Nick Mason is one of the biggest selling artists of all time. A co-founding member of Pink Floyd, he is the only constant member of the group, performing on all of their albums as well as all of their live shows. In May of this year, Nick debuted his new band Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets with four intimate shows in London (Camden Dingwalls 20 May and The Half Moon in Putney 21, 23 and 24 May) to an incredible reception. Unattended Luggage is a further celebration of Nick Mason and his undeniably significant contribution to music. The set contains: ‘Fictitious Sports’ - Nick’s debut solo album which was originally released in 1981 and saw him collaborate with a variety of different musicians including Robert Wyatt and Carla Bley…
Released in 1994 and curated by Joe Boyd, the 16-track collection Way to Blue held true to its claim as An Introduction to Nick Drake. Though largely unknown during his lifetime and brief career, the beguiling English folksinger ascended to a kind of romantic cult hero in the two decades following his 1974 death. His name was known among artists and hardcore record collectors and thanks to Boyd's Hannibal Records label, his three lone albums along with the essential 1986 rarities disc Time of No Reply were all back in print. Artists like R.E.M., the Cure, and the Dream Academy had all cited him as an influence in the mid-'80s, but it really wasn't until the '90s that his gentle, austere music began to achieve the legendary status that it would enjoy well into the 21st century. A handful of other Nick Drake compilations had existed before this one, but Way to Blue remains the definitive primer for aspiring and casual fans.
Nick Cave is a singular figure in contemporary rock music; he first emerged as punk rock was making its presence known in Australia, but though he's never surrendered his status as a provocateur and a musical outlaw, he quickly abandoned the simplicity of punk for something grander and more literate, though no less punishing in its outlook…
Following on from the successful An Idiot Prayer live album and livestream event released this year, Nick Cave releases B-Sides and Rarities: Part I and Part 2. B-Sides and Rarities: Part 2 was compiled by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and features 27 tracks. It includes tracks from Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! in 2006 to 2019s Ghosteen and 19 rare and unreleased tracks including first recordings of ‘Skeleton Tree’, ‘Girl in Amber’, ‘Bright Horses’ and ‘Waiting for You’.
Nick Cave is an artist who has never shied away from exploring the darker side of the human experience, often in broadly gothic strokes on his early albums but with a growing degree of nuance and compassion as Cave and his work matured. But a very real and deeply painful tragedy was visited on Cave while he was working on his 16th solo album, Skeleton Tree. His 15-year-old son Arthur Cave died when he fell from a cliff in July 2015, and while the writing and recording was already underway when the youngster suffered his accident, the grief and pain of loss Cave felt is palpable throughout this album.
The band – consisting of Nick Mason, Gary Kemp, Guy Pratt, Lee Harris and Dom Beken – were conceived with the simple aim of playing some early Pink Floyd – songs pre The Dark Side Of The Moon – that had not been given a live outing for decades. Three initial gigs in London in May 2018 were followed by sold out dates in Europe, the UK and North America in Autumn of that same year. A handful of extra UK shows were announced for April and May 2019, including two nights at The Roundhouse – the venue where Pink Floyd first played on 15 October 1966, at the International Times launch party. The setlist for Live at the Roundhouse includes ‘Arnold Layne’, ‘Vegetable Man’, ‘Interstellar Overdrive’, ‘Atom Heart Mother’, ‘Set The Controls For The Heart of the Sun’, ‘See Emily Play’ and more. This live recording is being issued as a 2CD+DVD set, a double vinyl package and on blu-ray.
When Blixa Bargeld left Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, who would have predicted his departure would result in one of the finest offerings in the band's catalog? Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus is a double CD or, rather, two completely different albums packaged in one very handsome box with a stylish lyric booklet and subtly colored pastel sleeves. They were recorded in a total of 16 days by producer Nick Launay (Kate Bush, Midnight Oil, Girls Against Boys, Silverchair, INXS, Virgin Prunes, et al.). Abbatoir Blues, the first disc in the set (packaged in pink, of course), is a rock & roll record. Yeah, the same guy who released the Boatman's Call, No More Shall We Part, and Nocturama albums has turned in a pathos-drenched, volume-cranked rocker, full of crunch, punishment – and taste.
We are not in the times of 100 Club Oxford Street, The Nashville, Hope and Anchor … when a multitude of young people tried to escape from the musical prison that prevailed in England in the mid-70s, where rock stadium and virtuosity They made up the bars for a bunch of low-class misfits who just wanted to get out of the routine between paints.