Music: The Blue Aeroplanes

Seminal new wave outfit from Bristol are on their first tour in seven years. Jeff Hemmings finds out more

Perhaps Bristol’s greatest ever guitar band and now the proud owners of the legendary venue, The Fleece, The Blue Aeroplanes formed in the early 1980s from the ashes of notable Bristol post-punk poetic pranksters Art Objects, and have been ignoring the dictates of fashion ever since with their unique blend of rock, pop, folk, poetry, dance, art and mayhem. Gerard Langley, brother John Langley, and dancer Wojtek Dmochowski (who was years ahead of Bez in becoming a ‘dance’ only member of a rock band) have been the mainstays of the archetypal indie band. They also, in their early incarnation, featured turntablist John Stapleton, again an unheard of feature of a band at the time.

First album Bop Art appeared on their own label in 1984 (the same year as first releases by Yo La Tengo, Flaming Lips and Red Hot Chili Peppers!) and was rapidly picked up by the Fire label in the UK. Tolerance and Spitting Out Miracles followed and the band acquired a huge UK and Europe following leading to their 1990 signing to Ensign Records (Chrysalis in the US). Tours with REM and the Church and the release of UK chart albums Swagger and Beatsongs followed, before the sale of Chrysalis to EMI in 1991 forced the cancellation of the first Aeroplanes headline tour of America just as their trans-Atlantic pop cross-over single ‘Yr Own World’ was receiving rotation airplay across the country.

Out of step with both Brit-pop and grunge, the band signed to Beggars Banquet and released Life Model and Rough Music in 1994 and 1995 respectively. At this point, things became slightly murky as a succession of incidents including death, madness, divorce and family problems (The Aeroplanes’ membership has involved more than a dozen siblings) resulted in frontman and singer Gerard Langley retreating back to Bristol to write his definitive (though still unfinished) ‘History Of Rock Music’.

A solo album, Record Player, followed in 1999 before the band re-convened to record a 12-part poem Gerard had written about the effects of the English Civil War on contemporary life. The resulting Cavaliers album was successful enough for the band to sign to EMI to release the critically-acclaimed Swagger Deluxe and Altitude albums (2006).

Frontman Gerard Langley has a huge stage presence, always wearing his trademark shades even in dark venues, and will move from casually introducing songs and making cryptic comments to answering questions from the audience, back to his half-sung, half spoken snarling delivery of his lyrics.

This gig marks the 20th anniversary of their Beatsongs album. They will be joined by fellow Bristolian and former lead singer of Strangelove, Patrick Duff.
Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Thursday 20 June, 7.30pm, £11.25/£10