English Garden (album)
| English Garden | |
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| Studio album by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club | |
| Released | November 1979 |
| Recorded | Eden Studios, London |
| Genre | New wave |
| Length |
39:15 57:04 (US release) |
| Label |
Epic Columbia |
| Producer | Mike Hurst |
| Alternate covers | |
North American release
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| Singles from English Garden | |
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English Garden, released in North America as Bruce Woolley And The Camera Club, is a studio album by Bruce Woolley's new wave band Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club. The band consisted of Woolley on vocals, Matthew Seligman on bass, Rod Johnson on drums, Dave Birch on guitar, and Thomas Dolby on keyboards. Before forming the group, Woolley was creating pop songs intended for publishing companies, but he was not happy with what the artists were doing with his songs and decided to write material for himself.
Recorded at Eden Studios in London, English Garden was released in most territories by Epic Records, while in North America the album was distributed by CBS Records. Singles from English Garden included the title track, "Video Killed the Radio Star", "Clean, Clean", "Dancing With The Sporting Boys", "Trouble Is..." and "House of Wax". Most reviews of English Garden were very positive, one reviewer even calling it ahead of other releases in its genre. However, the album's popularity was cut short because, as one journalist said, the record only show Woolley's dedication to music from more than a decade before its release.
Bruce Woolley started writing and recording pop songs at home with Revox equipment during his school years: "I was playing guitar but floundering about without direction." This made him start making songs specifically for music publishing companies, and he was eventually hired by someone to do so. He had spent eighteen months writing compositions for other artists, but did not appreciate what they were doing with his songs. He decided to quit this position and write songs for himself, meeting producer Mike Hurst and his manager Chris Bough, who was also well known for being manager for singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. Thus, Woolley financed to form his band which he called The Camera Club, which, in addition to him being the vocalist, had Matthew Seligman on bass, Rod Johnson on drums, Dave Birch on guitar, and Thomas Dolby on keyboards. Recorded in Eden Studios in London, English Garden was engineered by Richard Goldblatt with assistance from Nick T. Froom.
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Wikipedia