Dalek I - Naive (1986)

After the release of Dalek I Love You second album, in 1983, Alan Gill devoted some time in writing and recording the soundtrack for the film Letter to Breznhev (1985), even though, besides the title track, only another song (Lockets & Stars) is co-credited to Gill and Margi Clarke (who also features in the film).
In December Gill formed the Bop A Dub label in Birkenhead. Actually, it was a cooperative run by Gill and Jill Thompson, who previously worked for Inevitable records. Their manifesto read like this: “Bop A Dub is a co-operative of local musicians and non-musicians alike, who aim to bring music back to life by approaching Pop music from a different angle, a far departure from the typical Merseyside Sound, and a sense of humour so often lacking in modern music. The Bop a Dub label began in December 84 when Dalek I (sic) split (sic) and decided that it was not a good idea to work with Record Companies! They formed a co-operative with some other local musicians, of various experiences”.
Bop a Dub released a string of compilation-tapes of numerous unknown bands, which was for most of them their first and possibly only release. Among these acts there are Ecce Homo (Gordon Hon’s project), Nature Tablets (Kenny Peers’ project), Sex Tribe (Keith Hartley’s project, together with Peers), Chuca Russo (backing vocalist of Dalek’s albums and live sets), and other studio bands like Bop Co-Op, Robin Hood and Gimp Jizz with which Gill was also plying on an un-stable basis . Dalek I also contributed to these tapes:
- In June 1985 The Art of the Unemployed was released, featuring Dalek’s tracks All Lose Blues and Soldier of Love (both to appear on Naïve)
- In September 19985 D-Beat was released, featuring Garden of Delight, We Have Some Curious Infection, and No Reason (to my best knowledge all unreleased)
- In January 1986 Birkenhead Blues was released, featuring Dalek’s Birkenhead (otherwise unreleased) and Bad Science (later on Naïve).
But, most remarkably in May 1986 Naïve was released, a C90 cassette by Dalek I – the flavour of what could have been the third Dalek’s album.

Here’s the full track-list:

Naïve (1986)

1. Dawn
2. Wake Up
3. Into The Lion's Cage
4. Dig For Treasure
5. Shoe Song
6. This Perfect Life
7. All Lose Blues
8. Joe The Turtle Boy
9. Before The Gong
10. Soldier Of Love
11. Dulcetta
12. Osaki Pearls
13. Ridiculous Day
14. The Retailer's Dream

1. Bad Science
2. Little Green Monsters
3. Prince Of Clowns
4. There Is A Destiny
5. African Kings
6. Ad Men
7. Dandelion
8. The Vultures Of Cordoba
9. I Could Fall
10. Joy
11. Sunset

In October of the same year (after the release of Ecce Homo’s and Gardners’ tapes) a fourth cassette compilation was issued.
- Blue Vol. I, featuring Old Salmon Blues, I Use to See No Evil (both otherwise unreleased), and These Walls We Build (b-side to the Horrorscope single 1983).

In a 1986 interview Alan Gill confesses:
“The Liverpool music scene is something I’ve never felt a part of really, I’m a hermit myself & Dalek I have always been a small individual band. I don’t think we wanted success as much as the other bands, we were more into being arty or clever than famous. The whole thing seemed to me like a growing up process. In the beginning everybody was very idealistic & creative, then they were drawn to London and became boring!”
“I’m not really interested in working for a record company anymore, I’m much more interested in producing music that is individual and personal. I’ve always been interested in music not money, to me musci business is about money not music!”
“Dalek I still exists, but at the moment I’m the only member, at the moment I’m looking for singers. So hopefully in a few months the group will be a vocal group (for the next tape)”.
(…famous last words.)

For the Naïve cassette, visit this site:

http://www.dalekiloveyou.com/naive.htm


(For more info visit also: http://www.dalekiloveyou.com/
and the always informative: http://robinparmar.com/dalek-i-love-you.html )