By Devorah Ostrov
One of these boys, who dubbed himself Nikki Sudden (or occasionally Nikki Mattress), was busy leading a quirky art-pop band called Swell Maps, which included his younger brother Epic Soundtracks on drums. The other boy went by the surprisingly ordinary name of Dave Kusworth.
 |
| Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth Great American Music Hall - SF 3/1999 Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
The tour is in support of the group's latest release, God Save Us Poor Sinners (Bomp! Records), but tonight they stick to the punchier tracks like "Teenage Christmas" while mixing in several flamboyant pop tunes from their back catalog. Songs like "Over and Over," "Pin Your Heart to Me," and "Shame for the Angels" let them downplay their sometimes heavy Dylan tendencies and show off like their other heroes — the New York Dolls, the Faces, the Stooges, T. Rex, and the Rolling Stones.
Kusworth especially has all the cool rock 'n' roll moves down pat: cigarette dangling from his mouth, rail-thin body wrapped around the microphone stand, arms punctuating the lyrics with elegant flourishes. He's truly a sight to behold! But, like Kusworth says, he's always been a rock star.
 |
| L-R: Mark Williams, Dave Kusworth, Mark Pritchard, Nikki Sudden Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, California Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
This Johnny Thunders/younger Keith Richards lookalike actually grew up worshiping guitar-god Mick Ronson. "Ronson was my ultimate hero," Kusworth states. "The first concert I ever saw was Bowie with the Spiders From Mars, with Ronson. I was quite lucky; it was their last tour."
 |
| The Jacobites' self-titled debut - released 1984 |
However, there was one momentous (though barely remembered) night when Kusworth's TV Eye crossed paths with Sudden's Swell Maps.
"The first time I saw Dave, he was with TV Eye," remarks Sudden. "They were playing at the Crown in Nottingham, I think."
When TV Eye broke up, Kusworth and Twist formed the Subterranean Hawks, legendary for their aggressive use of acoustic guitars and an engaging pop tune (written by the group's vocalist, Stephen Duffy) called "Big Store."
Sudden also moved on. After the break-up of Swell Maps, he released a couple of solo LPs and took to rock journalism, writing for ZigZag and the New York Rocker. "I just did it for something to do," he says. "I went to New York and ended up interviewing Johnny Thunders. And I thought I might as well do some other articles. But I used to have to take a gram of speed every time I wrote an article — and I would get paid just about enough to buy the gram of speed!"
 |
| Nikki Sudden Great American Music Hall - SF 3/1999 Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
The Subterranean Hawks stayed together until the end of 1981 and issued one 45 ("Words of Hope" b/w "Sense of Ending") on their own Five Believers Records. Their version of "Big Store" became track two of the fanzine disc mentioned above. "It's very rare," Kusworth helpfully points out.
According to legend, Sudden and Kusworth initially performed together as the Six Hip Princes at the Royal George in May 1982. But it wasn't until '84, with a lineup based around Sudden and Kusworth on shared vocals and guitars, Soundtracks on drums, and bassist Mark Lemon (along with assistance from assorted friends including Tyla from Dogs D'Amour), that the Jacobites released their self-titled debut LP.
They took their name from a failed 17th-century political uprising and borrowed a few musical concepts from the Hawks. "Their whole thing with acoustic and electric guitars was a big influence on the Jacobites," acknowledges Sudden. The first album also featured a reworked version of "Big Store" — credited to Sudden and suffixed (Orig). "Like the Dolls did with 'Frankenstein,'" notes Kusworth.
 |
Flyer for the Jacobites show at
The Great American Music Hall in SF
|
A handful of EPs marked the band's indie-chart success, and the ambitious double album, Robespierre's Velvet Basement, soon followed — all issued on import-only labels. It wasn't until 1986, with Twin/Tone's release of The Ragged School, a 12-track sampler of their career to that point, that America was properly introduced to the Jacobites.
Unfortunately, by then, the Jacobites had played their last gig and would disband soon after. The rift is sometimes explained away as "touring difficulties." In actuality, "We couldn't stand each other!" exclaims Sudden.
Once the laughter dies down, he becomes more diplomatic. "I did a tour and Dave was supposed to come, but he didn't turn up."
"I had a lot of problems," counters Kusworth. "I'd split up with my wife at the time. It was very emotional."
 |
| My "Shame for the Angels" EP - autographed by Nikki and Dave! ❤ |
"I wanted to have a band," he emphasizes. "I don't know what Nikki wanted, but that's what I really wanted it to be. When we first thought about doing the Jacobites, I thought that we'd have a stable band."
"Epic always played drums on the records," says Sudden, "but he couldn't always do gigs with us."
"And we did a lot of things with no rehearsals," continues Kusworth. "We'd just go and play with different people. I just wanted to get a real tight act together."
So, over the next several years, Sudden and Kusworth concentrated on solo careers.
Sudden teamed up for various projects with the likes of the Birthday Party's Rowland S. Howard, Jeremy Gluck from the Barracudas, and Jeffrey Lee Pierce from the Gun Club. REM even brought him to Georgia, so they could take over (or help with, depending on who you talk to) the recording of 1991's The Jewel Thief.
 |
| Nikki Sudden Great American Music Hall - SF 3/1999 Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
1993's Howling Good Times finally brought Sudden and Kusworth back together as the Jacobites. (Supposedly, they buried the hatchet with the CD reissues of the first two Jacobites' records.) The LP's poppy title track was lifted from the Subterranean Hawks' catalog, but overall the album was a ramshackle affair, with the loose feel of a living room jam session. However, their lineup stabilized, at least for recording purposes, with Glenn Tranter and Carl Eugene Picôt on guitar and bass, respectively, and Mark Williams on drums.
Two years later, the band released Old Scarlett, a somewhat somber effort, which nonetheless featured Kusworth's perfect pop anthem "Over and Over" and proved that the Jacobites were back in earnest.
Missing from the revamped Jacobites, of course, was Epic Soundtracks. Even during the group's first round, Soundtracks had kept up a separate existence with Crime and the City Solution. During the Jacobites split, he was drumming for These Immortal Souls, and when that outfit folded, he went solo. But any chance of Soundtracks re-joining the Jacobites ended on November 6, 1997, when the 38-year-old passed away in his sleep.
"I miss him every day," says Sudden. "I used to get really angry at him for dying; it was such a stupid thing to do."
 |
| Dave Kusworth Great American Music Hall - SF 3/1999 Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
Both nights were recorded and, following the Berlin gig, the Swell Maps (with Robby Schmidt on drums) entered the studio for the first time in 18 years.
"We did a couple of new songs," hints Sudden. "One is called 'Colditz Story.' And we did some old songs which at the time never got recorded."
Will these recordings ever come out?
"One day," he smiles enigmatically. "It needs to be mixed. I don't know what name it'll come out under. Maybe we'll just keep it for the box set. We've got lots of stuff for the box set!"
 |
Dave Kusworth and Nikki Sudden
Photo from the Lost in a Sea of Scarves LP (1985)
|
 |
My "Teenage Christmas" 45 - autographed by
Nikki and Dave! ❤
|
"And music came to his ears
The whole time he was alive
And no one ever knew just what
to say or do to him
to say or do to him
To prove he didn't need to make this sacrifice..."
Sudden actually began writing the song several months before his brother's death. However, he says, "when Epic died, I recorded another two versions with Glen Tranter. I just made up the lyrics, transcribed them all, and used the best ones to make the song."
"He can never remember all the words!" jokes Kusworth.
"No..." admits Sudden. "I can remember most of them, though. It's got 24 verses!"
 |
| Nikki Sudden Great American Music Hall - SF 3/1999 Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
For Sudden, who's toured here before on his own, it's old hat. But Kusworth is still a bit bewildered by America. "He's just been sitting in my dining room drinking wine for the past five days," laughs bassist Pritchard, who hooked up with the band in Los Angeles.
"It's a hell of a lot more conservative here than I thought it would be," observes Kusworth. "The people are nice. Everybody I've met has been pretty cool and laid back. But the laws... You have to watch where you drink and smoke. That's weird for me to get used to."
Once this US tour is done, Sudden will begin a 55-date European jaunt in promotion of his just issued Red Brocade album (as backup, he'll be using members of the Chamberstrings, a group which also worked with Soundtracks).
 |
God Save Us Poor Sinners
(Bomp! Records 1998)
|
Nowadays, Sudden makes his home in Berlin, where he's working on a novel based on his song "The Bagman and the Twangman" from The Jewel Thief.
"I wrote a play for BBC Radio based on the song," he says, "and then I started writing the book. It's called Albion Sunrise — Albion being the old name for England. I've written about half of it. I'm up to about 150,000 words. It's enough for two novels!"
Sudden also continues to flirt with rock journalism. Most recently, he wrote a rave review of the new Black Crowes' album for the fanzine Bucketfull of Brains. "Apart from the Black Crowes, and the Jacobites, and the Stones, I don't think there's any real rock 'n' roll bands left," Sudden firmly declares.
* * *
 |
| Nikki Sudden Great American Music Hall - SF, 3/1999 Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
Nikki Sudden suffered a heart attack following a gig at the Knitting Factory in New York and passed away on March 26, 2006. He was 49 years old.
 |
| Dave Kusworth Great American Music Hall - SF, 3/1999 Photo: Devorah Ostrov |
Very sadly, on September 19, 2020, it was reported that Dave Kusworth had passed away in his sleep. He was 60 years old.
No comments:
Post a Comment