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The Blue Aeroplanes - A Brief History!
The Blue Aeroplanes burst out of Bristol in 1984, a pyrotechnic blur of dulcimers, bagpipes, turntables, dancing and lots of guitars, all bound together in tendrils of freeform poetry. Many came and were bewildered, but for a select few they were a revelation, and the debut LP Bop Art was a source of comfort in trying musical times.
Bop Art - "Angry, sad, beautiful, rewarding, and bursting with very real emotion" NME
It soon became apparent that The Blue Aeroplanes were not going to take much notice of the rule-book. The line-up was - and remains - in a constant state of flux, coalescing and dissolving around the core of Vocalist / Poet-In-Residence Gerard Langley and Dancer Wojtek Dmochowski. Various instruments and sound-textures have appeared and disappeared - hurdy-gurdy, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, French horn, and espinette de vosges all made fleeting contributions to The Blue Aeroplanes' sonic vortex before being swept away in the endless onrush of personnel and ideas. At the last count, forty-four people have passed through the ranks of the band.
Remaining with Fire for most of the eighties, The Blue Aeroplanes gradually expanded their audience with a string of acclaimed records and a cast-iron reputation for awesome live work. The critics were relentlessly won over.
Tolerance - "This album is the hardest, the most musical of victories" Melody Maker
Spitting Out Miracles - "This could be the best left-field British pop album of the year" The Independent
The Blue Aeroplanes demonstrated their casual brilliance and embarrassment of riches on Friendloverplane, a collection of lost and obscure tracks which was as well received as their albums proper.
Friendloverplane - "A trove of guitar bliss, a double album compendium of transports" Melody Maker
In 1989, the band signed a new deal with Ensign, and gained a new audience by touring the UK with long-time admirers REM. Those who witnessed the fourteen-guitar finale at the Hammersmith Odeon - where Stipe, Buck, Berry, Mills, half the road crew, and an assortment of music journalists joined the band on-stage for Breaking In My Heart - still speak in hushed tones. Fresh from this live triumph, the band headed for the studio, and began work on the superlative Swagger LP.
Swagger - "The most exhilarating live band in the country have at last completed a long-playing record of incomparable genius" Melody Maker
Swagger became the band's biggest critical and commercial success to date, and indicated that, by steering clear of fashions and styles to develop an idiosyncratic and distinctive body of work, the band had achieved far more than contemporaries with less integrity. Bolstered by their new-found success and recognition, the band headed for LA to record the follow up to Swagger, entitled Beatsongs.
Beatsongs - "The best album to bear a UK postmark in a long, long time" Select
Things had clearly been proceeding too smoothly, though. Ensign records were swamped by Chrysalis, and it took two years of protracted negotiations for the band to extricate themselves from what now seemed like an unsympathetic contract. Life Model, the LP recorded during that period, finally found an appreciative home at Beggars Banquet, and made its delayed appearance early in 1994. In the meantime, Ensign had put together a compilation - Friendloverplane 2 (Up In A Down World) which gathered together another assortment of hidden gems.
Friendloverplane 2 - "A bona fide treat ... a vital collection" Select
Life Model - "At least their third consecutive stone cool classic album" NME
And suddenly, The Blue Aeroplanes had been defying logic for ten years. To celebrate - another album, natch. Plus some chaotic and memorable live shows where the 1994 line-up were joined by the 1984 line-up to wreak havoc on London's Mean Fiddler.
Rough Music - "That most rare of things: a casually challenging, genuinely rewarding and hugely enjoyable album." Time Out
At this point, things became slightly murky and confused as a succession of incidents including death, madness, divorce and family problems (the Aeroplanes membership has involved more than a dozen siblings, almost certainly a record) resulted in leader Gerard Langley retreating to Bristol to write his definitive (though still unfinished) History Of Rock Music.
A solo album, Record Player (kick-started by an Aeroplanes line-up refusing to play Status Quo's Paper Plane) followed in 1999 before The Blue Aeroplanes re-convened on record with a folk-punk setting of a 12-part poem Gerard had written about the effects of the English Civil War on contemporary life. The resulting Cavaliers album was successful enough for the band to sign (ironically enough) to EMI to release the critically-acclaimed Swagger Deluxe and Altitude albums (2006) See the band website for reviews. Released in the UK only, the absence of a US release led to a parting of the ways with EMI. (With the band retaining all rights to the Altitdue album outside the UK).
With the new album When Things Are Good sounding like a collision between the Hold Steady, Lou Reed with a British accent and Bright Eyes, the Aeroplanes are heading for South By South West with their greatest statement of intent yet, including the monstrous punk-pop classic 25 Kinds Of Love the funky yet somehow Lynyrd Skynyrd groove of One World Passport and deceptively jaunty Hollywood critique Great Movie Cliches. Plus songs about novelists, cancer, 22 year-old Scarlett Johanssen lookalikes, birthday suits, LA hotel love, Paul Klee and the Devil.
What more could a jaded world possibly want?
Albums that followed include:
Fruit, 1996
Weird Shit, 1996
Huh!: The Best, 1987-1992, 1997
Warhol's 15 - The Best Of The Blue Aeroplanes 1985-1988, 2002
Cavaliers & Roundheads, 2000
Swagger Deluxe, 2006
Altitude, 2006
Harvester, 2007
Live In Cheltenham, 2008
When Things Are Good (to come in 2009)
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LATEST NEWS...
The Blue Aeroplanes have just completed their 10th studio album When Things Are Good due for release in May 2009. Watch this space for news of appearances at SxSW in Austin, Texas from 18th-22nd March 2009 followed by a full UK tour.
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