Nick Coler

Nick Coler (born 10 April 1952) is an English musician, producer, composer and songwriter. He has been nominated for and won awards for songwriting and music production and has written, produced and played on hit songs for diverse acts ranging from Goldie, KLF, and Alice Cooper to Girls Aloud, Sugababes, and Gabriella Cilmi.^[1]

Early life

Coler was born in London and was educated at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Nunnery, Redhill, Surrey (where he was thrown out), Alexander road, infants, Woodhatch, St. Johns, Primary, St Mary's preparatory and choir school, Balcombe road Horley, Reigate art school.

Career

1970s

His first music-related job was working as a session player for Bronze Records in 1978 after being scouted by producer Martin Smith while recording the band he was in, "Why Worry.” During this time he worked with and appeared live with such bands as Goldie and The Small Ads amongst others. In 1979 Nick was signed to Warner Bros. Music with the band The Tigers.^[2]

1980s

Then was signed to A & M Records in the USA, during this time he worked with bands such as The Dynamites, Tokyo Blade, Ya Ya, Angel Witch and the Cutting Crew, The JAMS, Zodiac Mindwarp, Alice Cooper, The Timelords, and The KLF. ^[3][4][5]

1990s

Nick rented a studio with Hans Zimmer and was an integral creative part of the cult band The KLF.^[6] In the book^[7] "The Manual" Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond write – "Our programmer, Nick Coler, is a genius. He can play on the piano every piece of music ever written, his left hand a blur of fumbled bass notes, while his spectacles slide down his perspiring nose. His cathedral choir boy sense of fun has never left him and he sports a line of strange hand knitted jumpers. Is continually trying out new haircuts. Drives second hand Audi's. He plays keyboards with The Rubettes.”

In 1993 Nick also worked on the less well received single based upon the Lemmings computer game, called "Lets Go!" released under parlophone, Synthetic and spending 3 weeks in the charts.^[8]

During this time Nick also worked with Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Jesus Jones, Pete Wylie, Shampoo, Cher, The Montrose Avenue, The Young Offenders, The Rubettes, Indecent Obsession and Chicane. ^{[3][4] [5]}

2000s

From its inception Nick was a core member of the Xenomania production house along with Tim Powell, Brian Higgins and Miranda Cooper writing, playing and producing on numerous top ten hits for acts such as the Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Gabriella Cilmi, Franz Ferdinand, The Pet Shop Boys, Alesha Dixon, Texas, Kylie Minogue, Enrique Iglesias.^[6][9][10]

He left Xenomania in 2010 and is now signed to BMG Berlin working on new acts with his own independent production company Mr Magus including acts such as CTA, Felony Disco and Randomizer.^[11][12]

In 2011 Nick played at the Southbank Centre Festival Hall participating in a Vintage Weekend at the behest of Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley playing alongside other notable musicians such as Graham Gouldman of 10cc and Rob Davis of Mud fame.^[13]

During his career Nick has also worked on various soundtracks including Wayne's World & Revenge of the nerds^[14] and contributed music for numerous television shows from The Tweenies through to Totally Spies.

Nick has also produced and collaborated on the latest Saint Etienne release Words and Music by Saint Etienne^[15] which has received universal acclaim according to Metacritic's review criteria.^[16]

Nick has also written a track for Starlight Express with Alistair Lloyd Webber,^[17] he has been nominated for 3 Ivor Novello Awards for the Girls Aloud song – The Promise,^[18][19] Sugababes' song Hole in the Head^[20] and Gabriella Cilmi's song Sweet About Me,^[21] and has won the Music Week's Producer of the year award as part of Xenomania in 2009.^[22][23]

References

External links

• Nick Coler on IMDb