Preceding the release of his 1982 debut album 'The Golden Age Of Wireless', Thomas Dolby submitted a demo of 'Airwaves' to be included on a collection titled 'From Brussels With Love', released on 20 November 1980 by Belgian label Les Disques Du Crépuscule. In response to friends urging him to put out a single, Dolby released his first 45 rpm 7-inch single, 'Urges' backed with 'Leipzig', on 13 February 1981, under the imprint of London-based Armageddon Records, and it was co-produced by Andy Partridge of XTC, who also played percussion on the track. Sounds magazine reviewed it positively, calling Dolby a "new romantic... A Futurist Rundgren perhaps?". During April–May 1981, Dolby contributed keyboards to Foreigner's fourth album '4', and his synthesiser work gave the album a polished sheen, especially his Brian Eno–like ambient synth intro to 'Waiting For A Girl Like You'. The money earned from his session work for Foreigner allowed him to finance 'The Golden Age Of Wireless', and while working on it he was involved in several side projects, writing 'New Toy' for Lene Lovich, and producing the single 'Dream Soldiers' by the Fallout Club, a band for which Dolby sang and played synthesisers. In August he released a cover of the Joni Mitchell song 'The Jungle Line' as a single under the artist name Low Noise, released on Happy Birthday Records. In September 1981 he released the single 'Europa And The Pirate Twins', with 'Airwaves' following in January 1982, and 'Radio Silence' appearing in March.
'The Golden Age Of Wireless' was finally released on 10 May 1982 on Dolby's own Venice in Peril label, and it was issued five times, in different formats and layouts. All five releases appeared on vinyl, but only the third and fifth versions appeared on CD, with each changing the order of the songs, replacing the album mixes with extended or single mixes, and even adding and removing entire songs. In the case of 'Radio Silence', the US release of the album included a different recording of the song, featuring prominent guitars, which actually predates the synthesiser version. The first US version of the album, issued by Capitol-EMI's Harvest Records imprint, excised the instrumental 'The Wreck Of The Fairchild' and added the two sides of his first single, 'Urges' and 'Leipzig', and as well as swapping the synth-pop version of 'Radio Silence' for the rock-oriented version. They also opted for the single edit of 'Airwaves', and abandoned the original UK "comic book" cover in favour of a shot of Dolby on a stage during the production of Bertholt Brecht's 'Life of Galileo'. After Dolby released the single 'She Blinded Me With Science' in October 1982, Capitol removed 'Urges' and 'Leipzig' from the album, added the extended version of 'She Blinded Me With Science' (also known as the "US Mix") and 'One Of Our Submarines', and changed the album's cover art back to its original "comic book" design, as well as swapping the full-length version of 'Windpower' for the single version, with an edited intro and outro.
In August 1983, Dolby's UK record label, Venice in Peril, followed suit and reissued the album with a similar track listing to the second US version. They opted for the short single version of '...Science', but retained the full-length versions of 'Airwaves' and 'Windpower', and the synthesiser-driven version of 'Radio Silence', just as they had appeared on the first UK edition. Finally, a remastered "Collector's Edition" of 'The Golden Age Of Wireless' was released on 13 July 2009, complete with bonus tracks, personal sleeve notes, and a DVD of the Live Wireless music video. The original album sold very well in the US, peaking at No. 13 on the Billboard albums chart in mid-June 1983, and in Canada it was No. 8 for four weeks, and was on the chart for twenty-one weeks, finishing at No. 38 on the year-end chart. With so many variations of this album it's hard to know which one to go for, as whichever one you choose you will lose some tracks and gain others, so Reddit-uder BeefErky has gone through every version of the songs and put together a definitive version of the album, which allows us to hear the progression of 'The Wreck Of The Fairchild' into 'Airwaves', as well as using the best mixes of the various tracks which were spread around the five editions of the record.
Track listing
01 Europa And The Pirate Twins (original UK version)
02 The Wreck Of The Fairchild (original UK version)
03 Airwaves (Extended Version)
04 One Of Our Submarines (Extended Version)
05 Windpower (High Power Extended Play)
06 Commercial Breakup (original UK version)
07 Radio Silence (original UK synth version)
08 She Blinded Me With Science (Extended US Mix)
09 Flying North (High Altitude Extended Play)
10 Cloudburst At Shingle Street (original UK version)
