The music of the Bevis Frond is sometimes described as Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock or Neo-Psychedelic.
Nick is no doubt influenced by the early Pink Floyd, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Byrds, and so on, but his music is certainly not to be called 'retro'. His style is as unique and original as the bands just mentioned. I guess the strong melodies is what makes his music so special to me, but also Nicks strong guitar playing is very attractive.

The gear Nick is using (or has used) includes:

  • Fender Jaguar guitar
  • Burns Flyte guitar
  • Baldwin Burns Electric 12 string
  • John Pierce electric dulcimer
  • Sitar
  • Theremin
  • Farfisa organ
  • Vox Continental organ
  • Wurlitzer Electric Piano
  • Mellotron
  • Harmonica
  • Maxwin drums
  • Hofner violin bass
  • Epiphone bass
  • Cry Baby Wah
  • Zoom GFX 707 multi effect
  • Marshall Guvnor distortion

Nick is using on amps. like Vox Supreme, Fender Hot, Carlsboro Stingray solid state amp, etc.

The quality of the recordings may sometimes be experienced as harsh or crude, especially the early (home-) recordings, but in a way it adds to the fresh and direct sound of the music (some albums are recorded with a Tascam Porta One 4 track, and later with a Fostex DMT-8 which is a digital 8 track recorder). But, to be honest, I sometimes wonder how brilliant songs like 'Newgate Wind', 'Termination Station Grey', 'The Shrine', 'Awake!', etc. would sound if recorded in a proper studio.

The lyrics are often intriguing. They can be critical, sensitive, and humorous. Nick's vocals are quintessentially English and appealing.
Here some remarks from Nick regarding his lyrics:

I was really pleased with 'And Then?' (a whole life in 2 minutes). Also 'Love Is' worked well. I also was really pleased with some lines from 'I Can't Get Into Your Scene'. But as you know, I really work hard to make the lyrics interesting. I try and get a bit of feeling, humour, empathy, comment, erudition and shared experince into all my songs. And I try to make them rhyme, and at the same time still sound conversational. I never repeat words, unless it's for effect, and I NEVER invert sentences. (Like 'my love I would give'). If you can't say it properly, don't bother. So, basically, I try to create a song that has a good tune and thoughtful lyrics. And when I can't do that any more, I'll stop making music.

Sound Samples:

If you are unfamiliar with Nicks music, go get yourself an album, you won't be disappointed. I suggest to start with 'North Circular', this album is exceptionally good (like Nicks other albums), quite accessible for the novice, good value for money (160 minutes of music for less than 20 US dollar!).

YouTube
Of course nowadays YouTube has many Bevis Frond recordings (i.e. sound and vision) for you to enjoy. You may start with Hole Song nr.2, and move on from there.

NME.com
A nice portal to loads of Bevis Frond videos is this NME site

Bevis Frond Live:
There are a few website that have streaming audio of some live performances:

Giant Radio has three Live songs from the recent acoustic tour in Portland (Nick and Ade): "On A Liquid Wheel", "God Speed You To Earth" and "New River Head". The latter song is even available on Streaming Video!

WNYU Radio has a nice show called Plastic Tales from the Marshmallow Dimention (a Psychedelic Music Radio Show), with a studio appearance of Bevis Frond from 5/21/01 in Real Audio format. At this show a new song is played called "Return of the starlight"

Pilam's Live Music Events has over 40 minutes of Bevis Frond from a show in Philadelphia in 1998.

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Copyright © 01 Aug. 1998 by:
RockMuse.com