From Easter Parade’s sepia-toned introspection, complete with tolling church bells buried in the mix as deep as a recovered childhood memory, to his joyous declarations of love during the album’s second single, Tinseltown In The Rain, against a surging string section and shuffling rhythm guitar, Buchanan imparts a sense of hope to many of the settings that evoke dislocation and distance, that sense of being alone in the crowded city.

That A Walk Across The Rooftops began its commercial life in humble fashion is fitting, because it’s obsessed with minutiae. In 1981, the band recorded their debut single, the cheerful but still restrained I Love This Life. It was soon passed on to RSO Records, home to the Bee Gees, by Calum Malcolm, a young engineer.Brown, Allan (2010). Nileism: The Strange Course of the Blue Nile. Edinburgh, Scotland: Polygon Books. ISBN 978-1-84697-138-9. On its release, A Walk Across the Rooftops gained widespread acclaim from music critics for its mixture of sparse, detailed electronic sounds and Buchanan's soulful vocals, later described as a "fusion of chilly technology and a pitch of confessional, romantic soul". [20] In 1984, the band gained greater exposure in Europe, with the videos for their two singles, "Stay" and "Tinseltown in the Rain", often shown on the video channel Music Box. The band's profile began to grow, although its existence remained precarious. Buchanan commented, "I've always found it strange that people missed the 'punk' aspect of A Walk Across the Rooftops. We were living in a flat in Glasgow with no hot water. We barely knew what we were doing and that was very liberating." [17] Hats (1985–1990) [ edit ] Buchanan and Bell toured England and Scotland in May and June 2006, followed by Scotland and Ireland in November 2006, billed as "Paul Buchanan sings the songs of the Blue Nile", refraining from simply calling themselves the Blue Nile as a mark of respect for Moore's absence. The band consisted of Buchanan on vocals and guitar, Bell on bass guitar and keyboards, Alan Cuthbertson and Brendan Smith on keyboards, Stuart McCredie on guitar, and Liam Bradley on drums. On 14 July 2007, Buchanan and Bell played at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester as part of the Manchester International Festival. In July 2008, the band played shows at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Somerset House in London and the Radisson Hotel in Galway.

Now remastered (for once, the sound being both brittle and big, that null word has value) and reissued with added rarities (as is its sublime 1989 successor, Hats), its hopeful melancholy transcends its era like an Edward Hopper painting. Synthesisers, the 80s’ new toy, abound, but are used with such naïve grace, over rhythms both simple and circuitous, that they refuse to date. Holmes, Tim (26 September 1985). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across The Rooftops". Rolling Stone. No.457. pp.101–102. Archived from the original on 24 August 2007 . Retrieved 11 September 2011. We were very intrigued,” Buchanan once told the BBC’s Johnnie Walker, “by what we felt a sound could tell you visually.”Albums to Hear Before You Die – Artists beginning with B (part 1)". The Guardian. 17 November 2007. p.10 (supplement) . Retrieved 30 July 2015. A Walk Across the Rooftops became the first album released on the new Linn Records label, released on 30 April 1984 [13] [14] and reaching number 80 on the UK Albums Chart. [15] [16] Two singles were released from the album in the UK, with minor success: "Stay" reached number 97 on the UK Singles Chart, [17] and "Tinseltown in the Rain" reached number 87. [17] The video for "Tinseltown in the Rain" featured on the VHS video version of the compilation album Now That's What I Call Music 3, but the song was not included on the vinyl LP or cassette versions of the album. Having been let go by Linn and Virgin Records, the group signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1992, although it later transpired that Buchanan had made the deal by himself without informing his bandmates. His explanation was that "none of the others were in town at the time". [23] The band decided that it wanted to find somewhere private to record its new album with its portable studio, and began travelling around Europe searching for suitable locations. Having spent two years looking at and dismissing locations in cities such as Venice, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the record was finally recorded piecemeal over three locations in Paris, Dublin and Los Angeles. [24] We wanted to take it slowly and have a result worth listening to,” Bell nevertheless told Melody Maker, while Buchanan advised NME’s Richard Cook around the same time that, “Our way is just to persevere, working 16 hours Selling Out": A Premiere and Interview with Duncan Sheik, Plus Introducing Darlingside, and Exclusives by Jaye Bartell and Hugh Cornwell". HuffPost. 18 September 2015 . Retrieved 1 January 2022.

McNair, James (January 2013). "Review: The Blue Nile – A Walk Across the Rooftops/ Hats Deluxe Editions". Mojo. No.230. London, England: Bauer Media Group. p.104. 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”. a b c d e f g Thomson, Graeme (January 2013). "River of No Return". Uncut. London, England: IPC Media: 56–60. Belcher, David (20 July 1993). "Still in full flow". The Herald. Glasgow, Scotland: Caledonian Newspaper Publishing . Retrieved 4 April 2013.Like the later work of the like-minded, if dramatically dissimilar, Talk Talk – whose Mark Hollis once famously said, “Before you play two notes, learn how to play one note… and don’t play one note unless you’ve got a reason to play it” – the record embraces peace and quiet so much they’re virtually its central focus. Its poignant sentimentality, meanwhile, skilfully, solemnly swerves the saccharine. It was Kid Jensen that was playing it,” Buchanan told Johnnie Walker, “and for some reason somebody said to us, ‘It’s No.126 in the charts’. I remember thinking, ‘That’s fantastic!’ And that was a Friday, I think. Anyway, on the Monday the company was bankrupt. It wasn’t the best start.” Nonetheless, Bell told Melody Maker, “That was the turning point. After that we decided to think about writing music in the long term.”

The first two Blue Nile albums have a similar haunting quality that shows no sign of becoming dated. For those of us who lived there at the time, they are also a welcome reminder that there was more to 1980s Britain than very bad haircuts and the brutally awful Thatcher government. In July 2016, Buchanan took part in the David Bowie Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, performing " Ashes to Ashes", " I Can't Give Everything Away" and, as a duet with Laura Mvula, " Girl Loves Me". [ citation needed] Instead of rushing to make a follow-up, the Blue Nile studied where their music had taken them, as they traveled through America and Europe. “[O]ne of the best things we saw in our first trip to London,” Buchanan told NME after the album’s release, “Was a guy and a girl standing in Oxford Street… They were obviously having a moment—breaking up or something, something that was wrong—and you just looked at it and knew the feeling. It was a brilliant reminder of what’s worth all the hassle.” MacDonald, Bruno (2006). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Universe Publishing. p.508. ISBN 978-0-7893-1371-3.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. Belcher, David (16 February 1996). "Digging up a rare new jewel from the Nile". The Herald. Glasgow, Scotland: Caledonian Newspaper Publishing . Retrieved 4 April 2013. The album was recorded over five months in 1983 at Castlesound Studios, which Malcolm had set up in 1979 in the former primary school building in the village of Pencaitland, 12 miles (19km) east of Edinburgh. Living first in a rented flat in Edinburgh, and then later sleeping on Malcolm's floor when their money ran out, the band laboured over the album because all the sounds on the record had to be created and played physically. The band also had exacting standards and obsessed about every detail on the album: Malcolm recalled that "they were always particularly sensitive to not doing the wrong thing and making sure it had absolutely the right emotional impact: there were times when I'm sure everyone else felt something was done and then someone would throw a spanner in the works over some little thing". [5] Release [ edit ] a b c Murray, Robin (20 November 2012). "Tinseltown In The Rain: The Blue Nile". ClashMusic . Retrieved 14 March 2013.