Nick Feldman

Nick Feldman
Background information
Also known as	Nick de Spig
Origin	North London, England
Genres	Rock Pop Pop rock Dance New Wave
Occupations	Musician, Bass guitarist, Singer, composer, Manager, Record Company A and R, Publisher, Investor
Instruments	Bass guitar, guitar, keyboardsVocals
Years active	1977 til the present
Labels	Rewind Records (1980), Arista Records (1981-1982), Geffen Records (1982-1991), Epic Records (1991), Sony Records (1992)
Associated acts	Wang Chung, Promised Land

Nick Feldman is an English musician, who is best known for forming the popular 1980s British new wave band, Wang Chung.^[1] In addition to forming Wang Chung, Feldman also was a member of the duo, Promised Land, which featured Jon Moss from Culture Club, was a founding investor in Interactive Ideas Ltd and has worked in A and R for Warner Brothers, Sony Music and SonyBMG.

Biography

Feldman was born in North London, England on May 1, 1955. He attended the University of Liverpool, and originally studied psychology. However, his interest in the academic study of the human mind soon died before he could graduate. He left the university, and joined DJM Live Music Agency, bringing in Adam and the Ants who were to become the biggest band in the UK in the early 80's. However, before and during his couple of years at The University of Liverpool, he was already involved in bands. He left DJM to follow his vocation as a musician and decided to form a band . He has a younger brother named Steven, and a sister named Alexandra, who is a logo business designer. She designed the album art for Huang Chung.

Wang Chung era (1977-1991)

During the time that Feldman was in the hunt for a band, he put up a help wanted ad in the weekly British music magazine, Melody Maker. Jeremy Ryder, known professionally as "Jack Hues" (vocalist/guitarist) and Nick Feldman (bassist) would eventually form the core duo of Wang Chung. They first met when Hues answered Feldman's ad for musicians in the classifieds section of the weekly British music magazine Melody Maker in 1977. Mike Berry,an American bassist and songwriter also answered the ad, beating 70 other bassists to be offered the job. Mike Smith, a keyboard playing friend of Nick's and Paul Hammond, a drummer were already members of the band. Keyboard player, Mike Smith also wrote songs. He soon left after being signed as a songwriter by Chinn and Chapman. Paul Hammond was the drummer at the time of the auditions. He had already enjoyed some success in the 70s band, Atomic Rooster. His 'audition technique' was to keep speeding up the tempo as he played to try and catch the bass player out. Mike Berry played bass so fast that Paul gave up, smiled and said 'you're a maniac!' Mike Berry was in. It was Paul Hammond who coined the name Jack Hues.

[2] Mike B tells the story:

'Jeremy/Jez had a song called,'J'accuse'.The opening line was,"I J'accuse!' Paul hated the song,One day when Jeremy/Jez was gone to the toilet Paul got a wicked gleam in his eye and asked,'where's Jack?'we said who? He said,'you know,Jack Hughs.'That is how that name got started.It was Paul taking the rise out of Jez' song.' <mike berry/ref> recalls he him self left the band after a year and a half because Nick Feldman refused to loan him the money to replace a faulty bass speaker cabinet,despite being offered an airline ticket to the usa as security on the loan.As a result of this dispute, Mike refused to play a gig supporting The Tourists[Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart] was canceled and Mike Berry quit the band.Both Nick and Jack,as he was now called,pleaded with him not to go,but he left the band. 6 months later,while working as a door person at a night club in Boston,Massachusetts,mike heard familiar voices and looked up at the video screen.there were Wang Chung,singing 'Dancehall Days! Mike still kicks himself for the decision to go.He still has demo tapes recorded at Easy Street studios as part of this original line-up.the songs include 'J'accuse.'

Soon after Mike left.[3] Marek Budzynski (Bud Weiser) was taken on as bassist to form next incarnation of The Intellektuals.

In less than a year, that band split up. Hues and Feldman then joined up with future Wang Chung drummer Darren Costin, bassist Leigh Gorman, keyboardist Simon Campbell and vocalist Glenn Gregory, to form 57 Men. This band lasted for about 18 months before breaking up.

Gregory went on to become the vocalist for Heaven 17, and Gorman later played in Adam and the Ants and then Bow Wow Wow. Meanwhile Hues, Feldman and Costin stayed together and rechristened themselves Huang Chung. Campbell went back to the day job. [4]Mike Berry moved to Devon and played in rock bands and solo.He later formed folk trio,MY Earthly Twin with John Austin on mandolin and Steve Potter on fiddle.They played the Southwest of England for 3 years. He still writes songs.he can be contacted on [e-mail] One of the people who answered the ad was future Wang Chung singer, Jack Hues. With the rising punk music movement around England in the late 1970s, the two formed together as 'The Intellektuals'^[2] in mid-1977. Two years later, Feldman & Hues formed the band, '57 Men'. While in 57 Men, the two met up with future Wang Chung drummer, Darren Costin. Just like their first band together, Feldman & Hues broke up within eighteen months, but took along Costin.

In late 1979, the threesome officially became referred to as Huang Chung. During his time with Huang Chung, Feldman was known professionally as Nick De Spig.

Huang Chung released two singles in 1980 for the independent music company, Rewind Records. In May 1981, Huang Chung signed to Arista Records for a two album deal. The next year, the band released their self-titled debut album.

In 1982, still as Nick De Spig, Feldman co-write one track on the album Walls Have Ears by Blanket of Secrecy.

By 1983, Huang Chung's name was changed to Wang Chung, and Feldman reverted to using his real name professionally.

Wang Chung signed to Geffen Records in the US. They wanted to change their name from Huang Chung to something more understandable but David Geffen insisted they keep their name but just change the spelling. Wang Chung went on to achieve huge success in the US and the rest of the world throughout the 80's on Geffen. After the summer tour for their 1st Geffen album, Points on the Curve in 1984, Costin left the band to pursue a solo career. Despite not having a full-time drummer, Wang Chung continued to thrive, achieving numerous hit singles including 'Dance Hall Days' and 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight', which reached #2 on the Billboard chart, and 4 Gold and Platinum albums, as well as extensively touring the world throughout this period. Nick co-wrote and co produced for Wang Chung, who also branched out into Hollywood soundtrack work, scoring the William Friedkin movie 'To Live and Die in LA' as well as writing and performing for John Hughes' 'The Breakfast Club' and Steven Spielberg's 'Inner Space'

Post-Wang Chung era (1991-present)

By early 1990 the band quietly broke up. Shortly after the breakup, Feldman joined with Jon Moss of Culture Club to form Promised Land. They anonymously released a single, a club cover version of Thunderclap Newman's Something in the Air", which became one of the dance anthems of that summer, gaining rave reviews, and NME single of the week on its release. It was eventually signed by Pete Tong's ffrr label. They then recorded their self-titled debut album, for Epic Records, US. Within 2 years, the band had broke up and Nick then became a founding investor in a multimedia software distribution company, Interactive Ideas Ltd, now a thriving multi million pound business. After scoring for various film and tv projects, Feldman followed his other ambition to work on the other side of the music business. He took up the position as the A&R manager for Warner Music UK Limited, working with many successful acts including Suggs of Madness, with whom he wrote the lead track for Hollywood Avengers movie, and Black Star Liner, Mercury Music Award nominees in 1999 amongst many others.

Whilst still working for Warner brothers, in 1997, he and Jack Hues briefly reunited, to mark the release of their first Greatest Hits album on Geffen records. They recorded a brand new track, Space Junk, as a bonus track for the album. It has recently been used in the hit US TV show, 2010's Walking Dead, directed by Frank Darabont (Shawshank Rebellion/ Green Mile). Nick continued to work at Warners until 2001 when he was headhunted to work as the Head of A and R for Sony Europe, where he stayed for 5 years, working on and coordinating many of their huge artists. He also signed some acts including Bullet For My Valentine who quickly achieved huge success worldwide. In 2005, Wang Chung appeared on Hit Me Baby One More Timeon primetime US TV (ABC). They performed their most popular song, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", along with "Hot in Herre" by Nelly. The reaction the fans gave the band was enough inspiration to resuscitate Wang Chung, and work on a new album, which Nick managed to fit in whilst still working at Sony. Eventually he left Sony to concentrate on finishing the Wang Chung album and to expand into artist management, signing new band Little Fish to Linda Perry's Universal US label, Custard. Since then, Wang Chung has toured the US four times, from June 2009 to September 2010 and are planning to release their album, Abducted by the 80's later this year, when they will tour again. Earlier in 2010, Nick also invested in a new company MagNet, an e-commerce solution that is starting to spectacularly expand and he has been asked to run the music division of a sister company to Magnet, called Awaken, which is expected to launch 2011

References

1. ^ Michaels, Randolph (2005-09-22). Flashbacks to Happiness: Eighties Music Revisited. iUniverse. pp. 208–. ISBN 9780595370078. http://books.google.com/books?id=sw3SuurrzkQC&pg=PA208. Retrieved 15 August 2011. 
2. ^ Talevski, Nick (2006-06-08). Knocking on Heaven's Door: Rock Obituaries. Omnibus Press. pp. 242–. ISBN 9781846090912. http://books.google.com/books?id=DykffzkFALoC&pg=PA242. Retrieved 15 August 2011. 

External links

• Nick Feldman band member information

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Name	Feldman, Nick
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