Bevis Frond life and biography

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.

The Bevis Frond have been playing their own distinctive style of rock music for over a decade.Its leader, Nick Saloman, began perforning thirty yrars ago as a guitarist in cover bands during themid-1960s in Swingin' London. In 1986, Saloman released a ninety minute cassette to a few friendsof himself playing original material under the alias The Bevis Frond. The Frond's music is at timesblisteringly psychedelic, other times pastoral and folk-influenced. His Woronzow label has becomea cottage industry of independently produced rock, releasing albums appreciated by an expanding following.

Nick Saloman recalls his musical influences, "My earliest musical memories begin with myMum playing the piano to me - she is a fine pianist.... I got into The Shadows and started playingguitar when I was seven. [The first concert I saw] was Frankie Vaughan in 1958 - my Mum also tookme to see The Beatles for my tenth Christmas present! Then as I got into my teens I started gettingreally interested in the psychedelic rock scene. I started going to small clubs in 1968 and more orless saw all the bands of that time onwards. I got my first band together at this time and called it TheBevis Frond Museum, playing covers of Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Country Joe and The Fish."

For the next decade, Saloman was a member of numerous commercially unsuccessful bands. By1980, fed up with the lack of support his band's, The Von Trap Family, demo received, Salomanfounded the Woronzow label to release a single. Two years later, a motorcycle accident almostcrippled one of his arms; Nick purchased a home recording studio with the resulting insurancesettlement money.

While working as a record dealer, Saloman became close friends with writer Phil Mullen;the two frequently exchanged tapes of favorite obscurities. Mullen recalled in Magnet, "One ofthe tapes had this mystery track at the end, I couldn't guess who it was, and he said, 'Oh, that's me.'"Mullen and other friends who heard his demos urged Saloman to release an album. The resultingMiasma, released in 1987 under the resurrected name Bevis Frond, quickly sold out a pressing of500; it was followed by Inner Marshland, Triptych, and a collection of out takes entitled BevisThrough the Looking Glass.

Nick Saloman came upon the Bevis Frond's sound by accident. He explained to the BostonPhoenix, "When you're [as old as I was at the time] and you've never gotten anywhere, you kind ofthink that you've had it. So I just started doing self-indulgent stuff on my own without worryingabout things like getting a record deal. I honestly didn't think anyone would care. But lo and behold,people were interested, and it changed my life."

After several albums of extended, spacey jams, Bevis Frond's 1989 album Any Gas Fasterfeatured more concise songs and fewer guitar solos. "I've done a lot of albums with 20-minute guitarsolos, so I don't have anything to prove there.... I became interested in the idea that bands like TheStones, The Who, and The Move could be both chart and head bands, writing hit singles and goodmusic," he told Option about The Bevis Frond's new direction.

In 1989, Saloman and Phil Mullen founded a music magazine, The Ptolemaic Terrascope.Its focus was simple, according to Saloman in Magnet, "Most magazines seemed one-dimensional.It didn't matter if the people we wrote about were up-and-coming or past it. We just decided to writeabout what we liked."

The Bevis Frond released a watershed double album in 1991, New River Head. The albumcovered Bevis's musical terrain brilliantly, from the jazzy freakout "White Sun," to the folky"Waving." Other highlights include the straight ahead pop-rock of the title track, the garage-rockraveup "Undertaker," and the rollicking "Wild Jack Hammer," based loosely on Mick Jagger. Bythe mid 1990s, The Bevis Frond became too popular to remain a studio-only band, and a touringline-up solidified with former Hawkwind bassist Adrian Shaw and ex-Camel drummer Andy Ward.

In 1997, the Ptolemaic Terrascope announced that it was in financial trouble. Dozens of artists,including The Bevis Frond, created two benefit CD collections, Succour and Alms. Several bandsthen offered the proceeds of a concert in Providence, Rhode Island to support the publication.According to Mullen, "It seemed like a good opportunity to bring The Bevis Frond over for anAmerican debut and perhaps turn the gig into more of an 'event.'" The Terrastock Festival featuredan eclectic lineup, from 1960s heroes to current cutting edge bands. The festival was such a successthat another was held in San Francisco in 1998. Between Terrastock events, The Bevis Frondreleased two excellent albums, Son of Walter and North Circular, and Saloman collaborated withMary Lou Lord on her Got No Shadow album.

Saloman recently commented about his involvement with various rock music since the 1960s,"The major difference between [the psychedelic] scene and now is that music has become ...compartmentalized. In 1969 you could see Black Sabbath supported by [folk rockers] FairportConvention and [psychedelic jazz band] The Soft Machine ... and it seemed really natural." Hecontinues, "I think the [1970s] progressive era was basically psychedelic musicians making lots ofmoney and getting all the drugs and equipment they could ... [and] show how brilliantly they couldplay.... Punk was a very welcome and necessary reaction to that, but ... I was dismayed that itbecame really unfashionable to play an instrument properly. I'm afraid that attitude prevails inEngland to this day."

With The Bevis Frond, Nick Saloman entertains fans worldwide while retaining full control ofhis music. He proudly asserts, "I will never sign a major label deal unless they give me hugeamounts of money ... everyone's a hypocrite if the price is right!"

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.

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