album was reissued in a number of different configurations, with later resequencings including the pop hit "She Blinded Me with Science".
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Bruce Martin Woolley is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He wrote songs with artists such as the Buggles and Grace Jones, including "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "Slave to the Rhythm", and co-founded the Radio Science Orchestra.
"Into the Lens" is a song written by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. It was originally released in 1980 by progressive rock band Yes, of which Horn and Downes were a part, as a part of the album Drama, before being reworked as "I Am a Camera" for the 1981 album Adventures in Modern Recording by the Buggles, a duo consisting of Horn and Downes; both versions were released as singles, with the Yes single being re-titled "Into the Lens (I Am a Camera)".
Geoffrey Downes is an English keyboardist who gained fame as a member of the new wave group the Buggles with Trevor Horn, the progressive rock band Yes, and the supergroup Asia.
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"Clean, Clean" is a song composed by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. It was recorded first by the latter for his band Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club in 1979, and later by the former two as the Buggles for their debut album The Age of Plastic. It was released as the album's third single on 24 March 1980.
Trevor Herion, born John Trevor Herion, was an Irish singer and songwriter, born in Cork who formed part of the punk and new wave scenes in the 1970s and 1980s. He later became a solo artist, but was not commercially successful and died in 1988.
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