Radio Silence | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1980 | |||
Genre | New wave | |||
Label | Ready Records RR009 [1] | |||
Producer | Kevin Doyle, Chris Wardman, and "Jasper" | |||
Blue Peter chronology | ||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Radio Silence is the first full-length album by the Toronto-based new wave band Blue Peter. [3] Released in 1980, it contained the moderately successful single "Video Verite", as well as the eponymous single "Radio Silence", known for its simple "dying keyboard" riff. [4] The album ranked 60th in CFNY's Top 80 Albums of 1980. [5]
The LP is an analog sound storage medium, a vinyl record format characterized by a speed of 33 1⁄3 rpm, a 12- or 10-inch diameter, and use of the "microgroove" groove specification. Introduced by Columbia in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry. Apart from a few relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums.
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the most populous city in Canada, with a population of 2,731,571 in 2016. Current to 2016, the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), of which the majority is within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), held a population of 5,928,040, making it Canada's most populous CMA. Toronto is the anchor of an urban agglomeration, known as the Golden Horseshoe in Southern Ontario, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.
New wave is a genre of pop-oriented rock music popular in the late 1970s and the 1980s with ties to mid-1970s punk rock. New wave moved away from blues and rock and roll sounds to create rock music or pop music (later) that incorporated disco, mod, and electronic music. Initially new wave was similar to punk rock, before becoming a distinct genre. It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions, including synth-pop.
Paul Humphrey is a Canadian singer/songwriter and musician who plays keyboards and guitar and is best known as the lead singer for the 1980s Canadian new wave band Blue Peter. Humphrey has also been the leader of The Paul Humphrey Band, The Monkey Tree, and Broken Arrow.
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings.
Chris Wardman is a Canadian music producer, musician and songwriter. Wardman was a founding member of Blue Peter, and was their lead guitarist and main contributing songwriter. Wardman was also a member of Breeding Ground in the late 1980s. Wardman has been actively producing albums for many Canadian acts, including Chalk Circle, Leslie Spit Treeo, Randy Bachman and Emm Gryner. Wardman produced two albums for Art Bergmann, including Sexual Roulette in 1990. Meryn Cadell's most recent new release, 1997's 6 Blocks, was produced by Wardman, for which he hired, among others, former bandmate Jason Sniderman, and he performed on the album as well. The Watchmen credit Wardman with discovering them while playing at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, and he produced their debut album, McLaren Furnace Room, which was certified gold in Canada in 1996. In his review of the album on Allmusic, Roch Parisien complimented Wardman's mix of the album for how he balanced lead singer Danny Greaves' vocals with the music production.
Additional personnel:
All songs on the album were written by Chris Wardman, except where noted:
In 2007, Radio Silence was re-issued by Universal Music Canada on compact disc, combined with Test Patterns for Living (originally released as a seven inch by Ready Records in 1979). [8] In addition, the re-issue also includes two bonus tracks, a single edit of "Video Verite" and a live concert recording of 'Take Me to War", recorded in 1983 in Montreal. [6]
Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony and released in 1982. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings (CD-DA) but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). Several other formats were further derived from these, including write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video Compact Disc (VCD), Super Video Compact Disc (SVCD), Photo CD, PictureCD, CD-i, and Enhanced Music CD. The first commercially available audio CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was released October 1982 in Japan.
Test Patterns for Living was the first release, an EP, by the Toronto-based new wave band Blue Peter. Released in 1979, it included the single "Factory Living", which helped the band get their first radio airplay on CFNY. The song "Same Old Place", later appeared on the compilation album, The Best of Ready Volume 1 :: 20th Century Masters — The Millennium Collection, and in 2009 was included on the soundtrack for the vampire/rock and roll movie Suck; the latter event led to Blue Peter performing in 2009 at the Toronto International Film Festival at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, for the film's premiere.
Montreal is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the second-most populous municipality in Canada. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. It has a distinct four-season continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold, snowy winters.
The band lineup for the Test Patterns for Living tracks included Paul Humphrey on vocals and keyboards, Chris Wardman on guitar, Geoff McOuat on bass, and Ron Tomlinson on drums. [6] The band lineup for the live version of Take Me to War was the final incarnation of Blue Peter, featuring Humphrey, Wardman, Jason Sniderman on keyboards, Ric Joudrey on bass and Owen Tennyson on drums. [6]
Jason Sniderman is a Canadian musician and businessman. He was one of the chief executives of Sam the Record Man, which was established by his father, Sam Sniderman.
Blue Peter is a Canadian new wave synthpop band founded in 1978 in Markham, Ontario by Chris Wardman and Paul Humphrey. In their heyday, Blue Peter opened for major international acts such as the Police and Simple Minds. The video for "Don't Walk Past", directed by Rob Quartly, was No. 85 on MuchMusic's top videos of the century list, and was played on MTV in the United States, in spite of the lack of American record distribution for the band. The band continues to perform, on occasion.
The Word is Live is a box set by the English progressive rock band Yes, released in August 2005 by Rhino Records. A triple album, the set is compiled of live recordings from radio broadcasts and concert tours between 1970 and 1988, mostly from guitarist Steve Howe's tape collection.
Me and My Gang is the fourth studio album by American country music group Rascal Flatts. It was released on April 4, 2006, via Lyric Street Records. The album became the highest US debut of 2006, with 721,747 units and went double platinum in the first month of release. The album logged three weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. It was the second-best selling album and the best selling country album of 2006. It has sold 4.918 million copies in the United States as of the chart dated March 24, 2012 and was certified 5× Platinum. This is the group's first album to be produced by Dann Huff.
Mirror Mirror is the 11th and last album by British rock band 10cc. It was released in 1995 and did not chart in the UK or US. The album was their first not to be released on a major label, as Stewart and Gouldman found themselves without one following the failure of their previous album, the "reunion" project ...Meanwhile.
Naked and Sacred is Chynna Phillips' debut solo album, released in November 1995 three years after her departure from the pop group Wilson Phillips. She was the only member of the group to remain on her label, EMI, after they went on an indefinite break in late 1992. It was released on November 7, 1995 in the U.S. and was a commercial failure, selling only 22,000 copies in the United States according to Billboard.com. Chynna co-wrote 9 of the 11 tracks, featuring productions from Rick Nowels, Glen Ballard, and Desmond Child. According to Chynna, she was offered $1 million to record a solo album for EMI, and was dropped shortly after due to the album's disappointing sales.
Filmworks VII: Cynical Hysterie Hour is a 1989 album by John Zorn featuring music written for a series of Japanese animated shorts that were created by Kiriko Kubo. It features Zorn's first music for cartoons and was originally released on the Japanese Sony label in limited numbers. In late 1996 Zorn finally attained the rights for his music and remastered and re-released the album on his own label, Tzadik, in 1997.
Feets, Don't Fail Me Now is the twenty-seventh album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. The record was released in February 1979, on the Columbia Records label.
Big Blue Ball is an album by multiple artists which "grew from 3 recording weeks" at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in the summers of 1991, 1992, and 1995. It is Peter Gabriel's fourteenth album project overall.
Show Me Your Way is the forty-eighth album by American singer/guitarist Glen Campbell, released in 1991.
Jesus and Me: The Collection is a compilation album consisting of songs from contemporary Christian albums No More Night, Show Me Your Way, The Boy in Me plus two new songs "Sure As The Sun" and "Turn Up The Radio". In 2011 a Deluxe edition of this album was released which added two songs from the Wings of Victory album, "On The Wings Of Victory" and "I Will Arise".
Peter Frampton is the eleventh studio album by English singer-songwriter Peter Frampton, released in 1994. An expanded version of the album was issued in 2000. It also features one of the last recordings made by Peter's former bandmate Steve Marriott, "Out of the Blue".
Ennismore is the second solo studio album by the English singer Colin Blunstone of rock band the Zombies. It was originally released in November 1972 on the label Epic. The lead single "I Don't Believe in Miracles" peaked at No. 31 on the UK Singles Chart, and "How Could We Dare to Be Wrong" peaked No. 45. Ennismore was reissued on CD by Sony in 2003.
Falling was the second full-length album by the Toronto-based new wave band Blue Peter. Coming on the heels of Up To You, their successful 1982 EP, Steve Nye was selected to produce their next album, which included the hit song, "Don't Walk Past". Nye's production emphasized keyboards over guitars, and drew comparisons with his work with Roxy Music and Japan.
Up to You was an EP by the Toronto-based new wave band Blue Peter. Released in 1982, it included the single "Chinese Graffiti", which garnered the band their biggest radio exposure to date, winning a CASBY Award for Single Of The Year. In the past, "Chinese Graffiti" had been released as a single by the band on their own short-lived independent record label, AWOL Records, in 1981. The EP ranked 29th on CFNY's Top 82 Albums of 1982, and its success led to the following year's album, Falling being produced by Steve Nye.
Reaching the Cold 100 is an album recorded by the British blues band the Peter Green Splinter Group, led by Peter Green. Released in 2003, this was their eighth and final album. Green was the founder of Fleetwood Mac and a member of that group from 1967–70, before a sporadic solo career during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This album is the only charting album by the group, at number 11 on the Billboard Blues album chart in March 2003.
Greatest Hits 2 is a greatest hits album by American rock band Journey. The album was released on November 1, 2011 by Columbia Records.