Nick Nicely

Nickolas Laurien (born 1959), known professionally as Nick Nicely (stylised nick nicely), is an English singer-songwriter who records psychedelic and electronic music. He is best known for his 1982 single "Hilly Fields (1892)". Nicely released only one other record in the early 1980s, the single "D.C.T. Dreams", before retreating from the music industry. The influence of "Hilly Fields" has been noted on Bevis Frond, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Wyatt, and XTC's psychedelic alter egos the Dukes of Stratosphear, as well as the hypnagogic pop movement of the 2000s. Nicely was born in Greenland during a transatlantic flight layover and grew up in Hitchin, a town near London. In the late 1980s, he became involved with the burgeoning acid house and rave scene in the UK. With collaborator Gavin Mills, the duo produced a number of house tracks in the early 1990s under the names Psychotropic, Freefall and Airtight and enjoyed some chart success. Following years of negotiations, a compilation of Nicely's two singles and unreleased tracks recorded between 1978 and 2004, titled Psychotropia, was released in 2004. Since then, he has released five albums of new material: Lysergia (2011), Space of a Second (2014), Sleep Safari (2017). Secret Life Of Chance (2022), Afterworld 2023 Nickolas Laurien was born in 1959 in Greenland on a stopover during a transatlantic flight by his parents, but he grew up firstly in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, and then later went on to live in Brockley, a Victorian conservation area in south London which has left a profound mark on his musical output. He claimed that his musical alias was created in 1973 "when one mate said 'give us a fag you sod', and another said 'why don't you ask Nick nicely?'" Laurien grew up listening to his parents' classical music collection and to 1960s pop records on the radio, but after hearing the song "Tracy" by the Cuff Links in 1969, he began to move away from pop music and listen to more experimental and psychedelic records. Laurien's first instrument was the harmonica, which he learnt to play at the age of ten, and later on he learnt the guitar. In the mid–1970s Laurien formed the Nick Nicely Band with some friends, playing mostly rock and acoustic numbers. However, the band was never a serious project, and when the other members gave up making music, Laurien was left with their recording equipment and began to write and record his own songs with it. Showcasing his demo tapes to various companies, he was signed by the Heath Levy publishing group who wanted to use some of his songs for other artists. As part of his deal, Laurien was given free time in a recording studio, which he used to record his first single, "D.C.T. Dreams", with the help of a friend, Jeff Leach. Speaking about Leach, Laurien said, "He was a key part of that single. He was a classically-trained keyboardist and it was with him that I started to do this abstract stuff when I returned from a visit to America in early 1980." Leach later became a sought-after session musician, playing keyboards for Barclay James Harvest, Brian May and Russell Watson among others, as well as being involved in the musical bands for the stage shows We Will Rock You and Strictly Come Dancing. The A-side "D.C.T. Dreams" is a blend of equal parts 1980s electronics and 1960s psychedelia, whereas the B-side "Treeline" is more inclined towards psychedelia. The single was originally released on Laurien's own Voxette label (which he set up using the proceeds from the sale of his studio equipment), but after receiving airplay and some favourable reviews, it was picked up by the Hansa label and reissued late in 1980. The single became a minor hit in France and the Netherlands. "D.C.T. Dreams" was originally intended to be included on the Some Bizzare Album sampler of bands associated with the Some Bizzare record label's style, but was left off at the last minute when Some Bizzare's boss Stevo realised it had become a minor hit in Europe and was still readily available. However, by the time the single was re-released, interest and airplay support had fallen and the song failed to make the UK charts. "Hilly Fields (1892)" Excerpt of the song. Problems playing this file? See media help. Nicely began recording the follow-up, "Hilly Fields (1892)", in December 1980, but the recording process was slow and laborious, and Nicely had to sell his personal possessions to pay for the studio time. Recording of the song took six months to complete, followed by another month of production work before Nicely was happy with the results. Hearing the early demo of the song, Hansa turned down the opportunity to release it, but an A&R man at EMI was more enthusiastic and signed Nicely to the label. "Hilly Fields" was recorded at Heath Levy's own small studio and at Alvic Studios in west London, and again featured Jeff Leach on keyboards, along with Ian Pearce on drums, Rickman Godlee on cello, and "Kate" on additional vocals—for many years the rumour was that "Kate" was actually Kate Bush, but in 2010 Nicely explained that "I was always tied to Kate [Bush] with this rumor that she was on 'Hilly Fields'... Kate Jackson did vocals on 'D.C.T. Dreams'—I didn't know that was her surname, I wasn't sure. So on 'Hilly Fields' I used the same bit of tape of her singing and I just put 'Kate' because I didn't know her name. She's in the credits. And the rumor just got out of hand and I've always denied it but it still carries on a little bit because [Bush] did live around the corner and she was on EMI." The track features a prominent 1960s psychedelic influence, cello playing, the 1980s synth-pop sound, and what is believed to be the first ever example of scratching on a non-hip hop recording, although the "scratching" was actually created by moving two tape spools back and forth, rather than on a turntable. It was named after Hilly Fields park in Brockley, south-east London, close to where Nicely lived. "Hilly Fields" was released in January 1982, and is regarded by many[who?] as Nicely's masterpiece. On its release it was made Single of the Week in the NME and described as "the best psychedelic record made since the '60s". In spite of, or due to, its obscurity it is considered in some circles to be "legendary". The B-side was originally going to be a song called "6B Obergine", but three days before the single was due to be cut it was replaced by the typically 1960s-psych-inspired "49 Cigars", which was recorded and mixed in just two days. Despite favourable reviews in the music press, the single was not well promoted by EMI (Nicely believed that this was due in part to bad feeling between the label and his manager at the time), and as a result the song had almost no distribution or airplay, and failed to make an impression on the charts. Despite "Hilly Fields" lack of chart success, EMI were keen to release the proposed follow-up single, "On the Coast". "Hilly Fields" had also attracted the attention of Trevor Horn, who approached Nicely with a view to producing his next songs, but Nicely turned him down, saying, "I knew that he would have creative control... also I was intimidated about going into Trevor Horn's studio and doing the singing and working with a guy who was having that sort of success. But I just made 'Hilly Fields' and I really liked the sound of 'Hilly Fields' and I suppose I didn't think I needed the help. But having said that, we had a lot of conversations and he said to me, 'I think you want to control it and you want to do your stuff'. So then they pulled out." As with "Hilly Fields", "On the Coast" was also recorded at Heath Levy and at Alvic. However, the single was never released, due to Nicely's dissatisfaction with the song. In an interview with the L.A. Record in 2010 Nicely confirmed that the decision to block the song's release was his, saying "that's my fault. EMI did say to me, 'What do you want to do with this?' And looking back on it, I think probably what went wrong was