Dog Man Star
Encyclopedia
Dog Man Star is the second album by English alternative rock
band Suede
, released in October 1994 on Nude Records
. It was the last Suede album to feature guitarist Bernard Butler
, due to growing tensions between Butler and singer Brett Anderson
ending with Butler leaving the band before the album was completed. Dog Man Star is more downbeat than their debut and chronicles Suede as they parted from the "Britpop
pack".
Although it did not sell on the same scale as their chart-topping debut Suede
(1993), Dog Man Star reached number three on the UK Albums Chart
. Released to an enthusiastic critical reception, it is considered by many to be Suede's masterpiece.
"—their highest charting single, which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart
—the morale within the group was at an all time low. Butler's father had died just as the band were about to begin their second American tour. The first week of the tour was cancelled, and Suede flew back to London from New York. When the tour did resume, Butler distanced himself from the rest of the band far more than before. Recently bereaved and engaged, according to Butler, "they got really resentful of the fact that they were on tour with someone who didn't want to party". He even travelled separately, either alone, by taxi, or on the tour bus of support act The Cranberries
. Then in Atlanta, Suede suffered the ignominy of having to open for The Cranberries, who'd been given a friendlier reception than the headliners and received the support from MTV
as well. By New York they'd had enough and the last few dates were cancelled. According to drummer Simon Gilbert
, Butler was becoming unworkable and intolerable, and the band could not function together any longer.
To record Suede's next album Anderson moved to Highgate
, and began to write lyrics influenced by heavy drugs while living in a secluded Victorian mansion. "I deliberately isolated myself, that was the idea," Anderson later explained. The album was later described by one journalist as "the most pompous, overblown British rock record of the decade", which Anderson puts down to his use of psychedelic drug
s. "I was doing an awful lot of acid at the time, and I think it was this that gave us the confidence to push boundaries." Anderson has said that he thrived on the surreal environment he lived in at the time; next door were a sect known as the Mennonites, who would often sing hymns during Anderson's drug binges.
, something they were proud of for a short while. However, Britpop soon grew to be dominated by other musical forces, as Blur
, Oasis
and Pulp
arrived on the scene. This disgusted Anderson, who called Britpop "horribly twisted, a musical Carry On film", and he began to distance himself from the scene. "We could not have been more uninterested in that whole boozy, cartoon-like, fake working-class thing." the singer said in 2008, "As soon as we became aware of it, we went away and wrote Dog Man Star. You could not find a less Britpop record. It's tortured, epic, extremely sexual and personal. None of those things apply to Britpop".
The album was recorded between 22 March and 26 July 1994 at Master Rock Studios, Kilburn, London. The rehearsals were very tense and would inevitably split the band into two separate camps, i.e. Butler and the rest of the band. Butler seemed to consolidate his separation when he appeared on the front cover of Vox
magazine with the tag line, "Brett drives me insane". The interview explained how Butler liked to improvise and how Anderson made this impossible because of his slow ways of working, and his obsession with rock stardom. A despondent Anderson remembers reading the article the same morning he was recording the vocals for "The Asphalt World": "I remember trying to channel all this hurt that I was feeling and the iciness I was feeling into the vocal." Butler apologised to Anderson soon after.
Musical differences over "The Asphalt World" triggered the next big argument. The version that finally made it on to the album clocks in at nine minutes 25 seconds, but according to bass player Mat Osman
, Butler's initial creation was a 25-minute piece with an eight-minute guitar solo. "Bernard was very determined", says Anderson. "He's always been quite stubborn and single-minded, he was determined that it would be long. I don't ever remember him saying, 'We'll edit it down.' It was always going to be eighteen minutes or whatever." Osman, felt that Butler's compositions were too audacious and experimental, "Lots of the musical ideas were too much. They were being rude to the listener: it was expecting too much of people to listen to them."
The arguments over "The Asphalt World" spilled over on to the rest of the album, as Butler became progressively more dissatisfied with Ed Buller
's production. In a 2005 interview, the guitarist maintained his position on the matter, stating that Buller "made a terrible shoddy job of it". Butler wanted Buller dismissed, allowing him to produce the record by himself, although it was later revealed that Butler had recommended Chris Thomas
as their producer. Thomas was more experienced and had previously worked with punk rock
bands The Pretenders
and the Sex Pistols
; however Suede's label Nude Records
declined Butler's request, saying Thomas was too expensive. Nude's owner Saul Galpern claimed that the guitarist became impossible to reason with and also made threats to him and Buller. Buller claims he received phone calls where there was the sound of scratching knives on the phone.
Butler issued the band and their management an ultimatum: either they discharged Buller, or he would leave Suede. The rest of the band, however refused to comply with Butler's demands and decided to let him walk out before the record was finished. Butler insisted he was kicked out the band, that when he turned up to the studio to find he was not allowed in. He went back the next day to pick up his guitar so he could record parts at home, though he was told that his guitar would be left in the street for him. "That was it, really. I didn't leave; I was kicked out. That's really obvious. If I'd just left, no-one would have let me leave, if I'd been wanted." Suede's manager Charlie Charlton made a final attempt to reach consensus between the two parties, however during a tense phone conversation the final words Butler uttered to Anderson were along the lines of "you're a fucking cunt."
On 8 July, Butler exited the sessions leaving Dog Man Star some distance from completion. Anderson had recorded little more than a string of guide vocals; several songs did not have titles; much of the music was still to be embossed with overdubs. Buller and the remaining members succeeded in taking the record to its conclusion. Butler did finish some of his guitar parts, though according to Saul Galpern he refused do it at Master Rock and instead had to book another studio where he could work on his own. Shortly after Butler left the band, he recorded an unrequested backing vocal on "Black or Blue", which Anderson recalls. "...I can't remember the exact words but it sounded vaguely threatening." Among the post-Butler additions was a reworked ending to "The Wild Ones", an orchestral coda
on "Still Life" and an electric guitar part, copied note for note from Butler's original demo of "The Power", which he strongly criticised. Butler became a harsh critic of the album, not just from a production standpoint, but the overall musicianship. He cites lack of commitment in the studio, along with Anderson's partying antics, and the band's unwillingness to challenge his elaborate ideas as his main criticism, "I just heard too many times, 'No, you can't do that'. I was sick to death of it. I think it's a good record, but it could have been much better."
, Neil Strauss
said, "Dog Man Star looks back to the era when glam-rock met art-rock, with meticulously arranged songs sung with a flamboyance reminiscent of David Bowie
and accompanied by anything from a 40-piece orchestra to an old Moog synthesizer
." The Bowie influence was still a major element of Suede's sound, however, unlike their debut, Suede focused on a darker and more melodramatic sound. As they were on Suede, Anderson's lyrics were influenced by his heavy drug use, citing William Blake
as a big influence on his writing style. He became fascinated with his use of visions and trance-like states as a means of creation. Anderson claims that much of the torn, fragmented imagery on songs like "Introducing the Band" and B-side, "Killing of a Flashboy" were the result of letting his subconscious take over. "Introducing the Band" was a mantra he wrote after visiting a Buddhist temple in Japan.
Anderson wrote the eulogy "Daddy's Speeding", about a dream involving taking drugs with the late American actor James Dean
. The song uses white noise
and feedback
effects in its finale. Lead single "We Are the Pigs
" depicts Anderson's visions of Armageddon
and riots in the streets, which samples Peter Gunn
style horns. The track "Heroine", with the refrain
, "I'm aching to see my heroine", also has a celebrity influence, paying homage to Marilyn Monroe
, while evoking Lord Byron. "She Walks in Beauty", the song's opening line, is the title of a Byron poem.
Dog Man Star explores themes such as solitude, paranoia and self-loathing. The latter theme being reflected in the ballad "The Wild Ones", an ode to a relationship being slowly lost. Anderson's girlfriend Anick was the inspiration behind the song, along with "The Asphalt World" and "Black or Blue". The latter is a song about racial intolerance. "This Hollywood Life" is the most aggressive song on the album, the NME
wrote that "a record so couched in earth-shacking drama probably needs at least one spittle-flecked tantrum."
"New Generation
" is an upbeat affair and, according to The Independent, "a reminder that they can still play sleek rock'n'roll". One writer noted that "few bands could make such a sexual, illicit poem appear to bounce like a pop anthem". The melancholic piano ballad "The 2 of Us" explores similar themes of regret and doubt and features a bawu
solo before the song's crescendo
. David Sinclair of Q
described how the sad, bored housewife from Suede's earlier song "Sleeping Pills" reappears in "The 2 of Us" as well as Dog Man Stars closing track "Still Life". An early concept that was originally planned for Suede, "Still Life" features the 72-piece Sinfonia of London
orchestra. It was notable for its premiere at the 1993 Glastonbury Festival
, though this rendition was a stripped down version consisting of vocals and acoustic guitar.
reflecting his own journey from the gutter to the stars. Fans noted the similarity to experimental film-maker Stan Brakhage
's 1964 film, Dog Star Man
. "The film wasn't an influence but I obviously dug the title," the singer later confessed. The title is intended as a proud summation of Suede's evolution. "It was meant to be a record about ambition; what could you make yourself into."
The artwork, which features a naked man sprawled on a bed were lifted from one of Anderson's old photo books. Taken by American photographer Joanne Leonard in 1971, the front cover picture was originally titled "Sad Dreams On Cold Mornings" and the rear photo "Lost Dreams," Anderson says, "I just liked the image, really, of the bloke on the bed in the room. It's quite sort of sad and sexual, I think, like the songs on the album."
's Monster and Bon Jovi
's Greatest Hits
. "It didn't sell as well as I thought it deserved," says Anderson. "I felt that it didn't get the commercial success it deserved, it got the critical success. I think a lot of people thought the band had split up because Bernard had left." Suede's lead single from Dog Man Star, "We Are the Pigs", peaked at a disappointing 18, plunging to 38 the following week. The choice of single had been a subject of heated debate, with Sony
wanting to release "New Generation
" as the first single, which would have made more commercial sense, however, Anderson disagreed as he did not feel it had the drama and the power that represented Dog Man Star. Even the release of "The Wild Ones", the ballad that Anderson still thinks may be the best song Suede have ever recorded, did not seem to help, like "We Are the Pigs", it stalled at number 18. The third single "New Generation" charted even lower, peaking at number 21. "The Power", the only song on the album Butler did not play on, was the proposed fourth single, set for release on 1 May 1995, however this never happened.
The British music press were more enthusiastic about Suede's new record. In his full page review for NME
, John Harris
gave Dog Man Star a rating of 9 out of 10, calling it "a startling record: an album surrounded by the white heat of something close to genius". The issue also had a free 7" flexi-disc
, in a sleeve that used the album artwork, mounted on the cover, which included excerpts of the album tracks "The Wild Ones", "Heroine", "The Power" and "Still Life". David Sinclair of Q
magazine gave the album a full five stars; in his review he said. "With Dog Man Star the group has vindicated just about every claim that was ever made on their behalf...It will be hailed in years to come as the crowning achievement of a line-up that reinvented English, guitar-band rock'n'roll for the 1990s." Nicholas Barber of The Independent
complimented Butler's musicianship, "The follow-up to Suede's Mercury-Prize-winning debut is a larger-than-life blend of pop hooks and theatrical gestures. The music is a testament to the talent of its composer, Bernard Butler, whose lurid guitar curls notes into the mix exactly where they are needed." He added that, "at times Dog Man Star is messy and preposterous. But no record collection is complete without it."
Despite Suede's problems in the US, such as the short-lived tour and the lawsuit over the band's name, Dog Man Star sold about 36,000 copies there as of 2008, per Nielsen SoundScan
figures. However, this is about a third of the sales of Suede, which shifted 105,000 units in the US. American music journalist Robert Christgau
was keen on Suede's debut album, however he rated Dog Man Star a "dud" in his consumer guide review. Other critics saw the album as a step forward from their debut. Simon Reynolds of The New York Times
wrote that while Suede's "self-titled debut was too steeped in glam rock and mope rock [that] connected with only the most devout Anglophiles", on their second record "the group soars to new heights of swoony hysteria". He concluded by stating that "Dog Man Star deserves attention, if only for its absurd ambition". In 1995, the Spin Alternative Record Guide had a similar view, saying that the album "...proved a massive flounce forward, ...Gone are the endless I'm-shocked-that-you're-shocked ruminations on sexual identity, drugs and decay". It also proclaimed "Still Life" as Suede's finest hour, calling it "...A string-laden showstopper, it spotlights Anderson's vocal evolution from drawling South London gutter-snipe to impassioned—and immaculately enunciating—crooner." Stephen Thomas Erlewine
of Allmusic awarded the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, writing, "while Suede may choose to wear their influences on their sleeve, they synthesize them in a totally original way, making Dog Man Star a singularly tragic and romantic album".
, Dog Man Star is Suede's least commercially successful album, yet it is now widely considered their masterpiece. Many critics are keen to emphasise the band's split as the main reason for their slow downfall. John Mulvey was the first journalist to write about Suede for the NME in 1991 at the ULU
, when Suede were still relatively unknown. Over a decade later and in sharp contrast to his emphatic review in 1991, Mulvey now of The Times
wrote about Suede's final output, Singles
. He felt that if the band "had split up in 1994, following the release of the majestic Dog Man Star album, Suede might now be celebrated as one of the great bands." He then added, "as the bulk of Singles proves, over the past nine years Suede have sounded like a parody of their formative selves."
Jon Monks of Stylus Magazine
said that "Suede will never make a record this good again, whether it is because Butler left or merely it was a such a perfect time for Brett to be writing, they have failed to make anything nearly so encompassing as this." A significant review came from Nicholas Barber of The Independent
, shortly after the release of their platinum-selling album Coming Up. Watching them perform live at Glasgow's Barrowlands with their new line-up, he questioned their forceful sound and reluctantly alluded Butler's absence. "When he left, he took with him the heart of the band, leaving behind the pelvis and the guts." He added, "Suede deliver the goods, all right. It's just that they no longer, as it were, deliver the greats."
In September 2003, Suede played five nights at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts
, dedicating each night to one of their five albums and playing through an entire album a night. Tickets sold fastest for Tuesday's Dog Man Star night, and were selling for over a £1,000 a pair on eBay
, in contrast to A New Morning, which went for £100.
Following Suede's 2010 reunion shows, an article appeared in the New Classics column in American music magazine Crawdaddy!
. Written by Andres Jauregui, he wrote about Dog Man Star's legacy: "Despite the challenges Suede faced, Anderson achieved the anti-Britpop album he wanted in Dog Man Star, to the kudos of the hipper critical circle, and the detriment of the band’s mainstream appeal. For all its indulgence and Bowie-esque melodrama, it’s more literate, more tortured, and more ambitious than its peers. More substantive than a “woo-hoo”, brighter than any champagne supernova, Dog Man Star’s origins, theatrics, and sense of rebellion are the stuff of rock'n'roll legend."
(*) designates unordered lists.
and Bernard Butler
.
Production
Additional musicians
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Suede
Suede (band)
Suede are an English alternative rock band from London, formed in 1989. The group's most prominent early line-up featured singer Brett Anderson, guitarist Bernard Butler, bass player Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert. By 1992, Suede were hailed as "The Best New Band in Britain", and attracted...
, released in October 1994 on Nude Records
Nude Records
Nude Records was a London based record label, set up in 1992 by Saul Galpern who had previously been involved in the success of artists such as Simply Red, the Fall, Julian Cope, The Triffids, The Slits and The Au Pairs. The label's first success was with Suede. Suede's debut album was the fastest...
. It was the last Suede album to feature guitarist Bernard Butler
Bernard Butler
Bernard Joseph Butler is an English musician and record producer. He first emerged in the early Britpop era with Suede. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his generation, as well as one of Britain's most original and influential guitarists...
, due to growing tensions between Butler and singer Brett Anderson
Brett Anderson
Brett Lewis Anderson is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he briefly fronted The Tears, and has released four solo albums...
ending with Butler leaving the band before the album was completed. Dog Man Star is more downbeat than their debut and chronicles Suede as they parted from the "Britpop
Britpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
pack".
Although it did not sell on the same scale as their chart-topping debut Suede
Suede (album)
Suede is the debut album by English alternative rock band Suede, released in March 1993 on Nude Records. At the time the fastest-selling debut album in British history, Suede debuted at the top of the UK Album Chart, won the 1993 Mercury Music Prize, and is often credited with starting the Britpop...
(1993), Dog Man Star reached number three on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
. Released to an enthusiastic critical reception, it is considered by many to be Suede's masterpiece.
Background
In early 1994, when Suede were about to release the standalone single "Stay TogetherStay Together
"Stay Together" is a non-album single by Suede, released on 14 February 1994 on Nude Records. It is the last single released while guitarist Bernard Butler was in the band, though subsequent singles from Dog Man Star feature his music...
"—their highest charting single, which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
—the morale within the group was at an all time low. Butler's father had died just as the band were about to begin their second American tour. The first week of the tour was cancelled, and Suede flew back to London from New York. When the tour did resume, Butler distanced himself from the rest of the band far more than before. Recently bereaved and engaged, according to Butler, "they got really resentful of the fact that they were on tour with someone who didn't want to party". He even travelled separately, either alone, by taxi, or on the tour bus of support act The Cranberries
The Cranberries
The Cranberries are an Irish rock band formed in Limerick in 1989 under the name The Cranberry Saw Us, later changed by vocalist Dolores O'Riordan. The band currently consists of O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler...
. Then in Atlanta, Suede suffered the ignominy of having to open for The Cranberries, who'd been given a friendlier reception than the headliners and received the support from MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
as well. By New York they'd had enough and the last few dates were cancelled. According to drummer Simon Gilbert
Simon Gilbert
Simon Gilbert is an English drummer and member of the English band, Suede....
, Butler was becoming unworkable and intolerable, and the band could not function together any longer.
To record Suede's next album Anderson moved to Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
, and began to write lyrics influenced by heavy drugs while living in a secluded Victorian mansion. "I deliberately isolated myself, that was the idea," Anderson later explained. The album was later described by one journalist as "the most pompous, overblown British rock record of the decade", which Anderson puts down to his use of psychedelic drug
Psychedelic drug
A psychedelic substance is a psychoactive drug whose primary action is to alter cognition and perception. Psychedelics are part of a wider class of psychoactive drugs known as hallucinogens, a class that also includes related substances such as dissociatives and deliriants...
s. "I was doing an awful lot of acid at the time, and I think it was this that gave us the confidence to push boundaries." Anderson has said that he thrived on the surreal environment he lived in at the time; next door were a sect known as the Mennonites, who would often sing hymns during Anderson's drug binges.
Recording and production
After the success of their debut album, Suede were hailed as the unwitting inventors of BritpopBritpop
Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...
, something they were proud of for a short while. However, Britpop soon grew to be dominated by other musical forces, as Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
, Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
and Pulp
Pulp (band)
Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....
arrived on the scene. This disgusted Anderson, who called Britpop "horribly twisted, a musical Carry On film", and he began to distance himself from the scene. "We could not have been more uninterested in that whole boozy, cartoon-like, fake working-class thing." the singer said in 2008, "As soon as we became aware of it, we went away and wrote Dog Man Star. You could not find a less Britpop record. It's tortured, epic, extremely sexual and personal. None of those things apply to Britpop".
The album was recorded between 22 March and 26 July 1994 at Master Rock Studios, Kilburn, London. The rehearsals were very tense and would inevitably split the band into two separate camps, i.e. Butler and the rest of the band. Butler seemed to consolidate his separation when he appeared on the front cover of Vox
Vox (magazine)
Vox was a British music magazine, first issued in October 1990. It was published by IPC Media, and was later billed as a monthly sister-magazine to IPC's music weekly, the NME....
magazine with the tag line, "Brett drives me insane". The interview explained how Butler liked to improvise and how Anderson made this impossible because of his slow ways of working, and his obsession with rock stardom. A despondent Anderson remembers reading the article the same morning he was recording the vocals for "The Asphalt World": "I remember trying to channel all this hurt that I was feeling and the iciness I was feeling into the vocal." Butler apologised to Anderson soon after.
Musical differences over "The Asphalt World" triggered the next big argument. The version that finally made it on to the album clocks in at nine minutes 25 seconds, but according to bass player Mat Osman
Mat Osman
Mat Osman is an English musician, best known as the bassist in the band Suede. He studied at the London School of Economics, where in 1989 he was awarded a BSc in Economics....
, Butler's initial creation was a 25-minute piece with an eight-minute guitar solo. "Bernard was very determined", says Anderson. "He's always been quite stubborn and single-minded, he was determined that it would be long. I don't ever remember him saying, 'We'll edit it down.' It was always going to be eighteen minutes or whatever." Osman, felt that Butler's compositions were too audacious and experimental, "Lots of the musical ideas were too much. They were being rude to the listener: it was expecting too much of people to listen to them."
The arguments over "The Asphalt World" spilled over on to the rest of the album, as Butler became progressively more dissatisfied with Ed Buller
Ed Buller
Ed Buller is a British record producer and former musician. He primarily works with Australian and British bands like Suede, Pulp, The Raincoats....
's production. In a 2005 interview, the guitarist maintained his position on the matter, stating that Buller "made a terrible shoddy job of it". Butler wanted Buller dismissed, allowing him to produce the record by himself, although it was later revealed that Butler had recommended Chris Thomas
Chris Thomas (record producer)
Chris Thomas is an English record producer who has worked extensively with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pulp and The Pretenders. He has also produced breakthrough albums for The Sex Pistols and INXS.Thomas is quoted as saying -Early life:Thomas was...
as their producer. Thomas was more experienced and had previously worked with 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...
bands The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
and the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
; however Suede's label Nude Records
Nude Records
Nude Records was a London based record label, set up in 1992 by Saul Galpern who had previously been involved in the success of artists such as Simply Red, the Fall, Julian Cope, The Triffids, The Slits and The Au Pairs. The label's first success was with Suede. Suede's debut album was the fastest...
declined Butler's request, saying Thomas was too expensive. Nude's owner Saul Galpern claimed that the guitarist became impossible to reason with and also made threats to him and Buller. Buller claims he received phone calls where there was the sound of scratching knives on the phone.
Butler issued the band and their management an ultimatum: either they discharged Buller, or he would leave Suede. The rest of the band, however refused to comply with Butler's demands and decided to let him walk out before the record was finished. Butler insisted he was kicked out the band, that when he turned up to the studio to find he was not allowed in. He went back the next day to pick up his guitar so he could record parts at home, though he was told that his guitar would be left in the street for him. "That was it, really. I didn't leave; I was kicked out. That's really obvious. If I'd just left, no-one would have let me leave, if I'd been wanted." Suede's manager Charlie Charlton made a final attempt to reach consensus between the two parties, however during a tense phone conversation the final words Butler uttered to Anderson were along the lines of "you're a fucking cunt."
On 8 July, Butler exited the sessions leaving Dog Man Star some distance from completion. Anderson had recorded little more than a string of guide vocals; several songs did not have titles; much of the music was still to be embossed with overdubs. Buller and the remaining members succeeded in taking the record to its conclusion. Butler did finish some of his guitar parts, though according to Saul Galpern he refused do it at Master Rock and instead had to book another studio where he could work on his own. Shortly after Butler left the band, he recorded an unrequested backing vocal on "Black or Blue", which Anderson recalls. "...I can't remember the exact words but it sounded vaguely threatening." Among the post-Butler additions was a reworked ending to "The Wild Ones", an orchestral coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
on "Still Life" and an electric guitar part, copied note for note from Butler's original demo of "The Power", which he strongly criticised. Butler became a harsh critic of the album, not just from a production standpoint, but the overall musicianship. He cites lack of commitment in the studio, along with Anderson's partying antics, and the band's unwillingness to challenge his elaborate ideas as his main criticism, "I just heard too many times, 'No, you can't do that'. I was sick to death of it. I think it's a good record, but it could have been much better."
Music and lyrics
Writing for The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Neil Strauss
Neil Strauss
Neil Darrow Strauss , also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American and Kittitian author, journalist and ghostwriter...
said, "Dog Man Star looks back to the era when glam-rock met art-rock, with meticulously arranged songs sung with a flamboyance reminiscent of David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and accompanied by anything from a 40-piece orchestra to an old Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
." The Bowie influence was still a major element of Suede's sound, however, unlike their debut, Suede focused on a darker and more melodramatic sound. As they were on Suede, Anderson's lyrics were influenced by his heavy drug use, citing William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
as a big influence on his writing style. He became fascinated with his use of visions and trance-like states as a means of creation. Anderson claims that much of the torn, fragmented imagery on songs like "Introducing the Band" and B-side, "Killing of a Flashboy" were the result of letting his subconscious take over. "Introducing the Band" was a mantra he wrote after visiting a Buddhist temple in Japan.
Anderson wrote the eulogy "Daddy's Speeding", about a dream involving taking drugs with the late American actor James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
. The song uses white noise
White noise
White noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...
and feedback
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...
effects in its finale. Lead single "We Are the Pigs
We are the Pigs
"We Are the Pigs" is the first single from the album Dog Man Star by Suede, released on 12 September 1994, on Nude Records. The single announced the darker tone that the band had taken for Dog Man Star, that contrasted heavily with their debut. The challenging sound on the single was not...
" depicts Anderson's visions of Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
and riots in the streets, which samples Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series which aired on the NBC and later ABC television networks from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator was Blake Edwards...
style horns. The track "Heroine", with the refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
, "I'm aching to see my heroine", also has a celebrity influence, paying homage to Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, while evoking Lord Byron. "She Walks in Beauty", the song's opening line, is the title of a Byron poem.
Dog Man Star explores themes such as solitude, paranoia and self-loathing. The latter theme being reflected in the ballad "The Wild Ones", an ode to a relationship being slowly lost. Anderson's girlfriend Anick was the inspiration behind the song, along with "The Asphalt World" and "Black or Blue". The latter is a song about racial intolerance. "This Hollywood Life" is the most aggressive song on the album, the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
wrote that "a record so couched in earth-shacking drama probably needs at least one spittle-flecked tantrum."
"New Generation
New Generation
"New Generation" is the third and final single from the album Dog Man Star by Suede, released on January 30, 1995, on Nude Records. It is the first single to feature music by new guitarist Richard Oakes. Though the title track is written by Anderson and departed guitarist Bernard Butler, Oakes...
" is an upbeat affair and, according to The Independent, "a reminder that they can still play sleek rock'n'roll". One writer noted that "few bands could make such a sexual, illicit poem appear to bounce like a pop anthem". The melancholic piano ballad "The 2 of Us" explores similar themes of regret and doubt and features a bawu
Bawu
The bawu is a Chinese wind instrument. Although shaped like a flute, it is actually a free reed instrument, with a single metal reed. It is played in a transverse manner...
solo before the song's crescendo
Crescendo
-In music:*Crescendo, a passage of music during which the volume gradually increases, see Dynamics * Crescendo , a Liverpool-based electronic pop band* "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", one of Duke Ellington's longer-form compositions...
. David Sinclair of Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
described how the sad, bored housewife from Suede's earlier song "Sleeping Pills" reappears in "The 2 of Us" as well as Dog Man Stars closing track "Still Life". An early concept that was originally planned for Suede, "Still Life" features the 72-piece Sinfonia of London
Sinfonia of London
The Sinfonia of London is a session orchestra based in London, England. Muir Mathieson, the director of music for Rank Films, founded the ensemble in 1955 specifically for the recording of film music...
orchestra. It was notable for its premiere at the 1993 Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, though this rendition was a stripped down version consisting of vocals and acoustic guitar.
Packaging
Anderson spoke of the album's title as a kind of shorthand DarwinismDarwinism
Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....
reflecting his own journey from the gutter to the stars. Fans noted the similarity to experimental film-maker Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
's 1964 film, Dog Star Man
Dog Star Man
Dog Star Man is a series of short experimental films, all directed by Stan Brakhage:* Prelude: Dog Star Man * Dog Star Man: Part I * Dog Star Man: Part II * Dog Star Man: Part III...
. "The film wasn't an influence but I obviously dug the title," the singer later confessed. The title is intended as a proud summation of Suede's evolution. "It was meant to be a record about ambition; what could you make yourself into."
The artwork, which features a naked man sprawled on a bed were lifted from one of Anderson's old photo books. Taken by American photographer Joanne Leonard in 1971, the front cover picture was originally titled "Sad Dreams On Cold Mornings" and the rear photo "Lost Dreams," Anderson says, "I just liked the image, really, of the bloke on the bed in the room. It's quite sort of sad and sexual, I think, like the songs on the album."
Release and reception
Dog Man Star entered the charts two places lower than its predecessor, held off the top by R.E.M.R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
's Monster and Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
's Greatest Hits
Cross Road
Cross Road is a greatest hits compilation released by the American band Bon Jovi in 1994. The album contains hits from between Bon Jovi and Keep The Faith and two new tracks: the hit singles "Always" and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night", as well as a new, updated rendition of "Livin' on a Prayer"...
. "It didn't sell as well as I thought it deserved," says Anderson. "I felt that it didn't get the commercial success it deserved, it got the critical success. I think a lot of people thought the band had split up because Bernard had left." Suede's lead single from Dog Man Star, "We Are the Pigs", peaked at a disappointing 18, plunging to 38 the following week. The choice of single had been a subject of heated debate, with Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
wanting to release "New Generation
New Generation
"New Generation" is the third and final single from the album Dog Man Star by Suede, released on January 30, 1995, on Nude Records. It is the first single to feature music by new guitarist Richard Oakes. Though the title track is written by Anderson and departed guitarist Bernard Butler, Oakes...
" as the first single, which would have made more commercial sense, however, Anderson disagreed as he did not feel it had the drama and the power that represented Dog Man Star. Even the release of "The Wild Ones", the ballad that Anderson still thinks may be the best song Suede have ever recorded, did not seem to help, like "We Are the Pigs", it stalled at number 18. The third single "New Generation" charted even lower, peaking at number 21. "The Power", the only song on the album Butler did not play on, was the proposed fourth single, set for release on 1 May 1995, however this never happened.
The British music press were more enthusiastic about Suede's new record. In his full page review for NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, John Harris
John Harris (critic)
John Rhys Harris is a British journalist, writer, and critic.-Early life:Harris was raised in Wilmslow in north Cheshire by a university lecturer and a teacher, daughter of a nuclear research chemist...
gave Dog Man Star a rating of 9 out of 10, calling it "a startling record: an album surrounded by the white heat of something close to genius". The issue also had a free 7" flexi-disc
Flexi disc
The flexi disc is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntable...
, in a sleeve that used the album artwork, mounted on the cover, which included excerpts of the album tracks "The Wild Ones", "Heroine", "The Power" and "Still Life". David Sinclair of Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
magazine gave the album a full five stars; in his review he said. "With Dog Man Star the group has vindicated just about every claim that was ever made on their behalf...It will be hailed in years to come as the crowning achievement of a line-up that reinvented English, guitar-band rock'n'roll for the 1990s." Nicholas Barber of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
complimented Butler's musicianship, "The follow-up to Suede's Mercury-Prize-winning debut is a larger-than-life blend of pop hooks and theatrical gestures. The music is a testament to the talent of its composer, Bernard Butler, whose lurid guitar curls notes into the mix exactly where they are needed." He added that, "at times Dog Man Star is messy and preposterous. But no record collection is complete without it."
Despite Suede's problems in the US, such as the short-lived tour and the lawsuit over the band's name, Dog Man Star sold about 36,000 copies there as of 2008, per Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
figures. However, this is about a third of the sales of Suede, which shifted 105,000 units in the US. American music journalist Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
was keen on Suede's debut album, however he rated Dog Man Star a "dud" in his consumer guide review. Other critics saw the album as a step forward from their debut. Simon Reynolds of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that while Suede's "self-titled debut was too steeped in glam rock and mope rock [that] connected with only the most devout Anglophiles", on their second record "the group soars to new heights of swoony hysteria". He concluded by stating that "Dog Man Star deserves attention, if only for its absurd ambition". In 1995, the Spin Alternative Record Guide had a similar view, saying that the album "...proved a massive flounce forward, ...Gone are the endless I'm-shocked-that-you're-shocked ruminations on sexual identity, drugs and decay". It also proclaimed "Still Life" as Suede's finest hour, calling it "...A string-laden showstopper, it spotlights Anderson's vocal evolution from drawling South London gutter-snipe to impassioned—and immaculately enunciating—crooner." Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
of Allmusic awarded the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, writing, "while Suede may choose to wear their influences on their sleeve, they synthesize them in a totally original way, making Dog Man Star a singularly tragic and romantic album".
Legacy
With the exception of A New MorningA New Morning
A New Morning is the fifth studio album by English alternative rock band Suede, released in September 2002. By the time the album was released, public interest in the band had waned, as shown by the poor charting of both the album and singles...
, Dog Man Star is Suede's least commercially successful album, yet it is now widely considered their masterpiece. Many critics are keen to emphasise the band's split as the main reason for their slow downfall. John Mulvey was the first journalist to write about Suede for the NME in 1991 at the ULU
University of London Union
The University of London Union is the university-wide students' union for the University of London...
, when Suede were still relatively unknown. Over a decade later and in sharp contrast to his emphatic review in 1991, Mulvey now of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote about Suede's final output, Singles
Singles (Suede album)
-Asian Limited Edition Bonus DVD:Live performance recording from Suede's "Up Close And Personal" tour in Singapore on August 15, 2002.# Positivity# The Wild Ones# Untitled# When the Rain Falls# Oceans# Trash# Lazy# The Power# She's in Fashion...
. He felt that if the band "had split up in 1994, following the release of the majestic Dog Man Star album, Suede might now be celebrated as one of the great bands." He then added, "as the bulk of Singles proves, over the past nine years Suede have sounded like a parody of their formative selves."
Jon Monks of Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
said that "Suede will never make a record this good again, whether it is because Butler left or merely it was a such a perfect time for Brett to be writing, they have failed to make anything nearly so encompassing as this." A significant review came from Nicholas Barber of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, shortly after the release of their platinum-selling album Coming Up. Watching them perform live at Glasgow's Barrowlands with their new line-up, he questioned their forceful sound and reluctantly alluded Butler's absence. "When he left, he took with him the heart of the band, leaving behind the pelvis and the guts." He added, "Suede deliver the goods, all right. It's just that they no longer, as it were, deliver the greats."
In September 2003, Suede played five nights at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
, dedicating each night to one of their five albums and playing through an entire album a night. Tickets sold fastest for Tuesday's Dog Man Star night, and were selling for over a £1,000 a pair on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, in contrast to A New Morning, which went for £100.
Following Suede's 2010 reunion shows, an article appeared in the New Classics column in American music magazine Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
. Written by Andres Jauregui, he wrote about Dog Man Star's legacy: "Despite the challenges Suede faced, Anderson achieved the anti-Britpop album he wanted in Dog Man Star, to the kudos of the hipper critical circle, and the detriment of the band’s mainstream appeal. For all its indulgence and Bowie-esque melodrama, it’s more literate, more tortured, and more ambitious than its peers. More substantive than a “woo-hoo”, brighter than any champagne supernova, Dog Man Star’s origins, theatrics, and sense of rebellion are the stuff of rock'n'roll legend."
Accolades
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd... |
UK | 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die | 2005 | * |
| Alternative Press | US | The 90 Greatest Albums of the 90's | 1998 | 37 |
| British Hit Singles & Albums | UK | Poll: Greatest 100 Albums of All Time | 2006 | 75 |
| The Guardian The Guardian The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format... |
UK | 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die | 2007 | * |
| Melody Maker Melody Maker Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody... |
UK | All Time Top 100 Albums | 2000 | 16 |
| NME NME The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles... |
UK | 100 Best Albums | 2003 | 78 |
| The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever | 2006 | 58 | ||
| Q Q (magazine) Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology... |
UK | In Our Lifetime: Q's 100 Best Albums | 1995 | * |
| Readers' All Time Top 100 Albums | 1998 | 35 | ||
| Select | UK | The 100 Best Albums of the 90's | 1996 | 17 |
| Virgin Virgin Group Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding... |
UK | Poll: Top 1000 albums | 1998 | 62 |
(*) designates unordered lists.
Track listing
All songs written by Brett AndersonBrett Anderson
Brett Lewis Anderson is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he briefly fronted The Tears, and has released four solo albums...
and Bernard Butler
Bernard Butler
Bernard Joseph Butler is an English musician and record producer. He first emerged in the early Britpop era with Suede. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his generation, as well as one of Britain's most original and influential guitarists...
.
Personnel
Suede- Brett AndersonBrett AndersonBrett Lewis Anderson is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he briefly fronted The Tears, and has released four solo albums...
– vocals - Bernard ButlerBernard ButlerBernard Joseph Butler is an English musician and record producer. He first emerged in the early Britpop era with Suede. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his generation, as well as one of Britain's most original and influential guitarists...
– guitar & keyboards - Simon GilbertSimon GilbertSimon Gilbert is an English drummer and member of the English band, Suede....
– drums - Mat OsmanMat OsmanMat Osman is an English musician, best known as the bassist in the band Suede. He studied at the London School of Economics, where in 1989 he was awarded a BSc in Economics....
– bass guitar
Production
- Ed BullerEd BullerEd Buller is a British record producer and former musician. He primarily works with Australian and British bands like Suede, Pulp, The Raincoats....
– producer, engineer - Gary Stout – engineer
- Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
- mastering
Additional musicians
- Phil Overhead – Percussion
- Simon Clarke – Trumpet
- Roddy LorimerRoddy LorimerRoddy Lorimer is a Scottish musician who has performed with a number of bands, including Blur, Gene, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton, Suede and The Waterboys. He is currently a member of the horn section Kick Horns....
– Saxophone & Flute - Richard EdwardsRichard Edwards (musician)Richard Edwards is a London-based classical and jazz trombone player as well as composer/arranger.His professional career includes:* Numerous film, recording sessions, television and radio productions...
– Trombone - Andrew Cronshaw – Cimbalon and Ba-Wu Flute
- Tessa NilesTessa NilesTessa Niles is an English singer, best known as a backing singer for a wide variety of artists.-Early life and career:Born in Kent, Niles began her professional singing career, as both a lead and a backing vocalist, in 1979...
– Additional Vocals - Children from The Tricycle Theatre Workshop – Additional Vocals
- Orchestra – Sinfonia of LondonSinfonia of LondonThe Sinfonia of London is a session orchestra based in London, England. Muir Mathieson, the director of music for Rank Films, founded the ensemble in 1955 specifically for the recording of film music...
(Arranged & Conducted by Brian Gascoine)