THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Drastic Plastic, the final Be-Bop Deluxe album, was recorded in the summer of 1978 in the South of France at The Villa Saint Georges, Juan-les-Pins, utilising The Rolling Stones Mobile, with final sessions taking place at The Manor Studio and Abbey Road Studios. The record saw Bill Nelson (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Charles Tumahai (bass, vocals), Andy Clark (keyboards) and Simon Fox (drums) venture into new musical styles, with the album being ground-breaking in its move to more “art rock” and “new wave” influences. In many ways it can be seen as the signpost to where Nelson would head with his Red Noise project, thanks to his desire to continue to progress as an artist by pushing musical boundaries.
Co-produced by Nelson and John Leckie, Drastic Plastic was another hit album in both the U.K. and the U.S.A. and featured such classic material as Electrical Language, Panic in the World, New Mysteries, Islands of the Dead and Surreal Estate. The recording sessions produced many more tracks which would appear as singles (such as Japan) and others that were originally planned for release as an EP set (Autosexual, Lovers Are Mortal, Speed Of The Wind, Quest For The Harvest Of The Stars, Face In The Rain), all of which eventually appeared on the retrospective compilation The Best of & the Rest Of … later in 1978.
This expanded deluxe reissue has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and features an additional 88 tracks, (43 previously unreleased), drawn from stunning new 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes from the original multi-track tapes by award winning engineer Stephen W. Tayler, previously unreleased outtakes from the album sessions, a BBC Radio John Peel Show session from January 1978, along with a CD of Nelson’s previously unreleased demos for the album A Feeling of Playing. Also included is an additional DVD featuring Be-Bop Deluxe in the South of France, (a collection of Nelson’s 8mm home movies shot whilst recording Drastic Plastic) and the band’s Sight & Sound In Concert performance for BBC TV from 1978.
Another highlight of this limited-edition boxed set is the lavishly illustrated 68-page book with many previously unseen photographs and an essay of recollections by Bill Nelson. Additionally, the set includes postcards and a replica poster. This special deluxe limited-edition boxed set of Drastic Plastic is a fitting tribute to the creative vision of Bill Nelson and the musicianship of Be-Bop Deluxe.”
