milestones

Nigel has been playing music all his life. His travels around the world have brought him many magical experiences. Here are a few of the highlights.

Alexandroupolis

Nigel first performed in public in Alexandroupolis (northern Greece) in 1988, doing solo performances in a club and then forming the Wanton Dregs with Pablo (lead guitar) and Ciphis (percussion). 
'We didn’t need surnames, and I couldn’t pronounce theirs anyway, and they called me Angelos, the closest thing in Greek to ‘Nigel’ '. 
The story goes he was so nervous in their first gig that he had his eyes shut for the first three songs, belting out Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock and Johnny B Goode. 
'During the last of those three I opened my eyes a little and saw these three blokes dancing like crazy in front of me, and that was it, what a buzz!'.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi (1988 – 1990) gave Nigel a grounding in the Blues and Irish folk, among other genres, through the weekly and monthly music sessions dotted around town and numerous parties. 
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Abu Dhabi, 1988
'The two best parties I’ve ever thrown were within 2 weeks of each other. We invited all the musicians we knew from all over town and just played all night; rock, blues, singer-songwritery ballads, Irish, punk, pop, reggae. It was the variety I loved'. 
With Andy Hockley he co-wrote some satirical songs about the expat lifestyle, among them ‘Should I go or should I go?’, and ‘Bored in the UAE’.

South Korea

PictureSouth Korea, 1990
South Korea (1990 – 1992) saw Nigel’s first compositions (“Well, the ones I was happy to let see the light of day”), which he played in the numerous bars and clubs in the Itaewon part of Seoul. There was a jazz club there and he was taken by the complexity of the chords, leading to the simplicity of particular textures, another influence on his music. One great musical highlight was seeing BB King and Ray Charles in concert together there, with the Parliament Jazz Band.

Madrid

'July 2002 Madrid with Jaime, a friend of mine, we formed ‘The Love Containers'. We practised for a few weeks, two guitars, two voices, then we get to the gig to find there was only one guitar input and one microphone. So what do you do? You forget most of what you prepared and play in turns, competing for cheesiness with ‘I wanna be like you’ from the Jungle Book, and lots of Violent Femmes, Lou Reed and sing-a-long songs with the central Madrid crowd (including a stag party from Warrington). We started at midnight, finished around 4 a.m. And that’s the history (so far…) of the Love Containers. Brilliant'. 

Colombia

PicturePeru, 1995
Colombia (1992 – 1998) was 'a bit of an eye-opener', from arriving in Barranquilla and hearing the ballenato (a kind of accordion-based popular music genre), to the salsa clubs of Bogota, to the reggae rhythms of the Caribbean islands (San Andres and Providencia), it was another musical education. Nigel played in a lot of local bars in Bogota, but particularly the Buritaca, and at Bar Ceqo 
'They were just lovely little cosy bars, no pressure, just an open welcome from everyone'. 
He met Carolina, a singer, and through her he heard ‘Alba’ (by the Colombian duo Ivan y Lucia), which became part of their set. 
'One night Carolina and I played the Buritaca and there was only room for around 15 people but there were about 40 people packed in there. They were totally silent while we played, one of the best musical moments ever'.
Nigel formed Out of State with John Smith (guitar), Richard Collinson (bass), Dominic Elton (keyboards) and Randy (drums), a rock covers band. 
'We played a bar called Jeremiah’s a few times, it was great – we were the only band in Bogota playing music in English, and there was a real taste for it at the time and there were a few times when people just couldn’t get in. One night after we’d finished playing there was a pitched battle between rival groups of skinheads (one was against racism, the other wasn’t) and I just thought how crazy it was to have skinheads in Colombia at all but there they were, white T shirts, blue jeans, braces and shaved heads and they were all latinos. Couldn’t believe it. Later the police arrived and fired their guns in the air to disperse the crowds'.
When Out of State broke up, Nigel and Richard set up an open mic in the back room of the Contry Pizza (the headquarters of Out of State, and yes, that’s how they spelled it). The open mic session ran from 2 p.m on Sunday afternoon to around 2 a.m. Monday morning. 
'It was just great, we all knew quite a few musicians from around town, Richard was in another band by then (Punto G) and all of us just got together and played. There was a really great atmosphere in the first few, my students would come down (I was teaching at the British Council at the time), friends from other schools and there was one professional sax player, a Colombian guy with long hair and a great stage presence, played for about 10 minutes, launched into what was effectively a rap poem for a couple of minutes. Then some more blistering sax to finish, and then he just left leaving the room spellbound'.
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Ibague gig, Columbia, 1998

Oxford

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The Old Bookbinders, 2010
'How to choose which nights stand out from the open mic? All of them are special, and this one especially special. Occasionally we’d have a jam with whoever’s around, depending on how many inputs we have available. This one was one of Mark Atherton’s songs called the Whale Road, involving the guitars of Mark Atherton and Nick Siepman and Graham Q on harmonica, Ben on ukulele (and Ben’s never played uke before!) and Josh and I were on the Texas Eggs. Really nice feeling. Also, Scottish John’s singing partner, Marion, was down for a visit, so she sang too, with John on guitar and occasional harmonies, lovely stuff, really nice to have her on stage. And another first: Naomi and Mark Tripp singing, with Hannah and India behind Naomi doing a sort of pattycake type thing. Surreal fun all round'.