“It was all a bit silly and sad really – I tried to get him to do certain things but found it really hard going”: Bill Nelson on the struggle to make the Gary Numan album he ultimately removed his name from

Recently, we caught up with Be-Bop Deluxe guitar hero – and storied creative journeyman – Bill Nelson. In our lengthy conversation, Bill reflected on some of the most notable moments of his wide-ranging career, including working with Harold Budd and David Sylvian.

In the midst of the interview, Nelson remembered how he began working with Gary Numan in 1983. Invited to produce his fifth solo album, Warriors, Gary was keen to learn from the man whom he had described as his “favourite guitar player, bar none.”

During the album’s troubled production, however, Nelson and Numan began to disagree about the fundamentals. Disliking each other’s philosophies and attitudes to music-making, the pair started avoiding each other. Eventually, things got so bad that Nelson would ask for his producer credit to be removed.

“I got the impression that Gary didn’t want to move from a safe place. His record company had contacted me and said that, whilst he was one of the early synth-pop artists, the newer ones were moving ahead and doing something different. They felt he needed to push the envelope a little,” Nelson told us.