The Incredible And Talented MR. NIGEL DICK
Interview By: Ginger Coyote
I asked Nigel for an interview after Bebe Buell suggested I do so. He was great and responded to my questions immediately. I have a deep respect for Nigel and all he has done in his lifetime. I hope you all enjoy reading this interview.
Punk Globe: You are a man of many talents in music and film. Thank you for the interview Mr.Dick Can you give us a bit of background on where you were born and your early years.
Nigel: I was born in a military hospital in the North of England and spent my early years traveling back and forth across Europe after my father, who was an Air Force officer. Luckily radio in the UK at that time mixed genres constantly so I grew up listening to The Beatles mixed in with The Temptations, Status Quo, Aretha Franklin, and more.
Punk Globe: Is it true you studied architecture before changing your direction to music?
Nigel: True story, but I would have studied music instead of Architecture if I was allowed to. The first thing I did on arriving at Architecture school was start a band, become a DJ, and spend every available penny I had on records and going to gigs.
Punk Globe: You studied Mime am I right?
Nigel: After university, I studied mime for a year as a one-time student of the great Marcel Marceau. People assumed that my white-face character was modeled on Marceau but I was much more interested in trying to look like Zal Cleminson the guitar player in the Sensational Alex Harvey Band who always performed in Clown-face!
Punk Globe: Tell us about your work at Siff Records. I loved Les and Lene and The Plasmatics. I met Ian years ago but really got into him from the film about him. My pal Tom Hughes was in the film. Did you get to work with Tracey Ullman who I love?
Nigel: I started out as the motorcycle messenger, then moved into production before becoming the press officer for two years and eventually a producer of videos. working with all the artists you’ve mentioned in some way or another. I worked a lot with Les & Lene and Lene eventually hired me as her T-shirt sales guy on a US tour when I got fired from Stiff (which was the day after I worked on a video with Tracey Ullman).
Punk Globe Did you enjoy being in The Stiff City All Stars,Who are some of the killer people you backed up?
Nigel: The proper name was The Stiff All-Stars. And yes it was a dream come true. People took the piss and thought we should concentrate on our record industry jobs, but we didn’t care and played at many of the notable gigs in London. We cut four singles, did a TV show, and eventually released an album. Which is probably more than some full-time bands managed. In addition I appeared on Top Of The Pops 3 times with Jona Lewie and once with The Snowmen. I was also in a video by Robert Plant. Subsequently, I cut four albums on my own and still make a bit of money every year from publishing. Now and again I’ve been the guitar player, bass player, or drummer in a video I’ve made because we haven’t had the cash or the chance to hire a ‘real’ player.
Punk Globe: What releases have you played guitar on
Nigel: I’ve inserted myself into videos by Ben E. King (guitar, double bass), The Turtles (guitar & drums), Eddie Money (guitar), Tina Turner (guitar), Joan Osborne (mandolin). I recently appeared in a video playing bass for Alex Call the guy who wrote Jenny Jenny 867-5309.
There’s more too…!
Punk Globe: Tell us about venturing into directing videos and films.
Nigel: It’s all a long story but it happened completely by accident and I learned on the job. I didn’t start directing till I was in my 30’s so I had a lot of catching up to do, and I got my first movie quite by chance just a few months after quitting the record business and moving to the US. It was all rather terrifying as I was flying by the seat of my pants and I’m sure many people on the crews I worked with were appalled at how little I knew.
Punk Globe: Tell the readers about The Band-Aid Video about ‘Do They Know This Is Christmas. I recently saw a clip of Bob Geldolf talking about that.
Nigel: I’m writing a book about the jobs I’ve worked on and Band Aid has an entire chapter so, as you can imagine, it’s hard to distill into a short answer. I’m often asked which is my favourite video which is a bit like choosing a favourite child. However, I always mention Band-Aid because, though it’s not much shakes artistically, it saved lives, and I don’t think any other video I have done has achieved that. 39 years later The Band Aid Trust still makes a decent amount every year and it all goes to charitable projects. Band-Aid has never had an office or a phone number or (to my knowledge) a paid staff member, so almost all of the money donated goes to where it’s needed most.
Punk Globe: Did you enjoy working with Britney Spears and the wonderful Cher?
Nigel: Yes. They were both incredibly professional and fun to be around…and I’ve worked with too many artists who are neither! Cher’s “I Got You Babe” got me through a very difficult period of my young life so making videos with her felt like a joyful repaying of that debt.
Punk Globe: Tell us about working with Tina Turner.
Nigel:”River Deep Mountain High” is one of my favourite all-time records so I was very excited about working with her. The video was for a duet she did with Italian artist Eros Ramazotti who I’d worked with before. Eros spoke hardly any English and she spoke no Italian – and we were shooting in France – so that added an extra level of difficulty to the day. There were a number of issues making the video but Tina wasn’t one of them. It’s interesting that when you work with someone who’s had such a long career they seem much more relaxed about the work. Perhaps, when you’ve had as tough and as varied a career as she had, making a video for a day in the South of France is pretty low on the list of things to worry about. She had such a life-force about her, I was very upset when I heard she was ill.
Punk Globe: You have won so many awards along with winning two Lifetime Achievement awards for the Music Video Producers Association. Where do you keep them all?
Nigel: I’m very proud of those awards – they were hard-won. When I was first given some gold discs a close friend sneered at me because I hung them in a corridor in my house, and called it “The Wall Of Shame.” So, for years afterward, I hid them in a closet, but now they’ve been brought out into the light and they hang in my office and editing bay. As a youngster, I was told repeatedly I would never amount to anything and when I hear that voice again in my head, I glance at those walls and I’m proud I proved that person wrong. However, humility is crucial in life, and I try to put that thought away and get on with the work.
Punk Globe: I noticed you are friends of Michael Licata who played drums for Ricky Martin you directed a video with Ricky right is that how you know Michael?
Nigel: I don’t believe I have ever met him. I have over 3,000 ‘friends’ on Facebook but I don’t know them all personally. When I worked with Ricky he came to set with just his team of managers. There were no band members. Ricky, by the way, was another of the pros I got to work with: very easy no drama.
Punk Globe You are also an avid bicycle rider riding in many cycle tours. Do you ride a bicycle here in Los Angeles with all the crazy drivers and construction?
Nigel: I no longer ride in LA. I was hit by a car a few years back and sent flying through the air. I avoided hospital but the curb I crashed into was not too kind to me and I had to sleep in a chair for a week while I healed. For two years I was an accredited camera person at the Tour de France and being on a bus for 3 weeks with some of the greatest riders in the sport gave me a new perspective on riding as they were crashing constantly. One of the guys I interviewed took me through the dozens of metal plates in his body as a result of the crashes and broken bones he’d had in his years in the sport. One ex-rider is famous for saying that crashing in a race is like throwing yourself out of a car at 40 mph in your underwear!
Punk Globe thanks to the fantastic Nigel Dick for the incredible interview. He is a true professional in all aspects of his life and a really rad guy