Nick Larkins
Encyclopedia
Nick Larkins is an Australia
n rock musician
who has played with various Australian acts, and solo. Nick was born in London but raised in Hobart, Tasmania. Larkins has been highly nomadic for much of his career. He has usually been based in the city of Melbourne
, Victoria, known as the live music capital of Australia, but has also lived and worked in Europe several times.
He has also performed solo and with the following acts:
Wild Pumpkins At Midnight
In 1993 Nick Larkins re-joined ARIA award winning group Wild Pumpkins At Midnight
and moved to The Netherlands. Until the end of 1998 Wild Pumpkins were based in Holland, returning to Australia for brief periods, touring and releasing 6 CDs in Australia, Europe and Brazil
. Roughly half their recorded output was produced with award winning studio engineer Tony Cohen
. (Birthday Party
, Nick Cave
, The Beasts of Bourbon, The Cruel Sea
, Hunters & Collectors
). WPAM albums and concerts featured guest appearances by other influential Australian musicians including Chris Wilson, members of Weddings Parties Anything
, Joe Geia
and Tiddas
. Larkins and other members of WPAM performed with Aboriginal songwriter Joe Geia
on and off for years. In 1995 Larkins and Dan Tuffy from WPAM toured Europe with Geia for several months during a break in WPAM commitments. On that tour they performed live on German radio station WDR
to a Friday night drive-time audience of over 3 million listeners. With Wild Pumpkins Nick performed at the prestigious Montreaux Jazz Festival (Switzerland); shared billing with Santana, Bjork, Nick Cave, Dirty Three, Tricky, Rage Against the Machine, Porno 4 Pyros, Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), David Crosby (Crosby, Stills & Nash), Link Wray
and others. They toured extensively in former Eastern Block countries, including the Former Yugoslavia
in 1994 during the war, and also played festivals and clubs all over Europe. Larkins also lived and performed in Czech Republic
in 1997.
, and at the various film festivals. Since 2000 Larkins has appeared on Australian television series The Secret Life Of Us
, the 2006 Melbourne Music documentary Sticky Carpet
, and the Australian surf music documentary/album 'Delightful Rain'.
Larkins lived in Barcelona
, Spain
, in 2004, performing solo, and also in the UK. He returned to Melbourne at the end of that year and from early 2005 began performing with his own band 'Nick Larkins and The Bones'. Since early 2005 Nick also plays hammond organ
and guitar for Cruel Sea
guitarist Dan Rumour, in the Dan Rumour Band. The instrumental combo changed its name to Dan Rumour & The Drift in 2007 with the release of their first, self-titled, album. Dan Rumour & The Drift also includes Cruel Sea
drummer Jim Elliot and fellow ex-WPAM member Michael Turner on bass guitar. Larkins and Rumour co-produced and mixed the band's first album. In late 2010 Larkins began performing with fellow Tasmanian musician Monique Brumby
as a guitarist, bass player, and engineer on her next studio album. In 2011 Larkins began working as a songwriter-producer with Melbourne musician Catherine Sheahan on a project called 'twentyfive'. twentyfive aims to write, record and release a new song every two weeks, with twenty five different singers primarily from the Melbourne independent band scene. Their studio is located in a restored 1957 train carriage called the Hobsons Bay, in Melbourne's historic Newport Rail Workshop, where the train was originally built. The site is also the home of Melbourne's Railway Museum operated by the Australian Railway Historical Society
. The project is being filmed by documentary crew F-Reel.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n rock musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
who has played with various Australian acts, and solo. Nick was born in London but raised in Hobart, Tasmania. Larkins has been highly nomadic for much of his career. He has usually been based in the city of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria, known as the live music capital of Australia, but has also lived and worked in Europe several times.
Career Overview
As a teenager Nick Larkins fronted some of Tasmania's pioneering punk bands, most notably REJECT, who smashed at least one guitar at every show, replacing the guitar solo with the guitar-smashing solo.He has also performed solo and with the following acts:
- Nick Larkins (1987-) Singer-songwriter.
- Nobody (1989-1991) Electric guitar, vocal.
- Checkerboard Lounge Blues Band (1990) Bass guitar.
- Velvet Hammer (1992-1993) Bass guitar, backing vocals.
- Joe GeiaJoe GeiaJoe Geia is an Australian musician of Murri Aboriginal heritage from North Queensland. He is best known as the composer of the song "Yil Lull", which has been recorded by many other artists including Paul Kelly, Archie Roach, Jimmy Barnes, and most recently by the Singers for the Red, Black and...
(1993- ) Electric guitar, backing vocals, recording engineer. - Stories And Songs Of The People (1999, 2000, 2010) Electric guitar, co-producer/engineer.
- Richard Gillard and House Of Circles (1998-2006) Electric and acoustic bass guitar, backing vocals, electric guitar.
- The Durga Babies (2001-2006) Electric guitar, Hammond organ, thereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, backing vocals, co-recording engineer. - Wild Pumpkins At MidnightWild Pumpkins At MidnightWild Pumpkins at Midnight was an Australian blues/roots rock band which formed in Tasmania in 1984, with Debra Manskey on vocals and guitar, Dan Tuffy on bass guitar and vocals and Michael Turner on guitar and vocals....
(1984, 1993-1998) Guitars, vocals, bass guitar, Hammond organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
, harmonica, sitarSitarThe 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
, thereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, co-engineer/producer. - Dan Rumour Band (2005-2007) Dan Rumour and The Drift (2007- ) Hammond organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
, guitar, co-engineer/producer. - Nick Larkins & The Bones (2005- ) Vocal, guitars, thereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
. - Monique BrumbyMonique BrumbyMonique Brumby is an Australian Indie pop/rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. Her debut single, "Fool for You", peaked into the top 40 in the Australian Recording Industry Association ARIA Singles Charts, and provided an ARIA Award for 'Best New Talent' in 1996...
(2010- ) Guitars, bass, recording engineer.
Wild Pumpkins At MidnightWild Pumpkins At MidnightWild Pumpkins at Midnight was an Australian blues/roots rock band which formed in Tasmania in 1984, with Debra Manskey on vocals and guitar, Dan Tuffy on bass guitar and vocals and Michael Turner on guitar and vocals....
and Europe
In 1993 Nick Larkins re-joined ARIA award winning group Wild Pumpkins At MidnightWild Pumpkins At Midnight
Wild Pumpkins at Midnight was an Australian blues/roots rock band which formed in Tasmania in 1984, with Debra Manskey on vocals and guitar, Dan Tuffy on bass guitar and vocals and Michael Turner on guitar and vocals....
and moved to The Netherlands. Until the end of 1998 Wild Pumpkins were based in Holland, returning to Australia for brief periods, touring and releasing 6 CDs in Australia, Europe and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Roughly half their recorded output was produced with award winning studio engineer Tony Cohen
Tony Cohen
Tony Cohen is an acclaimed Australian record producer and sound engineer based in Melbourne, best known for his work with The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in the 1980s...
. (Birthday Party
The Birthday Party (band)
The Birthday Party were an Australian rock band, active from 1973 to 1983.Despite being championed by John Peel, The Birthday Party found little commercial success during their career...
, Nick Cave
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1983. The band is fronted by Nick Cave and has featured international personnel throughout their career.-Formation and early releases :...
, The Beasts of Bourbon, The Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea (band)
The Cruel Sea are an Australian indie rock band from Sydney formed in late 1987. Originally an instrumental-only band, they became more popular when fronted by vocalist Tex Perkins in addition to Jim Elliott on drums, Ken Gormly on bass guitar, Dan Rumour on guitar and James Cruickshank on guitar...
, Hunters & Collectors
Hunters & Collectors
Hunters & Collectors were an Australian rock music band formed in Melbourne in 1981, fronted by singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour, they developed a blend of pub rock and art-funk...
). WPAM albums and concerts featured guest appearances by other influential Australian musicians including Chris Wilson, members of Weddings Parties Anything
Weddings Parties Anything
Weddings Parties Anything were an Australian folk rock band formed in 1984 in Melbourne and continuing until 1998. Their name came from The Clash song and musicologist Billy Pinnell described their first album as the best Australian rock debut since Skyhooks' Living in the '70s.-Formation and...
, Joe Geia
Joe Geia
Joe Geia is an Australian musician of Murri Aboriginal heritage from North Queensland. He is best known as the composer of the song "Yil Lull", which has been recorded by many other artists including Paul Kelly, Archie Roach, Jimmy Barnes, and most recently by the Singers for the Red, Black and...
and Tiddas
Tiddas
Tiddas are a three piece all-girl folk band from Victoria, Australia.-Biography:Originally the three women, Amy Saunders , Lou Bennett and Sally Dastey combined their vocal talents as backing singers for Aboriginal band Djaambi, led by Saunder's brother Richard Frankland in 1990...
. Larkins and other members of WPAM performed with Aboriginal songwriter Joe Geia
Joe Geia
Joe Geia is an Australian musician of Murri Aboriginal heritage from North Queensland. He is best known as the composer of the song "Yil Lull", which has been recorded by many other artists including Paul Kelly, Archie Roach, Jimmy Barnes, and most recently by the Singers for the Red, Black and...
on and off for years. In 1995 Larkins and Dan Tuffy from WPAM toured Europe with Geia for several months during a break in WPAM commitments. On that tour they performed live on German radio station WDR
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
to a Friday night drive-time audience of over 3 million listeners. With Wild Pumpkins Nick performed at the prestigious Montreaux Jazz Festival (Switzerland); shared billing with Santana, Bjork, Nick Cave, Dirty Three, Tricky, Rage Against the Machine, Porno 4 Pyros, Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), David Crosby (Crosby, Stills & Nash), Link Wray
Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....
and others. They toured extensively in former Eastern Block countries, including the Former Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
in 1994 during the war, and also played festivals and clubs all over Europe. Larkins also lived and performed in Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
in 1997.
Return to Melbourne
Wild Pumpkins At Midnight ended as a band at the close of the 1998 European tour. In 1999 and 2000 Larkins performed with Native American, Tibetan and Australian Aboriginal musicians on a project called 'Stories And Songs'. An album was released in 2000 and two documentary films, shown on the ABC television show Message StickMessage Stick
Message Stick is an Australian television series about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lifestyles, culture and issues. It began screening in 1999 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It features features profile stories, interviews, video clips, short films and cooking segments.The...
, and at the various film festivals. Since 2000 Larkins has appeared on Australian television series The Secret Life Of Us
The Secret Life of Us
The Secret Life of Us was a television drama series set in the beachside suburb of St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. The series was produced by Southern Star Entertainment and screened in Australia from 2001 to 2005 on Network Ten and on Channel 4 in the UK...
, the 2006 Melbourne Music documentary Sticky Carpet
Sticky Carpet
Sticky Carpet: Melbourne's Underground Rockumentary is a 2006 documentary film by Mark Butcher, Glenn Waterworth and Pip Stafford.Bio : The long overdue cultural recognition to Melbourne’s much-loved independent music scene...
, and the Australian surf music documentary/album 'Delightful Rain'.
Larkins lived in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, in 2004, performing solo, and also in the UK. He returned to Melbourne at the end of that year and from early 2005 began performing with his own band 'Nick Larkins and The Bones'. Since early 2005 Nick also plays hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
and guitar for Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea (band)
The Cruel Sea are an Australian indie rock band from Sydney formed in late 1987. Originally an instrumental-only band, they became more popular when fronted by vocalist Tex Perkins in addition to Jim Elliott on drums, Ken Gormly on bass guitar, Dan Rumour on guitar and James Cruickshank on guitar...
guitarist Dan Rumour, in the Dan Rumour Band. The instrumental combo changed its name to Dan Rumour & The Drift in 2007 with the release of their first, self-titled, album. Dan Rumour & The Drift also includes Cruel Sea
The Cruel Sea (band)
The Cruel Sea are an Australian indie rock band from Sydney formed in late 1987. Originally an instrumental-only band, they became more popular when fronted by vocalist Tex Perkins in addition to Jim Elliott on drums, Ken Gormly on bass guitar, Dan Rumour on guitar and James Cruickshank on guitar...
drummer Jim Elliot and fellow ex-WPAM member Michael Turner on bass guitar. Larkins and Rumour co-produced and mixed the band's first album. In late 2010 Larkins began performing with fellow Tasmanian musician Monique Brumby
Monique Brumby
Monique Brumby is an Australian Indie pop/rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. Her debut single, "Fool for You", peaked into the top 40 in the Australian Recording Industry Association ARIA Singles Charts, and provided an ARIA Award for 'Best New Talent' in 1996...
as a guitarist, bass player, and engineer on her next studio album. In 2011 Larkins began working as a songwriter-producer with Melbourne musician Catherine Sheahan on a project called 'twentyfive'. twentyfive aims to write, record and release a new song every two weeks, with twenty five different singers primarily from the Melbourne independent band scene. Their studio is located in a restored 1957 train carriage called the Hobsons Bay, in Melbourne's historic Newport Rail Workshop, where the train was originally built. The site is also the home of Melbourne's Railway Museum operated by the Australian Railway Historical Society
Australian Railway Historical Society
The Australian Railway Historical Society was founded in Sydney in 1933 as The Australasian Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. It aims to foster an interest in the railways, and record and preserve many facets of railway operations. Membership now exceeds 2,500, with Divisions in every...
. The project is being filmed by documentary crew F-Reel.
Discography
- 1990 Nick Stuff, audio tape sold at gigs.
- 1992 Keith Richards Is My Dad, Nick Larkins and The Government, independent music video, played on RAGE, ABC TV, and The Noise, SBS TV, Australia.
- 1993. Taedium Vitae, Velvet Hammer, Siren Records (Aust.)
- 1993. Going Sick, Wild Pumpkins At Midnight, Produced by Tony Cohen. Survival Records (Aust.)
- 1995. Lo-Fi Lucy’s Mobile Temple, WPAM, W.O.T. records (Aust.)
- 1996. Secret of The Sad Trees WPAM, prod. Tony Cohen. W.O.T. (Aust.)
- 1996. Song Xavier on compilation East Timor benefit CD Love From A Short Distance, Shock Records (Aust.), also featuring Bono, Yothu Yindi, Billy Bragg, Silverchair, Screaming Jets, Mavis’s.
- 1996-97. Sad Trees, WPAM, prod. Tony Cohen and WPAM. Hot Records UK, (Europe and Aust. re-release)
- 1997. Small-Head Paul, Hip-Hop E.P., MouseMaster, Czech.
- 1998. Instant Ocean , WPAM, Rocks Records, Euro.
- 1999 Music As Medicine, Stories & Songs Of the People, Stories & Songs.
- 2000 Stories & Songs of The People – They Came For Gathering, documentary film. F-Reel, Aust.
- 2000 Oral Pleasure, (Radio only Single) NICK, Beatnik Records, Aust. & Germany.
- 2002 Audioweave, Disasterware. Disasterware, Aust.
- 2002 You Talking To Me, Various artists. PLACEBO Aust.
- 2002 Swell.1, House Of Circles, prod. Kerryn Tolhurst and Tony Cohen, Laughing Outlaw Records, Aust.
- 2002 The Grey Room, Sara Mitchell. MGM, Aust.
- 2003 Love Comes, The Durga Babies. Rocks Records, Aust.
- 2004 Crapola, Nick Larkins. Beatnik Records. Released on iTunes worldwide August 2007.
- 2005 Nunga, Koori & A Murri Love, Joe Geia. Across The Borders, Aust.
- 2006 Delightful Rain, CD/DVD (documentary film) Various Artists, Dan Rumour Band. Bombora, Aust.
- 2007 Dan Rumour and The Drift, Dan Rumour and The Drift. Bombora, Aust.
External links
For more information see artist homepage - http://www.nicklarkins.com- twentyfive project homepage - http://www.twentyfivesongs.com
- Record label homepage - http://www.bombora.net.au
- Dan Rumour & The Drift - http://www.myspace.com/danrumourandthedrift