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A Walk Across the Rooftops
A Walk Across the Rooftops is the debut album by Scottish band The Blue Nile, released on 30 April 1984 on Linn Records in the UK and on A&M Records in the US. Although the album was released to little fanfare and was not a big hit on its initial release, it slowly accumulated fans and sales through word of mouth as the years passed, and by the time the follow-up Hats was released in 1989, A Walk Across the Rooftops had sold 80,000 copies.
It continued to gather praise when reissued in 2012, and in 2015, was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in the United Kingdom, indicating sales in excess of 60,000 copies.
Having put out their debut single "I Love This Life" in 1981, the Blue Nile spent the next couple of years playing gigs in their native Glasgow: with little money and due to singer Paul Buchanan's limited ability on the guitar, by necessity their songs were stripped-down cover versions of old songs, and as Buchanan later said, "I suppose to some extent that started to bleed into our own songs – there was more and more space in what we were doing". Buchanan and Robert Bell's songs would start out written on an acoustic guitar or a piano, and then together with third member Paul Joseph "PJ" Moore and engineer Calum Malcolm the songs would be rearranged in the studio.
A persistent myth about the album's origins is that the band were approached by Linn Products and commissioned to make a record that the company could use to demonstrate the quality of their high-specification hi-fi equipment—the company were so pleased with the result that they decided to form a record label specifically to release the resulting album. In fact Linn had already recently manufactured a cutting lathe to produce their own records, frustrated by the poor quality of the test LPs that were being provided for their flagship turntable product, the Linn Sondek LP12, and had already set up and released records on their ALOI (A Label of Integrity) Records label before signing the Blue Nile. An article in Music Week in January 1984 states that Linn's aim was to make very high quality vinyl records, "..to compete with CCD, rather than following the general trend towards digital" and "..put out audiophile-standard discs, at normal price". According to Paul Buchanan, the true story was that the band had already made demo recordings of some of their songs with engineer Calum Malcolm at his Castlesound Studios, which happened to be fitted out with Linn equipment as Malcolm had worked with the company in the past. Linn were visiting the studios and asked Malcolm to play a song recently recorded at the studio in order to test out their new speakers, and Malcolm duly obliged and chose the Blue Nile's demo of "Tinseltown in the Rain". On hearing the demo, Linn were impressed and felt the band's sound fitted in with the type of music they wanted to release on their new label, and contacted the Blue Nile to offer a contract to make a full album: even so, it took the band a full nine months to respond to the company's offer. Buchanan recalled that Linn had given the band £10,000–£20,000 to make the record, but rejected the suggestion that the company had asked the band to make a record in a particular style that would show off the company's products in the best light, saying, "It was great because they left us to it. They trusted the engineer and they trusted us so they said, go off and make a record ... We were—as you would imagine—you're so fervent about what you're doing that nothing would dissuade you from it and nothing would persuade you to do otherwise ... we'd already demo'd some of the things before we'd even met Linn so ... no, it was nothing to do with that." PJ Moore also denied that Linn had deliberately chosen the band to produce a demo record for them, telling Uncut magazine that "it was a myth that we were a 'hi-fi band signed to a hi-fi company'. We just got lucky that we'd found our way to an excellent engineer who knew the company."
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 (19 km) 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".
A Walk Across the Rooftops became the first album released on the new Linn Records label, released on 30 April 1984 and reaching number 80 on the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from the album in the UK, with minor success: "Stay" reached number 97 on the UK Singles Chart, and "Tinseltown in the Rain" reached number 87. 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.
In November 2012 Virgin Records released two-CD "Collector's Edition" versions of A Walk Across the Rooftops and its 1989 follow-up Hats in the UK and Europe, each containing a remastered version of the original album plus a second CD of bonus tracks. The remastering process was overseen by original engineer Calum Malcolm, along with contributions by Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell, who chose the songs for the bonus CD.
A Walk Across the Rooftops received great acclaim from the UK music press on its release in 1984. In a five-star review Sounds said, "Their music cuts a deep swathe right through the centre of blond-streaked wimpdom, without stance or calculation ... For the first time in a long time, they make you care. Melody Maker proclaimed, "The Blue Nile's stunning debut album seduces the emotions as well as the senses, and instead of fighting its effect, the sensible thing to do is relax and enjoy it ... There's a mesmeric quality in this music that makes you want to savour every track with the respectful appreciation of a connoisseur. Like a good book you don't want it to end, but when it does that thrilling potency loses nothing in repetition ... A Walk Across the Rooftops generates a rarefied atmosphere that's a comfort to the soul. If this is just a sampler of The Blue Nile's catalogue, then we're in for a whole new chapter in delight." Smash Hits' Ian Cranna stated that The Blue Nile with their debut album went "Straight into a league of their own": "The songs are superb — imagery at its best (each song a perfect capsule), sung with passion and a touch of weary melancholy over inventive, modern arrangements". NME described the album as "music to shade your dreamtime in subtle colours, a quiet influence, delicious persuasion ... It's difficult to describe (often a good sign), without too many specific features to pick upon. It's easier to suggest the moods it evokes: romance, doubt, a rich sadness. The keynote is restraint; far from straining for effort, The Blue Nile allow their music to find its own atmospheres ... To correct any misunderstanding: what The Blue Nile are not is, say, wispy or precious. There's red meat in this music, and a human pulse beat. The beauty is unassuming, the intelligence is uncontrived. It's good news. Great music is still being made."
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A Walk Across the Rooftops
A Walk Across the Rooftops is the debut album by Scottish band The Blue Nile, released on 30 April 1984 on Linn Records in the UK and on A&M Records in the US. Although the album was released to little fanfare and was not a big hit on its initial release, it slowly accumulated fans and sales through word of mouth as the years passed, and by the time the follow-up Hats was released in 1989, A Walk Across the Rooftops had sold 80,000 copies.
It continued to gather praise when reissued in 2012, and in 2015, was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in the United Kingdom, indicating sales in excess of 60,000 copies.
Having put out their debut single "I Love This Life" in 1981, the Blue Nile spent the next couple of years playing gigs in their native Glasgow: with little money and due to singer Paul Buchanan's limited ability on the guitar, by necessity their songs were stripped-down cover versions of old songs, and as Buchanan later said, "I suppose to some extent that started to bleed into our own songs – there was more and more space in what we were doing". Buchanan and Robert Bell's songs would start out written on an acoustic guitar or a piano, and then together with third member Paul Joseph "PJ" Moore and engineer Calum Malcolm the songs would be rearranged in the studio.
A persistent myth about the album's origins is that the band were approached by Linn Products and commissioned to make a record that the company could use to demonstrate the quality of their high-specification hi-fi equipment—the company were so pleased with the result that they decided to form a record label specifically to release the resulting album. In fact Linn had already recently manufactured a cutting lathe to produce their own records, frustrated by the poor quality of the test LPs that were being provided for their flagship turntable product, the Linn Sondek LP12, and had already set up and released records on their ALOI (A Label of Integrity) Records label before signing the Blue Nile. An article in Music Week in January 1984 states that Linn's aim was to make very high quality vinyl records, "..to compete with CCD, rather than following the general trend towards digital" and "..put out audiophile-standard discs, at normal price". According to Paul Buchanan, the true story was that the band had already made demo recordings of some of their songs with engineer Calum Malcolm at his Castlesound Studios, which happened to be fitted out with Linn equipment as Malcolm had worked with the company in the past. Linn were visiting the studios and asked Malcolm to play a song recently recorded at the studio in order to test out their new speakers, and Malcolm duly obliged and chose the Blue Nile's demo of "Tinseltown in the Rain". On hearing the demo, Linn were impressed and felt the band's sound fitted in with the type of music they wanted to release on their new label, and contacted the Blue Nile to offer a contract to make a full album: even so, it took the band a full nine months to respond to the company's offer. Buchanan recalled that Linn had given the band £10,000–£20,000 to make the record, but rejected the suggestion that the company had asked the band to make a record in a particular style that would show off the company's products in the best light, saying, "It was great because they left us to it. They trusted the engineer and they trusted us so they said, go off and make a record ... We were—as you would imagine—you're so fervent about what you're doing that nothing would dissuade you from it and nothing would persuade you to do otherwise ... we'd already demo'd some of the things before we'd even met Linn so ... no, it was nothing to do with that." PJ Moore also denied that Linn had deliberately chosen the band to produce a demo record for them, telling Uncut magazine that "it was a myth that we were a 'hi-fi band signed to a hi-fi company'. We just got lucky that we'd found our way to an excellent engineer who knew the company."
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 (19 km) 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".
A Walk Across the Rooftops became the first album released on the new Linn Records label, released on 30 April 1984 and reaching number 80 on the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from the album in the UK, with minor success: "Stay" reached number 97 on the UK Singles Chart, and "Tinseltown in the Rain" reached number 87. 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.
In November 2012 Virgin Records released two-CD "Collector's Edition" versions of A Walk Across the Rooftops and its 1989 follow-up Hats in the UK and Europe, each containing a remastered version of the original album plus a second CD of bonus tracks. The remastering process was overseen by original engineer Calum Malcolm, along with contributions by Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell, who chose the songs for the bonus CD.
A Walk Across the Rooftops received great acclaim from the UK music press on its release in 1984. In a five-star review Sounds said, "Their music cuts a deep swathe right through the centre of blond-streaked wimpdom, without stance or calculation ... For the first time in a long time, they make you care. Melody Maker proclaimed, "The Blue Nile's stunning debut album seduces the emotions as well as the senses, and instead of fighting its effect, the sensible thing to do is relax and enjoy it ... There's a mesmeric quality in this music that makes you want to savour every track with the respectful appreciation of a connoisseur. Like a good book you don't want it to end, but when it does that thrilling potency loses nothing in repetition ... A Walk Across the Rooftops generates a rarefied atmosphere that's a comfort to the soul. If this is just a sampler of The Blue Nile's catalogue, then we're in for a whole new chapter in delight." Smash Hits' Ian Cranna stated that The Blue Nile with their debut album went "Straight into a league of their own": "The songs are superb — imagery at its best (each song a perfect capsule), sung with passion and a touch of weary melancholy over inventive, modern arrangements". NME described the album as "music to shade your dreamtime in subtle colours, a quiet influence, delicious persuasion ... It's difficult to describe (often a good sign), without too many specific features to pick upon. It's easier to suggest the moods it evokes: romance, doubt, a rich sadness. The keynote is restraint; far from straining for effort, The Blue Nile allow their music to find its own atmospheres ... To correct any misunderstanding: what The Blue Nile are not is, say, wispy or precious. There's red meat in this music, and a human pulse beat. The beauty is unassuming, the intelligence is uncontrived. It's good news. Great music is still being made."