NIK (was HW: Do Not Panic documentary)

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 23 Apr 2007, at 16:36, Jonathan Jarrett wrote:
> I think that, although obviously I've not been and seen and am
> going only from recordings, that Nik in the USA is a very different  
> deal
> to Nik in the UK. Mainly it's that the band he tows around is  
> different.
> Be it Pressurehed, Farflung, Five Fifteen, Anubian Lights or  
> Spaceseed,
> they're almost always a coherent band in their own right [...]
> So the show you get is far better-rehearsed and worked out already.
> [...] In the UK however, a
> lot of people--as we've seen--are aware that Nik can deliver an
> outrageously bad show, with under- or unrehearsed backing band pulled
> together at the last moment, ex-HW members recruited for their
> connection to the band rather than their actual ability (Space  
> Ritual's
> rhythm section please look away) and so on.

Because the US backing bands are made up of fans who are sufficiently  
organized dudes that they've got their own bands going on anyway.  In  
the UK, Nik's backing band tends to be a .... loose conglomeration of  
people who probably wouldn't be doing anything at all if Nik didn't  
browbeat them into showing up!

> I will say that I have never seen Nik be anything less than a
> gentleman from the stage, or off it when I've briefly met him, he  
> seemed
> a lovely guy even when he and everyone else knew the performance was
> terrible (Inner Cuty Pompadours being the prime example).

No argument from me.  He was very cool, if slightly mad, the few  
times I've met him personally.  'Course, I've never tried to _work_  
with him! (We talked about him putting some sax on some of my  
Scylding tracks but Chris Bruce was too strung out for us to pull  
that off and Nik might not have showed up anyway, and Larry Boyd  
absolutely refused to discuss letting Nik on stage with Das Ludicroix  
at Strange Daze '99 because he said, probably rightly, Nik would just  
want to play "(Washing) Silver Machine" for half an hour ;).  But I  
do also remember some of the dudes in darXtar expressing a certain  
amount of exasperation with what we might generously describe as  
Nik's "work ethic" ;)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/