Nick has recently returned to Glorious Somerset to live and now has a small studio space at home. This has got him digging up some old material, creating this page and starting to develop some new stuff as well.
Nick started his musical career busking in Oxford where he met two old school friends (Ben Kempton and Tom Ingle) who were starting a band. This became a Dub Band of Legend - Jackpot Billywinkle. The line-up grew to staggering proportions and some of the members went on to become even more stoned! (Stu where are you?? Thankyou to Anabel S and Jimmy Cox for the jamming venues, the vibes(yellow submarine) and 'shrooms on toast..:) xx). Ben and Damian of Obi, and Si Posford of Twisted Records were among the members...
Nick met Sophie Barker and they wrote a tune and played a gig. She sang in the band that Nick and Si went on to form - Purple Om. I believe one track has made it onto a Dragonfly compilation but the majority of the material recorded has never been released. After a year the 'Om' imploded and dissolved in a fit of rancour. Nick said " everything was off DAT in those days, I remember Posford turning up to a gig in Bibury and telling us he had changed all the chords to 'Circle', but it would be okay!!! It wasn't really and I'm afraid I lost interest after that....."
Sophie eventually became a member of chill-out band Zero 7 and Simon has a number of things on the go, but started with Hallucinogen, mould breaking and compelling electronic dance act.
Aah those Musical Differences......
Nick returned to playing solo pub gigs and formed another reggae outfit - "The Hydroponic Cabaret" who regularly played at the Bullingdon Arms in Oxford.." it was a collective effort, we had many percussionists and guitar players, you could put down your guitar in the middle of a track, get a beer from the bar, and by then someone else would have picked it up and kicked off another tune, random!". This was the last outfit he played with in the city and soon left to live and study in London.
While at college he met Ice, a talented bass and guitar player and singer. They began to do regular nights in the SU bar, Andy Wilkie got dragged into it as well and they had a nucleus. Kate Brown joined them on vocals, Mike Fugemann usually on drums and along with Tom Ingle they played live and recorded. This is the line-up on the tracks on this site, with the help and encouragement of the Uber-mixer and extreme engineer Ricky.
In 2001 Nick moved to Bristol, and most of the outfit migrated out of town. Since then they have gathered to record infrequently and Nick has produced and recorded on his own, two of Nicks songs were used in a Channel 4 documentary "Kumbh Mela: Nells Story" and he continues to play solo in folk clubs and pubs in Somerset. Look out for more appearances soon.
"your love is a circle of light"
WTF......look what I found....
