Blue Peter was a Canadian new wave synthpop band founded in 1978 in Markham, Ontario, by Chris Wardman and Paul Humphrey. In their heyday, Blue Peter opened for major international acts such as the Police and Simple Minds. and was played on MTV in the United States, in spite of the lack of American record distribution for the band. In 1980, Mike Bambrick replaced Tomlinson on drums, After a year without label representation, Blue Peter returned to Ready Records in 1982,

When Falling was recorded, the band was fleshed out by the addition of Jason Sniderman on keyboards, The music video, inspired by Blade Runner, was created at the insistence of the band who saw British and American artists making visuals for MTV.

Falling ranked 24th on CFNY's Top 83 of '83. "Don't Walk Past", was ranked at number 92 in CFNY's Best 102 of the Decade, published in 1990. After Falling, Blue Peter had some of the tracks, including "Don't Walk Past", remixed by engineer Kevin Doyle and released these remixes as Version in 1984. The following year, the band reissued their catalog as three compilation CDs. The re-release of Falling included eight of the Vertigo demos as bonus tracks.

For the next decade or so, the band played a couple of concerts a year, including appearances at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009 to promote the movie Suck, which featured music by them on its soundtrack. In January 2011, Blue Peter performed at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto as part of Juno Decades: Songs of the '80s.

Live

Blue Peter performed across Canada between 1979 and 1985. Some notable opening slots included the Boomtown Rats (Toronto at El Mocambo),

Discography

Albums and EPs

  • Test Patterns for Living EP (1979)
  • Radio Silence (1980)
  • Up to You EP (1982)
  • Falling (1983)

CD compilations

  • All Through the Night (1997)
  • The Best of Blue Peter, 20th Century Masters — The Millennium Collection (2006)
  • Burning Bridges (released May 8, 2007) - Up to You and Version remastered + bonus tracks
  • Falling (released May 8, 2007) - Falling remastered + 8 demos for an unreleased album to be called Vertigo
  • Radio Silence (released May 8, 2007) - Radio Silence and Test Patterns for Living remastered + bonus tracks

Compilation appearances

  • The Best of Ready Volume 1 :: 20th Century Masters — The Millennium Collection (released 2006), Ready Records compilation
  • The Best of Ready Volume 2 :: 20th Century Masters — The Millennium Collection (released 2006), Ready Records compilation
  • Retro Active 4 Rare & Remixed (released 2005) includes "Don't Walk Past" (F Version Original 12")

References

  • Blue Peter
  • JAM! Pop Encyclopedia Entry