For those wondering, Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club were founded in 1979 with Bruce Woolley on vocals, Dave Birch on guitar, Thomas Dolby on keyboards, Matthew Seligman on bass and Rod Johnson on drums.

They released their debut album ‘English Garden’ in 1979 and supported its release by touring in England, USA and Canada. Unfortunately, they disbanded after two years largely spent on the road following on from CBS Records’ refusal to release their second album.

This a comprehensive 69-track 3CD anthology covering the recordings of Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club between 1977-1981 and it includes 41 previously unreleased tracks taken from their unreleased second album plus two live concerts.

It fetaures an expanded version of the ‘English Garden’ album including the original versions of the Ivor Novello Award-nominated ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ and ‘Clean Clean’, both of which Bruce co-wrote with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes and went on to become hit singles for The Buggles.

Disc One: English Garden - Expanded Version (1979)
1. English Garden 2. Video Killed The Radio Star 3. Dancing With The Sporting Boys 4. Johnny 5. No Surrender 6. Flying Man 7. You Got Class 8. WW9 9. Clean Clean 10. Get Away William 11. Goodbye To Yesterday 12. Goodbye To Yesterday (Reprise) 13. You’re The Circus (I’m The Clown) 14. News (Eden Studios)* 15. The Killers - No Surrender 16. The Killers - Killer On The Dancefloor 17. Clean Clean (US Version) 18. Video Killed the Radio Star (US Version) 19. Goodbye to Yesterday (US Version) 20. Bruce Woolley - Bobby Bad 21. Bruce Woolley - You’re The Circus (I’m The Clown) (B-side) 22. Bruce Woolley - You Got Class (Soundsuite Studios)* 23. Bruce Woolley - Going To The City* 24. Bruce Woolley - Needletime* 25. Bruce Woolley - Sugar Daddy (8 Track Demo)* * Previous Unreleased

By now, we all know that the very first video played on MTV was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles, but the real trivia question should be: “Who recorded it first? Because, yes, you heard that right, the song is actually a cover tune, originally recorded by Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club for their album English Garden.

The would-be Buggles, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, wrote the song for Bruce’s band, and while they had some success, Horn and Downes decided to make it their first single. The rest is history ... and therein consigned to the hallowed halls of music trivia.

There wasn’t bad blood, though. Bruce Woolley was close with The Buggles, though never an official member. He even appears in The Buggles video for “Video Killed the Radio Star”, a friendly shout-out to the guy who tried to make a hit of it first, and joined them for a couple of The Buggles occasional one-off performances.

The success of the cover version left The Camera Club’s lone album, English Garden to the dustbin of musical history. Thankfully, history has preserved video of the band performing on the Old Grey Whistle Test, and on BBC Midlands, amongst others.

But I digress, as the album itself is a delightfully strange record, straddling a line between glam rock, and new wave, with a slight dose of progressive rock sensibilities in their arrangements. At times, Bruce’s voice tries to emulate the range of Sparks’s Russel Mael, especially on the title track. It lacks the Sparks sense of humor, though, and it lacks the inventiveness of Trevor Horn’s production and arrangements that makes The Age of Plastic hold up.

Consider the two versions of “Video Killed the Radio Star”. Camera Club’s version is a straight ahead rock song with a constant tempo. It lacks the emotion of Horn’s rendition. However, I’ll freely admit that Woolley is a far better vocalist. The other Buggles song on English Garden, “Clean/Clean” fares similarly in comparison with its counterpart. There’s just a lot more to sink your teeth on in the Buggles version.

Perhaps it’s me. I came to this album after developing a familiarity with the Buggles Age of Plastic, and it might be clouding my judgment upon hearing these earlier interpretations of the songs.

So should you, perhaps, track this album down on vinyl? That depends. It’s certainly not a bad album, but really it’s more of a curiosity. If you’re one of those obsessive Thomas Dolby fans, or an obsessive Buggles fan, or just have to complete your collection of slightly obscure new wave records from England, then you could do far worse.

Disc Two: Polaroid – Snapshots Of Sound (1981)
1. I Set Fire To You* 2. Bruce Woolley - Ghost Train 3. Killer On The Dancefloor (Olympic Studios)* 4. Trouble Is 5. Only Babies Can Fly 6. All Real Americans* 7. Morning Shadows* 8. Ghost Train (Olympic Studios)* 9. All At Once 10. Warning Shadows* 11. Bruce Woolley - Blue Blue Victoria 12. Bruce Woolley - 1000 MPH 13. Bruce Woolley - The Black Girls Understand* 14. Bruce Woolley - Ghost Train (Club Mix) 15. How Do You Say Goodbye?* 16. Too Late For Tears (Demo Version)* 17. Bruce Woolley - Blue Blue Victoria (Demo Version)* 18. Bruce Woolley - You Got Class (Revox Demo)* 19. News (Olympic Studios)* 20. House Of Wax 21. Radio Pictures (Bye Bye Love)* * Previous Unreleased

As noted above, they released their debut album ‘English Garden’ in 1979 and supported its release by touring in England, USA and Canada. Unfortunately, they disbanded after two years largely spent on the road following on from CBS Records’ refusal to release this second album, titled Polaroid – Snapshots Of Sound.

What follows are 21 tracks, including the entire 13 track original recording along with a bunch of previously unreleased demo tracks and such taken from their studio sessions at that time.

Sounding as crisp and as alive as they ever were, mostly due to having been rescued from the original 24-track, 2” analogue tapes, tracks such as the brilliant Dolby-written Ghost Train, the vibrant Killer On The Dancefloor, and both the versatile arrangement of Only Babies Can Fly and the single perfect House Of Wax, showcase just how great this album could have been.

Others from the demo side of things that stand out include the impassioned Blue Blue (Victoria), yet another Mike Howlett production, the bittersweet Radio Pictures (Bye Bye Love), and one of my own person favorites the inventive synth pop sounds that drive You Got Class (Revox Demo).

Disc Three: In Concert - Live at High Wycombe Town Hall 6th May 1979
1. You’re The Circus (I’m The Clown) 2. You Got Class 3. Too Late For Tears 4. Clean Clean 5. The Problem 6. Goodbye To Yesterday 7. Johnny 8. Video Killed The Radio Star 9. No Surrender 10. Dancing With The Sporting Boys 11. News 12. Flying Man [All tracks previously unreleased].

Live at My Father’s Place, Long Island, USA 25th March 1980
13. You’re The Circus (I’m The Clown) 14. News 15. You Got Class 16. Trouble Is 17. Johnny 18. Get Away William 19. Dancing With The Sporting Boys 20. I Set Fire To You 21. No Surrender 22. English Garden 23. Video Killed The Radio Star [All tracks previously unreleased].

The third and final disc is two live sets recorded nearly back to back in both 1979 and 1980. As we are informed with liner notes, the first 1979 set was provided by Steve Warren, who was XTC’s sound engineer at the time. Amazingly, it was originally recorded onto cassette, this straight from the mixing desk sound is incredible to listen to. Also, if you were not aware, this line-up also includes Richard Wernham on drums (aka Ricky Slaughter from The Motors).

Differently, the following 1980 set was broadcast on WLIR FM, from My Father’s Place in Roslyn, New York and is therefore a much more polished audio affair, with the band themselves tighter from having toured non-stop before it.

This 3CD set is packaged in a deluxe clamshell box with a fully illustrated 28-page booklet containing rare and previously unseen images and a brand new annotation featuring quotes from band members Bruce Woolley, Dave Birch and Thomas Dolby.

Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club: The Definitive Anthology 1978-1981 3CD [Trailer]

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