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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | garymaher@juno.com |
| Subject | Q: Are they not one of your Buried Treasures? A: They are Blanket of Secrecy! |
| Date | Wed, 27 Aug 2003 03:29:35 -0400 |
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Too many suggestions . . . must . . . resist . . . gemm . . . splurge . .
. . .
OK, here's mine:
Blanket of Secrecy - Ears Have Walls (a/k/a Walls Have Ears). This
"mystery" group has been discussed here before. It's got a lot of
wonderful compositions on it. Very pop. Great vocals. Decent variety
of arrangements for an early-80s synth-based group, too.
The single was "Say You Will" (you remember -- Say you will, stay with me
tonight, you won't be sorry). It's here on Bitzi, for those of you
downloading at home:
http://bitzi.com/lookup/F56WNJWFFP3EB4QGI34W3CILFAP6EIDN
Now, some controversy: A certain Mr. Mason posted here in 1999
(http://www.mail-archive.com/audities@binhost.com/1999-month-06/msg00264.
html) that there was no band per se, but that Roger played all of the
instruments and the others were just bodies, a la The Residents or Pooh
Sticks. And he cited some solid sources to back that up. Another list
member mentioned a press packet that came with the US version of the
album which claimed that at least one member came from a group who
released something (s) on the Capricorn label. Stewart assumed this was
intentional misdirection on the part of the record company. But I have
more information:
I picked up my copy of this record after hearing Say You Will while I was
still in high school. And it made the cut -- it was among the hundred or
so records I lugged with me my freshman year in college (1984-85), and my
friends and I decided we HAD to know who was in the band. One night, I
started calling anyone I could think of to get my answer. I started with
WNEW-FM in NYC. They had no clue, but they gave me numbers for the label
(Warner Brothers) in Burbank and NYC. The operator at WB's NYC office
had some kind of card file she looked them up in and this is what I was
told (drumroll please):
"Blanket of Secrecy is Pete Marsh (vocals and guitar), Roger Bechirian
(keyboards and backing vocals) and Andy Howell (bass and backing
vocals)."
Mr. Steven "Spaz" Schnee wrote the allmusic.com review of BoS, and he
refers to rumors of Pete Marsh's involvement. Allmusic tells us that
Peter Marsh's musical career goes back at least to 1974, when he released
a record with Ken Nicol under the name Nicol and Marsh (a/k/a Nicol &
Marsh's Easy Street). They then changed their name to Easy Street and
put out two records in 1976 and 1977. In the US, these two were ON
CAPRICORN RECORDS. In 1979, Marsh put out a record called This is Your
Life under the name Twist. (Has anyone heard this? Ira Robbins says:
http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=twist . Sounds intriguing.
Elvis and at least one Attraction were involved.) He also worked with
Vangelis, and I found this on a Vangelis website:
"His voice can be heard appearing on other albums, like one song,
"Stranded", on Manfred Mann's Earthband "Chance" LP (1980), Nick Lowe's
"The Abominable Showman" and a new wave album "Walls Have Ears" (aka
"Ears have Walls") by a band called "Blanket Of Secrecy" (Warner Bross,
1982). There was a lot of secrecy about who formed this band but word is
that Peter Marsh fronted it as singer." From
http://www.koert.com/data/persons.htm .
Marsh also played bass and sang on Nick Lowe's Abominable Showman,
produced by Mr. Bechirian.
Now, I haven't been able to find much about Andy Howell, but allmusic.com
tells me that Andy Howells (S on the end) played bass on Robert Ellis
Orrall's Contain Yourself, produced by . . . you got it: Roger
Bechirian. And featuring somebody named Dave Hog (one G) on sax. So we
have the right guy.
OK, pay attention. I'm about to use Carlene Carter to tie this all
together:
1983
Ampro Studios/Shepherds Bush/London, UK
Rockfield Studios/Wales, UK
Studio recording session for Epic album “C’est C Bon”
Produced by Roger Bechirian
Lineup:
Vocals: Carlene Carter
Additional vocals: Roger Bechirian, Pete Marsh
Keyboards: Roger Bechirian, Pete Marsh, James Eller, Andy Howell, Carlene
Carter
Percussion: Roger Bechirian
Bass: James Eller, Andy Howell
<snip>
The record includes these two songs:
3. Third Time Charm (Carlene Carter, Marsh, Howell, Bechirian)
8. Cool Reaction (Marsh/Howell)
(Unfortunately, the Allmusic review pretty much says it sucks. Can
anybody confirm? From the brief snippet on amazon.com, #3 basically
sounds like it could have been a BoS tune.)
So if I'm right, that Carlene Carter record is essentially BoS with
Carlene on lead vocals.
And with that, I rest my case. Any questions?
g
P.S. I also have the 12" extended remix single of Say You Will. Can't
get enough of that song!
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