Nic Jones at St Andrews Folk Club 17-6-73 (artiste only)

Based on an archived audio recording of singer/guitarist NIC JONES
performing at St Andrews Folk Club in the Star Hotel, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland in June 1973.

NIC JONES, was born in 1947 in Orpington Kent, moved to Brentwood in Essex at the age of two.

He learned to play guitar as a teenager and his early musical influences included Ray Charles, The Shadows, Chet Atkins and Duane Eddy.

His interest in folk music was aroused by an old friend, a member of a folk band called The Halliard. When the group decided to turn professional, one left to pursue a different career and Nic was invited to take his place.

He learned to play fiddle and to research and arrange traditional material.

The group toured the UK from '64 to '68, splitting up when two members decided to pursue other careers.

In '68, he married and settled in Chelmsford pursuing a career as a solo folk artist playing professional gigs from '69 and releasing his first album in '70.

Much in demand as a musician and guest on albums by leading UK artists such as Barbara Dickson, Richard Thompson, June Tabor and Shirley Collins he produced his own studio albums: Ballads and Songs (1970), Nic Jones (1971), The Noah's Ark Trap (1977), From the Devil to a Stranger (1978), and his last, the acclaimed Penguin Eggs (1980).

In 1982, Nic was involved in a serious road traffic accident - returning home by car after a gig at Glossop, on the road between Peterborough and March in Cambridgeshire, he drove into a lorry pulling out of a brickworks suffering serious injuries, including brain damage, requiring intensive care treatment and hospitalisation for many months.

His injuries left him with permanent physical co-ordination problems, unable to play the guitar as well as before, and no longer able to play the fiddle at all. The accident effectively ended his career as a touring and recording professional musician.

Now living in Devon he continues to play guitar and write songs for pleasure. His wife Julia set up the record label Mollie Music which has issued albums of re-mastered live recordings from his early career - In Search of Nic Jones (1998), Unearthed (2001) and Game Set Match (2006).

In 2014 Nic had recovered enough to venture again on stage accompanied by his son Joe. Joe taught himself to play guitar whilst living away from home in Newcastle. His alter-ego, Troy Lovehammer, plays electric bass in Electric Fuzz (along with his old school chums, Paul, James and Ian) – a non-professional band, playing purely for their own amusement and that of their friends.

Joe accompanied Nic on the CD “The Halliard: Broadside Songs” and at the QEH, Southbank concert, “In Search of Nic Jones” as well as at gigs in Swansea, Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich and Lewes and in 2015 at the Ryburn Folk Club in Sowerby Bridge.

FOOTNOTE: Sadly Nic’s singing of the ballad “Annan Water” is marred by tape deterioration from over 50 years in storage. However it has been decided best to leave it in this upload, no other live recordings having been identified.

A studio recording of the song can be found on the long discontinued album Ballads and Songs (1970). The album has been uploaded to YouTube by contributor “Chan-yang Kim” and can be found at    • Nic Jones - Ballads and Songs  

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