Nik Cockshott profile picture

Nik Cockshott

There's nothing more stubborn than hope.

About Me

Born in Hampstead, London, deep in the early seventies to a renowned stage actress mother and renounced painter/playwright father . Soon after this, Nicholas Toby as he was then known, was babysat by Tom Baker leading to a Doctor Who dependence he never quite recovered from. Resided for four years in Primrose Hill until a burnt plastic turkey incident led to a move to Teddington. After a further six years, spent mostly researching the art of collecting things, Nicholas was exiled to Bedford for a crime he did not commit. Once there he occupied his time developing an inferiority complex and generally going to school . Eventually he emerged in the dead end of the eighties with a handful of O-levels, a passion for angst-ridden music and an unhealthy interest in the mentally unstable. After briefly trying to sell washing machines to people who only wanted to pay their electricity bill , Nik, as he now called himself in a vain attempt to reinvent himself as somebody interesting, began a ten year mission to discover just how much saturated fat there is in a pre-packed family-size tagliatelle carbonara. Catharsis during this period was at first gleaned from playing guitar (ineptly and intermittently) in the almost criminally unnoticed band The Keatons , followed by the almost rightfully unnoticed Hen. Nik was then conscripted to be the vocalist he had always craved to be, this time in the Flitwick band W.H.I.N.E . who soon became The Spores , with whom he recorded his most noticeably unnoticed work. During all this he also repeatedly attempted to form a workable band with an old school friend and local gangster to perform more personal music but repeatedly failed due to a basic lack of leadership qualities. Things came to a head in 2001 and after twenty years in the barren wastes of Bedfordshire, Nik returned to his native London to settle down with a wife and soft toy family. In 2004 he achieved a life time ambition by appearing in a Doctor Who audio production as Person in Crowd Repeatedly Chanting the Phrase, “So much lucidity!” He now divides his days between investigating human tears in Pimlico, watching cricket on TV and restoring lost musical gems from his own back catalogue of hiss -drenched tapes to their never previously acheived glory (for which this space is intended).

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/3/2007
Band Members:
Influences: AC Temple, A Witness, Altered Images, Amber Smith, Aphex Twin, Associates, Bauhaus, Baxendale, Bear, The Beatles, Big Black, Birdpen, Bis, Bjork, Blancmange, Bob Hund, Bogshed, Buddy Holly, Cabaret Voltaire, Cardiacs, The Chameleons, The Charlottes, The Chrysanthemums, Cinerama, Cocteau Twins, Collapsed Lung, Country Teasers, Cranes, Cud, The Cure, David Sylvian, Dawson, Death By Milkfloat, Depeche Mode, Devo, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, Dog Faced Hermans, Dollar, The Doors, Drugstore, Dub Sex, Dumb, Duran Duran, Eat Static, Echo & The Bunnymen, Eggstone, Einstürzende Neubauten, Emilíana Torrini, The Ex, The Fall, Flinch, Foetus, Foreheads In A Fishtank, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The French, Fun Boy Three, Galaxie 500, Gary Numan, Genesis, God Is My Co-Pilot, The God Machine, Grandmaster Flash/Melle Mel & The Furious Five, Happy Mondays, Heaven 17, Hefner, Howard Devoto, Howard Jones, The Human League, I Thought I Told You, Interpol, James, Japan, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Jesus Lizard, John Dowie, John Foxx, John Hegley, John Peel, Joy Division, The Keatons, Kilgore Trout, Killing Joke, King Of The Slums, Kitchens Of Distinction, Le Tigre, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Levellers 5, Lung Leg, Luscious Jackson, Luxuria, Madness, Magazine, Marc Riley & The Creepers, Marillion, Max Geldray, Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia, Mellowdrone, Men At Work, Mesaplex, Mira Calix, Miranda Sex Garden, Modest Mouse, Moonshake, Morphine, The Mountain Goats, Mr Scruff, My Life Story, New Order, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Nightingales, NoMeansNo, The Notwist, Orbital, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Overlord X, Pale Saints, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Pixies, Pregnant Neck, Prolapse, Public Enemy, Public Image Ltd, Pulp, Puressence, Rancid Hell Spawn, Ray Ellington, The Residents, Reverent Pike, Ricky Spontane, Ruthless Rap Assasins, Sack, Scary Thieves, Screeming Custard!, The Seekers, Sensless Prayer, Senser, Services, The Sex Pistols, Shellac, Shriekback, Sidi Bou Said, Simple Minds, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Sisters Of Mercy, The Smiths, Soft Cell, Sonic Youth, Sparks, Spearmint, The Specials, Spice Girls, The Spinanes, Spizz, Spy '51, Stained Glass Heroes, Stitched-Back Foot Airmen, Strangelove, Stretchheads, Stump, Submarine, Sudden Sway, Sugarcubes, Sunshot, Superchunk, Tears For Fears, Th' Faith Healers, They Might Be Giants, Thompson Twins, Thrilled Skinny, Throwing Muses, Tricky, Trio, Tse Tse Fly, U2, Ultra Bra, Ultravox, Umbrella Heaven, Unrest, The Velvet Underground, The Very Things, Virgin Prunes, The Wedding Present, What? Noise, Wire, Wolfhounds, World Domination Enterprises, XTC, Yeah Yeah Noh, Young Marble Giants, The Yummy Fur, Zagar
Sounds Like: What do you reckon?
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Fancy a Trink anyone?

Now this is quite shocking.I mean... Who, why, and how?
Posted by Nik Cockshott on Mon, 07 May 2007 02:28:00 PST