She Blinded Me with Stars on 45

I went to see Thomas Dolby last night, a prospect I hadn't been all that hyped up for. The Golden Age of Wireless (first U.S. version before it was maimed and rereleased to include "She Blinded Me with Annoyance") is one of my favorite albums of all time, but I'd seen the setlists for his shows for the last year or so, and they'd been light on Dolby songs and heavy on covers of the greatest hits of the Slicing Up Eyeballs canon, which seemed like a peculiar undertaking to me and not all that interesting - I'm not terribly jazzed about going to see cover bands, even if it's somebody famous doing the covering. Plus, it was at the St. Louis branch of the City Winery, which is basically a wide hallway lined with cafeteria style tables where you get to dine with obnoxious strangers eating $25 slices of gooey butter cake, which is torture for me with my increasingly misanthropic demeanor. But friends informed me that they'd bought me a ticket that I didn't need to reimburse them for, so I figured what the hell and went.

Turns out Dolby is writing a symphony based on 80s music, and he's workshopping it on tour. Exactly how a standard four piece rock band performing 80s medleys will translate into an orchestral performance is beyond me, even with one of the great synth whizkids forcing his gizmos into making symphonic sounds, but I reckon that's Dolby's concern, not mine. He did usually have images of an orchestra performing on the screen behind him, anyhow, to at least attempt to create the feeling we were watching a symphony.

But it never really felt like that. It just felt like Thomas Dolby doing an 80s themed Stars on 45. "Oh! He's seguing 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' into 'Dancing With Tears In My Eyes!' Oh my! He just threw in the keyboard line from 'Running Up That Hill' and is singing one line of Lisa Stansfield! Ha ha! He should call this section 'Here Comes the Red Rain Again'!" It was entertaining in the same way that Girl Talk was entertaining back when he was a thing, what with it being moderately fun to recognize whatever the next snippet was and hear what it was paired with, but ultimately it just elicited the same "yeah, so?" reaction from me that listening to Girl Talk always did. It's neat that you segue "Billie Jean" into "This Must Be the Place", but what is that accomplishing besides providing a shot of aural Geritol to perk up the tired blood of all the wheezing forty-years-past-their-primes hipsters that made up the audience (myself included)?

But it was very pleasant that he included "Bonny" by Prefab Sprout almost in its entirety during the medley, er, symphony. And when he did a brief slide show of croaked 80s icons during the aforementioned "Love Will Tear our Dancing Tear Filled Eyes Apart" mash-up, he included Ryuichi Sakamoto, who actually might've gotten the loudest applause of the departed. So good on ya for that, Senior Citizens of St. Louis.

Weirdly, for an opus that was ostensibly trying to contextualize the 80s somehow or another, the medley contained nearly complete versions of "Ordinary World" and "Woke Up This Morning," two resolutely 90s songs. It also included a chunk of "Comfortably Numb," which was technically 1979, but released late enough in the year that I can give it a mulligan into 1980.

There were a few non-medley songs bookending the show before and after the medley section, although even there he trotted out covers when I would've preferred he do full versions of "Flying North" or "Windpower" instead of just including brief quotes of them in the "symphony." He opened with "Blue Monday" and did a decent version of it, but whatever. Then he did "Evil Twin Brother," which I at least consider to be the least annoying of his officially annoying songs. He followed that with some good stuff - "The Flat Earth" and "One of Our Submarines," two of his best songs, though for some reason he wedged a chunk of "Cars" into the middle of "...Submarines". Then he did a mostly instrumental cover of "Heroes" which mainly served as a reminiscence of Live Aid and how that's where he first met Gail Anne Dorsey when they were backing Bowie at the event - Dorsey is in Dolby's backing band on this tour and she did a pleasant solo opening set. The supposedly symphonic section followed, then he closed out the main set with "Hyperactive" and "She Blinded Me With Science," the two songs that torpedoed his original reputation as "the first great singer-songwriter of the synthpop era" and replaced it with "hyper goon what makes all them silly songs with geegaws and gymcracks."

The encore was "Europa and the Pirate Twins" and "Airwaves", so even though he didn't play many of his own songs, the ones he did perform hit an acceptably high percentage of stuff I was very happy to hear. Happiest of all, he performed at least one song from each of his albums (either standalone or as part of the "symphony") except Aliens Ate My Buick, which remains one of the most rancid blasts of explosive diarrhea ever expelled by an artist I like. I'd like to think that age and wisdom have led him to regret ever inflicting that Brontosaurus turd onto the world, but I doubt it. I suspect he just couldn't fit any of it in, thank God. I would've loaded up with overpriced City Winery rotgut until I was as unsteady on my feet as most of the oldsters in the audience were without their walkers if he'd trotted out that horror "Airhead" rather than "Airwaves."

It was kind of interesting/depressing that I don't think there was anyone under the age of 60 in the audience. At just about every show by decrepit New Wavers that I get dragged to these days by my college friends who refuse to leave me the fuck alone and let me molder at home in peace, there's usually at least a handful of fresh faced younglings who've been rifling through their parents' record collections and discovering swell older stuff, but there were none of those at Dolby. That may just be down to the fact that young people are smart enough not to attend anything at the damn St. Louis City Winery, but I think it boils down to the fact that Dolby's reputation has never been rehabilitated. Bands like OMD or Tears For Fears that once were dismissed by the nitwit class as 80s cheese are now respected again, but Dolby is still just the SCIENCE!!!!!!! guy. Which is unlikely to change because the work that showed him in his best light, the first US version of Wireless, is lost in the mists of time.

He mentioned that he had his wife in tow on this tour and that she was in the audience, but I never got a glimpse of her, so have no idea how much she still looks like the girl Genco Abbandando lusted after lo, those many years ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2026 06:49PM by breno.

Great review. Sounds very disappointing. I'd love to see a "real" Dolby concert....but this tour isn't the one for that it seems.

"geegaws and gymcracks"

Somebody please use this as an album title.

There are a lot of Thomas Dolby songs I deeply love, and some were on that list, but it seems like a very frustrating experience overall. I have never seen Dolby in concert, but this wouldn't be the right way to do it...

And I'm way younger than 60, thank you!

Great review and social commentary. My love / hate of Dolby is similar.

Question for the group…which version of ‘Radio Silence’ do you prefer? I really love both, but give a slight edge to the version with guitar… it’s so propulsive.

I can’t think of another instance when an artist issued two wildly different versions of the same song at roughly the same time ( neither being an ‘extended dance mix’ etc)

Guitar version, definitely. It's one of the many reasons I consider the original US issue superior. When I heard the other version my reaction was what is this shit?

"I can’t think of another instance when an artist issued two wildly different versions of the same song at roughly the same time ( neither being an ‘extended dance mix’ etc)"

John Foxx put out a very psychedelic, Beatlesish version of "Endlessly" as a single, then put a very syncopated, more dance-y version of it on The Golden Section.

Yo La Tengo tossed both a slow, organ driven version and a rockin' feedback heavy version of "Big Day Coming" on Painful.

"I can’t think of another instance when an artist issued two wildly different versions of the same song at roughly the same time ( neither being an ‘extended dance mix’ etc)"

Thats kind of Neil Young's signature move, no?

Peter Gabriel is releasing two versions of every song on his current and most recent record, which is just tedious at this point. And of course people like Richard Thompson have done electric and acoustic versions of the same songs at various times.

I think I'd kinda like to see some version of Dolby at some point, but if I can just sit at home and read Reno's epic reviews instead, that might just be good enough. Well done, good sir.

> Question for the group…which version of ‘Radio Silence’ do you prefer?

The "guitar version" that appears on the first U.S. release of The Golden Age of Wireless. I never bothered with any of the later, goofed-up versions of that album, so it was quite a few years before I even heard the more synth-based version. My reaction matched Reno's.

David Haldeman, host of "Dead Electric" on KSER, has had a couple of spirited arguments with me on this topic.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2026 06:38PM by Delvin.

Crikey!
I know it's but mere coincidence, but I was dj-jng tonight, well, in our living room for no pay that is, and wanted to play Kathleen something synth-poppy between (my) Beefeater (cap full) shots & some other bands best album tracks, so I chucked "The Golden Age of Wireless" CD at her and asked which numbers she wanted to hear. This, now four shots & as many hours later, but I still remember: tracks 4, 6 & 9. Wonderful stuff, I can't help but feel brad's post was the inspiration, albeit subliminal, because I hadn't read the post until just now!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2026 07:40PM by STEVE.

Sounds like a borderline annoying Dolby concert, but I'd have gone just to see Gale Ann Dorsey! I will give Thomas this; I've seen him three times. Each show was drastically different from the other, and he's done whole tours that I didn't see which are other things entirely. Say what you will, but the man isn't phoning it in.

And for what it's worth, the US 1st pressing of "Wireless" was a radically re-jigged version of what had come out in the UK first. After catching the scantily played video for "Europa + The Pirate Twins" on MTV in the fall of 1982 I was frantic to find a copy of it for about half a year and failed. Until "She Blinded Me With Science" got MTV airplay and they reissued the album with another re-jigged running order again.

The songs on the UK copy had lots of segues to them and nine tracks, including "The Wreck Of The Fairchild" which was removed from all US pressings. Instead the 1st US had two non-LP singles inserted into the running order. "Urges" and "Leipzig." The 2nd US edition lost the two non-LP singles and added the "Science/Submarines" single tracks. All running orders were scrambled up. Only the final song was in the same place on all three.

Here's the original UK running order.

Golden Age Of Wireless UK LP [original "boy scientist" painting sleeve]

Side 1
1. Flying North
2. Commercial Breakup
3. Weightless
4. Europa + The Pirate Twins
5. Windpower

Side 2
1. The Wreck Of The Fairchild
2. Airwaves
3. Radio Silence [machine version]
4. Cloudburst At Shingle Street

Golden Age Of Wireless US LP 1st ed. [cover art is from the "Europa + The Pirate Twins" single sleeve - Dolby onstage]

Side 1
1. Europa + The Pirate Twins
2. Flying North
3. Weightless
4. Leipzig
5. Windpower

Side 2
1. Commercial Breakup
2. Urges
3. Airwaves
4. Radio Silence [rock version]
5. Cloudburst At Shingle Street

Golden Age Of Wireless US LP 2nd ed. [original "boy scientist" painting sleeve]

Side 1
1. She Blinded Me With Science
2. Radio Silence [rock version]
3. Airwaves
4. Flying North
5. Weightless

Side 2
1. Europa + The Pirate Twins
2. Windpower
3. Commercial Breakup
4.. One Of Our Submarines
5. Cloudburst At Shingle Street

I finally got the 2nd US version And it was some years later when I finally found a 1st edition copy for the rare "Urges" and "Leipzig" tracks. In the internet era I got serious about hearing the "real" UK version with the m.i.a. "Wreck Of The Fairchild" song and the way the tracks had been segued. So I bought a UK pressing by mail order in the noughts. Eventually, Dolby oversaw the 2009 deluxe CD version that finally saw the first UK LP used as a template for a CD. Even the UK CD was of the US version with "She Blinded Me With Science" on it!

And the best version of "Radio Silence?" The cold wave vocoder version of course!!! I had seen the video a few times on MTV and was thwarted in having this version on disc but the US 7" of "Europa + The Pirate Twins" was eventually my salvation from the boring "US midwest" version.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2026 04:13PM by Post-Punk Monk.

Yeah, Dolby definitely does high concept tours. The only other time I've had the chance to see him is when he was doing his The Invisible Lighthouse multimedia show, which was definitely cool and vastly more interesting than "Thomas Dolby plays a medley of the usual suspects of the 80s". But I'd sure like to have the opportunity to someday see "Thomas Dolby performs an entire concert of his own songs (conveniently forgetting the existence of Aliens Ate My Buick, please)", but that doesn't seem like something he's particularly interested in doing.

It was indeed very nice to get to see Gale Anne Dorsey and her solo set was quite good. Still, it was hard to not be just a little disgruntled by the knowledge that Dolby's opening act on the UK leg of this tour was Martin McAloon performing the best of Prefab Sprout. Martin ain't Paddy, but given Paddy's precarious health, any McAloon performing his songs is as close as the world will likely ever get to seeing a Prefab Sprout show these days.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2026 11:05PM by breno.

I downloaded this album in 2018, and I've got a 77-minute version that follows the original UK version for its first nine songs. Then, it leads into "One Of Our Submarines," "Radio Silence," "She Blinded Me With Science," "Urges," "Leipzig," "Urban Tribal" and four demos.

This album is quite elegant and tasteful. "She Blinded Me With Science" fits in about as well as a stinky fart.

Hey! Dolby was my first ever show back in `84 for the Flat Earth tour. There were large replicas of his glasses above the stage that doubled as video screens (for awhile I thought all shows would have videos). He opened with 'White City' and then 'Dissidents', I don't remember what came after that. I didn't see him again until almost 30 years later. He's headlining another Totally Tubular festival this summer as Thomas Dolby and the Lost Toy People and while that will bring up the specter of 'Aliens Ate My Buick' it may actually be a full band this time.

Very cool, Heff. I saw Dolby on that tour as well, in Colorado Springs' symphony hall. We had third-row seats for that one.

Setlist.fm shows this for the Seattle show on that tour; it comes very close to the show I remember.

White City
Dissidents
Marseilles
The Flat Earth
One of Our Submarines
New Toy
Urges
Airwaves
Screen Kiss
I Scare Myself
Hyperactive
Europa and the Pirate Twins
She Blinded Me with Science

ENCORE:
Commercial Breakup
Windpower

He was just announced as part of those "Lost 80's" tours, which - going by your recap of the show - may or may not reflect what's he contractually obligated to play on that tour.

The last time I saw Dolby was on the first Tubular Tour in 2024. It was the slightest of the shows of his I'd seen. This was the set list:
Blue Monday
Europa and the Pirate Twins
One of Our Submarines
“Heroes”
Hyperactive!
She Blinded Me With Science
Hot Sauce

Maybe with the Blue Monday cover he was first formulating his current concept. And that "Submarines" also interpolated "Cars" into it. At least we got to hear the sublime "Europa!"

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®