Talk:The Blue Nile (band)

Untitled

Official website seems to have gone off line? --Pandaplodder 10:00, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

That happens all the time. --andreasegde 14:30, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

B-class

I have upgraded this article to B-class, but it needs more references to become a GA. --andreasegde 15:09, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I have downgraded to C. Article is really poor and could do with a rewrite. (Snoop God (talk) 00:28, 13 February 2012 (UTC))

References

I have added a list of sites that can be used for references (please don't delete them as they will be put into the article). --andreasegde 15:41, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Early years

I personally detest what I consider to be "editorializations" in WikiPedia articles, as exemplified by this statement: "...- had they continued with this trajectory, we may never had the Blue Nile." Who cares? What information does this impart that is pertinent to the article? I think this, and similar editorial opinions, ought to be deleted from the article. --bpolhemus 19:25, 03 March 2008 (UTC)

I totally agree. I am a massive fan of The Blue Nile, but that, "had they continued with this trajectory" sentence would never get this article a GA rating in a million years. Let's promote a wonderful group, and leave the POV at home. :)--andreasegde (talk) 18:48, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

A Walk Across the Rooftops

This article says that A Walk Across the Rooftops was released in 1983, but the album's own article says 1984. Which is true? Sophie means wisdom (talk) 11:03, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

1983, according to my record sleeve. (Snoop God (talk) 00:31, 13 February 2012 (UTC))

Is that (c) 1983? Album released early in one year usually have a copyright notice from the preceding year. TheComplete Book of the British Charts by Brown, Kutner and Warwick has the walbum entering the charts in May 1984. Sophie means wisdom (talk) 11:32, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

They've split up

The band are reported by Allan Brown in Nileism to have split up, and the article also notes that the billing on recent live forays ("Paul Buchanan sings the songs of the Blue Nile", typically) backs this up. Since only two members of the band performed live most recently and didn't consider these to be Blue Nile concerts, and since we have a source which says that none of them is now speaking to the others, I have changed the intro from "is a band" to "was a band".

I'm aware that one member of the band hopes they may record again, but it's been 8 years and this is probably true of every disbanded band anyway, so the past tense seems correct for now. Tirailleur (talk) 14:03, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Still no official word and the website is still active, though I agree the band will probably not release another record. You would need to cite a press release or official statement before changing the intro. Snoop God (talk) 17:50, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

The fact that two of the band tour without the third, perform Blue Nile songs but don't call themselves the Blue Nile any more surely is an official statement. Tirailleur (talk) 09:31, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Not really. The 3rd member left during the making of Peace at Last, but is still a member, officially. Snoop God (talk) 16:11, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

the/The

You are invited to participate in an RfC at Wikipedia talk:Requests for mediation/The Beatles on the issue of capitalising the definite article when mentioning that band's name in running prose. This long-standing dispute is the subject of an open mediation case and we are requesting your help with determining the current community consensus. Thank you.--andreasegde (talk) 05:30, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

Rewritten article

I've given the article the long overdue rewrite that it needed - many of the original references were, as noted, of dubious quality and in any case a large number of them were dead links. I've tried to expand the article to give a decent overview of the band and their activities, tidied up the discography and collaboration sections which were a mess (I'm pretty sure it's not Wikipedia policy to list all the various B-sides of singles and their catalogue numbers, just the A-sides), and moved the music samples out of the main text - I can't be the only person who found them disruptive to reading the article.

This article is a long way from being perfect, but I hope this is a decent starting point for a path to GA candidature. Richard3120 (talk) 22:49, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Richard. Snoop God (talk) 21:26, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Group name

I saw an interview with Paul Buchanan where he states they got the name from a map; no mention of the Moorehead book. (Redacted)

Yes, I've seen this as well – that they simply stuck a pin in a map. As with a lot of things about this band, clear facts are thin on the ground, with band members saying different things, or changing their story over time. I'll look and see if both stories can be included with sources. Richard3120 (talk) 14:16, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

Can't remember where I saw it. I also came across an in depth interview on The Quietus which was very interesting. And I also saw one member saying the name was suitably exotic. Auraclery (talk) 15:34, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

Both Allan Brown's biography Nileism: The Strange Course of the Blue Nile and Tim Blanchard's Like Magic in the Streets state that the band got their name from Alan Moorehead's book. I have a feeling that the "pin stuck in a map" source may be Graeme Thomson's Uncut magazine article from 2013, but I'd have to check. Richard3120 (talk) 18:38, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

Pop and past tense

The Blue Nile has not recorded for almost 20 years. The band has not performed for many years and all the members are in their mid-60s now. Its members, as reported in sources here and in a draft Paul Buchanan article, confirm that they will never play together again. It is a former band, so i have changed the tense. In addition, while it is possible to have a theological debate about the nature of pop, the work of The Blue Nile is manifestly not pop. It isn't The Bay City Rollers. ;-) Emmentalist (talk) 09:50, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

They are described as "synthpop" and "sophisti-pop": genres are very subjective, which is why we only use genres sourced from reliable sources - I consider Nirvana to be pop, for example... and I mean that as a compliment, because I think writing a great catchy song like "Smells like Teen Spirit" is the hardest thing to do in music. As for present/past tense... the band have never officially split up, and some of us dream of seeing a reunion tour one day. But yeah, at the moment it does look like we'll never hear from them again in their original form. Richard3120 (talk) 13:22, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

Yes @Richard3120, it's a shame. PJ Moore has released an album, as you'll know, but isn't going to tour it. I thought on that basis he might have his own Wiki article, actually, but maybe that's best inserted here? Paul Buchanan hasn't been, er, terribly active since his Mid-air tour. No idea why. I imagine he's comfortably off and living a nice life in Glasgow. Fair point about pop, but for me 'sophisti-pop' bears the hallmarks of some 1980s NME hack looking down his/her nose and trying to think up something superficial that might chime with readers that week before heading off to the pub. :-) Emmentalist (talk) 08:48, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

I have reverted the edit of 11 Jan 2023 which changed the tense of the band to the present. There was no consensus at this pre-existing discussion. Moreover, if it were necessary to have some form of official statement of splitting up in order to employ the past tense then we would need to refer in the present tense to some bands where everyone is now dead: That would clearly be absurd. In this case, as noted above, the band has not recorded for 20 years and the citations note band members saying they will never get together again. Past tense is therefore appropriate. However, I have altered the 'years active' side-note to reflect the fact that the band never put out a formal split-up statement. The band's status is also referred to in the lead. Emmentalist (talk) 09:11, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Use of the plural in British English

British English almost always uses the plural when talking about groups, i.e. "were" instead of "was", "they" instead of "it", etc. and I think this article should probably be changed to follow this format at some point. Richard3120 (talk) 12:01, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks,@richard3120, I wasn't aware of that. It's a good point; I've just checked other articles and you're dead right. I hope you don't mind if I change it right now? All the best, Emmentalist (talk) 12:31, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

@Emmentalist: Yeah, I didn't want to make a big deal of it and play the "nationalist" card... I just know that this article will mostly be read by British and Irish people, and they will think the use of the singular sounds odd (it still sounds odd to me when I read articles about North American bands, but of course grammatically it's perfectly correct). You didn't have to jump in and change it straight away, I was just opening a discussion about it. But thank you anyway. Richard3120 (talk) 15:24, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 26 May 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. Consensus that the band is not the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC, particularly since the river is also referred to as "the Blue Nile". (closed by non-admin page mover) ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 13:39, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

---

The Blue Nile → The Blue Nile (band) – Not the primary topic; see Blue Nile. 162 etc. (talk) 06:48, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

• Oppose: This is The Blue Nile, the other is Blue Nile (no definite article); there's no conflict. Halmyre (talk) 07:44, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
• Support. "The" is not sufficiently distinctive. Moreover, "The" is not used as a proper term in capitalized format throughout this article, but in lower case, exactly like the Blue Nile river. Their usage is indistinguishable. The river is clearly the primary topic, this needs to be disambiguated. Walrasiad (talk) 09:37, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
• Support per nom—blindlynx 12:37, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
• Support: The reader cannot be presumed to know whether the article title should begin with The or not. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 15:13, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
• Support per user-friendliness. In ictu oculi (talk) 19:03, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
• Support per nomination, Walrasiad, blindlynx, BarrelProof and In ictu oculi. There are five entries listed upon the Blue Nile (disambiguation) page, with no indication that the main title header of the band's entry represents a standalone primary alongside Blue Nile. —Roman Spinner (talk • contribs) 21:40, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
• Support rivers support definite articles -- 64.229.90.172 (talk) 22:58, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
• Support. The river is also "the Blue Nile". Srnec (talk) 19:30, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.