Nirvana (British band)


Nirvana are an English psychedelic pop band formed in London in 1966. In 1985, the band reformed. Members of the band sued the American grunge band Nirvana in 1992 over the usage of the name, reaching an out-of-court settlement.

History

1966–1971: Early years

Nirvana was created as the performing arm of the London-based songwriting partnership of Irish musician Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Greek composer Alex Spyropoulos and English producer Ray Singer. On their recordings, Campbell-Lyons, Ray Singer and Spyropoulos supplied all the vocals. Campbell-Lyons contributed on guitars, and Spyropoulos contributed on some keyboards. Musically, Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos blended rock, pop, folk, jazz, Latin rhythms and classical music, primarily augmented by baroque chamber-style arrangements.
In October 1967, they released their first album, a concept album produced by Chris Blackwell titled The Story of Simon Simopath. The album was one of the first narrative concept albums ever released, predating story-driven concept albums such as Pretty Things's S.F. Sorrow, The Who's Tommy and The Kinks's Arthur. Island Records launched Nirvana's first album "with a live show at the Saville Theatre, sharing a bill with fellow label acts Traffic, Spooky Tooth, and Jackie Edwards."
Unable to perform their songs live as a duo, Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos decided to create a live performing ensemble, the Nirvana Ensemble, and recruited four musicians. Though hired to be part of the live performance group rather than as band members, these four musicians were also included in the photograph alongside the core duo on the album cover of their first album to assist in projecting an image of a group rather than a duo. However, within a few months, Nirvana had reverted to its original two-person lineup. The four musicians who augmented Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos on their live appearances and television shows for those few months were Ray Singer, Brian Henderson, Sylvia A. Schuster and Michael Coe. Sue and Sunny also participated in providing their vocals.
The band appeared on French television with Salvador Dalí, who splashed black paint on them during a performance of their third single, "Rainbow Chaser". Campbell-Lyons kept the jacket but regretted that Dalí did not sign any of their paint-splashed clothes. Island Records allegedly sent the artist an invoice for the cleaning of Schuster's cello.
Following the minor chart success of "Rainbow Chaser", "live appearances became increasingly rare" and the songwriting duo at the core of Nirvana "decided to disband the sextet" and to rely on session musicians for future recordings. Spyropoulos cited Schuster's departure due to pregnancy as the instigator for the band returning to its core membership. Campbell-Lyons also cited the high cost of having the additional members as a reason for their departure. Schuster later became the principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In 1968, Nirvana recorded their second album, All of Us, which featured a similar broad range of musical styles as their first album. After the release of the album, Ray Singer left the group to produce Peter Sarstedt.
Their third album, Black Flower, was rejected by Blackwell, who compared it disparagingly to Francis Lai's A Man and a Woman. Under the title To Markos III, it was released in the UK on the Pye label in May 1970, though reportedly only 250 copies were pressed and it was deleted shortly after. One track, "Christopher Lucifer", was a jibe at Blackwell.
In 1971, the duo separated, with Campbell-Lyons the primary contributor to the next two Nirvana albums, Local Anaesthetic, and Songs of Love And Praise, the latter featuring the return of Sylvia Schuster. Campbell-Lyons subsequently worked as a solo artist and issued further albums: Me and My Friend, The Electric Plough, and The Hero I Might Have Been.

1985–present

The duo reunited in 1985, touring Europe and releasing a compilation album, Black Flower. In the 1990s, two further albums were released. Secret Theatre and Orange and Blue, which contained previously unreleased material, including a flower-power cover of the song "Lithium" originally recorded by the Seattle grunge band of the same name, Nirvana. According to the band's official website, this was intended as part of a tongue-in-cheek album called Nirvana Sings Nirvana that was aborted when lead singer Kurt Cobain died. When the recording was presented on the Orange and Blue album, Campbell-Lyons's liner notes treated it seriously and with allusion to Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Also, according to the website, the band still wanted to open for Hole even after Cobain's death.
The original group filed a lawsuit in California against the Seattle grunge band of the same name, who played at Reading Festival in 1992, in 1992. The matter was settled out of court on undisclosed terms that apparently allowed both bands to continue using the name and issuing new recordings without any packaging disclaimers or caveats to distinguish one Nirvana from the other. Music writer Everett True has claimed that Kurt Cobain's record label, Geffen, paid $100,000 to the 1960s band to permit the 1990s band's continued use of the name.
In 1999, they released a three-disc CD anthology titled Chemistry, including twelve previously unreleased tracks and some new material. Their first three albums were reissued on CD by Universal Records in 2003. In 2005, Universal reissued Local Anaesthetic and Songs of Love And Praise. In 2018, a new album was released on the Island label Rainbow Chaser: The 60s Recordings , which featured the first two albums in a double CD package, featuring 52 tracks with 27 previously unreleased outtakes, demos and alternative versions.

Musical styles and techniques

The group were in the school of baroque-flavoured, melodic pop-rock music typified by the Beach Boys of Pet Sounds and "God Only Knows", the Zombies of Odessey and Oracle and "Time of the Season". The majority of the tracks on Nirvana's albums fell into the broad genre of contemporary popular music, sometime described as chamber strand of progressive rock, soft rock or orchestral pop and chamber pop.
The Nirvana song "Rainbow Chaser" is thought to be the first-ever British recording to feature the audio effect known as phasing or flanging throughout an entire track, as distinct from occasionally within a song such as the Small Faces in "Itchycoo Park". Phasing was, by 1967, identified with psychedelia, and "Rainbow Chaser" achieved number 34 in UK Singles Chart during May 1968.

Notable collaborators

Nirvana's producers, arrangers, engineers and mixers included:
Mike Weighell also contributed at the beginning of the 1970s. Others who worked on production with Nirvana include Muff Winwood ; arranger/producer Mike Hurst, who worked with Jimmy Page, Cat Stevens, Manfred Mann, the Spencer Davis Group, Colin Blunstone; and 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, Big Jim Sullivan, Herbie Flowers, Billy Bremner, Luther Grosvenor, Clem Cattini and the full lineup of rock band Spooky Tooth. Patrick Joseph Kelly also co-wrote the "Modus Operandi" track on the Local Anaesthetic album.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

  • Black Flower
  • Travelling on a Cloud
  • Secret Theatre
  • Chemistry
  • Forever Changing - An Introduction To
  • Cult
  • ''Rainbow Chaser: The 60s Recordings ''

Singles

  • "Tiny Goddess" – UK No. 62
  • "Pentecost Hotel" – UK No. 56
  • "Rainbow Chaser" – UK No. 34
  • "Girl in the Park"
  • "All of Us"
  • "Wings of Love"
  • "Oh! What a Performance"
  • "The Picture of Dorian Gray"