Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden ( born July 19, 1956 in London as Adrian Nicholas Godfrey, † March 26, 2006 in New York City ) was an English musician, singer, guitarist, producer and singer-songwriter.
Life and work
Nikki Sudden grew up in Solihull, West Midlands, and founded in 1972 with his brother Epic Soundtracks (actually: Kevin Paul Godfrey ) the group Swell Maps. According Jowe Head were " Swell Maps ... not a punk band in the sense in which the term " punk " is used / abused, but they prescribed surely the DIY zeitgeist. They combined elements of garage rock, Krautrock, avant-garde and what later became known as ambient music. " In the wake of the punk movement, they released their first recordings in 1977 for an independent label. Other members of the group were Jowe Head and Richard Earl.
After the end of the Swell Maps 1982 Sudden committed new, musically more traditional ways and began a solo career as a classical singer-songwriter. Although the first album still strongly sounded like the Swell Maps, he was able to establish with his second album "The Bible Belt " as a solo artist.
With Dave Kusworth (ex - TV Eye) in 1983, he founded the group The Jacobites, who saw himself in the tradition of English rock groups like The Faces and The Rolling Stones. They played an idiosyncratic acoustic rock, stylistically influenced by T. Rex, Johnny Thunders, Bob Dylan and Neil Young combined ballads and fast up-tempo rock numbers. Thus, the group can be seen as pioneers of the Unplugged wave of the 1990s. By constantly tours the Jacobites earned a cult following in England, Germany and Italy.
In addition to the Jacobites, Nikki Sudden enjoyed great popularity as a solo artist in Germany, which is why he first in Hamburg, then Frankfurt and until his death lived in Berlin from 1986. 1990 Sudden played a country-rock album, "The Jewel Thief", with members of REM and Drivin 'n' Cryin ', which, as Peter Buck, were fans of his songs. Sudden learned Buck after a concert of R.E.M. know in the Frankfurt Congress Hall. These celebrity support did not bring the hoped-for commercial breakthrough.
Then he released albums in various English labels like Rough Trade, Glass Records, UFO Records (New Millennium / Regency sound ) and German independent record labels such as Glitterhouse Records, and most recently his own label "Rockwood Records ".
Regularly Sudden continued to work in the studio and on stage with Dave Kusworth together as The Jacobites. The Jacobites were beyond from Carl Eugene Picot (bass ), Mark Williams (percussion, drums), Glenn Tranter (bass, guitar, mandolin ) and Terry Miles (piano, organ). In addition Sudden collaborated live and in the studio, among others with Rowland S. Howard (ex - The Birthday Party ), The Barracudas (UK ) Band of Outsiders (USA), Sonic Youth (USA), Freddy Lynxx (F), Phil Shoenfelt (UK), Jimmy Keith & the Shocky Horrors (D), Kevin Junior ( USA), Jeff Dahl (USA), DM Bob & the Deficits (USA / D), mossy Vloten (D). He also produced groups such as, inter alia, The Creeping Candies from Augsburg.
In the summer of 1997, Nikki Sudden went on extensive tour of Germany. In his band played Freddy Lynxx (ex - Jet Boys, France) lead guitar, Carl Eugene Picot bass guitar and Mark Williams drums. The last major tour of Germany took place ( published in July 2004 ) in connection with the release of the album Treasure Iceland.
Nikki Sudden wrote as a music journalist for publications MOJO (UK), Superstar ( D), It's Only Rock'n Roll, Rockmusic.Ru, Bucketful Of Brains (UK) and What A Nice Way To Turn 17 (UK). Before his death he wrote an autobiography and a biography of the English guitarist Ron Wood (including The Rolling Stones, The Faces ), which are unpublished to date.
After his brother's death, Nikki Sudden care of the estate administration and prepared unreleased recordings in collaboration with Russ Tolman on. The Last Bandits was the name of the monitoring group consisting of John Clifford Barry (bass) and Stephane Doucerain (percussion, drums), the Sudden since 2000 and supported live in the studio.
Nikki Sudden died on 26 March 2006 after a concert in New York music club "The Knitting Factory " of heart failure.
Importance in music history
Sudden's status as an influential musicians in the area of acoustic rock / independent rock and his compositional skills and entertainer on stage were undeniable. The breakthrough to mass audiences could he always denied what is due in part to his unusual voice and his long-time independent status.