Blue Matter Spring Newsletter
Hi Folks,
Nick here, it’s about time I let you have some Blue Matter Records news. Recently, I’ve been really busy organising the Bevis Frond’s forthcoming European Tour, our first one for eight years, thank you so much Brexit. But of course, being so energetic and youthful, I haven’t been letting my commitment to Blue Matter Records slip. In fact, there have been quite a lot of developments here at BMR Central.
Firstly, I guess you may be interested / thrilled / totally nonplussed to know that we will shortly be issuing our next three albums. These are as follows:
ANGUS: DIARY OF DREAMS
Maurizio ‘Angus’ Bidoli is a brilliant guitarist from Rome who has been making music for decades mostly in the metal rock category. However, every now and then, his ‘Hendrixiano’ side takes over, and he does some private recordings of very trippy and cool guitar jamming. ‘Diary Of Dreams’ was recorded over 20 years ago and Angus pressed just a handful of CD copies for friends (of which I was lucky enough to be one). We asked if we could put it out on BMR, and he was only too happy for it to happen. We designed the sleeve to be as similar to the original as possible.
ANTON BARBEAU: IN THE VILLAGE OF THE APPLE SUN
When we started BMR up a couple of years ago, our old mate Anton Barbeau got in touch and suggested that we might like to re-issue his ‘In The Village Of The Apple Sun’. He felt it would fit really nicely on the label and also, as it had never had a vinyl release before, he wanted to see it in LP format. We didn’t need to be asked twice. It’s a truly great record.
PAUL ROLAND: MORBID BEAUTY
Another old pal got in touch recently to see if we fancied putting out a brand new album he’d recorded. This is the legendary Paul Roland who let us have a listen to his ‘Morbid Beauty’ project. Once again we were delighted to oblige. It’s a fantastic album with some great guitar work by another old mate, Mick Crossley.
These three albums will be coming out on CD and as a limited release on LP during the Summer.
What else is new? Well, it looks like Eliza Skelton’s brilliant ‘ The Lookerer’ album is getting a USA release. We are in the process of completing a licence deal with Arizona-based label Desert Vinyl. Eliza has also begun work on a new album. We haven’t yet heard any of it, but it’s not going to be anything other than wonderful. And while we’re on the subject of Eliza, we’re currently discussing re-issuing her and Paul Simmons’ The Desperate Ones 2012 album ‘1906’ in the near future.
Then there’s the album by Debbie & The Millbanks which came out on CD only back in 2010. Of course since then Debbie Wileman has become an internet sensation via her ‘Song A Day’ project during Covid lockdown, which has resulted in her securing management in Hollywood and appearing in two of her own sell out shows at Carnegie Hall, NYC.
Our very own Adrian Shaw’s fantastic ‘A Dark Reflection’ album has been selling really well and getting great reviews. Oak Acetator’s ‘Power Trip’ has been equally successful and Robin has recently been doing a few gigs.
Returning to Bevis Frond, I was also thinking that it might be a good idea to do a first official release of The Frond’s ‘Death Trip’ bootleg album from over 30 years ago which comprised one side of music from the first ever European Tour in 1989 and one side of my early home demos including the 20+ minute long ‘Death Trip’. Maybe something for 2025. There have been some comments online that a new ‘Acid Jam’ album would be a good idea, which haven’t gone unnoticed. At the moment, I’m so tied up with Bevis Frond and Blue Matter stuff, that I just don’t have time to get a project like that off the ground, but it’s certainly given me some food for thought.
Well, that’s all for now. Have a good Spring and we’ll speak again soon.
Cheers,
Nick