Nick Larkins
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Nick Larkins is an Australian musician who has played with many well known Australian acts, and solo.
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[edit] Early Years
Nick was born in London in the 1960's to Tasmanian parents, then raised in Hobart, Tasmania. His professional career began at age 10 playing electronic organ, performing on daytime TV, at shopping centres, weddings, churches, parties, agricultural shows etc. By his mid teens in the late 1970's he switched to electric guitar and fronted some of Tasmania's pioneering punk bands, most notably REJECT, who smashed at least one guitar at every show, at one stage replacing the guitar solo with the guitar smashing solo. For part of 1984 Nick was a fill-in member of legendary Tasmanian folk-psychedelic band Wild Pumpkins At Midnight, and also mixed their live sound.
[edit] Melbourne and Europe
In 1987 Nick moved to Melbourne where he performed solo and with various bands including Nobody, Checkerboard Lounge and Velvet Hammer. Velvet Hammer toured the Eastern States of Australia repeatedly in the early 90's. Nick played on their 1993 album 'Taedium Vitae'. In 1992 Nick's independently produced music video ‘Keith Richards is my Dad’ aired on Australian rock television shows. This represented a minor independent success given that the video and song were produced for a total budget of $180. In 1993 Larkins re-joined ARIA award winning group Wild Pumpkins At Midnight and moved to Amsterdam. Until the end of 1998 Wild Pumpkins split their time between Europe and Australia, 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). 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 Cosby (Cosby, Stills & Nash), Link Wray and others. They toured extensively in former Eastern Block countries, even in the Former Yugoslavia in 1994 during the war, and also played festivals and clubs all over Europe.
In 1997 Nick lived in the Czech Republic where he wrote a novel, performed with Czech pop band 'Buty' and recorded with underground hip-hop artists. In 1997-98 he performed solo shows and also spoken word in Czech Republic, San Francisco, New York and finally back in Melbourne. Wild Pumpkins At Midnight ended their career in debt at the end of the 1998 European tour and Larkins returned to live in Melbourne, Australia. In 1999 and 2000 he performed with celebrated Native American Indian, Tibetan and Australian Aboriginal musicians on a project called 'Stories And Songs'. And album was released in 2000 and two documentary films, shown on the ABC television show Message Stick. Since 2000 Nick has performed as a guitarist with Aboriginal songwriter Joe Geia, with fellow Wild Pumpkin Michael Turner and his band The Durga Babies and on bass with Richard Gillard and House Of Circles. He has appeared on Australian television series The Secret Life Of Us and the 2006 music documentary 'Sticky Carpet'. Larkins lived in Barcelona, Spain, in 2004, performing several solo shows, 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', also playing guitar and hammond organ for Cruel Sea guitarist Dan Rumour, in the Dan Rumour Band.
[edit] References
- Wild Pumpkins At Midnight (Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop by Ian McFarlane)
[edit] Discography
- 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, 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, Aust.
- 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.
[edit] External links
For more information see artist homepage - http://www.nicklarkins.com
