A Walk Across The Rooftops

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Dominated by the melodies, mini-journeys, miracles and silence Buchanan would later identify as the very source of music’s alchemy, it’s more than just A Walk Across The Rooftops. It is, in fact, as Buchanan himself suggested it should be, “like being able to walk on air…” Read more: Deacon Blue interview Read more: Making Talk Talk’s The Colour Of Spring The Blue Nile: A Walk Across The Rooftops – The Songs

Reportedly it took the group nine months to sign the contract, and, in years to come, thanks to the increasing gaps between their albums, they’d become known for their meticulous working pace, something Bell perhaps inadvertently foresaw when he added that Linn “weren’t an overtly commercial label, and we knew we’d not be hassled into deadlines and marketing pitches”.

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Although there has never been an official statement to clarify whether or not the Blue Nile still exists, the indications are that the band has split up. There appears to be disagreement among the band members themselves as to whether they will ever make another record together. Moore is emphatic that he will never rejoin the band, saying in communications sent in 2010 to the band's biographer that he was "finding it healthier to put all that behind me", [27] and in a 2013 interview his terse reply to the question of a reunion was, "I think stuff happened that was simply beyond the pale. It's a shame, but if the feeling for sitting down together really isn't there, then continuing to do so even because you want to is pointless." [19] On the other hand, Buchanan has not given up hope that the three members of the Blue Nile may make more music together in the future, [16] saying, "I don't know where things stand with the other two guys... In a way, I think it would be the right and proper thing to do but I'll just need to wait and see. If the others say let's do this... Certainly, if I bump into them on a corner my hope would be that we could say: so what are you doing tomorrow?" [14] He also lamented the estrangement with Moore, saying, "We're inhibited by the Scottish male thing where you have to give the other guy space, but I love PJ and there isn't a month goes by where I don't think about phoning him". [19]

a b Edwards, D. M. (1 February 2013). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops / Hats". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013 . Retrieved 9 March 2013. McGalliard, James (15 December 2004). "An Ordinary Miracle". Inpress. Melbourne, Australia: Street Press Australia. People tend to flag up The Blue Nile’s Scottishness, as if geography and accidents of birth were responsible for artistic vision; but surely, again like Hopper, the dreams and tears here are universal. The city streets, cars, rooftops, rain, couples and love documented and expressed so delicately throughout the seven songs are potentially everywhere, any time, “caught up in this big rhythm”. This is why the band stood out then and hover above now; both everymen and angels. The members of the Blue Nile met while they were students at the University of Glasgow. After graduating and easing into an uninspiring teaching gig, Buchanan says he and his friends turned to music in search of a career that they “could be instinctive about.” With Buchanan on guitar and vocals, Paul Joseph “PJ” Moore on keyboards and synth, and Robert Bell on bass, they recruited a drum machine as their fourth member. By 1990, however, Irish broadcaster Dave Fanning was suggesting on air that 80,000 copies had been shifted. “It’s sold a lot more than that, actually,” Buchanan modestly corrected him. “I think we just don’t want to attract attention to any thoughts about ourselves.”a b Mason, Stewart. " A Walk Across the Rooftops – The Blue Nile". AllMusic . Retrieved 16 December 2016. It’s like a miracle that we don’t really ever discuss. Why in the name of God can it reduce you to tears when one note goes ‘Ah’ and another note goes ‘Oh’ at the same time? Listening to melodies and going on these mini-journeys is so crucial, and it saddens me sometimes that music has just turned into a loss-leader in a supermarket. Early experiments with a drum machine, its restrictive Latin American rhythms doing them no more favours than its human predecessors, were unsuccessful. Nonetheless, their limited means forced them to explore a more minimalist style, and they found common ground in a search for something which transcended mere entertainment.

The band has influenced future musicians such as Duncan Sheik, who covered the song "Stay", as well as Wild Beasts. [32] [33] The 1975 lead singer Matt Healy labeled The Blue Nile his "favorite band of all time" and declared Hats to be his "favorite record of the ‘80s." [34] Healy would describe The 1975's 2018 song " Love It If We Made It" as the "Blue Nile on steroids", while critics drew comparisons between the song's construction and that of " The Downtown Lights". [35] Discography [ edit ] Albums [ edit ] Year Kelly, Jennifer (30 January 2013). "At the Source of the Blue Nile: An Interview with Paul Buchanan". PopMatters . Retrieved 10 March 2013. Despite the movement of the music, Hats is an album in stasis. The Blue Nile understand that, like all good theater, relationships are inextricably linked to their setting, and the characters on Hats are prisoners to it, escaping only in fantasy. “Walk me into town/The ferry will be there to carry us away into the air,” Buchanan sings in “Over the Hillside.” “Let’s walk in the cool evening light/Wrong or right/Be at my side,” he pleads in “The Downtown Lights.” “I pray for love coming out all right,” he sings in the climactic final verse of “Let’s Go Out Tonight.” Then he cries out the title as one final desperate attempt to save something that’s already gone. A Walk Across the Rooftops’ first single, and one of Buchanan’s more enigmatic lyrics, Stay is filled with inscrutable images from its opening line, “I’m taking off this party hat”, onwards: “Red guitar is broken,” “Candy girls want candy boxes,” “Summer girls in disarray/ Can be so free and easy now.” “ Stay, I think, is a more straightforwardly romantic song,” Buchanan informed Johnnie Walker. “I think maybe at the same point the protagonist is reflecting on something simple that he’s lost within himself, and that’s the grounds for his appeal.” In 2019, the band's major label albums were re-issued on vinyl, with a re-issue of High charting at number 74 in the UK charts after being released by Confetti Records on 5 June 2020 as vinyl or double CD edition. [31] Legacy [ edit ]

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Roberts, David, ed. (2006). Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London, England: Guinness World Records Ltd. p.66. ISBN 978-1-904994-10-7. Wallace, Wyndham (December 2019). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops / Hats / Peace at Last". Classic Pop. No.59. p.87. Cranna, Ian (10–23 May 1984). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops". Smash Hits. Vol.6, no.9. p.27.