Blanket of Secrecy

There were many theories about the identity of the musicians in this band. Some thought their one and only album, 'Walls have Ears' was by the Attractions (Elvis Costello's band) whom they superficially resembled. Others noted the "direction" credit to well-known producer (and Costello associate) Roger Bechirian and assumed all songs and instruments must be by Bechirian. Some reviews at the time mentioned the name Pete Marsh as the possible main-man of the band – Marsh was originally a member of Easy Street...

There were many theories about the identity of the musicians in this band. Some thought their one and only album, 'Walls have Ears' was by the Attractions (Elvis Costello's band) whom they superficially resembled. Others noted the "direction" credit to well-known producer (and Costello associate) Roger Bechirian and assumed all songs and instruments must be by Bechirian. Some reviews at the time mentioned the name Pete Marsh as the possible main-man of the band – Marsh was originally a member of Easy Street, a mellow acoustic act of the '70s whose ranks also included Richard James Burgess, who went on to produce plenty of synthpop in the '80s.

Marsh later appeared on Nick Lowe's The Abominable Showman album. Extensive research by Blanket of Secrecy fan Gary L. Maher eventually identified the participants definitively as: Pete Marsh ("Tinker") - vocals and guitar Roger Bechirian ("Soldier") - keyboards and backing vocals Andy Howell ("Tailor") - bass and backing vocals Note their "nicks"; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier... and is there a Spy? (As in John Le Carres's famous spy novel.) Mystery not fully solved? User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..