“I was as surprised as anybody else. I said, ‘Who’s playing the harmonica?’ Dave said, ‘You are!’” What happened when Be-Bop Deluxe founder Bill Nelson formed an improv trio with Soft Machine and Gong members

Bill Nelson.

The prolific Bill Nelson has taken a brief pause from his solo work to turn his attention towards a project of a different kind. Orchestra Futura was a live improv trio that also included Theo Travis and Dave Sturt. Although they never released any studio recordings, a selection of material has just been collated and issued as Live At Nelsonica & Clothworkers Hall.

Mark Twain’s advice about finding a job you enjoy doing and not having to work a day in your life may be an old chestnut, but it certainly applies to Bill Nelson. In the years since the respective successes of Be-Bop Deluxe and Red Noise during the 1970s, the Yorkshire-born-and-based guitarist may have been outside the mainstream spotlight, but his home studio has been a hive of constant activity.