Nirvana (UK band)
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- This article is about the UK-based rock band. For the US-based rock/grunge band, see Nirvana (band).
Nirvana is the UK-based progressive rock band formed in 1967, primarily active in the late 1960s and early 1970s - and still sporadically active to the present day.
The band was formed in the summer of 1967 in an era when melodic pop/rock music with baroque and chamber arrangements and instrumentation was highly-prized. The band, consisted of two songwriter/performers - Greek-born Alex Spyropoulos and Irish-born Patrick Campbell-Lyons who met in London. They produced a number of singles (notably "Rainbow Chaser", "Pentecost Hotel", and "Tiny Goddess") for the fledgling Island Records label.
The band was signed by Island Records' founder Chris Blackwell in the era when he also signed the bands Traffic and Free. Blackwell considered Nirvana as one of his prize signings in his early forays into progressive rock and showcased the band by presenting them at prestigious concerts in venues such as London's Saville Theatre.
In October 1967 the band released its first album - a concept album produced by Blackwell entitled The Story of Simon Simopath. The album was probably the first narrative concept album ever released - predating story-driven concept albums such as the Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow (December 1968), the Who's Tommy (April 1969) and the Kinks' Arthur (September 1969).
Musically, the group blended myriad musical styles including rock, pop, folk, jazz, Latin rhythms and classical music - primarily augmented by baroque chamber-style arrangements to create a unique entity.
The next year 1968 their follow-up album, All Of Us, featured a similar broad range of musical styles. Their third album To Markos III was released on the Pye label in 1969.
In 1971 the duo amicably separated for a while, with Campbell-Lyons the primary contributor to the next two Nirvana albums, Local Anaesthetic 1971, and Songs Of Love And Praise 1972. Campbell-Lyons subsequently worked as a solo artist and issued further albums: Me And My Friend 1973, Electric Plough 1981, and The Hero I Might Have Been 1983 though these did not enjoy commercial success.
Though the band has not achieved commercial success - from their inception they were acclaimed both by music industry professionals and critics.
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[edit] Their style of music
The group was in the school of baroque-flavored, melodic pop-rock music typified by the Beatles of "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver", the Beach Boys of Pet Sounds and God Only Knows, the Zombies of Odessey and Oracle and Time Of The Season, the Procol Harum of A Whiter Shade Of Pale, the Moody Blues of Days of Future Passed and Nights In White Satin and the Kinks of Waterloo Sunset. The majority of the tracks on Nirvana's albums fall into that broad genre of contemporary popular music - not easily categorized - but perhaps best described as the baroque or chamber strand of "progressive rock, soft rock or "orchestral pop".
[edit] People who worked with Nirvana
A who’s-who of behind-the-scenes craftsmen - who would go on to become Britain’s top producers, arrangers, engineers and mixers in the 1970’s - chose to work with Nirvana in the late 1960’s - and in essence cut their studio teeth working with Nirvana. Two of these arranger/producers actually worked with Nirvana prior to working with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Nirvana’s producers, arrangers, engineers and mixers included:
- Chris Blackwell, Island Records founder who produced the band prior to hitting his production stride in the 1970s with Bob Marley
- Tony Visconti, Arranger/producer before he worked with David Bowie, Marc Bolan, the Moody Blues and U2
- Mike Vickers, former Manfred Mann multi-instrumentalist who undertook arrangement work for Nirvana in 1967 and 1968 before his extensive work with the Beatles in 1969 arranging and programming the extensive Moog synthesizer contributions on their Abbey Road album.
- Jimmy Miller, the US-born producer who worked with them immediately before starting his five-album streak producing the Rolling Stones - including the “Beggars Banquet”, “Exile On Main Street” and "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" albums.
- Chris Thomas, the producer before his production work with Procol Harum and The Pretenders
- Guy Stevens, A&R executive and producer before he produced Mott The Hoople
- Brian Humphries, the recording engineer who started engineering for Nirvana before going on to work with Pink Floyd (eventually engineering their acclaimed “The Dark Side of the Moon” album)
Others who worked on production with Nirvana include Muff Winwood (formerly of the Spencer Davis Group and arranger/producer Mike Hurst who worked with Jimmy Page, Cat Stevens, Manfred Mann, Spencer Davis Group and Colin Blunstone; arranger Johnny Scott who arranged for the Hollies and subsequently scored films such as The Shooting Party and Greystoke.
Top musicians who played on Nirvana sessions include: Lesley Duncan, Herbie Flowers, Billy Bremner (later of Rockpile/Dave Edmunds fame), Luther Grosvenor, Wynder K. Frogg, Clem Cattini and the full lineup of rock band Spooky Tooth
[edit] Phasing
One Nirvana song Rainbow Chaser is thought to be the first-ever recording to feature the audio technique known as "phasing" throughout an entire track as distinct from occasional usage within a song such as The Beatles' usage in their song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and the Small Faces usage in their single Itchycoo Park. Phasing was at that time heavily identified with the musical style known from 1967 onwards as psychedelia and as Rainbow Chaser was the only Nirvana single to achieve commercial success peaking at number 34 in UK Singles chart during May 1968 - the band were invariably tagged as a "psychedelic" band. However, despite their name, promotional photographs on the cover of their first album wearing flower-power style clothes which could imply associations with druggy music and distorted acid-rock-style guitars, the band actually had no associations with that style of music. In fact "Rainbow Chaser" was the only recording that Nirvana recorded that had any phasing or any other element of "psychedelic" music.
[edit] Reunion
The band reunited in 1985, touring Europe and releasing a compilation album Black Flower (Bam-Caruso, 1987) which contained some new material. (Black Flower had been the provisional title of their third album). The undisclosed terms of the settlement with the namesake American grunge band Nirvana allowed the original Nirvana to continue using its name and issuing new recordings. In the 1990s two further albums were released. Secret Theatre 1994 compiled rare tracks and demos, while Orange And Blue 1996 contained previously unreleased material including a tongue-in-cheek cover of the song "Lithium" originally recorded by the namesake band Nirvana.
In 1999 the band released a three-disc CD anthology titled "Chemistry" including several previously-unreleased tracks and some new material.
Their first three albums were reissued on CD by Universal in 2003 and received critical acclaim. In 2005 Universal (Japan) reissued Local Anaesthetic and Songs Of Love And Praise.
As of late 2005 the founding members Alex Spyropoulos and Patrick Campbell-Lyons are still sporadically writing and recording.
[edit] Discography
- The Story Of Simon Simopath 1967
- All Of Us 1968
- To Markos III 1970
- Local Anaesthetic 1972
- Songs Of Love And Praise 1973
- Black Flower 1987
- Travelling On A Cloud 1992
- Secret Theatre 1994
- Orange And Blue 1996
- Chemistry (box set) 1997
- Forever Changing 2000
