passion-play

Bio

Two bands on here are called Passion-Play. Around 1975 the young Tony Nicholson formed the hippy folk combo - Ogden Fox with Steve Middleton (vocals/guitar/harmonicas) and Billy Turton (guitar) in the grim northern mining town of Doncaster, UK[/placeformed. Main song writing duties fell to Tony so the hippy dippy style steeped in Tolkianesque imagery (come on they were called Ogdon Fox) was secure. They were alone in that they were the only ones who sang their own songs having no truck with singing of fair maidens like all the traditionalists (feathers well ruffled) they shared the stage with. They did however rub shoulders with the emerging stars of the day such as Mike Harding and Martin Carthy and the crowds they attracted were in turn charmed by this local outfit with the Bolan obsession. This in turn led to offers of radio work but unfortunately they approached the wrong member who, inexplicably, turned them down. This lack of ambition led to Tony folding the band and moving on. Many of the songs from around that time were lost since few were recorded- though the eponymous Ogdon Fox, Letter to Sina and a few others did make it on to cassette compilations distributed at the time. Rare but still out there somewhere. Middleton and Turton disappeared but Nicholson threw himself into the vibrant local punk scene, not active but still writing. This led to the early 80s and his emergence in the art rock band Boolean Matrix with Craig Adams, Phil Smilie and Tony Benson - there were others including a hard working CR8000 drum machine. There was no joy in this band and eventually the internal strife was so intense that Tony just packed up his song bag and left. However it was a short, intense and fevered period and there are songs out there including a live recording and studio sessions recorded at Tony’s own Brookside Studio. The period between 1983-85 proved to be an intense writing period where many of the songs that were to emerge later were written. Tony formed the 2-piece Charmed life with Anne Brooke and together they hit the road with their trusty reel to reel and toured throughout 1986 along the way they recorded the cassette album ‘Living a charmed life’ and with Paul Chipman on keys they set off down to Lodon and recorded a 3 track cassette single My Poison Pen. The sound by now was distinctly New Romantic all synths and drum machines. The gigs though were a bit hit and miss – for every amazing night club there were the toilet venues – and unfortunately there were more of those but- at least it is character building – eh! So meantime the band was expanded and after a few recruitment mishaps Passion-Play was formed in yearformed]1986[/yearformed They gigged throughout the rest of the 80s, including prestigious concerts at Dingwalls and Kentish town bull and gate in London. They also recorded one of their concerts at Doncaster’s now defunct Mainline night club – the resulting 10 track cassette tape was hugely popular at gigs. The record deals they were offered sadly never came off, many of their later demos proved to be lacklustre affairs and as the 90s opened up the band split. Having spent the next few years working as a live sound engineer and record engineering and producing other artists, Tony Nicholson is now working with the Mangabros (recording, producing, arranging and playing bass) and UV POP (guitar, keys and bass). It is he who helped re-establish them (UV POP) as an international act, having edited and maintained their website and social network sites, and now of course UV POP perform all over Europe and the states. But following the amazing response that the remastered ‘Live at the Mainline’ – made available as a free download, received, Passion-Play reformed and are back recording a new album and ep for release world wide toward the end of 2012. Somewhere between Gothic glam and post punk power pop, Passion-Play make real their songs of darkness and dismay. Charting desire, obsession, lust and murder their ouvre gives vent to all human frailties. Give yourself up to your desires! Bare your neck - they promise to bite!! Passion-Play are - Tony Nicholson (vocals/Guitar/keys) Paul Aldred (Guitar/Vocals) Darren Wainer (Bass/Vocals) Tony Benson (Drums/Percussion) Additional musicians - Paul Chipman (Keys) Anne Brooke (Vocals) Releases - Live At the Mainline (May 2012) Free tracks can be downloaded from []http://passion-playuk.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-mainline[/]. Modern Life (May 2012) http://www.facebook.com/PassionPlayUK. . User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Similar artists

Screen Test, Phil and the Blanks, The Magnolias, Head Candy, The Smithereens

Genres

80s,alternative,power pop,Post punk,Bolan,

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