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PARADOX LOST : from Immortal Ghosts to Pulse-8 © T. Yahaya Abdullah

Immortal Ghosts [1981 - 1982]

Photo from 1982 - (L-R) Yahaya Abdullah, Steve Brooker.



IMMORTAL GHOSTS : 1981'Q4 ~ 1982'Q3
Steve Brooker, Yahaya Abdullah
The "Immortal Ghosts" was formed during my 2nd year at The City University (London) in Sept 1981 and consisted of Steve Brooker and myself. We met at a Musicians' Collective meeting and he suggested that we jam together. I don't think either of us expected anything to come out of this jam session but from this chance meeting was born the Immortal Ghosts.

I think we really expected a personality clash. Steve Brooker was studying engineering and I was under social sciences. He was the boldly-dressed arty-type and I wasn't. Our musical styles were almost in opposition. Furthermore, we were both the type that would take charge and command of musical direction. I remember when designing the Immortal Ghosts emblem, we agreed to each pick a tarot-card to represent ourselves: He chose "the world" (the last card) and I picked "the juggler" (the first card). But somehow we just clicked together really well, musically and personally.

Steve Brooker basically played 2-string basslines on his guitar while I would play arpeggiated guitar chord variations. From our widely differing styles would emerge a unique complex hypnotic swirl. It sounded a little menacing at times but it also had a strange allure.

Later, Steve added his inimitable style of singing and I added the Dr.Rhythm drum-machine to the set-up. I remember that we could consistently churn out 2 or 3 songs per jam session. We were quite productive and, we'd like to think, highly original too.

We did several concerts! Of the smaller ones, there was one awful warm-up gig for some senior citizens (echo feedback problem) but the audience enjoyed themselves anyway (they were dancing in the aisles, eaughh!). Thankfully, we redeemed ourselves the next night with a full concert in front of our home university crowd. There was also a further gig at the Polytechnic of Central London on 24/Feb/1982.

The next big concert for us was at The City University's Finsbury Hall on 14/May/1982. By then, some of our audience actually knew our songs and would sing along. Steve was a great front man and would interact with the audience with his actions and dancing. I'll always remember the audience going wild and exploding to "Tube-Train Mirror", our most popular song. It was a great feeling!

The Immortal Ghosts repertoire is represented here from two recording sources:-
- Tube-Train Mirror and The Image were recorded at City University's Music School studio (as a project recording by a music-student… who played sax).
- Rat Race, Smile In The Dark, Meaning Of Words, Darkened Ones and A Mirage are taken from the City University's May'82 concert.
Unfortunately, two songs The Vehicle & I'm So Sorry are not available.

We broke off for the summer 1982 and only got together again in Sept. By sheer coincidence, we had both bought the same SH-101 synthesizers. We had started to become more involved in electronic music. Messing about with synthesizers yielded two more songs; Sleeping Flowers and Reasons For Treasons (both versions are test recordings).

Using synthesizers brought about a change in methodology. It changed the way in which we wrote music. No more quick exchange of ideas and fast song-writing. It was not a bad change either. It was just different! But beneath the beeps of the synth, we could feel that there was a musical power worth investigating. We embraced the change and invited Steve Morgan to join us as bassist.

Rat Race • 2:57 1982May14 live 520KB 24kHz 24Kb/s
Smile In The Dark • 4:15 1982May14 live 749KB 24kHz 24Kb/s
Meaning Of Words • 4:59 1982May14 live 879KB 24kHz 24Kb/s
Darkened Ones • 4:42 1982May14 live 830KB 24kHz 24Kb/s
Mirage , a • 4:45 1982May14 live 836KB 24kHz 24Kb/s
Image , the • 3:32 1982'Q1 TCU-Studio 622KB 24kHz 24Kb/s
Tube Train Mirror • 6:17 1982'Q1 TCU-Studio 1107KB 24kHz 24Kb/s
Reasons For Treasons • 4:17 1982'Q3 test 504KB 16kHz 16Kb/s
Sleeping Flowers • 3:30 1982'Q3 test 413KB 16kHz 16Kb/s

Immortal Ghosts - All music was co-written by Steve Brooker and Yahaya Abdullah - All lyrics by Steve Brooker (except Smile, Sorry & Meaning lyrics by Yahaya Abdullah).


Those were glorious times for music. We just kept writing stuff and didn't care if it was trendy or not. Perhaps not many people outside of The City University ever heard our music… but it doesn't matter. We took great pride in our music and perhaps, in the end, the music is all that remains.

next page ~ Bruit du Soir & Autant


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