Nick Garrie

Nick Garrie, new album "49 Arlington Gardens"

ER-1140 CD Digipak / LP

“49 Arlington Gardens” is the album that musical history uses to pay its dues to Nick Garrie. There are many reasons for it to be so. The marvelous recording sessions in Scotland, sponsored by Ally Kerr and that included such great names as Norman Blake (TEENAGE FANCLUB), Francis McDonald (NICE MAN, TEENAGE FANCLUB, BMX BANDITS), Duglas T. Stewart (BMX BANDITS) producing, and Duncan Cameron (DELGADOS, TRAVIS, TRASHCAN SINATRAS) as sound engineer, with the still less famous DOGHOUSE ROSES, Spain’s Sandra Belda Martínez (CALIFORNIA SNOW STORY, SUPERÉTÉ), Rachel Allison, Iona McDonald and many other musicians from the Scottish indie pop scene. An astonishing collection of great compositions, with gems like “Twilight,” “Le pont Mirabeau,” “When Evening Comes” and “When the Child in You,” and a deeply romantic song like “Lovers,” written with Francis Lai (responsible for such historic soundtracks as “A Man and A Woman” and “Love Story”). The fact that “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas,” the cursed disc released in 1969 that barely saw the light of day and that today has become a collector’s item, is receiving this small moment of glory that it was robbed of by chance when it was first released.. And above all, a singer-songwriter, Nick Garrie, with a precious voice full of solemnity and a classic pop feeling, in the best sense of the word, enjoying a moment of brilliant inspiration.

It’s one of those discs that sees the light of day thanks to the support of a new generation of musicians, admirers of the British singer-songwriter. It’s an honest, intimate, elegant, precocious disc that maintains a marvelous balance between arrangements and melodies. Just under thirty minutes of dreamy compositions, of pop and tight folk that deals humbly and candidly with human nature with the surprising element of juvenile fantasy that is “The Clockmaker.”

Our story begins way back, specifically in 1969, when an English university student picked up his guitar and began playing in the south of France, spurred on by his passion for Dylan and for surrealism. The story ends with this student, our Nick Garrie, recording an album for the French label DiscAZ (home to Brigitte Bardot and Michel Polnareff among others) with the producer Eddie Vartan (brother of Sylvie Vartan and renowned producer of the time). The result, recorded with a 56 musician orchestra, is “The Nightmare of J.B. Stasnislas,” a marvelous collection of perfect melodies wrapped in a psychedelic pop with majestic results. However, in one of those strange twists that fate so often gives us, the head of the label and the person in charge of the project, Lucien Morisse, commits suicide just a few days after the album’s release, leaving the project orphaned and with no promotional plan. The result? “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas” becomes cursed, but over time grows into a cult item, with people paying more than 1,200 euros for each of the limited copies, which are almost impossible to find. A disc which, of course, Elefant is re-releasing in 2009 as a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of its publication.

Meanwhile, our musician distances himself, disappointed, from the music industry and decides to earn a living however he can. In 1976 he meets the composer Francis Lai (who won an Oscar for “Love Story” and wrote the scores for, among other movies, “A Man and A Woman,” “Live for Life,” “Bilitis,” “Dark Eyes” and “Emmanuelle”), with whom he will work on diverse projects over the course of the years. In a rush of inspiration he goes back to the studio, with part of Cat Stevens’ band, to record “Suitcase Man,” this time under the name Nick Hamilton, an album that will reach number one on Spanish lists thanks to the single “Back to 1930” and which will allow him to tour the country with Leonard Cohen, who will declare that he wished he had written some of Garrie’s songs. The impulse isn’t strong enough to keep him permanently in the music world, and despite a few different attempts in 1994 (“The Playing Fields”) and in 2002 (“Twelve Old Songs”), he still hasn’t found his place. In the meantime, without knowing its creator, “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas” continues nourishing its legend, giving the definitive push to fame when Phil Smee (photographer and album cover designer for groups in the 70s like THE YARDBIRDS or Syd Barret) includes a song from this disc, “Wheel of Fortune,” on one of his famous compilations, “Circus Days” (a compilation on which LOS BRINCOS also appear). This is all a surprise for Garrie when, in 2005, half joking, googles himself and discovers everything that’s happened with “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas”. This motivates him to start singing again, and he enters a contest for singer-songwriters, which he wins, and whose prize is a webpage to use for publicity for his music. The music industry is reintroduced to Nick Garrie, and he is flooded with offers to reissue “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas”.

Joe Foster, head of the Rev-ola label and previously of Creation Records (one of the most important and influential independent labels in the world, that had signed artists such as PRIMAL SCREAM, FELT, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, OASIS, RIDE, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, HOUSE OF LOVE, TEENAGE FANCLUB, THE BOO RADLEYS, ST ETIENNE, THE PASTELS, MOMUS and PACIFIC) takes the bull by the horns and re-releases the mythic 2005. Nick Garrie goes back on the road, playing songs from the album as he had always intended them to be: acoustic. Foster introduces him to the Scottish singer Ally Kerr who invites him to play in Scotland. That night led to a recording session, months later, in the Riverside studios in Glasgow, with a group of musicians from the Scottish scene.

Aside from the “Scottish Sessions,” the disc includes the marvelous “Lovers,” written with Francis Lai for the soundtrack to the film “Plastic Tree” and “Stay Till the Morning Comes,” recorded in Villafranca (Portugal) with the Portuguese producer Quim Correia.

It is a delicious disc that combines precious arrangements with the off-beat and elegant melodies of Garrie. From the dreamy romanticism of “Lovers” to the clear Frenchification of “Le pont Mirabeau,” the precociousness of “Twilight,” the incredible voice of Rachel Allison in “When Evening Comes” and the country folk of “On a Wing and a Prayer”.

There´s a limited edition of this album for vinyl lovers.