Dalek I Love You

Roots: Mr. McKenzie and Radio Blank

By the mid-1970s, David Balfe, Alan Gill and Keith Hartley, three residents of Thingwall on the Wirral Peninsula, had formed a band called Mr. McKenzie. In November 1976, as punk was emerging and influencing them, the group changed their name to Radio Blank, composed of Balfe (bass and keyboards), Gill (guitar and vocals) and Hartley (lead vocals and guitar) as well as Stephen Brick (drums).

They played their own material and also some covers, such as "You Really Got Me" and "Peaches". Five of their 15 live gigs were at Eric's Club in Liverpool. Balfe and Gill lost interest in punk during 1977, and dissolved the band in October 1977 to form a more experimental project.

First years (1977–1980)

In December 1977, Balfe and Gill, influenced by Kraftwerk, formed Dalek I Love You, which came about as a result of a compromise between two of the members: Balfe wanted to call the band The Daleks (after the Doctor Who villains), while Gill wanted to call the band Darling, I Love You. The other two founding members were Dave Hughes (keyboards) and Chris Teepee (rhythm unit and tapes).

In 1978, Balfe left the group to manage other bands, and eventually joined Big in Japan and later the Teardrop Explodes. In August 1978, the band were joined by Martin Cooper (saxophone), Andy McCluskey (lead vocals and bass, who was previously in the Id) and Kenny Peers (drums), along with poets Gordon Hon (aka "The Worm") and Max the Actor. In September, McCluskey quit to rejoin a former Id bandmate, Paul Humphreys, to form Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and by October 1978, only Gill and Hughes remained in the band. As a duo, they signed to Inevitable Records. A demo of "Freedom Fighters" attracted the interest of Phonogram Records, who then signed them.

However, Phonogram shortened the name of the band to Dalek I for the initial releases, and wanted to change the chords of "Freedom Fighters". On 16 July 1979, Dalek I released their first single, "Freedom Fighters", on Phonogram's Vertigo Records subsidiary, containing the eponymous song and B-side "Two Chameleons". It was followed by "The World" (2 October 1979) on Vertigo, and "Dalek I Love You (Destiny)" (1 May 1980), on the Back Door subsidiary, founded by the Blitz Brothers. The latter duo, composed of Chris Hughes and Paul Collister (then OMD's manager), produced the singles under that name.

Dalek I's debut album, Compass Kumpas (stylized as Compass kum'pəs), was released 24 May 1980 on Back Door/Phonogram. It was critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful. By the time of the album's release, Gill was the only remaining member, maintaining the Dalek I Love You name (Dave Hughes having left to join OMD, and then forming the duo Godot with Hartley). The project soon went on hiatus and Gill joined the Teardrop Explodes in July 1980, replacing Mick Finkler. Gill contributed two important things to the band: their most successful single, "Reward", which he co-wrote, and LSD, which he introduced to frontman Julian Cope. His stay with the band was short-lived, however.

Reformation

By 1981, Gill had reformed Dalek I Love You, with himself as the sole member. He was augmented by Hugh Jones and Chuca Russo on vocal harmonies, and Chris Hughes on drums for the recording of a single, "Heartbeat", released on 28 February 1981 by Back Door.

By 1983, the band consisted of Gill and returning members Hartley, Hon and Peers. They released an eponymously titled album in November 1983 on the Korova label. Hon left for London to study fine art.

Gill continued making and recording music with local artists, starting his own cassette-only label, Bop a Dub. In 1985, the band released the cassette-only Naive and effectively disbanded shortly afterwards.

The band's first two albums were reissued in the UK on compact disc, Compass Kumpas in 1989 by Fontana Records (with four bonus tracks), and Dalek I Love You in 2007 by Korova (in a remastered and expanded edition).

In popular culture

The band inspired the title of Dalek I Love You, a radio drama which premiered on the British digital radio station BBC 7 on 11 February 2006. The story centred on a man obsessed with Doctor Who who falls in love at a science fiction convention.

The band also inspired the title of Dalek I Loved You, an autobiography by the journalist Nick Griffiths about his life as a Doctor Who fan, published in 2007.

Studio albums

Singles

Compilation appearances