Bill Nelson - Be Bop Deluxe In The South Of France 

I saw your band in1978 at maple leaf gardens. You backed up Nazareth. should have been the other way around. We went to see you ! life long fan, thank you sir.

Hi Bill, Thank you so much for sharing this, it's such an incredible find here on RU-vid and a glimpse for me into the creative life that you shared with my father Charlie and the band. I had no idea that this existed and watched it together with my mum Sue; even today she still wears the pink hat she picked up in France during this trip! We have many photos and slides from this time, but it was amazing to see this. It is very touching. If Dad was still around, he would have loved to have seen this and would be sharing stories about it with everyone. That's what binds us all together through stories and experiences. Thank you for giving him a chance all those years ago. Maybe you will read this and if you do, the music stays alive in all of us. Thank you again. Best wishes and arohanui, Luke Tumahai

even the music in the background is so laid back

Such an underrated under appreciated player. I'm a musician and have followed Be Bop for a long time. He is in my top 10 all time. So fast and clean with great tone. A master.

amazing a huge thanks Ausralia

R.i.P. Kindness New Zealander bassist Charlie Tumahai !! As a young Los Angeles guitarist,I attended two concert performances by Be Bop Deluxe in my golden sunshine state of California. I met positive Charlie,but Bill’s brothers-in-law roadue was a unkind fool sadly. God’s blessing Mr.Nelson for the inspiration.

G'day Bill, Dave here in Victoria Australia. I have such great memories of watching Charlie when he was in Friends & Healing Force. A mighty muso whether on bass, Leo's Tele or on percussion. I Followed Charlie over the journey, absolutely dug BBD and your mastery and then followed Charlie with the Dukes. I loved this guy's contributions over the journey and like so many others, lamented the lack of recognition that BBD endured. You are a mighty axeman Bill, and you have many followers here in Oz. Best regards man, Dave. Viva Charlie Tumahai.

Leave it to Bill to make his home movies into art. Thanks so much Sir!

I've been in love with u and your music since the 70s

Saw you play at the Greyhound circa 74/75 blew my socks off, I was upstairs looking down with a great view, oh what lovely days those were. Thanks Bill! and all of Be Bop Deluxe.

Merci Bill ! Continued Good Health, Love& More Power to You !

Bill Nelson is the most under-rated guitarist since Roy Buchannon the man is a wizard to say the least. His whole resume is a giant rabbit hole that prolly most people have never seen it all. I been following for 2 decades and i keep seeing new stuff.

Oh my God Bill! What a treat for us. Many thanks for all you do....😊

Really enjoyed this film!! Saw Be Bop Deluxe live two times in Phoenix Arizona at the Celebrity Theater during the 70's. I believe the second concert was just before or after the Drastic Plastic release because they played selections from the album. Have their albums in vinyl, including Drastic Plastic and Live in the Air Age with the milk-white disk, to relive the concert experiences...a fantastic live band!! Bill Nelson is one of the greatest guitarists to lay his hands on the instrument!! Thanks for sharing the memories!!

I have seen this video before, it was around 2004 when Bill played the Bloomsbury theatre in London. There were two sets, the first one was mainly stuff from Bill's solo career, the second was older Be Bop Deluxe stuff. In between, this video was played while the band were off stage. I could be wrong, but I think it was also meant to be a tribute to Charlie Tumahai.

Very nice film abt BBD moments captured in film by Bill Himself..such treasure!

I would never expect anything other than Bill using his interest in art to make an art house film. I remember when Drastic Plastic came out & then suddenly Be Bop Deluxe was no more. My friend & I were mortified I never saw them live but did see Red Noise & some of Bill’s solo gigs.

TOTALLY AWESOME...to coin a phrase...Thanks BILL.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bill

GREAT stuff and lotsa fun & shot by BILL!.... just before the music business became, for ever after, the er... the business of music.

Just ordered the 6 disc reissue of Drastic Plastic. I think I was 14 when I listened to my brothers copy with headphones on. The intro to Electrical Language left me astounded.

Just brilliant! What a great memory. Thanks so much for sharing. I'd rewind to the 70s again any day...

Thanks for this Bill. Was there a French Maid from Heaven at the Villa St. George with a sister called Seagull ? Also thank you and the band for all the great music. ATB

Enchanting - thanks for sharing Bill. You guys looked like you had a ton of fun, what with toilets, bidets, dead flies and kitchen slops - the work of a true surrealist!!

Bill, Thank You for sharing this intimate peek into your life at that time !!!! Brilliant score to go with the visual !!!! touching credit roll song........! LOVED every frame and every second of this....... ! hoping you are Happy, Healthy and Loving Life !

Great footage. I went to Antibes (7 miles away) a year later in 1978. I have always had an affinity for Bill and his music, and I am a musician myself.

Thanks Bill.... good times, I'm sure.

Great footage, really nostalgic, 9 years before I was born! Blame my Dad for discovering Be Bop Deluxe. Such an underrated band. Got the Drastic Plastic 2 CD and it's brilliant

You would never have thought that album would have been made in that setting...Thanks for the timeslip!!

Great to see this Video 👍 👍

Be sure to pick up the just released Super Deluxe 'Sunburst Finish' set. It's outstanding. Perhaps, 'Drastic Plastic' will be revisited too! I loved checking out the gear here in the footage. Carlsbro 100 Twin, H&H amps, etc. Charlie's Telecaster basses in the mobile suggests he was plugging in direct. Great stuff.

Lovely memories there for you Bill :-)

Lovely film. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Well Bill The algorithm brought me to this lovely combination of sights and sounds. Thanks for your music and poetry. The years since I first discovered BBD through WABB in Mobile, AL have passed so quickly. May your health stay strong. Cheers.

This is stunning!

A lovely time-capsule - thank you for sharing these wonderful memories...

Great footage from the BBD days in a beautiful and warm setting ! Thanks so much for sharing Bill !!

Looks like a grand time .

Nice one William.

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing what must have been a lovely experience for you.

Loved this. Used to go the SoF on family holidays around thistle, in my Dad's XJ6 - loving the wolfrace wheels. His had black minilites.. That mobile had some stories to tell...

great footage ( very creative) i forgot that.

Thank you for sharing

All in all, 'Electrical Language' into the making of a great and lasting Be Bop Deluxe album - Drastic Plastic. The Jean Cocteau museum footage was interesting. Looks like band, crew and families were enjoying themselves. Think I will put the record on.....

Very enjoyable. I saw the band at Hammersmith Odeon when they were touring this album, it was some show. One of the things I’m taking from this is “guy behind the camera gets out of humping the gear” ;-)

Nothing like recording near an airport... almost as bad as filming! Thanks for sharing, Sensei!

Thanks!!

God drives a dreamless highway in a black sedan... Picking up survivors, preaching to the "Hostel" man...

Bill, would you please put out anything related to Modern music. Love that album with all my heart.

Very talented band, I rate Bill Nelson up there with Gary Moore.

Times of their lives 🎸✨

Bill has a very artistic way of filming ...in the end though it became somewhat boring like most home movies... All this lavishness was payed for by the band themselves ofcourse....wonder if they weren't just a slight bit in debt when EMI dropped the band... although...The Stones' mobile made this all possible. It produced the band's best album , so it was all worthwhile....... Such a good band ! Time has been kind to their five albums , which still sound fresh today.

when we were Kids.. awesome.. Bill do you remember playing in cleveland.. 1979 i think.. maybe you opened for Hall and Oates?

Canon boss more tunes

Perhaps. What a relaxing artsytarsty Montague Bill, as would be your style, a pleasant flow idealizing shape & form. & it is always a pleasure to plunge into the Nelson sound scape... Your Filum "get the fil-um quote" I was hoping & some what excited in the start it appeared you had archive footage for when the Sun did appear egg yolk yellow as I remember in my mental Rolodex, then she went pretty UV white as now, then in plain sight you captured my other pre-mandela effect I have been hoping to find. The Stop & Go Light with Green on top, again as I mental rollodex member, as in "We member" in Mad Max 2. Sadly it was Red on Top, perhaps this also was your vestigative premise in showing. now I speak in song..... Thrust in the Bullion the time scapes & goes, off to the nature that best sets a pole for hiding the meaning that sets me a way, aloft for a minute & lost in the gate, oh your seeing this time change & meaning it's true forget what's behind it & look full in view, perhaps your a changeling or one I would shoe, away in that peddle of time she comes through, alive we have meaning & fortune is wise, sincerely my darling I'm left with no lie's, escaped to find refuge & spelling my lies, your a pitcher of time & that just crates of wine, simply & offset your plunged in my mind, your a reciprocal of a forgetive lime, in the in-saline of moments I am not seeing blind, but forgetting one moment & leaving my chime. .

being older what jumps out at me is i bet this cost a fortune. and from Bills past journals, we know who got the bill. Not the record company

At 21:46 Bill looks like 'Jaws' from James Bond.

It's that Simple Secret Again? Beyond' tour? Thanks!

This album drastically needed more guitar.

Ojays

I saw the Modern music tour, Drastic plastic tour and Red noise - all at Manchester (NW- UK). Many years later in 2012, I went to a Nelsonica in York. I was too nervous to speak to the great man but have always appreciated his musical journey and at times felt the band was my own personal discovery, and Bills artistic and musical talent, my own private secret. PS my only sadness looking in on this is that Be Bop Deluxe from Bills perspective was close to, if not already, having run its course so, I feel I latched onto the second half of that particular bands era. My only regret is : not discovering them sooner than about 1976.