NICK Welsh will be entertaining music fans at the Castle of Brecon Hotel tomorrow (Friday, April 20) with a mixture of live music and amazing stories from his four-decade career
Nick is one of the most prolific ska musicians on either side of the Atlantic, and according to his publicist, his resume is “a mile long”.
He was the bassist and songwriter in Bad Manners and The Selecter at the height of their fame and helped to shepherd both bands’ post Two-Tone careers.
He’s also worked with and produced A-list artists such as Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken, Dave Barker, Rico Rodrigues, and Judge Dread as well as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, with whom he worked on the Grammy Award-winning album ‘Jamaican ET’.
These days he fronts his own band, Skaville UK (named after his early hit), and writes music for UK and US television shows and video games.
Nick played his first professional gig in July 1977, aged just 15, at The Roxy Club in London where his band The Dead shared a bill with Cocksparrer and Dead Fingers Talk. The same week he was pictured on the front of the Melody Maker under the headline ‘Teds Versus Punks’.
He appeared on several post punk singles between 1978-1980, including cult classics from Cuddly Toys and Steve Treatment. He began writing and recording as King Hammond in 1986 at the same time he was the bassist in Bad Manners and Busters All Stars.
The first track Nick recorded as King Hammond was ‘Skaville UK’, which was used as the theme music for the TV show ‘British Tribes’.
In 1989 Bad Manners covered ‘Skaville UK’ and released it as a single. It was also featured on the bands’s ‘Return Of The Ugly’ album alongside the hit single ‘This Is Ska, his ‘Skacid’ collaboration with producer Longsy D. King Hammond’s debut album ‘Revolution 70’ was released on Bluebeat Records in 1989 to great critical acclaim & occasionally can be seen selling on eBay for a price of around £70 or £80.
Nick left Bad Manners in 1991 to join a reformed The Selecter who he stayed with for 15 years. In that period he produced six albums for the band as well as two for the offshoot Selecter Acoustic. He formed the band Big 5 in 1992 with ex-Belle Stars vocalist Jennie Matthias and over the next five years released three albums. The group also featured John Bradbury (The Specials) and Martin Stewart (Bad Manners).
Trojan Records released ‘Blow Your Mind’ a 25-track King Hammond compilation CD on their Receiver label in 1992. After winning his Grammy with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry for ‘Jamaican ET’ in 2003, he was musical director on the follow-up ‘Alien Starman’ (re-released in 2015 as ‘Holiness Righteousness’) and The Upsetters’ live DVD ‘The Ultimate Alien’.
Nick was an original member of the ‘acoustic supergroup’ 3 Men & Black alongside Jake Burns (SLF), J.J. Burnel (The Stranglers), Bruce Foxton (The Jam) and Pauline Black (The Selecter), producing the outfit’s only album ‘Acoustic’.
After 15 years in The Selecter Nick left in 2006 to form Skaville UK who have to date released four albums.
In 2010 Nick decided to resurrect his King Hammond alter ego after a break of 21 years by writing, recording and releasing ‘The King & I’ and since then he has issued eight King Hammond albums on his own label and has taken the King Hammond live show to America, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain and Germany as well as the UK.
‘The Life and Times Of A Ska Man’ is the name of a one-man show Nick has been touring around the UK since 2009 and is now also the title of a book he has written about his career.
As well as telling some of the tales in the book he will be appearing in a bill at the Castle of Brecon Hotel which includes DJ Nev and Ska Vinyl. The evening is being put on by the mid Wales Rhythm and Blues Club. Doors open at 7.30pm and admission is £7.