The Golden Age Of Wireless

Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age Of Wireless

 
Thomas Dolby initially came to my attention when he performed Windpower on Blue Peter, and it made an immediate impact on me.  For a start, the subject matter of the song, as explained by the title, was different from the norm at the time in the mainstream (with the exception of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Kraftwerk) and the second was the use of samples within the song - shipping forecasts from Radio 4.  On top of that, Dolby had created himself something of an image as a synthesiser boffin, only enhanced by the artwork of his debut album The Golden Age Of Wireless, released in 1982.
 
I had the initial vinyl version of this album, an album that is simply synthpop heaven, but then something happened.  The 12" mix of quirky hit She Blinded Me With Science became a huge hit in the US (similar to Men Without Hats' Safety Dance) and so the US version of this album had both this track and b-side One Of Our Submarines added to it.  This then led to a number of re-workings of the various tracklistings until the only CD version of this album available commercially was effectively the US version, which to fans dismay removed The Wreck Of The Fairchild and messed up the tracklisting from it's original order.


 
Roll forward to 2009 and the re-release of this album arrives with original tracklisting faithfully restored.  Hurray!  At last.  Not only that, but all the tracks have been remastered by Abbey Road Studios (same as the recent Ultravox reissues) supervised by Dolby himself and with a whole host of extra tracks added.  Popular fan tracks Urges and Leipzig make a reappearance along with some demo and unreleased tracks. 
 
And it all sounds great.
 


As with the previous Ultravox reissues, Abbey Road Studios have done a marvellous job in bringing these tracks to life in a way that hasn't been heard on a commercial release.  The sound is as clear and dynamic as anything, from the dynamic synth hooks of the likes of Europa And The Pirate Twins, Windpower and Flying North to the moody atmospherics of Cloudburst At Shingle Street, The Wreck Of The Fairchild and Airwaves.  On the minus side, there is some rather audible hiss on a couple of the demo tracks, most notably on the demo of Airwaves and Sale Of The Century.  That said, this is probably the best you've going to get so you'll either put up with it or skip the affected tracks.
 
All in all there are now 19 tracks on this reissue, some not quite as good as others, but nonetheless all welcome additions to the Dolby canon.  But that's not all, there's more.  Previously only available as a VHS tape (or if you were lucky, a laserdisc), Dolby has included Live Wireless as part of this release.  Live Wireless was a mini-concert filmed in 1983 at the Riverside Studios in front of a live audience.  As was the wont at that time, the live video had a concept due to the fact that it was fashionable to intersperse live footage with something else, presumably to break up the monotony of watching the live performance.  Ultravox used promo vid footage for Monument The Soundtrack, Duran Duran used Russell Mulcahey and created a mini-film for the Arena live concert release.  Dolby uses himself in the guise of, presumably, his cooler younger brother as a cinema projectionist.
 


Lasting about an hour, Dolby performs a live set with his touring band, running through most of the more well-known tracks from The Golden Age Of Wireless as well as some lesser known songs.  Part of this intimate concert involves performance art so you'll see the appearance of a periscope in front of Dolby for One Of Our Submarines and jungle masks appearing on two of the band for the cover of Joni Mitchell's Jungle Line.  Old compatriot Lene Lovich appears for a performance of the Dolby-penned New Toy and guitarist Kevin Armstrong takes lead vocals on the rather weak Samson And Delilah.  Regardless of this last one, it's a cracking set and a fantastic addition.

Although there is some grain on the picture, there doesn't appear to be any noticeable print damage and the PCM soundtrack is superb.  You should note though that the picture format is NTSC and not PAL, this shouldn't be a surprise for many CD/DVD combo collectors as most of this format is released in this way due to many European TV's being able to process the American format.
 
Adding DVD's to CD reissues is becoming a very welcome marketing tool and you can't argue with the price either.  Superb value for one of the best albums of the 1980's without question.