The Bevis Frond

All Music Guide:

The Bevis Frond was Nick Saloman, a neo-psychedelic renaissance man and the sole writer, performer, and producer behind the cottage industry bearing the Frond name. The head of his own label (Woronzow) as well as the co-publisher of his own underground magazine (the highly regarded Ptolemaic Terrascope), Saloman was a quintessential English eccentric, a frighteningly prolific talent and a true anachronism purveying an archaic musical genre while simultaneously pioneering the lo-fi aesthetic. Saloman cloaked his formative years in mystery; according to legend, he formed his first band, the Bevis Frond Museum, during his school years, and after the group disbanded he performed solo acoustic sets throughout the London area known as Walthamstow. After founding the Von Trapp Family, later known as Room 13, Saloman was sidelined in 1982 following a motorcycle accident. With the money he received as compensation for his injuries, he revived the Bevis Frond name and during his recuperation period assembled 1986's Miasma, a slice of twisted, latter-day psychedelia issued on Woronzow in a pressing of 250.

Much to Saloman's shock, the record sold out; realizing an audience existed for his brand of time-warped pop, he quickly issued Inner Marshland, another underground success which encouraged him to raid his extensive archives for more material. With the floodgates opened, new Bevis Frond material -- much of it written and recorded at Saloman's home long before it ever saw release -- appeared constantly; in 1988 alone, Woronzow issued three separate collections, Triptych, Bevis Through the Looking Glass, and Acid Jam, all spotlighting his surreal wit and acute social commentary. Beginning with 1990's Any Gas Faster, Saloman was secure enough financially to begin recording in an outside studio; as the new decade dawned, he also made his live debut, appearing sporadically with an ever-changing group of backing musicians. After 1990's Magic Eye, a joint collaboration with former Pink Fairy Twink, the Bevis Frond issued its acknowledged masterpiece, 1991's double-LP set New River Head; erratic and eclectic, Saloman's output continued on without concession to trends or consumer tastes, with new albums appearing with clock-like precision: 1993's It Just Is, 1995's Superseeder, 1998's two-disc North Circular and 1999's Vavona Burr, plus the excellent concert recording Live at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco. Valedictory Songs followed two years later.

Wikipedia:

The Bevis Frond is a British musical group whose range covers hard edge to melancholy vintage indie rock to poetic, "classic-rock" songcraft with a thick Walthamstow accent. Nick Saloman is the band's frontman and songwriter. They have recorded many singles and albums on various independent labels.

Information

Saloman was originally in a band known as the Bevis Frond Museum in the late 1960s and in the 1970s whilst at college he played guitar with a duo called Oddsocks, they released one album, Men of the Moment. In 1979 he formed a band called the Von Trap Family, who released the first single on his own Woronzow Records label. The early Von Trap Family recordings, comprising three sessions, were released on the Bevis Frond Bandcamp site for the first time in May 2010. The next release on Woronzow was in 1982, a 12" single by Room 13 with Saloman on guitar and future Bevis Frond drummer Martin Crowley. After Room 13 reached the end of its natural life, Nick Saloman had a bad motorbike accident that left him with a constriction of movement in his left arm. True to form, he had the arm set so that he could continue playing guitar. With the proceeds from a damages claim he bought a 4 track recorder and recorded some music which he decided to press as a limited release of 250 albums, more for the sake of just releasing an album than anything else. He was very surprised when Funhouse records in Kent phoned him up and asked for a couple of hundred copies as they'd been selling the album quite briskly. Saloman's desire was to "record the kind of music I'd like to listen to… I wanted a Hendrix/Wipers/Byrds sound but with a distinctly British feel." Subsequent albums were also recorded in a home studio and released on Woronzow until 1988, when he signed a deal with Reckless Records for the UK and USA. All the early albums were finally re-released on CD and Reckless financed the recording and release of his sixth album, Any Gas Faster, using a professional studio for the first time, reuniting him with Drummer Martin Crowley. This is also the point that he began touring. Another 1990 album, Magic Eye, was a collaboration with Twink of the Pink Fairies. In 1990 he returned to the studio to record his next album, New River Head, which featured guest musicians including Barry Dransfield and David Tibet. The next year he recorded London Stone, but Reckless were less than happy with the album, and in the ensuing friction, Nick decided to release the Album on Woronzow again. All his subsequent albums have appeared on Woronzow.

Prolific as ever, Nick continued to release albums regularly until the release of Hit Squad in 2004. A couple of years earlier he signed a deal with Past and Present in the UK and Rubric Records in the US and most of the early albums were remastered and re-released with bonus tracks. This initiative faltered after a couple of years, and all the early albums up to and including London Stone were re-released (Except Any Gas Faster).

In February 2010, a download site was set up for the Bevis Frond. The aim of this project is to make all the Bevis Frond material available for download in the best possible quality, and to make digitally available unreleased tracks and vinyl only tracks from throughout Saloman's career. Recent additions include all the studio sessions by the Von Trap Family. This project was completed in September 2010.

Early albums were usually entirely recorded by Saloman, although most later albums have been recorded by the contemporary touring band. For performances, the Bevis Frond usually has Adrian "Ade" Shaw on bass. Bevis Frond material is typically released on Woronzow Records label, and is frequently featured in the Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine and accompanying records and CDs. The Bevis Frond also record with and write much of the material for US singer Mary Lou Lord. The song "Lights Are Changing" was chosen for inclusion on Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era, 1976–1995.

After seven years without the appearance of new material, The Bevis Frond released a new album, The Leaving of London, on October 10th, 2011. Recorded at Golddust Studios, it features a new drummer, Dave Pearce, formerly of Woronzow artists Psycho's Mum, along with regular contributors Adrian Shaw and Paul Simmons. Live shows in Europe and the UK to promote the album are scheduled for late 2011 and early 2012. In January 2012 the band even toured through Germany.

Personal life

In 1991, Nick Saloman (* 1953) was a contestant on the UK television station Channel 4's game show Countdown. He, other than pro footballer Neil MacKenzie, is probably the nearest the show has come to having a celebrity as a contestant outside of the occasional deliberate celebrity editions of the game. Nick has long hair. He is a supporter of Queen's Park Rangers F.C.

Personnel

The Bevis Frond is essentially Nick Saloman - Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keyboards and Vocals. Also the producer.

The Recording and Touring Band has included at various times: