Watching You Tonight (partially found Absolute album; 1986-1987)

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Absolute in a photoshoot made for the album in 1986.

Status: Partially Found

Absolute was a synth-pop/electronic music band formed between 1982 and 1983 by John Thomas, Colin Taaffe (Taf) and Paul Johnson, being known for being signees of the infamous "Reset Records" label owned by Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure) and his partner in crime and producer Eric Radcliffe, from late 1984 to 1987, releasing two singles "T.V. Glare" in 1985 and "Can't You See" in 1987.

Early Days

Absolute was formed in Brighton between late-1982 and mid-1983 when all the members were still in high school. At first, the band consisted of Depeche Mode’s covers that utilized Paul’s synthesizer and John’s Technics organ. Taf and Paul left school in 1984 and got jobs while John stayed in school. By this time, John had purchased a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and a Korg KPR-77 drum machine and Paul had a Korg Poly-61 and a Korg Micro-Preset. The two began to practice song writing and using their instruments until they felt confident enough to record a demo. They went into a local studio and recorded their first track titled “Face Up". Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag which was praised for the local press, but split up in 2010, and his aftermath is unknown to date.

John Thomas went back to school and went out of the music business, working on hardware store projects.

Availability

Absolute’s history was lost in time and there was no information about the band for quite a while. The band was mentioned several times on interviews with Robert Marlow, who never knew the band while working with Reset, and the story about them remained unknown.

In 2017, Paul Johnson, a former member of Absolute, posted most of the album and the work done with EMI from late 1987 on Soundcloud. He claimed that he got a copy of the master on a cassette tape in the late 1990s, however the recordings are in bad quality with constant hiss and ringing noise in some of the tracks.

The full version of "Now You Are Gone" along with the "Tones For The Tour" tape and their very first demo remains lost

As of now, the masters and the master tape of the album are in possession of Eric Radcliffe after clearing up Blackwing Studios before it shut down in 2005 and when Robert Marlow's album masters were needed to be mastered in Sweden and released by Energy Rekords in 1999.