Be Bop Deluxe

Be Bop Deluxe was led by Yorkshireman Bill Nelson. I first heard them when the record shop where I worked got in the import of their debut, ‘Axe Victim’, with a rather striking cover. Bill was an imaginative guitar player who looked very stylish for a hard rocker in the early ’70’s.

They put out a number of pretty good albums before they folded and Bill went solo with a band called Red Noise, but truly great songwriting was not a particular strength of Bill’s, which likely prevented them from having greater success. 

At this particular show, they were headlining 5500-seat Winterland in San Francisco and were supported by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Their fortunes went in rather opposite directions not long afterwards.

 

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Winterland, San Francisco, 09/10/77

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