''Test Patterns for Living'' was the first release, an EP, by the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

-based new wave band Blue Peter. Released in 1979, it included the single "Factory Living", which helped the band get their first radio airplay on

CFNY CFNY-FM (''102.1 the Edge'') is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 MHz in the Greater Toronto Area, licensed to the suburb of Brampton. CFNY plays an alternative rock format. Owned by Corus Entertainment, its studios are in Downtown ...

. The song "Same Old Place", later appeared on the compilation album, ''The Best of Ready Volume 1 :: 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection'', and in 2009 was included on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

for the

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movie ''

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''; the latter event led to Blue Peter performing in 2009 at the

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at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, for the film's premiere.

Personnel

Paul Humphrey Paul Nelson Humphrey (October 12, 1935 – January 31, 2014) was an American jazz and R&B drummer. Biography Humphrey was born in Detroit and began playing drums at age 8, taking private lessons in Detroit. In high school he played baritone hor ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, keyboards * Geoff McOuat - bass * Ron Tomlinson - drums *

Chris Wardman Chris Wardman is a Canadian music producer, musician and songwriter. Wardman was a founding member of Blue Peter, and was their lead guitarist and main contributing songwriter. Wardman was also a member of Breeding Ground in the late 1980s. Wardm ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

Track listing

All songs on the album were written by Chris Wardman, unless otherwise noted: ;Side A # "Same Old Place" - 3:08
# "Out with the Boys" - 3:03 (Humphrey)
# "Living in the Eighties" - 2:17
# "Time and Money" - 2:10
;Side B # "Do the Robot" - 3:29
# "Cloak and Dagger" - 3:45
# "Factory Living" - 2:48

Re-issue

In 2007, ''Test Patterns for Living'' was re-issued by

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compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

, combined with ''

Radio Silence In telecommunications, radio silence or Emissions Control (EMCON) is a status in which all fixed or mobile radio stations in an area are asked to stop transmitting for safety or security reasons. The term "radio station" may include anything ca ...

'', Blue Peter's first full-length album, from 1980. ''Test Patterns for Living'' appeared as bonus tracks on the ''Radio Silence'' re-issue in the same order as on the original release.

References

{{Authority control Blue Peter (band) albums 1979 debut EPs