I don’t recall now how I actually discovered Be-Bop Deluxe and came to be the owner of their 1976 album Modern Music. Possibly I heard the album’s single Kiss of Light on the radio, since it is that song that slots into my memory as “the first”. Equally, I may have been introduced by schoolmates Rocky Collier or Chris Hobbs, since they too were big fans and indeed the latter was there with me at my first ever gig: Be-Bop Deluxe at Leeds Grand Theatre, February 1978. However, own the album I did, and my overriding memory is the feeling of reverence I had for it. The themes and concepts conjured up by band leader and guitar genius Bill Nelson were thrilling and otherworldly; I recall at the foot of the back cover a line that summed it up simply but effectively: “Music and lyrics written by Bill Nelson to enchant”.

Modern Music was the band’s fourth album, so I had discovered them late (to be fair, I was only thirteen) and only retrospectively educated myself in the band’s evolution from glam rock pretenders to sophisticated art rockers. The band had formed in Wakefield in 1972 and had started out playing the West Yorkshire pub scene, one regular venue being the Staging Post in Whinmoor, Leeds. Several personnel changes had ensued by the time I had got into them, with my definitive line-up being Simon Fox on drums, Charlie Tumahai on bass and Andy Clark on keyboards, an ensemble that understood Nelson’s vision and was eminently capable of helping him manifest it.

The track listing itself gives hints of the fantastical nature of that vision: Orphans of Babylon, The Bird Charmer’s Destiny, Honeymoon on Mars, The Dance of the Uncle Sam Humanoids. To the uninitiated, such titles might smack of prog-rock concept-album pretension but the melodies, the textures, the hooks, and the overall musical splendour argue against such a simplistic appraisal. It is certainly conceptual, and indeed Nelson can get away with making the whole of side B a suite of short tracks merging into one another, but pretentious it ain’t. Too much quality.

The album cover shows the band besuited and un-rock star like, with Bill presciently sporting a “TV-watch” (or smartwatch, as we’d call it today, albeit without the antennas!). This was nothing like their glam rock origins, nor anything like the punk nihilism that was bursting onto the scene at around the same time (in the same month as the album’s release, September 1976, the 100 Club was hosting a two-day punk festival featuring the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Damned). Modern Music represented a unique sound and vision, and although the band would only release one more album and disband before they could achieve lasting fame, it stands as a monument to Bill Nelson’s considerable musical abilities.

Here is the title track, which gives but a flavour of the music though I would recommend immersing oneself in the whole album to get the proper Be-Bop experience.