One unique feature of this album is the number of reissues available on both vinyl and CD, all with varying track orders and/or track lengths and in some cases different versions of songs (ie Radio Silence) or new songs (ie. "The Wreck Of The Fairchild" instead of "She Blinded me With Science"). For more details see: PostPunkMonk and TheCDProject
This is a fantastic album - way ahead of its time. Musician magazine literally called the album "the best damned synth-pop record ever, period,"
Even rock-oriented Rolling Stone magazine called the album "one of the most impressive debuts" of the year (see 1982 review below). Even so, the album didn't even make that magazine's list of the top 100 albums of the decade. This album was released many times in the early '80s with varying tracks, sequencing, and album artwork. I don't feel like recapping that for you, but if you're interested, there's always wikipedia. What sets Dolby apart from other early synthpop pioneers is his musicianship. He's a better keyboard player than most and seems to have quickly developed a working knowledge of harmony and theory. And Dolby's pop songwriting skills aren't to be overlooked, either.
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Thomas Dolby |
1985 saw Dolby gain the respect of his elders and he was invited to play alongside Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder at The Grammy Awards and David Bowie at Live Aid.
In an interview with ElectricCityClub Dolby recalls the event:
It was a great experience. To be able to play with somebody like Stevie Wonder or David Bowie who had been my heroes during my teenage years at my most malleable, to get the acknowledgement of your heroes is a very flattering and gratifying thing. In both cases, it came together very quickly.
With Bowie, the first time I’d ever spoken to him in my life was 9 days before Live Aid and he was in a bit of a fix because his regular touring band were off doing other things and he was busy filming ‘Labyrinth’. This thing came up and I think it took him a while to get his round the scope of the event. It was obviously something that he wanted to do but I don’t think he really grasped the full significance of it until the days went on and the event got closer.
We only had about four rehearsals. In the first couple, he was saying “we’ll be promoting my new single ‘Loving The Alien'” but as it got closer, he realised it wasn’t about promotion, it was about doing something iconic and anthemic. And that’s why we ended up with the songs we did. Because we had so little rehearsal, we’d never actually played the songs through in the order that we did them.
It was a great experience. To be able to play with somebody like Stevie Wonder or David Bowie who had been my heroes during my teenage years at my most malleable, to get the acknowledgement of your heroes is a very flattering and gratifying thing. In both cases, it came together very quickly.
With Bowie, the first time I’d ever spoken to him in my life was 9 days before Live Aid and he was in a bit of a fix because his regular touring band were off doing other things and he was busy filming ‘Labyrinth’. This thing came up and I think it took him a while to get his round the scope of the event. It was obviously something that he wanted to do but I don’t think he really grasped the full significance of it until the days went on and the event got closer.
We only had about four rehearsals. In the first couple, he was saying “we’ll be promoting my new single ‘Loving The Alien'” but as it got closer, he realised it wasn’t about promotion, it was about doing something iconic and anthemic. And that’s why we ended up with the songs we did. Because we had so little rehearsal, we’d never actually played the songs through in the order that we did them.
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Live Aid Stage |
At the end of the performance, speaking over the music, Bowie thanked the band for getting together so quickly to do this show for him and would be forever in their debt.”
The fact that Bowie was willing to take a chance with a young band with very little rehearsal was a ballsy move on his part, I was just very proud that it was us."
Rolling Stone Album Review
(by Don Shewey)
Thomas Dolby's 'The Golden Age Of Wireless' is one of the most impressive debuts so far this year. Dolby, who played on Foreigner IV and wrote "New Toy" for Lene Lovich, takes after the Bowie side of Gary Numan. Even his most enigmatic songs ("Leipzig", "Radio Silence") have Bowie's substance and narrative completion. Yet he manipulates studio hardware with Numan's eerie familiarity. Several tracks have a submerged, barely audible layer of almost random sound that serves as a constant (and disturbing) subtext, occasionally erupting into the song - like the descending quintet of notes that interrupts the melody of "Weightless" whenever "the empty feeling" is mentionaed. This sonic underworld is all part of Dolby's mechanical wizardry; one can imagine him as a boy genius alone in the basement with his tapes and wires and synths and rhythm macvhines, making this dense,dazzling record and sticking in weird, subliminal noises to amuse himself.
The results are hardly hermetic. The jaunty pulse of "Europa and the Pirate Twins", in which a lad tries to contact a childhood friend who's now a celebrity, hooks you into the album immediately. "Windpower","Radio Silence" and "Flying North" are as irresistibly melodic as Paul McCartney's work. And unlike many synthesizer bands from England, Dolby eschews morbid, droogy drones.
"Cloudburst at Shingle Street", the possibly apocalyptic number that closes the album, faces annihilation with a vision that is positively ecstatic.
Dolby's PPG Wave Computer
On ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’, Dolby had a PPG Wave Computer named ‘Henry’. It was his main tool in producing the sounds unique to this album, instead of other computer instruments like the Fairlight CMI, Synclavier and the Crumar GPS.
In an interview with ElectricCityClub Dolby explains:
"The Fairlight had barely shown up in the UK at that point so there was no easy way to sequence things at all. The PPG was the first sequencer I’d seen… it had a drum module that sounded pretty good and gave me the option of tuning the samples. There’s a clap sound that shows up on ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ which is actually its snare drum slowed down a lot. Shortly after that, I bought the module for a Simmons drum kit and I was able to trigger those sounds from the PPG sequencer.
In reality, about half the songs on ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ were band based, with a three piece band of bass, drums and guitar plus my keyboards. They weren’t played with sequences, they were played as a band and I added electronic thrills on top.
There were others like ‘Windpower’, ‘Flying North’ and the electronic version of ‘Radio Silence’ which were more obviously sequenced and more into that synthpop kind of mould.
I think because I was capable of doing more instantly accessible, quirky pop stuff, the tendency of the record company was to say “Oh there’s your single Thomas, right there… that’s going to be instantly catchy on the radio!”. But it’s quite hard to get them to put as much weight behind the more personal and intimate stuff because they knew I could do it. And I think the moment I had some commercial success with songs like ‘Hyperactive!’ and ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, there was no persuading them".
This post consists of FLACs ripped from my vinyl copies (LP & 12" Single) and includes full album artwork and label scans. One unique feature of my Australian pressing is the label on the top-left LP front cover which states: Including "She Blinded Me With Science". After extensive searching in DISCOGS I have been unable to find any Front Cover artwork with this label on any of the 95 versions available (at the time of this posting).
"The Fairlight had barely shown up in the UK at that point so there was no easy way to sequence things at all. The PPG was the first sequencer I’d seen… it had a drum module that sounded pretty good and gave me the option of tuning the samples. There’s a clap sound that shows up on ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ which is actually its snare drum slowed down a lot. Shortly after that, I bought the module for a Simmons drum kit and I was able to trigger those sounds from the PPG sequencer.
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Henry (PPG Wave Computer) |
On top of that, the PPG also had a wavetable synthesizer in it which had some pretty extraordinary sounds. Some of the wavetables were so disparate that you’d hit a key and the note had a sort of rhythm inherent to it… like the bassline in ‘Windpower’ which has this slapback effect. I think I actually wrote that song because I’d dialled up that sound. That’s what I made the song with."
Sadly, ‘Henry’ fell down a lift shaft on an American tour and was replaced by ‘Henry The Second’, a Fairlight…
In reality, about half the songs on ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ were band based, with a three piece band of bass, drums and guitar plus my keyboards. They weren’t played with sequences, they were played as a band and I added electronic thrills on top.
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Thomas Dolby On Stage at the Marquee, London |
I think because I was capable of doing more instantly accessible, quirky pop stuff, the tendency of the record company was to say “Oh there’s your single Thomas, right there… that’s going to be instantly catchy on the radio!”. But it’s quite hard to get them to put as much weight behind the more personal and intimate stuff because they knew I could do it. And I think the moment I had some commercial success with songs like ‘Hyperactive!’ and ‘She Blinded Me With Science’, there was no persuading them".
Now, with respect to the many versions of this album that have been released (with varying track listings, track sequences and track lengths), I am providing a brief listing of these below. My album matches the first Australian 1982 EMI release (See Below *)
As a bonus, I am also including the 3 tracks "Leipzig","The Wreck Of The Fairchild" and "Urges" which have appeared on overseas releases but are missing from this Australian release.
Finally, I have chosen to include a FLAC rip of my 12" single of "She Blinded Me With Science (extended version)" and the B-Side "One Of Our Submarines (extended version)", as a special bonus.
Track Listings:
[Venice In Peril Release]
Flying North 3:50
Commercial Breakup 4:15
Weightless 3:45
Europa + The Pirate Twins 3:18
Windpower 4:20
The Wreck Of The Fairchild 3:30
Airwaves 5:12
Radio Silence 3:43
Cloudburst At Shingle Street 5:45
* “The Wreck Of The Fairchild” only appeared on this 1st UK pressing of the album.
Thomas Dolby: Golden Age Of Wireless 1st US LP [1982]
[Harvest Release]
Europa + The Pirate Twins 3:18
Flying North 3:50
Weightless 3:45
Leipzig 3:52
Windpower 4:20
Commercial Breakup 4:15
Urges 3:39
Airwaves [7″] 3:35
Radio Silence [version] 4:32
Cloudburst At Shingle Street 5:45
[Parlophone / EMI Release]
She Blinded Me With Science 3:43
Radio Silence 3:48
Airwaves 5:16
Flying North 3:53
Weightless 3:47
Europa + The Pirate Twins 3:20
Windpower 4:20
Commercial Breakup 4:18
One Of Our Submarines 5:14
Cloudburst At Shingle Street 5:45
Thomas Dolby: Golden Age Of Wireless 2nd US LP [1983]
[Capitol Release]
She Blinded Me With Science [ext.] 5:09
Radio Silence [version] 4:32
Airwaves [7″] 3:35
Flying North 3:50
Weightless 3:45
Europa + The Pirate Twins 3:18
Windpower 3:38
Commercial Breakup 4:15
One Of Our Submarines 5:11
Cloudburst At Shingle Street 5:45
Band Members:
Thomas Dolby - Synthesizer [Wave Computer] & Drum Programs
Justin Hildreth - Drums, Percussion
Matthew Seligman - Moog Bass
Mark Heyward-Chaplin - Bass
Kevin Armstrong - Guitar
David Birch - Guitar
Miriam Stockley, Kevin Armstrong, Lesley Fairbairn, Bruce Woolley,
Akkiko Yono, Les Chappell, Lene Lovich, Judy Evans, James Allen &
Mutt Lange - Backing Vocals
Simon House - Violin
Simon Lloyd - Flute, Brass
[12" Single] 1982
Track Listing
01 She Blinded Me With Science [Ext Version] (5:13)
02 One Of Our Submarines [Ext Version] (7:21)
12" Single Link (70Mb)