my God!
Shit news - I saw World of Twist once. Incredible and would still way ahead of their time if they were here now. Kitsch in a uniquely british way. Synthetic and psychedelic and sing along tunes.....fuck thats bad...I just finished a mix CD that opens with their version of Shes a Rainbow.
and Nikki as well !!! (didnt know about that and gutted to hear it)
He used to phone me at really odd times like 4am to talk about gigs in scotland (which now Im gutted we never did), name drop his aquaintances and enemies (legends like McGee and all that lot) and tell me bizarre anecdotes about the perils of life as an indie survivor - and usually ended up terrifying me with his quite vicious uber dry sense of humour and casual reference to stuff that to be honest would freak most people out. Incredibly cool freindly, and funny guy though. Very focussed on how he wanted things done, totally dedicated to his twisted rocknroll vision and apperently never compromised his ideas - even though it often meant racing down a road to certain obscurity. John Rivers told me about the ways Nikki would write songs on the fly and record them in one take in the studio. John would say ''thats brilliant do it again!!'' and Nikki would refuse and start writing another song. He'd do an album from scratch in a week. To me thats genius. Anyone familiar with Swell Maps records will probably agree. He told me was writing a book. Fiction I think, not a biog. Wonder if he ever finished it?
