billyboy

The Reels path was influenced by all of the above you mentioned. Who knows by some fluke or chance or decisions made could the history be different. A mix of very talented people where 'not all involved in' or had the same weight in the decision process. Lets say, a Hierarchy of talent within the group, where the most potent held sway.

The mention of, Steely Dan is a loose way to say, the band had musical acumen and could play and be anything. They also started in 1976 in the country and were largely a covers band. A typical set around 1978 would see onstage, Sax, Vibraphone, Congas, Two Lead singers, Santana inspired guitar. Musically a mix of Rock Pop Jazz Blues and Ballads.

When The Reels were born, it was a chance to be different to every other band around and I think they succeeded in that. The opportunity to bring in experimental synth sounds within the context of Pop structures. Playing live around 1979 brought about two observations. 1) Either become a Pub Rock band or 2) Soak up the new sounds coming out of Britain and US and forge a new sound.

This experimentation continued into the 2nd Album 'Quasi' and seeing the band live, was said by some, to be pretty amazing. Now twenty years later its nearly impossible to recreate the same atmosphere or sound and to try and gel all those periods into one coherent set. But we try, some things work, others don't and we have to compromise because at it's peak (1981-1982), there were 6 musicians onstage creating that sound and a whole lot of other factors.

If you do see us live now all I can say is, try not to compare us to (1980) we were much younger then and riding a unique wave. As far as the drummer (John Bliss) and myself (Paul Abrahams-bass) after not playing together for over 20 years, we are really enjoying reliving the connection we have as a rhythm section and doing our best to recreate some of The Reels best work. Keeping in mind the material after 1982 we (Rhythm section) never played or recorded on. Quasi was the last thing we did together so it's all new to us.

BTW: I invited a few young friends who were dye hard Nick Cave fans to ATP, they were a little disappointed in NC but having not seen us before thought we were fantastic, so there you go, another perspective :)

The article was a take from One perspective, to talk about a period I was not part of would not be fair to those involved. Depending on when you ever saw the reels live and depending on what music you were 'into' will certainly taint your like or dislike of what they did. There were gigs around the 1979 period that were amazing and so too later around Quasi Modo Tour, but totally different sonically.

I don't think the band ever went beyond whatever brilliance they showed around this period. The fact that Beautiful was well liked and was their biggest selling album, still doesn't make it a good record. IMO.

And the filthy mix? was rubbish.