Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe is a British singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Walton-on-Thames, born in 1949. He works across singer-songwriter, power pop, new wave, pub rock, pop rock and rock, and is associated with the U.K. pub rock, punk rock, power pop and new wave scenes.

Early career and bands

Lowe begins his recording career in 1966 with the psychedelic rock group Kippington Lodge, formed with his friend Brinsley Schwarz. The group releases a few singles on Parlophone before changing its name to Brinsley Schwarz three years later and shifting towards country and blues rock. Lowe is a key member of Brinsley Schwarz, and later of Rockpile with Dave Edmunds. He also becomes involved in a number of other group and project line-ups, including Nick Lowe & His Noise to Go, Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit, Nick Lowe & His Band, Nick Lowe and The Impossible Birds, Nick Lowe's Last Chicken In The Shop, Nick Lowe and His Sound, Tartan Horde, Paul Carrack & Andy Fairweather Low, Little Village, and Hale & Pace and the Stonkers.

Solo work, production and labels

After leaving Brinsley Schwarz in the mid-1970s, Lowe plays in Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and also builds a solo career. In August 1976 he releases “So It Goes” backed with “Heart of the City”, the first single on Stiff Records, where he works as an in-house producer. Stiff’s first EP is his 1977 four-track release Bowi, a title that responds to David Bowie’s album Low. Lowe also produces The Damned’s Damned Damned Damned and many albums by Elvis Costello. After moving from Stiff to Jake Riviera’s Radar and F-Beat labels, he becomes more selective about production work.

Rockpile and key songs

Because Lowe and Edmunds have contracts with different labels and managers, releases from the period are credited to either Lowe or Edmunds rather than Rockpile, and there is only one official Rockpile album, Seconds of Pleasure, issued in 1980. That record includes Lowe songs such as “When I Write the Book” and “Teacher Teacher”. Another song strongly associated with him is “I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll”, which reworks Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” (“Teenage Wedding”). Lowe is also known for “(What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” and “Cruel to Be Kind”.

Later career and collaborations

After Rockpile ends, Lowe tours with Nick Lowe & His Noise to Go and later with Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit, which includes Paul Carrack. The Rose of England is released in 1985 under the Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit name, with Huey Lewis & the News as the backing band. Lowe is also a member of the short-lived studio project Little Village with John Hiatt, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner. He records and performs with Johnny Cash, and Cash records several of his songs. In 1979 Lowe marries country singer Carlene Carter, daughter of Carl Smith and June Carter Cash and step-daughter of Johnny Cash; he adopts her daughter, Tiffany Anastasia Lowe. The marriage lasts until the mid-1980s, but they remain friends and Lowe stays close to the Carter/Cash family.

Performance and recognition

Lowe plays Glastonbury in 2011, where he performs a short solo set of Brinsley Schwarz songs on the Spirit Of 71 stage before moving to the Acoustic Stage for a full-band show. He also opens for Wilco on their North American tour in September 2011, performing solo with acoustic guitar. In 1992 Curtis Stigers covers “(What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” on the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, and the sales from that album make Lowe a millionaire through royalties. Freed from commercial pressure, he continues to record solo albums in his own style, including At My Age and The Old Magic.

Instruments

Lowe plays vocals, guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica.