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Nick Celeste Bio (Part One) by Pat Pierson
(DJ/Rock Historian, Filter Magazine and Editor, Yeah Yeah Yeah Magazine)
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Not sure if Sir Nick would allow me artistic license to run on here about his musical heritage. I HATE stuffy bios and the like. And YOU the reader should never be victimized by the dreary blabber of yet another musician’s life.
That is unless, said musician’s life had an interesting story to tell. And Nick definitely has one, albeit sideways and twisted, but with all the ephemera pop junkies like myself enjoy dispersing with. I hope Nick doesn’t mind.
We discussed this over excessive coffee at The Pompton Queen Diner (they, along with the King George Diner serve as minor historical landmarks for Wayne, NJ’s pop history; go ask Dramarama).
Which kinda brings us to the beginning. Wayne, NJ and Dramarama, that is. Nick is not me, so he’s not so inclined to boast about his part in the whole early ‘80s Wayne pop explosion. Although once I started digging, the pieces were discovered. Nick’s story unfolded.
Nick grew up in the same neighborhood as Dramarama’s John Easdale and Mark Englert. A little bit shy of a boomtown, but still a buzzing slice of NJ suburbia where this friendship and musical kinship overlapped and led all involved to go forth and make music. (Nick is quoted as saying: “Once I saw they could do it, I felt like I could do it, too.â€)
In this same neighborhood were pals Butch Young and Mark Mehringer who were part of a short-lived, but inspired pop unit named The Innocence. Mehringer would go on to write and record sporadically with Classic Next, and then as a solo artist. Sadly, we lost Mark a few years back. As a tribute to Mark, his songs, “Surrender Meâ€, “Sweet Sunday Gone†and "Amber Lee" are now being given new treatment (heard here) by Nick and his "old" band, In Color, (minus Butch Young), along with Mehringer's Classic Next lead guitarist, Art Desbiens.
After singing harmony backing vocals on Dramarama's first LP, Nick and Butch would go on to form their own power pop band, "In Color," aptly named after, you guessed it, Cheap Trick’s second album. Nick and Butch’s taste for the sweeter side of the pop/rock equation (nary a sign of Dramarama’s post-punk leanings) was due to a strong love for bands and artists like Big Star, Raspberries, Todd Rundgren, Badfinger and Dwight Twilley Band.
In Color were the one and only band "signed" to Chris Carter and Dramarama's short-lived record label, Questionmark Records and released one lone single EP, "How Do You Like That." But that's not where In Color's story ends. The next year, they approached Richard Barone of The Bongos (at the height of Bongo-mania) to work with them as a producer and cut a 5-song demo tape soon thereafter (3 songs of which can be heard here: "Clear My Head," "Rock On," "No Ordinary Guy(video)"). From there they gigged sporadically (Maxwells, China Club, Cat Club, etc.) but never snagged the elusive record deal. After five years of music, In Color was history, but Nick Celeste wasn't.
At that point, Nick started playing guitar and singing backup (sometimes duel) vocals with Richard Barone at the birth of his solo career, along with the yet to be mega-on-call cellist extraordinaire, Jane Scarpantoni. After a string of cool intimate NYC gigs and live performances on the legendary Vin Scelsa's radio show, Barone's new slice of orch-pop caught wind. It was a hip mix of new songs, covers and revamped Bongos classics that the Richard Barone Trio transformed into some otherworldly pop music. Nick's vocals being one of the more beautiful additions to the new Barone sound. It was this lineup (and later with percussionist, Valerie Naranjo) that saw Barone's music soar.
Luckily for everyone, Barone recorded that year's magic live at The Bottom Line and released it as his first solo album, "Cool Blue Halo" (Passport Records US/Line Records Germany). If there's one place to discover Nick Celeste...this is it.
Nick would continue to record with Barone on his future studio releases ("Primal Dream," RCA/Paradox Records, "Clouds Over Eden," Rhino/Mesa Records, Line Records Germany), touring the U.S., Germany, France and Canada.
Nick is currently singing and playing with Richard Barone, promoting Barone's new autobiography, "Frontman: Surviving The Rock Star Myth." They recently played a live benefit performance of "Frontman: A Musical Reading," at Carnegie Hall on October 1, along with many special guests. Please see the following links for more information:
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2008/10/word
s_and_music.html
http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_12
547.html?selecteddate=10012008
http://gatheringhome.typepad.com/music_news_net/2008/08/spec
ial-nyc-ben.html
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&am
p;friendID=28791754
(To be continued....Part 2...In The Works...and coming soon.)
