Tuesday 3rd November

Another from the ‘Lesser Known Geniuses of Popular Music’ series.  I was lucky, I stumbled upon Rupert Hine after reading a review of his album ‘Unfinished Picture’ in Time Out in 1973.  I bought the album and fell in love with it.  It was like nothing else around at the time.  Sonically experimental and hauntingly beautiful with strange twists and incredible use of orchestra and more traditional rock instruments.  Then I heard nothing for a while.  He actually had formed a band Quantum Jump and released two singles in the mid-seventies.  I didn’t realise Rupert was in the band and only sought these records out later.  By the eighties he had become a must-go-to Producer with artists as varied as Thompson Twins, Bob Geldof and Tina Turner seeking his services.  But he started releasing records under his own name again. ‘Immunity’ – possibly his masterpiece and ‘Waving Not Drowning’ and ‘The Wildest Wish To Fly’.  This trio of Eighties albums are simply brilliant.  Fantastic songs, great sound effects and production and quite incredible and often sinister lyrics provided by Jeanette Obstoj (Rupert rarely writes his own lyrics).  I am always surprised that more people haven’t heard of, or indeed heard him, he is incredible.

He stopped using his own name after these albums and released three weaker records under the name Thinkman, returning to use his own name with a mid nineties record ‘The Deep End’.  He continues to produce other people but seems to have stopped making his own records again.  He is one of those artists who appear to be happy to remain in some sort of obscurity, known to few but still making a living in music.  His records are all available on CD but are usually quite expensive, unlike most of the artists he produced; he remains one of my all-time favourites though despite his somewhat erratic career.