a b Mason, Stewart. " A Walk Across the Rooftops – The Blue Nile". AllMusic . Retrieved 16 December 2016. Selling Out": A Premiere and Interview with Duncan Sheik, Plus Introducing Darlingside, and Exclusives by Jaye Bartell and Hugh Cornwell". HuffPost. 18 September 2015 . Retrieved 1 January 2022. No one was more surprised than the band. “I’m just astounded that it’s taken off,” Buchanan told Melody Maker. Powers, Ann (7 June 2011). "Duncan Sheik Uncovers Hope For The '80s". NPR . Retrieved 1 January 2022.

People tend to flag up The Blue Nile’s Scottishness, as if geography and accidents of birth were responsible for artistic vision; but surely, again like Hopper, the dreams and tears here are universal. The city streets, cars, rooftops, rain, couples and love documented and expressed so delicately throughout the seven songs are potentially everywhere, any time, “caught up in this big rhythm”. This is why the band stood out then and hover above now; both everymen and angels. By 1990, however, Irish broadcaster Dave Fanning was suggesting on air that 80,000 copies had been shifted. “It’s sold a lot more than that, actually,” Buchanan modestly corrected him. “I think we just don’t want to attract attention to any thoughts about ourselves.” Boyhood friends Paul Buchanan and Robert Bell grew up in Glasgow, Scotland and started The Blue Nile in 1981. The two had both attended the University of Glasgow where Buchanan earned a degree in Literature and Medieval History and Bell a degree in Mathematics. Buchanan’s father was a semi professional musician and Paul grew up surrounded by music but only thought of creating a band after finishing college. It was in college that Buchanan and Bell met and befriended the third member of their band, Paul Joseph Moore. Moore had a degree in electronics from The University of Glasgow and had been playing around with synthesizers throughout his college career. The trio formed McIntyre the first incarnation of their band shortly after graduation and had planned to recruit more members. Lining up side by side in a tiny rectangular room in a Glasgow flat, they began to develop their skills and songs. “I wouldn’t say it was punk,” Buchanan told Popmatters, “but it was certainly boho. We rehearsed the whole album through one Marshall cabinet and a borrowed amp.”Evans, Paul (1992). "The Blue Nile". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rded.). Random House. p.70. ISBN 0-679-73729-4. In 2019, the band's major label albums were re-issued on vinyl, with a re-issue of High charting at number 74 in the UK charts after being released by Confetti Records on 5 June 2020 as vinyl or double CD edition. [31] Legacy [ edit ]

Still a landmark, still high, still somehow intangible: The Blue Nile didn’t sound or function like any normal band. Early experiments with a drum machine, its restrictive Latin American rhythms doing them no more favours than its human predecessors, were unsuccessful. Nonetheless, their limited means forced them to explore a more minimalist style, and they found common ground in a search for something which transcended mere entertainment. Instead of rushing to make a follow-up, the Blue Nile studied where their music had taken them, as they traveled through America and Europe. “[O]ne of the best things we saw in our first trip to London,” Buchanan told NME after the album’s release, “Was a guy and a girl standing in Oxford Street… They were obviously having a moment—breaking up or something, something that was wrong—and you just looked at it and knew the feeling. It was a brilliant reminder of what’s worth all the hassle.” s A Walk Across the Rooftops remains unique in its fusion of chilly technology and a pitch of confessional, romantic soul that ‘alternative’ types would usually shy away from for fear it wasn’t ‘cool’. It was always (at least) two things at once: in the years since, its peerless power to affect has accrued multiple layers of rueful resonance. Gross, Joe (25 February 2019). "From 'Captain Marvel' to SXSW". Austin360 . Retrieved 7 January 2022.McNair, James (January 2013). "Review: The Blue Nile – A Walk Across the Rooftops/ Hats Deluxe Editions". Mojo. No.230. London, England: Bauer Media Group. p.104. The last verse of Easter Parade…” says Calum Malcolm today, “isn’t that a bit of a moment?” If he’s wrong, that’s only because the entire song, built around little more than a piano, the slightest of electronic embellishments and wistfully nostalgic lyrics – “In the bureau typewriters quiet/ Confetti falls from every window” – is heart-stoppingly beautiful. “It’s a Sunday song, something with a stillness in it,” Buchanan told NME’s Richard Cook in May 1984. “It would be blasphemous of me to say it’s a holy song in any way, but that’s something that was in our minds.” Belcher, David (16 February 1996). "Digging up a rare new jewel from the Nile". The Herald. Glasgow, Scotland: Caledonian Newspaper Publishing . Retrieved 4 April 2013.

Despite the movement of the music, Hats is an album in stasis. The Blue Nile understand that, like all good theater, relationships are inextricably linked to their setting, and the characters on Hats are prisoners to it, escaping only in fantasy. “Walk me into town/The ferry will be there to carry us away into the air,” Buchanan sings in “Over the Hillside.” “Let’s walk in the cool evening light/Wrong or right/Be at my side,” he pleads in “The Downtown Lights.” “I pray for love coming out all right,” he sings in the climactic final verse of “Let’s Go Out Tonight.” Then he cries out the title as one final desperate attempt to save something that’s already gone. MacDonald, Bruno (2006). "The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Universe Publishing. p.508. ISBN 978-0-7893-1371-3. While their influence has long run deep, with outspoken fans including Vashti Bunyan, Phil Collins, and the 1975, to this day nothing sounds quite like Hats. The Blue Nile themselves never quite replicated it, opting for a loose, soulful atmosphere on 1996’s Peace At Last and a more sober approach for 2004’s High. Its closest companion is Paul Buchanan’s 2012 solo album Mid Air—a collection of near-demos on piano that further refined his sunken vignettes. “Tear stains on your pillow,” he sings in “Wedding Party,” “I was drunk when I danced with the bride.” The stories—as with most concerning the Blue Nile—are between the lines. It was just the way the varying heights of the buildings were that made it possible for me just to see across the roofs.” Attended by haunting brass, stabs of bass and sparse strings, Buchanan also takes little time to establish the album’s redemptive, emotional tone, announcing after 60 seconds, “I am in love/ I am in love with you…” 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. [5]

For all the crafted grandeur of their second album it should be said that by the end of Hats salvation appears in the form of an “ordinary girl” rather like the bird-like creature in Joyce’s Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man. Someone who can “make the world alright” no superwoman or exotic creature needing to be pursued or attained, by gum. On its release, A Walk Across the Rooftops gained widespread acclaim from music critics for its mixture of sparse, detailed electronic sounds and Buchanan's soulful vocals, later described as a "fusion of chilly technology and a pitch of confessional, romantic soul". [20] In 1984, the band gained greater exposure in Europe, with the videos for their two singles, "Stay" and "Tinseltown in the Rain", often shown on the video channel Music Box. The band's profile began to grow, although its existence remained precarious. Buchanan commented, "I've always found it strange that people missed the 'punk' aspect of A Walk Across the Rooftops. We were living in a flat in Glasgow with no hot water. We barely knew what we were doing and that was very liberating." [17] Hats (1985–1990) [ edit ] a b c d e f g Peschek, David (19 July 2012). "Some Sort Of Surrender: An Interview With Paul Buchanan Of The Blue Nile". The Quietus . Retrieved 13 March 2013.

In June 1996, seven years after Hats, the Blue Nile released a third album, entitled Peace at Last. It displayed a marked difference in style to the first two albums, with Buchanan's acoustic guitar work more to the fore. Buchanan recalled that he had bought the guitar in a New York music shop, and by coincidence Robert Bell had seen the guitar earlier the same day and called Buchanan to tell him about it. [16] A gospel choir made a brief appearance on the first single, " Happiness". Despite the release of Peace at Last on a major label, critical reaction to the album was more mixed than for the band's previous records, [4] although sales were good, entering the UK album chart at #13. As it turned out, when the time was right they wouldn’t need to look for a deal. RSO had donated cash to record more songs with Calum Malcolm, whose friendship with Ivor Tiefenbrun, founder of audio equipment company Linn Products, meant some of their gear had been installed at Castlesound.In 1981, the band recorded their debut single, the cheerful but still restrained I Love This Life. It was soon passed on to RSO Records, home to the Bee Gees, by Calum Malcolm, a young engineer.