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Pink World: Planet P Project

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Updated (sort of) February 28, 1999

Planet P Project

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Checking in after FAR too long...

Hi all,

My apologies for disappearing for nearly 2 years. Nothing dire happened, just a combination of getting busy elsewhere, and frankly, losing a bit of interest. Fortunately, the Tranquility Base site has MORE than picked up the slack, somehow becoming the official Tony Carey/Planet P site while I wasn't looking. :-) Congrats to Mike Bagnall and his minions (I need to get caught up over there still).

I have several e-mails in my files that I've received since the last update. I've tried to respond to most of them, especially if they were questions about where to find/buy Tony's work, but I know I've missed a few in there, so my apologies to those I've inadvertantly ignored. When I get organized, I'll put those up here as the prelude to getting this message board up and running again. It probably will never regain its glory days, but perhaps we can have some nice conversations just the same. I welcome any comments in the meantime. I'm cutting back on a lot of the other ambitious projects I had planned for this site so that I can at least put some time into posting messages and responding on a somewhat regular schedule.

My thanks to everybody that has ever visited, read, or sent e-mail over the years. This page is still one of the great highlights of my online life and I wouldn't have missed the experience of doing it for the world, and that's for the simple reason that the people here were so cool. :-)

Here's to new life to this old site!

Jim Bailey
February 28, 1999

Welcome to my area devoted to the music of Planet P Project and the man behind it, Tony Carey. This started as nothing more than an explanation for the title of my Web Site, but as people have stopped by and sent messages of support and information, this has grown into a pretty useful site if I do say so myself.

First, I have a page for fans of Tony Carey to exchange messages and share their appreciation for his work. As they have come in, I have also collected various links that fans would find interesting, including some sites where his music can be found and purchased. With my visitors' help, I have also collected as much information on the man and his music as possible, and placed it conveniently in one place, such as the discography at the bottom of this page.

This has been a lot of fun, and I invite you to join us. As you'll see as you look around, you are not alone!

My Planet P Experience:

Why did I name my Web Site after an album and song from a long-forgotten band of the 80's? I'm glad you asked....

Way back in 1983, I discovered popular music for the first time. I was attracted to the sounds of the first wave of *video* bands -- Men At Work, Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, etc. We didn't have cable, though, so I only got glimpses of these bands when visiting relatives in a cable-wired city. I mostly listened to the rock radio stations and taped the songs that I liked.

This was a weird time for radio. What we now know as classic rock was played side-by-side with the video generation. Imagine "Stairway to Heaven" followed by "Hungry Like the Wolf" followed by "Hotel California" followed by "I Ran" going into Journey then Gary Numan then Boston... In my opinion, radio was never better, but that's probably a case of "the good ol' days."

Anyway, in the middle of this eclectic mix of music, I had taped three songs -- "Static", "Why Me", and "King for a Day." It took me awhile, but I finally figured out that they were all by the same group (the DJ's almost never announced what they were playing), and not only that, but they were all based on the same concept, space travel.

Well, my young impressionable mind just went nuts. I raced out and bought my first album, Planet P, on cassette (with two bonus songs!) I played it half a million times at least. Yes, all of the other tracks were based on space travel also, but in a loose, unconnected way. Still, I had never (literally) heard anything like it before, so I was hooked.

About a year passed, in which I had collected a few more albums of various artists, so I was becoming more sophisticated. Now I heard on the radio a new song by Planet P called "Behind the Barrier", an intense little piece about an all-out nuclear strike. Cool!

Christmas was approaching, so a friend that knew I liked Planet P bought the cassette as a present for me. He couldn't resist taking a listen, though. Well, he was so taken by it, he kept the original and gave me a copy, saying I'd have to get my own! I played it once while doing something else, and thought "That's pretty good," but no overwhelming reaction.

However, the second time I listened to it, I had headphones and no distractions.

I was literally stunned! Not only was the music great, the whole darned thing, all double-album 80 minutes' worth, was a story! Each song flowed one into the next, building piece by piece, the tale of a little boy blessed/cursed with the power to rule the world. Artie, the boy who couldn't talk, had taken over, shielded his followers with the Barrier, and had unleashed a nuclear holocaust on everybody else.

Now the full impact of the single being played on the radio hit me in all of its glorious context. This was powerful stuff indeed.

Unfortunately, only those who forked over the price of the double album were let in on the secret. Without the sales numbers to back it up, Planet P faded away into such obscurity that I doubt anybody reading this even remembers them.

In fact, Planet P Project is the front name that musician Tony Carey gave himself for these two science-fiction based albums. The actual information I have on him is sketchy, but I keep looking for more.

I do know that he was the keyboardist for Rainbow on a couple of albums in the late seventies. Then he struck out on his own. He got some airplay with the title track to his first album, "I Won't Be Home Tonight," a straight rock effort. Then he did the first Planet P album in 1983.

In Early '84 he had a couple of top-40 hits with "A Fine, Fine Day" and "The First Day of Summer" off of his Some Tough City Album. He even made it onto Solid Gold with the second song.

Then he made Pink World. The credits list him for everything played except a few spots around the album, a true solo effort. The only way I've ever been able to describe it is that it's like Pink Floyd's The Wall, but just a little more intense. I literally went two straight weeks of listening to it twice a day. Even now, when I put it on, I still get chills.

My friend and I spotted one more Tony Carey album in '85, Blue Highway, but after that, absolutely nothing.

That is, until just a couple of years ago, when my friend was browsing in a tremendously well-stocked music store. There in the rack were 4 or 5 new Tony Carey albums on import CD. He had always recorded over in Germany with mostly German musicians, so I guess his career kept going over there.

The final note is that his Planet P albums have just recently become available on CD -- the first domestically, Pink World on import -- something I never expected to happen. When I was able to pop it in my CD player it was as if I had found the Holy Grail.

I wish I could put into words how absolutely worthwhile it is to give this album a listen, but I know that this story about me and this album is unique and unduplicable.

What I do know is that if music is important to you in any way, you probably have your own Pink World story to tell. If so, head over to the Soundtrack, then send your own personal story of how you learned about a band/album/song. Let out all those silly feeling you were too embarrassed to tell your friends!

Planet P Project Web Sites:

In the meantime, check out the Planet P Project Homepage. See the album covers and the lyrics to Pink World. Also has links to a Tony Carey page, and mail-order sites for the CD's. This was the first Planet P site that I know of.

Michael Bagnall has put together an impressive set of pages about Tony Carey and his music at Tranquility Base. So impressive in fact, that Tony Carey gave it his blessing as his official site!

In case you're looking for Pink World on CD, it's available on import from Germany from MCA Records. Catalog # MCD08019 or MCAD8019. One place to order it is: RPMRecords.

Global Electronic Music Marketplace (or GEMM). They have links to a lot of the major Internet CD stores, and those stores regularly feature their best stuff in the Marketplace. It has a search utility so you can use keywords. It'll tell you the price, the store, and what media it's on. (Thanks to Jeff Knoedler for this valuable link.)

And of course, one more plug for my Planet P Project Fan Page.

Jim Bailey

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Tony Carey Discography

Very, very preliminary at this point. Please supply any info you may have to fill in the holes. I list LP, Cassette and CD for each album, but I don't know if each format is available or not, that's part of what I hope we find out. If you have anything by T.C. let me know the label, catalog #, and year of release, plus any other information that would be interesting or useful. 

Tony Carey Solo:

I Won't Be Home Tonight (1982) [39:41]
   LP: Rocshire Records (RSR 0001) [Red cover, TC picture]
   LP: Rocshire Records (RSR 0001) [Spaceship]
   CS:
   CD: Bellaphon (Cult Records) (290-12-001)

Some Tough City (1984) [42:44]
   LP: MCA Records (MCA-5464) [lyrics]
   CS:
   CD: MCA REcords (250-618-2)(MCAD-5464)

Blue Highway (1985) [41:42]
   LP: MCA Records (MCA-5603)
   CS:
   CD: MCA Records (252-671-2)

Bedtime Story (The Joker) (1987) [43:04]
     Soundtrack from "Der Joker" German TV movie
   LP:
   CS:
   CD: Teldec (243-850-2)

Wild Western Inclusive (Der Western)
     (Room With a View) (1988) [52:24]
     Soundtrack from German TV series
   LP:
   CS:
   CD: Metronome (837-801-2)

For You (1989) [57:50]
   LP:
   CS:
   CD: Metronome (841-328-2)

Storyville (1990) [50:30]
   LP:
   CS:
   CD: Metronome (847-505-2)

The Long Road (1992) [53:34]
   LP:
   CS:
   CD: East-West (9031-77029-2 ZP)

Rare Tracks (79-81) (1993) [68:36]
   LP:
   CS:
   CD: DSB (DSB 3146-2)

Cold War Kids (1994) [50:25]
   LP:
   CS:
   CD: East-West Records (4509-96224-2)

Planet P Project:

Planet P project (1983) [45:49]
   LP: Geffen Records (24000)
   CS: Geffen Records (M5G 4000) [2 bonus tracks]
   CD: Geffen Records (GEFD 4000) [2 bonus tracks]

Pink World (1984) [79:21]
   LP: MCA Records (MCA2-8019) [lyrics]
      Also pink vinyl promo version
   CS:
   CD: MCA Records (MCD08019 or MCAD8019) [lyrics]
      Distributed by Bertelsman Music Group (Germany)

Other Tony Carey Releases:
(I really need more accurate info here.)

Blessings(?) (197?) [Country band]

Rainbow: Rising (1976)

Rainbow: On Stage (1977)


Yellow Power (1982) [36:04]
   LP: X Records (XR 0001)

"Secret Admirer" Soundtrack (1985)
   Includes "First Day of Summer" by Tony Carey

MTV Class of 1983 (Double CD)
   Includes "Why Me?"

Singles:
(Nothing concrete here, just rumors and
speculation so far.)

"I Won't Be Home Tonight"

"Why Me?"  (7" and 12" ?)

"A Fine, Fine Day"

"First Day of Summer"

"Behind the Barrier"/"What I See" (1984) (7"? and 12")
     (pink vinyl?)
   12: MCA (L33-1227) [pink vinyl]

"Room with a View"

"Birds for Cages" EP + 2 tracks
   CD: BMG (FBM 620)

Videos:

"I Won't Be Home Tonight"

"Why Me?"

"A Fine, Fine Day"

"First Day of Summer"

"Behind the Barrier"

"What I See"

"Pink World"

Related Projects:

Justine Johns
   Tony Carey: Producer/writer

John Mayall and the Blues Breakers / "Chicago Line" / 1988
   Island Records 842-869
   Tony Carey: Producer/keyboards

That's all I know of. As I said, I need any additional information you may have to help me fill in the details.  If you have any of the above materials drop me a note (pinkworld@aol.com).

Thank you!

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