801 (band)
Encyclopedia
801 were an English
experimental rock
band
that were originally formed in 1976 for three live concerts by
had temporarily disbanded, 801 (also referred to as THE 801) got together as a temporary project and began rehearsing at Island Studios, Hammersmith, about three weeks before their first gig
. The name of the band was taken from the Eno
song "The True Wheel", which appears on his 1974 solo album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
. The refrain of the song -- "We are the 801, we are the central shaft" -- reportedly came to him in a dream (although it has also been noted that "Eight Nought One" acrostically spells his name).
801 performed three critically highly acclaimed concerts: in Norfolk, at the Reading Festival and the final concert on 3 September at London
's Queen Elizabeth Hall
. This last concert was recorded live and released as the album 801 Live. The music consisted of more or less mutated selections from albums by Manzanera, Eno, and Quiet Sun
, plus a full-scale rearrangement of Lennon
-McCartney
's "Tomorrow Never Knows
" and an off-the-wall excursion into The Kinks
' 1964 hit "You Really Got Me
".
Released at the height of the punk rock
revolution in the UK, the LP was not a major commercial success, but it sold well throughout the world, particularly because it gained rave reviews from critics, both for the superb performances by the musicians and for its groundbreaking sound quality.
Although live albums were by then becoming increasingly sophisticated in their production—thanks to the advent of portable multi-track recorders and mobile studios—most were hampered by relatively poor sound quality. Up until this time, the standard procedure for both front-of-house mixing and live recording was capture the sound of amplified instruments such as guitars by placing microphones in front of the amplifiers. Although many superb performances were captured, the results were still markedly inferior to studio recordings and live recordings often suffered from a range of problems such as distortion, noise, sound "leakage" between instruments, poor separation and intrusive audience sounds.
801 Live set new standards for live recordings because it was one of the first live LPs in which all outputs from the vocal microphones, guitar amps and others instruments (except the drums) were fed directly to the mobile studio mixing desk, rather than being recorded via microphones and/or signals fed out the front-of-house PA mixer. This so-called "Direct Injection
" (DI) method had been used for years in the studio but this was one of the first instances of the method being successfully used to record a live album.
801 Live became a significant cult success in many countries, notably in Australia, where it was heavily promoted by the ABC's new 24-hour rock station Double Jay (2JJ), which had opened in January 1975. Although based in Sydney, the station could be heard widely around New South Wales and was relayed nationally after midnight via the ABC's national AM network. It is notable that 801 Live received virtually no commercial radio airplay, it had no music video to promote it, and it was originally not even locally released in Australia. Despite this, the album became the highest-selling import album of the year in Australia in 1976 and demand for it as an import item eventually forced the Australian distributors to release it locally.
Australian band Icehouse
played 801 songs as well as other Eno covers.
In 1977, hoping to capitalise on the success of 801 Live, the band recorded and released Listen Now, a studio album with additional collaborating musicians including Tim Finn
of Split Enz
, but without Lloyd Watson.
In late 1977, 801 reformed as another live group around Manzanera and MacCormick for a promotion tour for the album Listen Now. Their concert at Manchester University was finally released as the album 801 Manchester in 1997.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
experimental rock
Experimental rock
Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique....
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
that were originally formed in 1976 for three live concerts by
- Phil ManzaneraPhil ManzaneraPhil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...
(guitars, Roxy MusicRoxy MusicRoxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
) - Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
(keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, vocals and tapes, ex-Roxy Music) - Bill MacCormickBill MacCormickBill MacCormick is an English bassist and vocalist. He was a member of the bands Quiet Sun with Phil Manzanera, brother Ian MacCormick and others; Matching Mole with Robert Wyatt and others; 801 with Manzanera, Brian Eno and others; and Random Hold...
(bass and vocals, ex-Quiet Sun, Matching MoleMatching MoleMatching Mole was a short-lived UK progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene best known for the song "O Caroline". Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album The End of an Ear...
) - Francis MonkmanFrancis MonkmanFrancis Monkman is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Curved Air.-Career:...
(Fender Rhodes piano and clavinet, ex-Curved AirCurved AirCurved Air are a pioneering British progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classic, folk, and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band was a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fusion with classical elements...
) - Simon PhillipsSimon PhillipsSimon Phillips is an English jazz, pop and rock drummer.-Career:Phillips began to play professionally at the age of twelve in his father's Dixieland band for four years. He was then offered the chance to play in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar...
(drums and rhythm generator) - Lloyd WatsonLloyd WatsonLloyd Watson is an English rock and blues guitarist.Born to a Jamaican father and an English mother, Watson's early influences covered the whole spectrum of both black and white music...
(slide-guitar and vocals).
History
In 1976, while Roxy MusicRoxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
had temporarily disbanded, 801 (also referred to as THE 801) got together as a temporary project and began rehearsing at Island Studios, Hammersmith, about three weeks before their first gig
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
. The name of the band was taken from the Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
song "The True Wheel", which appears on his 1974 solo album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
Taking Tiger Mountain is the second solo album by Brian Eno. Produced by Eno, it was originally released by Island Records in November 1974 in a gatefold sleeve. Unlike his previous album Here Come the Warm Jets, Eno used a core band of five instrumentalists and used fewer guest musicians...
. The refrain of the song -- "We are the 801, we are the central shaft" -- reportedly came to him in a dream (although it has also been noted that "Eight Nought One" acrostically spells his name).
801 performed three critically highly acclaimed concerts: in Norfolk, at the Reading Festival and the final concert on 3 September at London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
. This last concert was recorded live and released as the album 801 Live. The music consisted of more or less mutated selections from albums by Manzanera, Eno, and Quiet Sun
Quiet Sun (band)
Quiet Sun were an English progressive rock/jazz fusion band from the Canterbury Scene consisting of Phil Manzanera , Bill MacCormick , Dave Jarrett and Charles Hayward .-History:...
, plus a full-scale rearrangement of Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
-McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
's "Tomorrow Never Knows
Tomorrow Never Knows
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver but the first to be recorded. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon...
" and an off-the-wall excursion into The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
' 1964 hit "You Really Got Me
You Really Got Me
"You Really Got Me" is a rock song written by Ray Davies and performed by his band, The Kinks. It was released on 4th August 1964 as the group's third single, and reached Number 1 on the UK singles chart the next month, remaining for two weeks...
".
Released at the height of the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
revolution in the UK, the LP was not a major commercial success, but it sold well throughout the world, particularly because it gained rave reviews from critics, both for the superb performances by the musicians and for its groundbreaking sound quality.
Although live albums were by then becoming increasingly sophisticated in their production—thanks to the advent of portable multi-track recorders and mobile studios—most were hampered by relatively poor sound quality. Up until this time, the standard procedure for both front-of-house mixing and live recording was capture the sound of amplified instruments such as guitars by placing microphones in front of the amplifiers. Although many superb performances were captured, the results were still markedly inferior to studio recordings and live recordings often suffered from a range of problems such as distortion, noise, sound "leakage" between instruments, poor separation and intrusive audience sounds.
801 Live set new standards for live recordings because it was one of the first live LPs in which all outputs from the vocal microphones, guitar amps and others instruments (except the drums) were fed directly to the mobile studio mixing desk, rather than being recorded via microphones and/or signals fed out the front-of-house PA mixer. This so-called "Direct Injection
Direct injection
Direct injection may refer to:*A music recording technique more commonly referred to as Direct Input*A method of fuel injection for an internal combustion engine, as in a gasoline direct injection petrol engines and most diesel engines...
" (DI) method had been used for years in the studio but this was one of the first instances of the method being successfully used to record a live album.
801 Live became a significant cult success in many countries, notably in Australia, where it was heavily promoted by the ABC's new 24-hour rock station Double Jay (2JJ), which had opened in January 1975. Although based in Sydney, the station could be heard widely around New South Wales and was relayed nationally after midnight via the ABC's national AM network. It is notable that 801 Live received virtually no commercial radio airplay, it had no music video to promote it, and it was originally not even locally released in Australia. Despite this, the album became the highest-selling import album of the year in Australia in 1976 and demand for it as an import item eventually forced the Australian distributors to release it locally.
Australian band Icehouse
Icehouse (band)
Icehouse is an Australian rock band, formed as Flowers in 1977 in Sydney. Initially known in Australia for their pub rock style, they later achieved mainstream success playing new wave and synthpop style music and attained Top Ten singles chart success in both Europe and the U.S...
played 801 songs as well as other Eno covers.
In 1977, hoping to capitalise on the success of 801 Live, the band recorded and released Listen Now, a studio album with additional collaborating musicians including Tim Finn
Tim Finn
Brian Timothy "Tim" Finn, OBE is a New Zealand singer and musician. Finn is most known for his music with New Zealand 1970s and 1980s rock group Split Enz, and later for his solo work, a temporary membership in his brother Neil's band Crowded House and his joint efforts with Neil Finn as the Finn...
of Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
, but without Lloyd Watson.
In late 1977, 801 reformed as another live group around Manzanera and MacCormick for a promotion tour for the album Listen Now. Their concert at Manchester University was finally released as the album 801 Manchester in 1997.
Discography
- 801 Live801 Live801 Live is the debut live album by 801, released in November 1976. In 1976, while Roxy Music had temporarily disbanded, 801 got together as a temporary project and began rehearsing at Island Studios, Hammersmith, about three weeks before their first gig....
(1976) - Listen Now (1977)
- 801 Manchester (1997) (recorded 1977)
- Live at Hull (2001) (recorded 1977)
External links
- [ AllMusic.com - 801]
- http://manzanera.com/news2.htm#Shepperton - 801 Live Double CD Nears Completion
- http://www.manzanera.com/801LivePR.htm#Press - 801 Live: The Official Manzanera/Eno Press Pack
- http://www.manzanera.com/801Live1.htm - 801 Live - Links to reviews, articles, photographs and press
- 801 Live Catalogue Details
- Listen Now - Links to reviews, articles, photographs and press
- Listen Now Catalogue Details
- 801 Live at Manchester University Catalogue Details
- Billy Livsey Music Discography
- 801 Live at Expression Records
- Listen Now at Expression Records