The Bevis Frond

The Bevis Frond
Origin	London
Genres	Alternative rock neo-psychedelia indie rock
Years active	1986–present
Labels	Woronzow Reckless Flydaddy
Associated acts	The Bevis Frond Museum The Von Trapp Family Twink Mary Lou Lord
Members
Nick Saloman Adrian Shaw Bari Watts Paul Simmons Ric Gunther
Past members
Martin Crowley Graham Cumming Jules Felton Andy Ward Barry Dransfield Rod Goodway Simon House Steve Broughton

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 single and albums out 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.^[1] 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, which 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.^[1] 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."^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.

Personal life

In 1991, Nick Saloman 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

The Recording and Touring Band has included at various times:

Adrian Shaw (bass guitar)

Bari Watts (guitar)

Ric Gunther (drums)

Paul Simmons (guitar)

Rod Goodway (guitar, vocal) (born Rodney Goodway, 21 October 1946)

Andy Ward (drums)

Jules Fenton (drums)

Martin Crowley (drums)

Debbie Saloman (vocals)

Dave Pearce (drums)

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Label	Additional information
1987	Miasma	Woronzow Records
1987	Inner Marshland	Woronzow Records
1987	Bevis Through the Looking Glass	Woronzow Records
1988	Acid Jam	Woronzow Records
1988	Triptych	Woronzow Records
1989	Auntie Winnie Album	Reckless Records
1990	Any Gas Faster	Reckless Records
1990	Ear Song	Reckless Records	studio/live album
1991	Magic Eye	Woronzow Records
1991	New River Head	Woronzow Records
1992	A Gathering of Fronds	Reckless Records
1992	London Stone	Woronzow Records
1993	It Just Is	Woronzow Records
1994	Sprawl (album)	Woronzow Records
1995	Superseeder	Woronzow Records
1996	Son of Walter	Flydaddy Records
1997	North Circular	Flydaddy Records
1999	Vavona Burr	Flydaddy Records
1999	Live At The Great American Music Hall	Flydaddy Records	live album
2000	Valedictory Songs	Woronzow Records
2002	What Did For The Dinosaurs	Woronzow Records
2004	Hit Squad	Woronzow Records
2011	The Leaving Of London	Woronzow Records

In addition, Nick has also released three Bevis Frond CDs that were made available exclusively to the Yahoo! Bevis Frond community group. These CDs, titled Valedictory Demos, The Long Ones, and Clocks, were packed full of demos and unreleased songs.

Singles

• Sexorcist (1990) Clawfist (split with Walkingseeds)
• Snow EP (1991) Woronzow (free with Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine)
• High in a Flat (free with Bucketful of Brains magazine, split with Dream Syndicate)
• Summer Holiday EP (1993) Woronzow
• Let's Live For Today (1994) Helter Skelter
• Dolly Bug (1995) Damaged Goods
• Little Town Pier (1997) Spare Me
• African Violet (b-side by The Steppes) (199?)

Related releases

Bevis Frond/Nick Saloman pseudonyms and collaborations:

• The von Trapp Family - Brand New Thrill single (1980) Woronzow
• Room 13 - Murder Mystery single (1982) Woronzow
• Magic Muscle - Gulp album (1992) Woronzow
• Fred Bison Five - Beatroots album (1993) Woronzow
• Todd Dillingham & Nick Saloman - Art Into Dust CD (1993) Voiceprint
• Doctor Frond - Doctor Frond album (1998) Magic Gnome
• Country Joe McDonald and The Bevis Frond - Eat Flowers and Kiss Babies album (1998) Woronzow
• Scorched Earth - Fed To Your Head album (2001) Woronzow
• Mary Lou Lord - "Lights To Change" song from "Mary Lou Lord"
• Mary Lou Lord - "Baby Blue" album 2004 (Rubric Records) Writing and production credits, plus guitar bass and harp.

See also

• Woronzow Records
• Ptolemaic Terrascope
• Phil McMullen
• Terrastock

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Strong, Martin C. (2003) "Bevis Frond", in The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0
2. ^ Booklet accompanying Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era, 1976-1995, published in 2005 by Rhino Records
3. ^ "Bevis Frond". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p12343. Retrieved 2007-12-11. 
4. ^ "Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era - 1976-1995". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r784548. Retrieved 2007-12-11. 

External links

• Fan Site
• Download Site
• [1] Thorough biography by Trouser Press
• Psychotropic Zone interview with Nick Saloman
• The Boston Phoenix music review of Nick Saloman
• Blurt interview with Nick Saloman Part 1
• Blurt interview with Nick Saloman Part 2
• Dusted Magazine feature on Nick Saloman
• Perfect Sound Forever interview with Nick Saloman
• Aural Innovations interview with Nick Salomanyup