Nick Nicely

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Nick Nicely

Background information
Birth name	Nickolaus Laurien
Born	1959 Greenland
Genre(s)	Psychedelic Rock
Instrument(s)	Guitar, Vocals. Synthesizer
Years active	1975 - now
Label(s)	Sanctuary / EMI / Voxette / Hansa
Website	www.willem.to/nicknicely

Nick Nicely is a British musician. His music can be categorized under psychedelic rock. Nick was born in 1959 as Nickolas Laurien. In the 1970s, Nick became heavily influenced by the popular music of that time, as well as British psychedelic music from the 1960s. He has been making music since the mid-70s without however releasing anything initially.

In 1980, Nick released a first single, DCT Dreams / Treeline which received airplay and favourable reviews, and which became a minor hit in France and The Netherlands. The A-side is a blend of equal parts of '80s electronics and '60s psych, whereas the B-side is more psychedelically-inclined. It was originally intended to be part of the first, now-famous Some Bizzare Records SBL-1 sampler but was left off at the last minute because it was already a minor hit.

The follow-up, "Hilly Fields (1892)", released on EMI in 1982, is regarded by many as Nicks masterpiece and in spite of, or due to, its obscurity is considered as legendary in some circles. Hilly Fields took almost a year to complete. The track features heavy pychedelic '60s influences, cello playing, '80s synth influences and what may have been the first ever example of scratching on a non-hiphop recording. The title is inspired by a Hilly Fields park in Brockley SE London. Its flipside, the sixties-psych-inspired 49 Cigars, was recorded in one take. Despite favourable reviews and airplay, and due to a badly-timed release, the single wasn’t promoted properly by EMI and sank without hitting the charts. A third single, On the Beach, was not released because Nick wasn’t happy with it. Frustrated, Nick abandoned the idea of pursuing a career in the music industry and did not release anything for over two decades. He has, however, been recording continuously. A compilation of his two singles and selected unreleased tracks was finally released in 2004 as LP on Tenth Planet and later on Sanctuary as CD, with extra tracks. Nick is currently working on a new release.

Although Nick's work is not widely known, he inspired a lot of later psychedelic artists, including the XTC spinoff The Dukes of Stratosphear.